Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-05-09
LEGISLATION.

Less than the usual number of bills
having Tor their object the suppression
Oh Christian Science practice, have
DeeD IN reduced in the state legislatures
THIS Year, and OF this number only the
one lntr 'duced in Nebraska has hten
passed, but even in that state The
measure has failed to become law,
Decau OF the governors veto.
The iull text of Governor Mickey's
veto message is as follows =
10 the Members of the House of
representatives
Gelttemen:-ln relation to house roll
No. l6o: The purpose Of this act is to
make the practice of Christian Science
healing unlawful and to punish pracLi-
TONERS unless they educate themselves
in materia medica, therapeutics, surgery,
and other branches of the secular med
cal profession. To accomplish this
purpose change IN the existing statutes
Is essential, as there is no law now in
force forbldding the practice OF Christian
Science. Such change in legislation
can lawfully be made only by amend
ment OF the statutes in force or by the
passage OF an independent act. Both
of tn Sc m, thods are ignored in house
roll No. 165.
Considered as an amendat0ry act,
the bill violates the constitutional pro-
vision that 'no law shall be amended
unless the new act contain the section
or sections so amended and the section
or sections SO amended shall be re-
pealed." There is no attempt in house
roll No. l65 TO set out the old section
or to repeal it, and the bill, as All
amendment OF an existing law, would
be unconstitutional if approved.
no IS me- ind. a. -.
any sense. 1t could only be effective,
if valid, when considered in connection
with the statute now in force regulating
the practice of medicine. 1t does not
purport to be an independent act, for
its only possible effect, if it could be
made operative, would be to extend the
scope OF section of an existing statute
so as to make the practice of Christian
Science unlawful; but even if the act
were conceded to be independent, in
such a sense that it could amend other
statutes without referring to or repeal
ing them, it would still conflict with
the constitution. The purport of both
the title and the bill itself is to prescribe
the effect to be given to an existing
statute. In other words, the bill, if
considered as an independent act, is
bill 20 construe and give effect to the
enactment of a former legislature. The
constitution divides the power of
government into three departments,
and forbids each to exercise the func-
tions of another, it is a function of the
courts to construe and give effect to
statutes, and this power cannot be ex-
ercised by the legislature.
Again, the enabling act passed by
Congress, authorizing the formation
and adoption of a constitution for the
state of Nebraska, expressly demands
that said constitution shall provide, by
an article forever irrevocable, without
the consent of the Congress of the
United States, that perfect liberation
of religious sentiment shall be secured
and no inhabitant of said state shall
ever be molested in person or property
on account of his or her mode of re-
ligious worship" In pursuance of
this mandatory requirement the con-
stitutiOn of the state of Nebraska de-
clares that call persons have a natural
and indefeasible right to worship al
mighty God according to the dictates
of their own consciences," and further
adds, NOR shall any interferen with
the rights of conscience be permitted !"
In the Christian Science religion the
ideas of worship and of divine healing
to draw the line of demarcation, and
hence interference with the one or the
other is an interference, with 1.-THE
rights of conscience" and thus becomes
an infringement of the constitutional
guaranty of religious freedom. Con-
sidered in any light, the bill conflicts
with the constitution.
The measure is also open to the OBJ
lection that it is class legislation
Practitioners of osteopathy are specif-
ically excepted from burdens imposed
upon those who practice Christian
Science healing.
Without IN any degree rejecting upon
the motives of the legislature, it is
difficult, too, to avoid the conclusion
that the bill was conceived in a spirit
of professional intolerance. AS origin
ally introduced, the measure bore upon
osteopaths with the same rigor that it
does upon Christian Scientists, and
when it is recalled that monographs,
eclectics, and other now we'll recognized
schools of healing, as well as osteOpathS
have had to fight their way to existence
over legal barriers raised by their pro-
fessional brethren who happened to be
within the pale of the law, the suspicion
may be pardonable that there is more
at issue than a consuming zeal for the
public health.
These are some of the reasons which
impel me to return house roll No. 165
to your honorable body without rly ap.
proval. JOHN III. MICKEY, GooernOr.