Evening star., 1925-09-20
BRYANSLAST PLEA
SCORED BY MALONE
Must All Minds Conform to
Limits of Few Leaders?
He Asks Unitarians.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LEMON, Mass.,a September 19.-
Dudley Field Malone of counsel fol
John T. Scopes in the Tennessee
evolution trial, in an address today
before the national convention of lay
men of the Unitarian Church OF
America, replied to the last speech OF
William Jennings Bryan, published
after his death. He asserted that the
psychology of fear which crucitied
Jesus, banished Galileo, murdered
Bruno and burned Jeanne d'Arc-the
fear of political theology to test Its
power by the truth-today again ami
mates a movement, which is menace
TO the internal peace of our country
I'm a scientific age" he said, I'VE
face once more the attempt to test the
truths of science by the judgments OF
the prophets, who believed the earth
was fiat, and to limit knowledge to the
ignorance and the pronouncemento of a
legislative ma jority." He urged clergy
and laymen of progressive Christian.
ity and enlightened people to band to-
gether for academic and religious
freedom. BE vigilant and warn our
countrymen their shrines are in dan
GER he said.
Lament His Death.
OF Mr.. Bryan's death, Mr.. Malone
said: In common with all decent
citizens | lament the abrupt tragedy
OF his going. And like all men his
motives We're mixed 1t is al
ways wise for a man to attribute nc
less worthy motives to an opponent
than are his own. And for the mo-
tives of good and beauty in his life
l, l,o1.I To-, na
lection by his countrymen.
If death had come to any of John
Scopes defenders, might there not
have been those to say that our going
vas an act of God? But, lacking
that insight into the ways of the AL
mighty. claimed exclusively by the
literalists, 1 know only that Mr.
Bryan's death removed the ablest
leader from the most sinister move
ment in the United States.
Mr.. Bryan is dead, but the error
of his. last plea, the danger of good
Will among our citizens of all creeds
and the threat of combination be-
tween church and State must be
bravely met by men and women who
value religious and academic free
dom"
Religious Freedom Issue.
THE issue at Dayton" Mr. Malone
said. was not fundamentalisn
against modernism; 1t was not faith
against agnosticism; 1t was not sci
ence against religion. The Issue was
and is this: Shall the constitutional
guaranty of religious freedom and
complete separation of church and
State, inspired by Jefferson. fought fol-
by Madison and written into funda
mental law, be violated or narrowed
nv craad tbiplyipO RI Wrira itS
scheme of salvation into law or by
any legislative majority seeking the
votes of a litera1iSt constituency?
OF the Tennessee anti-evolution
law Mr.. Malone said: $50 we meet
the fact that a literal Interpretation OF
the book of Genesis, a religious opin
ion of a small group of the Christian
church, has been established by law
as a standard of what shall be taught
in a course of science. The defense
maintained at Dayton-and we shall
maintain 1t on appeals that this
law Is in violation of the religious
guarantees of the Constitution of Ten
nessee and the Constitution of the
United States.
There was the same conflict of
opinion and philosophy at Dayton,
he said, las existed between those
who advocated and those who op.
posed the peoples religious freedom
at the beginning Of the republic.
Right to Learn.
The defense, he said. insists that
the right of a teacher to teach his
subject and to teach it completely
and the right of a minority to learn
the accepted facts and theories of sci
ence without having knowledge meas
ured by the religious opinions of the
majority, are rights well within the
protection of our constitutional guar.
antees."
The Tennessee law was not dictat
ed by the fundamentalistS, Mr.. Ma
lone said, for there are millions OF
fundamentalists of all creeds who do
not believe in a literal Interpretation
of the Old Testament"
This law" he charged. "is the re-
suit of a combination of creed and
politics led by the most ignorant of
the clergy and in combination with
narrow partisans who have more fear
of votes than Of God"
He asserted that "the great news.
papers, the universities, thoughtful
men and women and the youth of the
new South just risen from the hates
and horrors of the Civil War stand
amazed at this law
Compares Effect.
Mr.. Malone asked: "Shall we judge
the value of evolution by the effect it
may have had on the mind of a Loeb
or Leopold, tainted with insanity, or
shall we judge the value of evolution
by the stimulus it has given to Scien-
lists, teachers and countless thousands
Of normal students who have been in
spired to research and study in their
struggle to give a deeper meaning to
life and immortality? Be
cause the tortured insane need strait.
jackets, must every healthy member
os the state be compelled by law to
wear one? And because the minds OF
some leaders can get a mental grasp
of only q few subjects, shall the rest
of us be limited by law to the stand
ards of their mental capacity?"
The leaders of this movement" he
said, ARE not trying to protect the
faith of the young; they are trying tC
impose by law their peculiar religious
faith upon our system of education.
Faith comes from within and can
not be imposed from without by creed
or law. The literaliSts are
wrong-we would not tear the stars
from the skies nor faith from the
hearts of the young. We
would speak our faith through the
old and existing creeds, but in the
terms of this age made glorious by
the works of science.
Science Adaptable.
Theories change and scientists
gladly change their views to meet the
growing knowledge. Science changes
To meet the facts of constantly reveal
ing truth. Science does not live like
liberalism, by denial, but by adapting
itself to knowledge gained through the
development of mans intellect"
Mr. Malone said he was proud to
discuss the issues raised in Tennessee