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SOURCES OF ADDITIONAL REVENUE 309 
general property tax. Although an analysis of the results 
obtained in a number of states might be valuable, it would 
have very little significance in the present study, for the 
reason that Missouri has a state income tax and the adoption 
of a low-rate tax on intangibles by a state that levies an in- 
come tax would be of doubtful advantage. However, the 
experience of a neighboring state may be summarized. In 
1925! low-rate taxes were applied to money, credits, and real 
estate mortgages in Kansas, but were recently abandoned.? 
The results obtained have been appraised by J. P. Jensen as 
follows: “The low rate taxes on intangibles have not so far 
been signally successful from a fiscal point of view. They 
have produced something like two thirds of the revenue 
produced by the general property tax on intangibles. This 
too meagre result has been fostered by the hostility or apathy 
of many county assessors and still more deputies, and by the 
opposition of many taxpayers who believe or affect to believe 
that all property, whether tangible or intangible, is alike for 
purposes of taxation. As a result some owners of tangible 
property who own no taxed intangibles have had to pay 
higher taxes, where the assessment of intangibles has been 
ineffective. Thelow rate taxeshave also been the occasion for 
the present impasse in bank taxation, though bankers were 
complaining of excessive taxation before the advent of the 
low rate taxes; and the conflict would have appeared anyway 
though perhaps in different form.” 
In short, the low-rate taxation of intangibles in Kansas 
was not successful either from a fiscal or from an administra- 
tive standpoint, and it further complicated the question of 
bank taxation. Kansas endeavored to continue the taxation 
of national banks by means of a tax on the value of the 
shares, but, in accordance with the competing moneyed 
capital concept, it would seem that they were not legally 
taxable at a rate higher than five mills. The impasse in bank 
taxation was one of the principal reasons for the abandon- 
ment of the low-rate tax on intangibles in that state. The 
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1 The law was modified in 1927. A secured debts classification was added, and 
the rate on money and credits was increased. 
2 The mortgage registration tax was continued. 
8 Jensen, J. P., The Kansas Tax on Intangibles, Lawrence, Kan., 1928, pp. 62, f. 
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