TAX ADMINISTRATION
ject to approval of, or revision by, the State Board of
Equalization.
The State Board of Equalization is an ex-officio board,
consisting of the Governor, State Auditor, State Treasurer,
Secretary of State, and Attorney General. The existence of
this board rests on constitutional authority.! The constitution
 of 1865 contained no provision for such a board, but
the constitution of 1875 definitely provided for the establishment
 of the State Board of Equalization at the head of
the tax system. It is the duty of the board to equalize the
value of real and personal property among the several
counties, and it has the power to equalize the value of each
class of property separately.

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Valuation of Property for Purpose of Taxation
Value for taxation purposes has been defined as that sum
which a willing buyer would agree to give a willing seller,
the buyer not being obliged to buy or the seller obliged to
sell. The assessors in theory are supposed to consider all
factors that influence the value of a given property, and the
assessment as made presumably represents the true value in
money of that property, which is the legal standard for
taxation purposes. Lo appraise carefully all the factors
that influence the value of the several forms of property
owned by a single farmer would represent a tremendous
task. It is clearly an impossibility for the local assessors to
consider all of the factors, for some of them are world-wide
in their ramifications. Considering the many aspects of the
problem, it would seem that value for taxation purposes in
Missouri must depend largely on the judgment of the local
assessors.
It is inevitable that the efforts of local assessors, however
intelligent and experienced, to value the numerous forms of
property subject to taxation should result in many inequalities.
 The failure to achieve uniformity in assessments must
be regarded as excusable under the present conditions. The
most that can be hoped for is to keep the variations in the
valuations of the same form of property at a minimum and
the valuations of the several forms of property on bases so
1 Constitution, Article X, Section 18.