Besides the commissioners, the chief county officers are the sheriff, the clerk, the commissioner of education, the coroner, the assessor, and sometimes a tax collector, although the collection of the taxes is a duty generally imposed upon the sheriff. The subdivisions of the county in some States are known as precincts, in others as townships; in Delaware, as hundreds; in Georgia, as militia districts; in Louisiana (where the counties are called parishes), as wards; in Maryland, as election districts; in Mississippi, as supervisor's districts, etc. In the Southern States they are mere judicial or election districts. In each is usually to be found one or more justices of the peace and their ministerial officers or constables, but the districts are in no sense political corporations.
The mixed system which originated in New York and Pennsylvania is a compromise between the two types described above. Here both the town and county elements exist, but are combined in different ratios. In New York the chief local authority is the board of supervisors, consisting of a representative chosen from each town in the county. In Pennsylvania it is a board of three commissioners elected from the county at large. The New York supervisor presides over the town administration, while the Pennsylvania commissioner is in no sense a township officer. In the mixed type, the town or township is a body corporate and politic. Each has its clerk, assessor, collector, commissioner of highways, justices of the peace, constable, etc. In New York there is an annual town meeting at which local officers are elected and matters of poor relief, taxes, schools, etc., attended to. In the pure Pennsylvania form the town meeting does not exist, town affairs being managed by a corps of officers elected by the people of the town. The New York, or supervisor type of local government, has been adopted in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, New Jersey, and elsewhere. The Pennsylvania, or commissioner system, has been transplanted to Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, and in a modified form to Minnesota and the Dakotas. For local government in the towns and cities, see Municipal Government.
Finances. The finances of the United States are characterized by rapid increase in magnitude of fiscal operations, and by the great facility with which revenues are secured, resulting in a general tendency for revenue to outstrip expenditures. While the Federal Government possesses the constitutional right to levy both direct and indirect taxes, the requirement that the former shall be apportioned among the States in proportion to population, and the popular hostility to direct taxation, have in effect practically confined the Federal Government to the field of indirect taxation. The principal sources of revenue are customs duties, which yielded in 1902, $254,444,708, and internal revenue (excise taxes) yielding $271,880,122. The principal sources of the internal revenue were: Spirits, $121,138,013; fermented liquors, $71,988,902; tobacco, $51,937,925. Receipts from the postal service amounting (1902) to $121,848,047 figure in the total revenues, which for 1902 were $684,326,280.
The most important items of expenditure are pensions, the post office, the army, the navy, and interest on the public debt. In 1902 the sum paid out in pensions was $138,488,560; the cost of the postal service was $125,896,531; the total of expenditures made by the War Department was $114,657,246; of the Navy Department $68,302,025. It must be remembered that part of the expenses of the War Department should not logically fall under that head, as, for example, expenses for improvement of rivers and harbors. The total of expenditures for 1902 was $593,038,903.
The interest-bearing debt of the United States was $931,070,340 on July 1, 1902, The debt which bears no interest, including United States notes, ($346,681,000) and certificates against gold and silver deposited in the treasury, etc., amounted to $1,226,259,245. Only a relatively small part of the non-interest bearing debt is to be regarded as net debt, since far the greater part is covered by cash in the treasury.
Budget. See the article Budget.
History. Down to the adoption of the Federal Constitution the finances of the Central Government were in an extremely chaotic condition. In 1775 the Continental Congress undertook to establish a Continental army and navy, but no power had been delegated to Congress to raise revenue by taxation to meet the attendant expenditures. Congress was therefore forced to rely upon the issue of bills of credit, the proceeds of loans, foreign and domestic, and requisitions upon the various States, which the latter could honor or not as they saw fit. From 1775 to 1783 it is estimated that the income of the Continental Treasury, estimated in specie, amounted to $65,863,825, of which about $37,800,000 was secured through the issue of bills of credit, $19,416,000 through loans, and $5,795,000 through requisitions upon the States. National credit sank so low that in 1781 the Continental bills of credit had fallen to one per cent. of their face value. It was practically impossible, during the greater part of the Revolutionary period, for Congress to borrow money at home or abroad; the foreign loans from France and Spain were rather in the nature of subsidies than of real loans.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the financial position of the Central Government was but little stronger. It was provided that the expenses of the National Government should be defrayed by taxes apportioned to the States in proportion to the value of land and improvements. Congress had power to emit bills of credit and to contract loans; but since the States levied the apportioned taxes according to their own discretion, there was no certainty that such loans could be repaid when due. By 1786 the credit of the Government had fallen so low that it was practically impossible to secure loans, while the proceeds of the apportioned taxes did not meet the running expenses of government. Efforts to amend the articles so as to make possible a national tax proved unavailing, owing to the provision that unanimous consent of the States should be necessary for amendment.
From this state of affairs the country was rescued by the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which gave Congress wide powers of taxation. By the act of July 4, 1789, import duties were levied; in the following year the national debt was reorganized and augmented by the assumption of the State debts incurred in the War
