government by the people.]

37. EFFICIENCY.--The division of functions between the Federal and
state governments on the one hand, and between state and local
governments on the other, provides a solid foundation for the
economical administration of government.

The Federal government attends to most matters which are of national
importance, and which cannot properly be looked after by the states
individually. For example, foreign relations, the postal service, and
the coinage of money, are Federal functions. The separation of Federal
and state functions is not always clear, but such matters as
contracts, property rights, crime, and education are probably best
administered by the state. There is, similarly, no sharp dividing line
between the functions of state and local governments, but at present
it appears that the local authorities are the most efficient
administrators of roads and bridges, water and paving, the elementary
schools, and similar concerns.

The essential economy of this threefold division of functions is that
each of the three sets of officials tends to concern itself with those
matters with which it is best acquainted, and which are most
advantageously administered by it.

38. UNITY.--The earlier European critics of our government declared
that the division of powers between Federal and state governments
would encourage civil strife. It is true that this division of powers
has resulted in a decentralized rather than in a centralized form of
government. It is equally true that the quarrel over states' rights
was the fundamental cause of the Civil War. But that war settled the