er
to activities fairly within the scope of national policy and
power."[292]

Earmarked Funds

The appropriation of the proceeds of a tax to a specific use does not
affect the validity of the exaction, if the general welfare is advanced
and no other constitutional provision is violated. Thus a processing tax
on coconut oil was sustained despite the fact that the tax collected
upon oil of Philippine production was segregated and paid into the
Philippine Treasury.[293] In Helvering _v._ Davis,[294] the excise tax
on employers, the proceeds of which were not earmarked in any way,
although intended to provide funds for payments to retired workers, was
upheld under the "general welfare" clause, the Tenth Amendment being
found to be inapplicable.

Conditional Grants-in-Aid

In the Steward Machine Company case, it was a taxpayer who complained of
the invasion of the State sovereignty and the Court put great emphasis
on the fact that the State was a willing partner in the plan of
cooperation embodied in the Social Security Act.[295] A decade later the
right of Congress to impose conditions upon grants-in-aid over the
objection of a State was squarely presented in Oklahoma _v._ United
States Civil Service Commission.[296] The State objected to the
enforcement of a provision of the Hatch Act,[297] whereby its right to
receive federal highway funds would be diminished in consequence of its
failure to remove from office a member of the State Highway Commission
found to have taken an active part in party politics while in office.
Although it found that the State had created a legal right which
entitled it to an adjudication of its objection, the Court denied the
relief sought on the ground that, "While the United States is not
concerned with, and has no power to regulate local political activities
as such of State officials, it does have power to fix the terms upon
which its money allotments to State shall be disbursed. * * * The end
sought by Congress through the Hatch Act is better public service by
requiring those who administer funds for national needs to abstain from
active political partisanship. So even though the action taken by
Congress does have effect upon certain activities within the State, it
has never been thought that such effect made the federal act
invalid."[298]

"Debts of the United States"

The power to pay the debts of the United States is broad enough to
include claims of citizens arising on obl