The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-02
Monkeys and Monkeyettes

The committee on education of the Georgia
house of Representatives has favoraby reported on
a bill barring the use Of state funds from any
educational institution which acquants its pupils
with the Darwinian or any other theory of evolu-
ton. A similar law has already been passed by
the Kentucky legislature.
One of the Georgia representatives in reporting
for the committee declared the theory of evolution
''rotten stuff" Another gentleman threw fit over
the suggestion that he was descended from mon
key and said that if he was, it was not his fault
and would repudiate his ancestors.
Still another solon blamed the Franks murder
on the kind of education received by the Loeb
Leopold boys. They did not receive sufficient
religious instruction.
OF course Darwin never claimed that man was
descended from the monkey. But if such were the
case the monkey and not the members of the
Georgia legislature would have reason to kick.
When the Catholic church was allpowerful and
made and unmade kings, it was a crime punish
able by death to doubt the theory, sanctioned by
the church, that man was created by God and
woman out of rib taken out of Adam, the al
legged first man. Those having the courage to doubt
the Pope's word found themselves in Jail, on the
gibbet or on the rack Yet in spite of all the forces
of darkness and reaction, society man progressed
intellectually until today only comparatively few
accept the rib theory of the origin of man, and
the Darwinian theory tho not accepted as solu-
ton of the riddle of the universe is given respected
consideration in every reputable school.
The attempt to blame the Franks murder on
lack of religious training shows a blindness to
facts that none but fanatics could be guilty of.
lDisregarding wars where millions are murdered in
the name of God and religion, statistics prove that
the great majority of crimes against human life
have been committed by persons with religious af
fiations In many instances the criminals claimed
divine sanctions for the murder. The crimes of
clergymen have cluttered the front pages of the
newspapers for several years. And the South, in
which the brightest gem is Georgia, has at least
held its own in the figures dealing with crime
particularly sex perversion. Darwinism surely
cannot be blamed for the murder, rape and lynch
ing cases that have disgraced the South.
| Darwnism is not to blame for the LeopoldLoel
crime. The educational opportunities received by
them are not responsible. But the rotten, cor
rupt unjust socialist system which distributes its
wealth in such manner that few at the TOT
become perverted with excess while the millions
at the bottom are reduced to physical and menta
wrecks thru want, is the cause of crime, and only
when the exploiting capitalist system is done
away with and Communism established in its
place can the human race begin in real earnes
to tackle the many serious problems that are ig
nored in the hurry to accumulate wealth at the
expense of the producers Morons of the type tha
hold forth in the Georgia legislature obstacles
on the road to progress. Evolution has passed
| them by, but revolution will not