22 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI

a period of years provide a better basis for interpretation
than do the data for individual years, since there are ordinarily
 considerable variations from year to year. Consideration
 of the variations in the several states over a period of
years might be valuable, but the summary data are to be preferred
 for the present purposes.
Table 6 shows that for the six-year period only Illinois
expended a larger amount for highways than did Missouri.
On the other hand, expenditures for education in five states
exceeded those in Missouri! These five states and Iowa
each expended a larger sum for social welfare. Missouri
ranked fifth in expenditures for protection, fourth in those for
general government, and seventh in those for economic development.

The data in Table 6 form the basis for the derivative data
in Table 7. This table shows that for the six-year period
highways accounted for 47.39, of the net total expenditures
of Missouri, a larger proportion than in any other state in
the group. Likewise, the proportion of total capital expenditures
 attributable to highways was not exceeded by
any state, and reference to Table 6 indicates that the proportion
 of highway expenditures for capital purposes was
larger in Missouri than in any other state except Illinois.
The predominance of highway expenditures in Missouri
fiscal affairs during the period in question, which has been
noted previously, is thus exhibited in a striking way by the
comparative statistics of expenditures in Missouri and in
other states. The figures indicate clearly that Missouri’s
expenditures for highways, particularly those for capital purposes,
 were unusually large.
The proportion of total Missouri expenditures assignable
to the other functions, considered as a group, was smaller
than in any other state, in consequence of the high proportion
of highway expenditures in Missouri. One comparison that
can be made may be significant. In relation to net total state
expenditures, Missouri’s expenditures for social welfare were
smaller than those of 8 other states? in the group, while
Missouri’s capital expenditures for this purpose were rela-1
 Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
2 Only Kansas. Arkansas, and Kentucky show a smaller proportion than Missouri.