Article July 25, 1914 Issue

Let us see where this latest decision of the appellate division...

The Boston (Mass.) Herald

Let us see where this latest decision of the appellate division of the supreme court of New York is likely to lead. It has been often said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. Similarly the power to forbid making a charge for an article or a service approximates a prohibition of its movement altogether. Whether people should not be allowed to pay for such professional services as they elect to have, is a question far transcending Christian Science as a system of treatment....

The decision is of wide interest, not only because of the large number of healers deprived of a livelihood, but because it affirms the principle that religion and medicine may not enter into commercial competition. The court holds that it does not assume the function of curtailing a man in the practice of his religion. The opinion does not pass on the question of whether the practitioner may treat lawfully, but only whether he may treat for pay.

There seems a certain inconsistency in this ruling. If a method of treatment is not forbidden by law, it seems difficult to understand that those who desire it may not pay for it. The question is entirely apart from the merits of Christian Science for curing disease.

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