Weekly journal-miner., 1915-03-03
FOUR REASONS WHY LAW IS
 INVALID
MAIN ONE THAT TITLE OF MOTHERS PENSION INITIATED BILL MISLED THE PEOPLE
(From Tuesdays Daily.)

! IHe OplHlOil OI JuuSS OIOSDy, Hdhu l ed down from the bench of the Su perior court of Maricopa county, last Saturday declaring invalid the old age and mothers pension bill, passed at the last election, was in part as fol lows:
 "The plaintiff gives nine reasons against the law. The court will no tice but four of these and of the four, two will be considered together. The plaintiff maintains that under Section 7 of Article TX of our constitution the provisions that Neither the state, nor any county, city, town, municip- ality, or other subdivision of the state shall * make any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise to any individual. The pensions cannot be granted.
 "A grant is a gratuity that is given from person or state to another in rather permanent manner and usually upon the intercession or peti- ton of the one who receives the gratuity. Without enlarging upon the definition of grant the court is sat ished that these pensions are unques- tionably grants and they may also be donations and the fact that they arc small and that they are given in place of other money that has been spent largely through our almshouses does not change the fact that they contravene this provision of the con stitution.
 The bill, as it was passed by the electors, was evidently an attempt to comply with the mandatory provis- ions of Section Is of Article XXI of the constitution of Arizona, which reads: 'Reformatory and penal insti- tutions, and institutions for the bene- fit of the insane, blind, deaf, and mute, and such other institutions as the public good may require, shall be es- tablished and supported by the state in such manner as may be prescribed by law
 If law undertakes to do this, or any other duty that is required by the constitution, it will have to do it in such manner as to comply with Section 13 of Article II of the consti7 tuition, which reads: No law shall be enacted granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which, upon the same term, shall not equally belong to all citizens or cor porations.
 "Thc old age and mothers pension bill certainly does not live up to the requirements of this section. When the state has assumed the duty, and by the constitution has made 1t man datory for the law making powers to take care of the unfortunate members of society the law in question has, by attempting to abolish our almshouses, and then to give its gratuities to part of the unfortunates who need the help and to deny it to so many others who are equally worthy of that help, has certainly violated Section 13. It has left out all the men and women who are objects of charity under sixty years of age; it has left out all the children of deserted wives, all the wives of invalid or crippled husbands and SO many others that court can not allow the law to stand. Then, too. it is in strict violation of the spirit of the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States. Its classification is all too arbitrary and all too unjust.
 The plaintiff also urges that the title of this bill is not sufficient, under the provisions of Section 13 of Article 1 " of our state constitution. It reads: An act providing for old age and mothers pension and making appro- priation therefor When this bill is looked at, Section purports to abol- i5h all of the almshouscs within the state, without giving any extended 1 reasons, it must be patent that there i is no necessary or even logical con | pensions and the abolition of the almshouses of the state, though the constitution requires that every act shall embrace but one subject and matters properly connected herewith, which subject shall be expressed in the title Courts have always been liberal in the construction of constitutional pro visions similar to this, where the laws have been enacted by legislature, but they cannot be so liberal with this | subject when laws arc enacted by | means of the initiative. The people, | as rule never read the law and de- | pend upon the. title as it is placed up | on the official ballots to guide them in voting. If courts are not strict in | construing these titles those who pro- pose new laws are sure to take ad- | vantage of it and to get attractive titles for the different bills that they wish enacted in the laws, and arc also going to hide jokers' in the various bills and get the people to enact many laws which they did not intend to enact. The people of Arizona could easily have done so when they enact cd this law. and the title being in adequate must render Section 1 of the act nugatOry.
 Now, noticing the reading of the next section, which provides in the absence of aln1Shouses sys- tenn of pensioning is hereby estab- lishcd.' Then the system of pension ing does not go into effect until there is an absence of almshouses, or until the almshouses, and therefore, the system of pensioning Is not establish ed under the terms of the law itself. For these three reasons, the court must decide in favor of this plaintiff. 7"