The Topeka state journal., 1902-11-18
WELTNER WINS.
Nevada School of Magnetic Heal
ing is Legitimate.

Washington. D. c.. Nov 1s.-Justice
Peckham of the U. S. supreme court to-
day delivered an opinion in the case of
the American School of Magnetic Heal
ing VS.. J. NJ. McAnulty. the latter be-
ing postmaster at Nevada. Mo-, where
the school is located. The proceeding
grew out of a fraud order issued by the
postoffice department prohibiting the
postmaster from delivering mail ad-
dressed to the school. The original bill
asked for an Injunction to prohibit the
postmaster from obeying the order On
trial in the u. S. circuit court for the
western district of Missouri the depart
ments order was sustained on de-
murrer. Today's opinion reverses that
Judgment, but in delivering it Justice
Peckham said there was no intention of
passing upon the various constitutional
objections set out in the bill. the iuten-
ton of the court being to simply hold
that the admitted facts show no viola
ton of the statutes cited. but an erro-
neous order given by the postmaster
general to defendant which the courts
have the power to grant relief against" 3"
The acton of the court was accom-
panied with instructions to the lower
court to 'overrule the defendants de-
murrer to the amended bill with leave
to answer and to grant temporary in
junction as applied for by complain
ants"
The opinion added: In overruling the
demurrer. we do not mean to preclude
the defendant from showing on the trial,
if he can, that the business of the COM
Dlainants IN fact conducted amounts
to a violation of the statutes"
Justices White and McKenna did not
concur in the opinion.
In reviewing the case Justice Peck
ham quoted the plea of the magnetic
school tssat one human mind may con-
troll another in treatment of disease, and
said:
"One person may believe it of greater
/ al h11f II
not be said it is fraud for one person
! to contend that the mind has an effect
upon the body and its 9hysical condi-
tion greater than even a vast ma sority =
of intelligent people might be willing to
admit or believe. Even intelligent peo-
pie may and do differ among them
/ selves as to the extent of this mental
effect Because the complainants might
or did claim to be able to effect cures
| by reason of working upon and affecting
| the mental powers of the individual and
directing them toward the accomplish
ment ot a cure of the disease under
which he might be suffering, who can
say that it is a fraud or false oretense
or promise within the meaning of the
statutes?
How can any one lay down the limit
and say beyond that are fraud and falls.
pretenses? The claim of the ability to
cure may be vastly greater than most
men would be ready to admit, and yet
those who might deny the existence OF
virtue of the remedy would only differ III
opinion from those who assert it. There
is no exact standard of absolute truth
by which 10 prove the assertion false and
a fraud
Later on Justice Peckham said:
Suppose a person should assert that
by the use of electricity alone he could
| treat diseases as efficaciousy as the same
| heretofore have been treated by regular
physicians. Would these statutes jus
tify the postmaster general. upon evi-
dence satisfactory to him. to adjudst
such claim to be without foundation an6
then pronounce the person so claiming tC
be guilty of procuring by false or fraud
ulent pretenses the moneys of people
sending him money through the mails
| and then to prohibit the delivery of any
letters to him?''
The opinion says that many people dc
not believe in vaccination and in homeo-
pathy and asks whether on this account
vaccination is to be prohibited, ant
whether homeopathy physicians are sub
iect to be proceeded against by the post
/ master general. Justice Peckham con
cludes that the statutes under which the
postmaster general proceeded in this cas-
were not intended to cover any case o.
what the postmaster general might thinl
to be false opinions, but only cases o.
actual fraud in fact. in regard to which
opinion forms no basis
| Karsas CITY. Nov. 1S.-The bushes:
done by Prof Weltmer at Nevada. Mo.
before the government interfered
amounted to half million dollars a yea
and caused the Nevada .postoffce to b'
raised from the fourth to the first class
All of the letters received contained
money. Judge Phillips in the u s. dis
trict court in Kansas City made th'
point that so much mail required all th'
attention of the healers and left no tim'
for suggestion and concentration o
thought on the sufferings of their CORE
4 spondents-
In April. 1901. Weltmer and his partner
Joseph H. Kelly. were fined $500 fo
using the mails fraudulently.