(3) Those on persons engaged in the commission business, on cotton brokers, merchandise brokers, electric light companies, gas companies, ice dealers, credit associations, insurance adjusters, industrial insurance agents, lightning rod dealers, auctioneers, money lenders, pawnbrokers, sewing machine dealers, ship brokers, street railways, and water works.1 Revenue is the chief consideration in the imposition of these taxes, and in the case of many of them there is tax ability, but little property to be reached by the property tax. There are also certain charges levied in connection with the state regulation of the fish and oyster business which are to be considered as occupation taxes rather than as license fees, and which fall under the present class of occupation taxes. The regulation of coast fishing and oyster-ing goes back to 1895, and there have been many changes in the restrictions and charges imposed. Until 1903 the occupation tax upon any one fishing for the market within the public coast waters was on the basis of the fathoms of seines and nets used, and the charge upon those engaged in gathering oysters was on the basis of the pairs of tongs used.2 The act of 1903 adopted as a basis the weight of the fish and oysters. In 1903 also there was introduced an annual license charge of $1 for each person engaged in the business of fishing, but in 1905 this was succeeded by a license charge of $10 per fishing boat.3 In 1909 a tax upon wholesale dealers in fish and oysters was introduced.4 The charges in effect in 1914 were a tax of one-fifth of one cent per pound on all fish, turtle, terrapin, and shrimp taken for market from the public coast waters; a tax of two cents per barrel on oysters gathered from the natural reefs or private oyster beds within the public coast waters; a charge of $1 for a boat license to engage in the business of fishing or of gathering oysters; and a tax upon wholesale dealers in fish and oysters of $1 for each one thousand pounds of fish and of one cent per barrel of oysters.1 These taxes were payable to the game, fish, and oyster commissioner or his deputies, and by him were turned over to the state treasury.

1 The tax in the act of 1897 upon cotton, wool and hide buyers, but exempting merchants who had paid the occupation tax on merchants, was declared to be lacking in uniformity and therefore unconstitutional; Poteet v. State, 41 Texas Crim. Rep., 268 (1899). A tax on barbers imposed in 1907 was held to be unconstitutional as being an occupation tax on a mechanical pursuit; Jackson v. State, 55 Texas Crim. Rep., 557 (1909). The tax imposed by the act of 1897 on sewing machine peddlers when the merchant dealer was exempted was held to be unconstitutional; Ex-parte Fritz Bockhorn, 62 Texas Crim. Rep.. 651 (1911).

2 Laws of 1895, Reg. Sess., p. 170. Laws of 1899, p. 312. Laws of 1903, p. 189.

3 Laws of 1905, p. 128. This tax was upheld in Raymond v. Kibbe, 43 Texas Civ. App., 209 (1906). Laws of 1907, p. 233.

4 Laws of 1909, p. 325.

Hunting licenses began to be required in 1907. The charge upon a non-resident of the state was $15, payable to the game, fish, and oyster commissioner; the charge for hunting outside one's county was $1.75, payable to the county clerk, who in turn remitted all but twenty-five cents to the game, fish, and oyster commissioner.2

Neither the report of the game, fish, and oyster commissioner nor the report of the comptroller itemizes the receipts as to sources, and it is therefore not possible to separate taxes, fees, fines, and rents. The total receipts in 1914 were $42,540; the total disbursements were $41,258.

(4) Those on occupations which are regarded as socially harmful or in need of regulation. These include billiard and pool halls, beer and liquor saloons, cigarette dealers, selling pools on horse races and other contests, clairvoyants, mesmerists and fortune tellers. Revenue and sumptuary considerations prevail in the taxation of these occupations.

(5) Those on occupations which are to be repressed.3 These are a tax of $250 in each county upon the peddling of cook-stoves, washing machines, churns, wagons and other vehicles,1 a tax of $500 upon the occupation of selling cannon fire crackers and toy cartridge pistols,2 the tax of $4,000 on those soliciting or taking orders for liquor in local option territory;3 the tax of $2,000 on a "cold storage";4 the tax of $5,000 upon an office delivering C. O. D. liquor packages;5 the tax of 50 per cent upon the gross receipts of pistol dealers;6 and the tax of $2,000 on any retail dealer in non-intoxicating malt liquors.7

1 Laws of 1913, Reg. Sess., p. 297. Laws of 1913, Called Sess., p. 33.

2 Laws of 1907, p. 356. Laws of 1909, p. 456.

3 Besides the taxes enumerated below there were at one time a tax of $500 upon the occupation of selling the Illustrated Police News, the Kansas City Sunday Sun, and like publications, and a tax of $500 upon fights staged between animals. These taxes were omitted from the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911, inasmuch as the Penal Code, art. 509, prohibits directly the dissemination of the literature which it was sought indirectly to repress through taxation, and as art. 1510 of the Penal Code prohibits directly fights staged between animals. For the tax on the undesirable publications see Thompson v. the State, 17 Texas Crim. App., 253 and the Report of the Attorney General, 1895-1896, p. 5.

