99 Mo. 552 | Mo. | 1889
The relators joined in articles of agreement for the purpose of being incorporated by the name of the “Lafayette Park Club,” under article 10 of chapter 42, Revised Statutes, 1889, which article consists of sections numbered from 2821 to 2835. On the petition of the relators the circuit court of the city of St. Louis made a pro forma decree declaring that the articles of agreement and the purposes of the association came within the purview of said article, and were not inconsistent with the constitution or laws of the United States or of this state. The decree was
The refusal of the secretary is put upon the ground that the proposed corporation is not one for benevolent, religious, scientific or educational purposes, and, therefore, not exempt from the payment of the tax; and on the further ground that this association could only be incorporated for the purposes designated in its charter under section 2834, and that that section is unconstitutional and void.
The object and purposes of the proposed corporation as set forth in the articles of agreement are as follows :
“The purposes and scope of said corporation shall be for the encouragement of debating, reading and literature, and the. enjoyment of rational and social amusements, and the playing of ten-pins, chess and checkers and other lawful games of the kind. But it is hereby expressly declared, that there shall be no saloon in connection with said club, and no drinks shall be sold by the said club or any of its members. It is further declared-that this association shall have no connection with any manufacturing, agricultural or business purposes of any kind, nor shall it have any connection with politics or a political organization. Nor shall it have in view any pecuniary profit of any kind, but it shall be limited to the general objects above set forth.”
Section 21 of article 10 of the constitution provides: “No corporation, company or association, other than
Section 2821 of the Revised Statutes of 1889 provides in general terms that associations may be incorporated for “benevolent, religious, scientific, fraternal, beneficial and educational purposes; ’ ’ and section 2825 enters more into details, and after providing for the formation of corporations for benevolent and religious purposes provides: “Any school, college, institute, academy or other association formed for educational or scientific purposes, including therein any association formed especially to promote literature, history, science, information or skill among the learned professions, intellectual culture in any branch or department, * * * and in general any association, society, company or organization which tends to the public advantage, in relation to any or several of the objects above enumerated, and whatever is incident to such objects, may be created a body corporate and politic.”
In the view we take of this case it is unnecessary to recite other statutory provisions. Section 21 of article 10 of the constitution is plain. By it no association can be incorporated for any purpose other than for benevolent, religious, scientific and educational purposes, without the payment of the tax. This tax, it will be seen, is fixed at fifty dollars for the first fifty thousand dollars or less of capital stock, and at five dollars additional for every additional ten thousand dollars of stock. Now it is plain that the payment of the tax
The important question here, however, is whether the proposed corporation can be fairly said to be one for educational purposes. And it is to be observed, in the first place, that the constitution uses the words “for benevolent, religious, scientific and educational purposes,” in a broad and comprehensive sense. The corporations thus exempted from the payment of the tax are, to a certain extent, mentioned in contradistinction to such as are organized for pecuniary profit. As applied to minors it has been said, “education” comprehends not merely the instruction received at school or college, but the whole course of training, moral, intellectual and physical. Ruohs v. Backer, 6 Heisk. 395. The following definition appears to have been prepared with care :■ “Education is the bringing up, physically or mentally, of a child, or the preparation of a person, by some due course of training, for a professional or business life, or other calling.” 6 Am. & Eng. Ency. of L. 158.