TAX ADMINISTRATION

195

cases this might entail the replacement of local assessors
who were unwilling to lend their assistance in establishing
the required degree of uniformity or proved themselves incapable
 of doing so. In other cases it would no doubt be
necessary for the State Tax Commission and its district
representatives to reassess the property within a county or
other local government, in order that the required degree of
uniformity might be obtained. It has previously been
pointed out that the State Tax Commission might be given
the authority to reassess the property within an entire county
when the Commission deemed it necessary. Provision could
also be made that such a reassessment should be undertaken
when requested by a certain number of property owners, say
five or ten, within a given taxing jurisdiction.
The district representatives of the Tax Commission could
be appointed by the Tax Commission or placed on a civil service
 basis. In the interest of efficiency, it is desirable that
they should not be assigned to the same territory for a period
longer than three or five years. A system of rotation would
reduce to a minimum the possibility of alignment with local
interests, and it might be well under a system of rotation
for the state to pay moving expenses.
It is a general opinion of those interested in taxation that
if an effective start towards improved administration is to be
made the general property tax on intangibles will have to be
abandoned. As will be seen later, the present method of
taxing bank stock will no doubt have to be discontinued, if
other intangibles are not taxed as property. The attempt to
reach intangibles for the general property tax has resulted in
very general failure in other states as well as in Missouri.
No one knows the proportion of taxable intangibles which are
returried for taxation, and, considering the confiscatory
nature of this form of taxation upon the income from the
intangibles which are taxed, it is generally believed that some
other method of reaching this form of property should be
substituted. This part of the problem will receive further
consideration in a later chapter. It is mentioned here to make
clear that the duty of the district administrators would not
include an endeavor to assess this form of property for the
general property tax.