This paper explores the relationship between selected state demographic variables and two measures of public welfare activity—coverage and closeness for 1960 and 1970. Generally, state wealth accounts for differentials in coverage (State AFDC Recipients / Totals Persons in Poverty in State) while the proportions of poor, proportions nonwhites and state growth in the preceding decade are influential in explaining differential closeness. (Average Monthly State AFDC Grant, Per Recipient / Monthly Per Capita Income of the State.) The two welfare measures are seen as linked to the societal-wide contest between norms of achievement and norms of equality.