102 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI
1913, amounting to $7.7 million.! Of this amount, general
property taxes accounted for 51.79,.
Other important sources of state tax revenue in the years
1903, 1913, and 1918 were the inheritance tax, liquor
licenses, and various taxes on business. Liquor licenses
and other imposts amounted to $1.5 million? in 1913, or
almost 259, of the total state taxes collected. In 1918
taxes on the liquor traffic amounted to about $1.4 million,?
or 18.19, of the tax revenues of the state. This source of
revenue passed out of existence when national prohibition
became effective, and the resulting loss of revenue was one
of the reasons for the adjustments? made in the tax system
during that period.
‘Table 31 shows the state tax revenues of Missouri for the
years 1923 through 1928, distributed according to sources
and a percentage distribution of the total taxes for each of
the several years. The tax revenues of the state more than
doubled between 1918 and 1923, and the total for 1928 was
almost twice as large as that for 1923. The total for 1928
amounted to almost $34.1 million.
Most significant of the many changes in the importance of
the several sources of tax revenue is the relative decline of
receipts from the general property tax. While as late as
1918 the general property tax accounted for more than 509,
of all state taxes, in 1923 only a little more than one third
of the taxes collected were attributable to this source. In
the year 1924 there was a further decline to 26.39%, and
since that year the general property tax has not accounted
for as much as 199, of the total state tax revenue in any
year. This does not mean that the total receipts from the
general property tax have been decreasing, although there
was a sharp decrease in 1924. Since the latter year the total
for each vear has been larger than that for the vear imme-1

 United States Bureau of the Census, Financial Statistics of States, 1918,
pp. 70 f.
. Computed from United States Bureau of the Census, Wealth, Debt and Taxation,
 1913, Vol. II, pp. 37 f.
ied States Bureau of the Census, Financial Statistics of States, 1918,
pp. 70 f.
* The income tax rate was increased from 34% to 114%, in 1919.