THE MICHIGAN DAILY
ATE, CARNIVAL, REVIVAL MEETING:
Dayton Still Rec alls 'Monkey Trial'
DAYTON, Tenn.-]P)--In 1925,
snake was found in Ireland; Ger-
t de Ederle broke a record swim-
g down New York Bay; Presi-
nt Coolidge ordered rum-run-
s driven out of sight of his
mner cottage. And a couple
Wsmarried 3,000 feet over De-
tWit while a minister shouted the
eremony through a megaphone
ftomn another plane.
* * *
IT ALSO WAS the year that
Ahn Thomas Scopes, a 24-year-
4d high school biology teacher,
ckcided to test a new Tennessee
sate law banning the teaching of
olution - that man descended
fom a lower order of animals.
The' result was the famed
monkey trial," which was, in
drying degree, a debate, carni-
al and revivalist camp meet-
ing.
The trial started 25 years ago
ttxnorrow and this sleepy little
twn (population 3,200 by the 1950
(population 5,318 by the 1950
4nsus) has never seen anything
lite it before or since.
* * *
THERE WAS Williams Jennings
Bryan, silver-tongued defender of
fundamentalism, ex-Secretary of
State and three times the Demo-
c tic nominee for President. There
was Clarence Darrow, scowling,
billiant, agnostic attorney who
lately had made headlines in the
tbeb-Leopold trial.
There were pious farmers
Noming to town in mule-drawn
wagons, and city lawyers in big
cars. There were reporters and
telegraphers and radio broad-
casters who set up shop in the
:courthouse and. evangelists who
set up tabernacles outside.
There were glib photographers
Whoposed pretty girls in monkey
suits and there were solemn sci-
e*ti1ts from great universities.
here were 'blind minstrels sing-
ing mountain hymns with promise
of reward for the faithful, and
there were other minstrels who
sang lusty soldier ballads of the
late war.
THERE WERE-MEN who climb-
ed trees and hung signs saying,
"be sure your sins will find you
out. And there were promoters
ofering two chimpanzees as court
exbibits and a three-foot man
identifled as "The Missing Link."
There was a string quartet and
there were vendors who set up
stands in the hot, dusty streets
and Sold soda, sandwiches, wat-
rinelons and religious books.
There was a man who had his
6*w demonstration of the origin
of the species - a cat which
looked like a cat from the front
and like a rabbit from the rear.
The man called it a "cabit."
* *
* *
* * a-
HUMAN RELATIVES?-The question that drew the trial of John T. Scopes off the track, and was
responsible for most of the indignation as well as most of the humor in the affair, was whether
man is descended from anthropoids like these.
* * * <> * 1 * >4* * *
And there was the free-thinker
from Michigan who was arrested
by Sid Strunk, Dayton's only po-
liceman. (Sid explained: "He was-
n't talking right and I was afraid
some of the boys'd take hold of
him.")
* * *
THEY WERE ALL there to take
part in, watch, report or profit by
the spectacle of the "Great Com-
moner" taking on the fiery liberal
lawyer in open court. They were
not disappointed.
While photographers shot pic-.
tures from tables and chairs in
the small, hot courtroom, Bryan.
boomed:
"Parents have -a right to say
that no teacher paid by their mon-
ey shall rob their children of faith,
in God and send them back t
their homes skeptical infidels or
agnostics or athiests."
There were "Amens" from the.
crowd. Darrow said the "Amens"
should be inserted in the court
record.
* * *
ATTORNEY - GENERAL A. T.
Stewart, his arms spread to heav-
en, shouted:
"Would they haveame believe
I was once a worm and writhed
in the dust? Would they take
from me my hope of- the Here-
after?"
Aided by attorneys Dudley Field
Malone and Arthur Garfield Hays,
Darrow denounced the anti-evo-
lution law as a "brazen and bold
attempt to destroy liberty."
EVERYONE in the court had
removed his coat because of the
heat. Bryan, in a pongee shirt
turned in at the neck, cooled him-
self with a palm-leaf fan. Darrow
wore bright lavender suspenders,
which he constantly tugged at
with his thumbs.
The state took but one hour to
present its case. Two high school
students testified ' Scopes had
taught evolution. But side issues
and technicalities occupied the
first 14 days of the trial. Then
came the great climax on the 11th
day, when the judge had moved
the trial out to the court house
lawn so more people could watch.
* * *
ON THAT DAY, July 20, 1925,
-Bryan took the stand as a Bible
expert and faced the scowling
Darrow under the elms. He began
with poise-and good humor. But
Darrow had baited his hooks care-
fully and pulled long and hard at
each nibble. Two hours later, Bry-
- U
an was wilted and shaking with
rage. In that time, he had admit-
ted he knew little or nothing of
comparative religion, geology and
physiology.
It was a bitter two hours.
Bryan said Darrow was insult-
ing the people of Tennessee. Dar-
row said, "you insult every man
of science and learning in the
world because he does not believe
in your fool religion."
COURT ADJOURNED soon af-
ter that. The next day Judge
Raulston refused to allow Bryan
to continue and threw out all his
testimony. The questionbefore
the jury was not one of religion,
but of law.
Scopes readily admitted teach-
ing the theory. But Darrow ar-
gued the indictment was invalid
because the lawybanning teach-
ing of the theory violated a sec-
tion of the state constitution.
After lengthy deliberation Judge
Raulston ruled that purely from
a point of law the indictment
was valid.
Darrow abruptly ended his case.
He was now more interested, he
said, in the appeal than the im-
mediate trial.
