The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-11
EVOLUTION BOBS UP

are shooting at, and are just as apt to shoot a valuable OK in the corral as bear entering the fold. Education and study of the theory of evolution is a searchlight turned upon the mys- teries of the universe. For those who prefer ignorance and intellectual dark ness instead of the light of truth as based on facts and experiment, the bill is all right; but for the great ma jority of students who desire the free and untrammeled right to pursue their studies into every field of natural science, the bill is denial of every mans intellectual privilege to search out and discover truth wherever it may be hidden.
 Of course, the legislators who favor the measure very likely suppose that evolution teaches that man descended from monkeys, or some such gibberish as that. Evolution never did teach that, as so many have patiently tried to explain to other legislatures simi- larly misled. It does teach that man has ascended in the scale of intelli- gence and has greatly modified his habits of life, and that aboriginal man was a much inferior creature to the man of today. There has been SUD- position that from the line of primates the monkey early branched off on a declining plane, and man developed along an ascending plane. Even Oar win, however, admitted that this theory was sustained only by analogy, and that there was missing link" with out the discovery of which the theory would never be complete. So far man is safe from any proved kinship with an ancestry identical with that of the apes. This sort of honesty among scientists should be encouraged and not discouraged.
 But the theory of evolution is far broader than the mere ancestry and development of man. It applies to all the plant and animal kingdom. The established principles of evolution are constantly put to practical use in de- veloping new varieties of fruit, grain, cotton, vegetables, grasses, livestock and the like. Luther Burbank, the great plant wizard, would never have been able to produce his wonderful plant triumphs if he had been re- strained by such bill as that pro- posed at Montgomery. No fruit grower would have his present splen- did varieties by which the principles of evolution have been tested in all most every pertinent detail Corn now has the staminate flowers in the tassel and the pistillate flowers half way down the stalk, but it is possible to breed corn into another type in which both staminate and pistillate blossoms are in the tassel and the grain natures in the tassel. It is pos sible to carry corn back to a point where each grain in the tassel is wrapped in a separate husk. It is pos sible also to produce, from the same beginning, type in which the ear occurs halfway down the stalk with each grain wrapped in separate husk. It is possible to produce stalks some of which bear only tassels with staminate blossoms and others of which bear only pistillate blossoms and produce corn in the ear halfway of the stalk but having no tassel bloom. The last-named stalk will not produce ears unless it is fertilized from pollen borne by the stalk with the tassel. There are other types go- ing clear back to the true grasses. which have been purposely produced directly from Indian corn as we now know it, and from which Indian corn sprang and developed through evolu- tion ages ago.
 What is true of plants is true in modified degree of animals. Were it not for the practical application of the fundamental principles of evolution, SSPSNAoiy lHc pIiHSlpic Ol eoclcCllNe mating, we should have none of our modern most highly developed live stock of all kinds. For those who be- lieve that the principles are contra dictory to Biblical teachings, let them remember the ringstreaked, specklei and spotted cattle which Jacob pro, duced at will, because of his under standing of certain principles of se- lection and mating to produce certain desired results. That was based on evolution, only Jacob did not so call it.
 The best answer to those who de- ride and oppose the theory of evolu- ton is to bid them go and find out what it is. It is all about them, if they but have eyes to see. As for for bidding by law the teaching of evolu- tion, it cannot be done, unless the colleges are closed up tight and men of open minds are absolutely prohib- tied from assembling together as many as two in one place. Let the legisla- tors beware lest they convict them selves of ignorance and folly in the sight of all men.