The Ocala evening star., 1922-03-21
SELECTING GOATS BY DOGM \

The Miami Herald quietly and
moderately discusses Mr.. Bryan's at
tack on evolution as follows:
The campaign which William Jen-
nings Bryan is conducting in opposi-
ton to the teaching of certain scien-
| tifc theories is attracting wide atten-
ton, as might be expected, and is
producing a variety of reactions
among those who have heard his ad-
dresses, delivered wherever he finds
opportunity to speak. The attitude of
the press has ranged from a mildly
| amused expression of wonder that
the issue of Darwinism should be
brought up at all to really serious
which are present in the Bryan cru
sade.
/. The religious press, at least that
part of it which commands the atten-
ton of thinking religious leaders, is
almost unit in condemning the dec
larations which Mr.. Bryan is making
in his speeches as we'll as in his re-
Gently published book. This is true
not only of the papers which hold to
the more progressive viewpoint with
reference to the Bible, but even of
the conservative journals which in
cline toward Mr.. Bryan's views re-
garding the evolutionary theory.
The objection which is made is not
1 to the holding of these views, nor
even to teaching them, but to the in
sistence which marks all of Mr.. Bry-
ans utterances, that anyone who diff
fers with him marks himself at once
an unbeliever in the fundamentals of
religion. The religious journals in
sist that no man has a right to divide
the people, en- masse, into sheep and
goats on the basis Of any dogma. This
is a thing which, in the earnestness of
his own feeling on the matter, Mr.
Bryan is many times guilty of doing
The statement has been made by
him, for example, that he has never
known an honest evolutionist-what
ever he may mean by that. He de-
clares with great vigor that those who
hold to modern views are not success
full in winning people to the service OF
Jesus Christ. He recently relegated
. to the category of atheist President
Birge of Wisconsin University, be-
cause the latter is an evolutionist
overlooking the fact that President
Birge is at the same time a devout
and faithful member of the orthodox
church.
Through some strange menta
twist it seems utterly impossible fol
Mr.. Bryan to conceive of the posi-
bility that a person can believe in {
creative God who has used any othel
method of creation than that of which
Mr.. Bryan thinks is described in the
first chapter of Genesis. 1t seems tt
be impossible for him to see that {
:, person might question whether Coo
. had inspired by actual dictation tbs
placing of every dot and the crossing
of every "t" in the King James yer
sion of the Bible, and might at th'
same time believe profoundly in th'
Bible as an inspired guide for hu
manity in its religious life. It is thi
attitude which has aroused the relig
ious press to declare that churchmel
must not be set upon as atheists anC
with the reactionary view of tn
Bible and with the unscientific viev
. of science.
The possible effect of this sort o
teaching by so able a pleader as Nh
Bryan is suggested in an editoria
published in the Congregationalist,
rather conservative weekly publishe
in Boston, in which the editor says:
"Dispatches from Philadelphia re
garding a recent address indicate tha
Mr.. W. J. Bryan is still displaying a
his chief ware ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ed-out monkey jokes at the expens
of the evolutionists. 1t is a gain, an
probably an indication of great Pre-
gress in the world, that the pionee
of new truth. or of what he deem
new truth, is met today with jibe
and shafts of humor where he wa
once met with scaffolds, chains an
dungeons. Unless, however, Mr.. Bry
{ an has a new ambition to beconl
Americas chief humorist, it is tim
that he and his friends realized tha
the said jibes and shafts have as Ii