The only graduation attempted in the present occupation taxes is for gas, water, and electric light companies; wholesale dealers in ice; cotton factors; commission merchants; and theaters; in all of which cases the taxes vary according to the population of the town or city.8 The tax on peddlers varies according as they are on foot or have one or more horses or oxen. The taxes on many of the occupations which were relieved of taxation in 1907 had been graduated according to population, while those on merchants had been graduated according to the probable purchases during the year.

1 Rev. Civil Stats., 1911, art. 7355, sec. 12. Peddlers of clocks and of agricultural implements are subject to this tax.

2 Rev. Civil Stats., 1911, art. 7356.

3 Ibid., art. 7479.

4 Ibid., art. 1480.

5 Ibid., art. 7483.

6 Ibid., art. 7380. Sustained in Caswell & Smith v. the State, 148 S. W. Rep., 1159 (1912). For a time a popular method of evading this tax was to lease pistols for a lump sum equal to the price of the pistol. This practice was pronounced an illegal and invalid evasion of the law. See Report and Opinions of Attorney General, 1912-1914, p. 670.

7 Rev. Civil Stats., 1911, art. 7476. A tax of $5,000 imposed in 1905 upon persons dealing in the unearned wages of another was declared unconstitutional, because of certain exemptions; Owens v. the State, 53 Texas Crim. Rep., 105 (1908). The act of 1907 levying a tax of $2,000 upon dealers in non-intoxicating malt liquors was held to be unconstitutional because of the exemption of druggists and certain other classes of dealers; Ex-parte Woods, 52 Texas Crim. Rep.. 575 (1908). But this law was re-enacted in 1909, and was upheld in Ex-parte Townsend, 64 Texas Crim. Rep., 350. From 1879 to 1897 a tax of $1,000 rested on nine and ten pin alleys, and from 1889 to 1897 a tax of $1,000 stood against fortune tellers.

8 Rev. Civil Stats., 1911, art. 7355.

There has been considerable evasion of the occupation taxes. The law contemplates that the county collector of taxes shall demand the tax and if the person fails or refuses to pay, it becomes the collector's duty to file complaint before a justice of the peace. It is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of from $50 to $500, for the collector not to collect or endeavor to collect the tax. Laxity, however, long characterized collections, and collectors have been charged with favoring their friends.1

The general occupation or license taxes have constituted next to ad valorem taxes the source of largest tax receipts. Their percentage and even absolute amount among receipts are on the decline, however. Exclusive of the fish and oyster taxes, they made up 25.6 per cent of total tax receipts in 1881; 21 per cent in 1887; 21.8 per cent in 1891; 20.2 per cent in 1901; 14.9 per cent in 1907; 10.8 per cent in 1910, and 7.1 per cent in 1915. On account of the repeal in 1907 of a large number of the taxes and because of the spread of liquor prohibition, the net receipts to the state decreased from $1,070,882 in 1907 to $852,490 in 1910, but there has been an increase since 1910.2 The taxes on liquor dealers have always been the most remunerative ones, and next to them since 1907 have been those on billiard and pool halls. Those on liquor dealers provided in 1915 85.7 per cent of the total occupation tax receipts, and those on liquor, billiard and pool establishments provided together 90.4 per cent of such receipts.3 The payment of a general occupation tax does not exempt the occupation from the property tax or other taxes.

1 Report of the State Revenue Agent, 1898. Report of the Special Tax Commission, 1899, p. 32. In 1898 out of 27,169 merchants in Texas reported by Bradstreet, 20,311 paid an occupation tax, and in 1900 out of 4,000 lawyers only 2,010 paid the license tax; Report of the State Revenue Agent, 1898 and 1900. Circuses attempted evasion of the taxes on them by calling themselves "exhibitions" and "shows," by pretending to have a continuous performance, and by selling tickets for 49 cents and 99 cents instead of at 50 cents and $1.00. but these subterfuges did not succeed; Report of Special Tax Commission, 1899, p. 28; Report of the State Revenue Agent, 1910.

2 See Appendix, table 10.

3 Based upon table No. 11 of the Report of the Comptroller, 1915.