eet-car lines, gas and waterworks. Those who fix the value
of taxable property and thus determine the amount the owners are to pay,
are called assessors. Those collecting taxes are called collectors. The
revenue of the States is seldom large in proportion to the wealth and
number of the inhabitants, because the chief burden of administration is
borne not by the States, but by the Federal government, on the one hand,
and the local subdivisions of the States on the other. The total revenue
of all the States is barely one-third that of the Federal government.

_#The Expenditures#_ of all the governing bodies, Federal, State, and
local, are kept entirely independent of each other. Those of the Federal
government are for the benefit of all the States, while those of the
other bodies are only for their own individual benefit. The Federal
government receives much more than it expends, and has yearly a surplus
on hand in the Treasury. The States and local bodies have in the past
expended more than their revenues, making up their deficiency by loans
on their credit.

The chief objects of Federal expenditure (in addition to the postal
system already considered and for the most part supported by its own
revenue) are: 1st, interest on the public debt; 2d, pensions to disabled
soldiers; 3d, for the support of the civil branch of the government;
4th, war and naval expenditures.

Total expenditures for the year 1889 were $299,288,988. The chief items
were:

1. Interest on the public debt, $41,000,484
2. Pensions, 87,624,779
3. Civil service, 80,664,064
4. War and Navy, 65,815,079
5. Indians, 6,892,207

Money can be expended by the government only after it has been
appropriated by Congress in its annual appropriation bills. The
appropriation of supplies by Congress is the most important business
that it transacts. Every year the heads of all the different departments
frame estimates of the amounts of money needed to support their
departments during the following year, which estimates they send to the
Secretary of the Treasury, who, after considering and revising them,
transmits them to Congress in his "Annual Letter." This letter is
considered by the Appropriation Committee, whose duty it is to consider
and frame bills for the appropriation of moneys. Though guided by these
estimates, supplies frequently depart wi