Who Needs It?

Revenue sharing, that paradigm of creative federalism, sounds big in the aggregate: $2.5 billion in the first installment of Government funds recently sent to communities round the country. But what does that mean, town by town, in terms of the bottom line? Not a whale of a lot, if you are Robert W. Harshaw, mayor of McConnells, S.C. (pop. 200). Harshaw, 69, a dairy farmer, does not remember specifically applying for a federal grant. Still, he received a check for $346. Uncertain as to what to do with such dubious largesse, Harshaw consulted Councilman Sam Crawford, who advised: "Just send the darn thing back." Which is precisely what Harshaw did.

Harshaw soon received congratulatory letters from small-town mayors in Texas and Tennessee. In the Kansas City, Kans., suburb of Westwood (pop. 2,300), Mayor Joe Dennis bounced back a check for $37,000 Westwood, he said, did not need the money. Then Mayor Jack Cauble of Coahoma, Texas (pop. 1,200) rejected, with city council approval, a check for $1,889. His action was rooted in prairie suspicion. "I would have sent it back even if it were $18,000," he insisted. "When I was a kid my mother used to send me out for a switch and then whip me with it. This is like being put into bondage with your own chains."