A JURY OF 11 farmers and a
clerk quickly convicted Scopes. The
judge fined him $100. Later the
Tennessee Supreme Court upheld
Raulston in ruling the law consti-
tutional, but Scopes did not have
to pay the $100 fine.
The court reversed the pen-
alty on the grounds the trial
judge could not assess a fine
of more than $50 in a misdemea-
nor case.
Bryan died five days after the
trial. Darrow died 13 years later.
TODAY John Thomas Scopes
lives in Shreveport, La., with his
wife and two sons, aged 17 and 14,
in a modest residential district.
He is a geologist for a gas com-
pany. Scopes says he is "very sel-
dom" reminded of the evolution
trial, "My friends who know about
it never bring it up in my pres-
ence."
"The primary issue at stake,"
he reminisces, "was could legis-
lation decide what was to be
taught in the schools. But it
turned out to be a clash of two
different lines of thought."
Then the geologist reaffirms his
stand during those turbulent court
days:
"The general public should
have no more right to tell a
teacher what to do in his line
than to tell a priest or anyone
trained in the religious field how
he should lead his flock and
teach the principles of Christ."
Scopes quit teaching after the
trial and went to the University
of Chicago and studied for several
years. Then he worked in South
America for three years, returning
to Chicago for more study.
SIXTY MILES from here, at
South Pittsburgh, Tenn., Judge
Raulston, spry and white-haired at
84, now practices law and writes
a column for a weekly newspaper.
"I don't think our children
should be taught any theory that
would tend to destroy their faith
in the integrity of the Bible,
says Raulston, puttering in his
library 25 years after the trial.
"That was in my heart then and
is there now.
"The trial was a difficult as-
signment for me. The issues were
Lectures on
Cell Begin
Symposium
Physiology and chemistry of the
cell will be discussed at a two-week
symposium which will begin here
at 8 p.m. Monday with a lecture
on "The Cell and its Nucleus" in
the auditorium of the School of
Public Health.
The symposium is under the di-
rection of Prof. D. E. Brown of the
zoology department.
Prof. Daniel Mazia of the Uni-
versity of Missouri will deliver the
first two lectures. He is the author
of Biologic Effects of Radiation
and Protein of Nucleic Acid Chem-
istry.
* * *
THE NEXT TWO lectures will
be given by Prof. M. D. Kamen of
Washington University. Prof. Ka-
men, author of Tracer Methods in
Biology and Biochemistry and
Metabolism in Photosynthesis and
Bacterial Processes, is a chemist
with the Mallinckrodt Institute of
Radiology.
Prof. M. J. Kopac of New York
University will deliver two lec-
tures. He has written Enzymatic
C y t o e h e m i stry, Intracellu-
lar Physiological Solutions and
Isolation of Cytoplasmic Pro-
teins.
Prof. T. M. Sonneborn of the
University of Indiana will give the
last two lectures. He is the author
of Beyond the Gene, Paramecium
in Modern Biology, and The Cyto-
plasm in Heredity.
In addition to the eight lectures
given in this first biological sym-
posium the lecturers will conduct
four technical seminars.
All lectures will be given in the
auditorium of the School of Pub-
lic Health. The seminars are to be
held in the East Lecture Room,
mezzanine, Rackham Bldg.
Symposium
Will Discuss
Plays,_Theatre
Three lectures on drama and the
theatre will be featured in the
graduate speech symposium to be
held this week.
Elden Smith of Bowling Green
State University will speak at 4
p.m. tomorrow on "Practical The-
atre" in the East Conference Room
of the Rackham Building.
Second lectures will be "Inter-
pretation," Prof. Louis M. Eich, of
the speech department at 4 p.m.
Tuesday also in the Rackham East
Conference Room.
Concluding the series will be
Monroe Lippman, president of the
American Educational Theatre As-
sociation and chairman of Tulane
University's Department of
Speech. He will speak on "Protest
Plays-Prewar and Postwar" at 3
p.m. in the Rackham Amphithe-
atre.
These lectures are open to the
public without charge.
Wenrich Will
Lecture Twice
Prof. Ralph C. Wenrich of the
school of education will speak on
"The Contribution of Vocational
Education to the Objectives of
General Education" at 3 p.m. to-
morrow in the University High
School auditorium.
Second lecture in this week's
education series will be given by
Prof. William C. Morse of the
School of Education and Director
of the Fresh Air Camp, at 3 p.m.
Tuesday in the auditorium.
His lecture will be "Relationship
of Therapy and Education."
The lectures are open to the
public without charge.
Money Left for
State History
Comprehensive hi t o r i e s of
Michigan and Michigan education
may become realities under the
will of the president emeritus of
Michigan State Normal College at
Ypsilanti.
John H. Munson, who died June
22, willed $100,00 of his estate to
set up the Munson Michigan His-
tory Fund.
IT IS to be spent by the Mich-
igan Historical Commission for
preparation and free distribution
to colleges and universities of
Michigan of the two volumes, one
on Michigan, the other on Michi-
gan education.
A three-year time limit has been
set to complete the volumes. If
they aren't done by June 22, the
third anniversary of Munson's
death, the money will go into
M U S I C O N T H E R U N-A Bersaglieri band, which trains in double-time, takes off on a
concert through the streets of Milan, Italy, during celebration of its 114th anniversary.
N A V Y D E L I V E k S-A nun shepherds orphans who received gifts from the ship's personnel
and American religious groups during a visit to U. S. cruiser Worcester at Naples. Italy.
ASSOCIATED PRESS'
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W I N G S O V E R A L C A T R A Z-Planes of Fighter Squadron 141 pass in formation over
' Alcatraz Island on patrol of San Francisco Bay area during Marine Corps Reserve training.
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