The Prescott daily news., 1910-12-27
SONS ACTION LIKELY THREAT EMS FUTURE OF CHRIS
 THAN SCIENCE CULT.
OLD STATUTE THE BASIS
Lawyers Discover Ancient, Forgotten Law That Will Probably Bring Great Crisis to Church and
 Give Eddy Heirs Fortune.

New York, Dec. 27.-Mary Baker c. Eddy, founder of Christian Science, has left as legacy to the cult she created the gravest crisis in its his tory. She did this unknowingly, of course, when in her will she made the mother church her residuary lega- tee and bequeathed to it the bulk of her estate, which conservative esti. mate fixes at close to $3,000000.
 No doubt remains that the heirs of Mrs. Eddy-her son, George w. Glov- CT, and her adopted son, Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy-have reached a final de- cision to fight for the possession of this fortune.
 It is equally certain that former United States Senator William E. Chandler of Washington, D. C., and other distinguished counsel represent ing the heirs, have determined upon a line of legal action, which will raise unique issues and arouse internation- al interest.
 MT. Chandler, when seen, emphati- cally declined to make any statement or either to admit or deny the accu- racy of his plan of campaign in be- half of the Eddy heirs.
 To Attack Christian Science.
 But several other distinguished law yers have been consulted in the prep aration of these plans, and from ab- solutely authoritative sources 1t is learned that not only will the will of Mrs. Eddy be attacked as illegal un- der the statutory laws of Massachu- sets, but there is every promise of separate proceeding which will be di- rected against Christian Science itself as movement against public policy
 The lawyers of the Eddy heirs did not have far to look for the keynote of their proposed attack upon the Christian Science leaders will They found it in the revised laws of Massa- chusetts for the year 1902, in section 9, chapter 37. It reads:
 The income of the gifts, grants. bequests and devhses made to or Tor the use of any one church shall not exceed S2,000 a year, exclusive of the income of any parsonage land granted to or for the use of the min istry."
 That is all there is to it-a brief, plain, unclouded provision of law that had been hidden away among the Massachusetts statutes for more than half a century, but which was re-enacted eight years ago.
 Mrs. Eddy Unaware of Statute.
 Probably not dozen persons resi- dent in the state of Massachusetts knew of its existence. Obviously it was unknown to Mrs. Eddy and the advisers who aided in the drawing Of her will, which was executed only one short year after the re-enactment of the statute
 The sons see in this law a sure le- gal bar to the inheritance by the Christian Science church of Mrs. Ed dy's vast estate.
 They will take the position that the will is illegal and void; that in point of fact Mrs Eddy made no disposi- tion of her property and that a con- dition is created identically the same as if Mr. Eddy died intestate.
 MT. Chandler clearly plans to keep his clients within the strict letter of their agreement, so that no interest of theirs under the settlement shall be endangered. This he doubtless pro- poses to accomplish by moving in the matter through bill in equity, which. while compelling the courts to pass upon the legality of Mrs. Eddy's will, cannot be legally construed as a con test of that will