NEW YORK
39
NEW YORK
punishment of the offender for contempt of court,
and the infliction of this penalty is unheard of at
the present day. The divorce law of New York, it
may be noted, is more conservative than that of any
other state in the Union except South Carolina, where
no divorce a vinculo is permitted. Limited divorce or
decree of separation a mensa et thoro is granted for
numerous causes, viz: cruel and inhuman treatment,
abandonment, neglect or refusal to provide for the
wife, and conduct making it unsafe and improper for
the plaintiff to cohabit with the defendant. The
usual purpose of actions for limited divorce is to pro-
vide support for the children and alimony for the wife
out of the husband's funds after the husband and wife
have separated. These actions are comparatively in-
frequent. The judgment in them has of course no
effect upon the validity of the marriage bond. It is
granted only for grave cause, and the necessary bona
fide residence of the parties in the State is of strictest
proof, under the terms of the statute.
Charities. — The system of charities which has grown up within the State of New York, whether religious or secular, is one of the features of its social life. As was said by the Court of Appeals in 1888 in the famous case of Holland vs. Aloock above noted: "It is not certain that any political state or society in the world offers a better system of law for the encouragement of property limitations in favour of religion and learn- ing, for the relief of the poor, the care of the insane, of the sick and the maimed, and the relief of the desti- tute, than our system of creating organized bodies by the legislative power and endowing them with the same legal capacity to hold property which a private person has to receive and holfl transfers of property." A charitable or benevolent corporation may be formed under the Membership Corporation Law by five or more persons for any lawful, charitable, or benevolent purpose. It is subject in certain respects to the supervision of the State Board of Charities and of the Supreme Court, but this power of visitation is not oppressive and never exercised except in case of gross abuse and under .strict provisions as to proce- dure. State and municipal aid to private charitable corporations is permitted by law. Some of the great private charities of the Catholic Church receive such aid in large amounts, particularly in the great cities. The public subvention of private charitable corpora- tions is an old custom in the State, beginning when al- most all charities were in Protestant hands and the Catholic charities were very few and poor. Although vigorously attacked in the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1904, it was sustained and continued by the action of that convention and ratified by the people of the State. The system has done much for the cause of the education and maintenance of defective, de- pendent, and delinquent children, and for the building up of the hospitals for the destitute sick and aged in all the religious denominations. The Catholic pro- tectories of New York and Buffalo and the Catholic foundling and infant asylums throughout the State are the models for such institutions in the whole United States. The charities under Catholic auspices which receive no State aid are, however, in the vast majority, and are found in great numbers in every quarter of the State, caring for the children and the aged, the sick and the destitute. They are served by an army of devoted religious, both men and women. The State institutions for the care of the insane and juvenile delinquents are numerous, and the alms- houses, hospitals, and other charitable agencies under the care of the counties and other municipalities abound throughout the State. There are alone six- teen great State hospitals for the insane, conducted most carefully and successfully.
Restrictions on Bequests and Devises. — No person having a parent, husband, wife, or child can legally devise or bequeath more than one-half his estate to
benevolent, charitable, or religious institutions, but
such disposition is vaUd to the extent of one-half. In
addition, certain kinds of corporations are still further
restricted in respect to the portion of the estate of such
persons which they may receive: in some cases it
is only one-fourth. In respect to the invalidity by
statute of legacies or devises made by wills executed
within two months of the testator's death, this limita-
tion was formerly widely applicable. Recent amend-
ments, however, have restricted it to the corporations
formed under the old statutes, and it applies now to
very few others, and these mostly corporations cre-
ated by special statutes. Bequests and devises to un-
incorporated churches or charities, are, as has been
stated, invalid. Foreign religious and charitable cor-
porations, however, may take bequests and devises if
authorized to do so by their charters. They are also
permitted to carry on unhampered their work in the
State of New York. The legacies and devises to re-
ligious, charitable, and benevolent corporations are
exempt from the succession tax assessed upon legacies
and devises in ordinary cases.
Exemption from Taxation. — The Tax Law provides that the real and personal property of a "corporation or association organized exclusively for the moral or mental improvement of men or women or for religious, Bible, tract, charitable, benevolent, missionary, hos- pital, infirmary, educational, scientific, literary, li- brary, patriotic, historical, or cemetery purposes or for the enforcement of law relating to chiklren or ani- mals or for two or more such purposes and used ex- clusively for carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes", shall be exempt from taxation. Great care is taken, however, to protect against the abuse of this right of exemption. In some few cases further exemptions are also made; thus, for example, real property not in exclusive use for the above corporate purposes is exempt from taxation, if the income there- from is devoted exclusively to the charitable use of the corporation. Property held by any officer of a reli- gious denomination is entitled to the same exemption under the same conditions and exceptions as property held by a religious corporation itself.
Freedom of Worship. — It is expressly provided by statute that all persons committed to or taken charge of by incorporated or unincorporated houses of refuge, reformatories, protectories, or other penal institutions, receiving either public moneys or a per capita sum from any municipality for the support of inmates, shall be entitled to the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimina- tion or preference, and that these provisions may be enforced by the Supreme Court upon jietition of any one feeling himself aggrieved by a violation of it (Prison Law Section 20). It is further provided that all children committed for destitution or delinquency by any court or public officer shall, as far as practica- ble, be sent to institutions of the same religious faith as the parents of the child.
Liquor Law. — The eoicise legislation of the State is treated in an elaborate general statute called the "Liquor Tax Law", but better known as the "Raines Law" from the name of the late Senator John Raines who drafted it. In substance it provides for a Slate Department of Excise presided over by a commis- sioner of excise, appointed by the governor and con- firmed by the Senate, who is given charge of the issuance of all licences to traffic within the State in in- toxicating liquor, and also of the collection of the li- cence fees and the supervision of the enforcement of the drastic penalties provided for violations of t he law. Its purpose was to take away the granting of excise licences by the local authorities, who had in some cases greatly abused the power, and also to subject local peace and police officers to the scrutiny, and in some cases the control of the State authorities in excise matters. It has resulted^nerally in a great improve-
