Seward daily gateway., 1925-07-11
A FOOLISH TRIAL.

The tflal O1 JOnn I. scopes, the
 Tennessee school teacher for viola
 tion of the states anti-evolution law
 is rapidly developing into a farce-a
 farce which can do no good to the
 church members prosecuting Scopes
 and which can prove nothing for or
 against evolution. Ministers of the
 gospel headed by w. J. Bryan have
 gathered at Dayton, Tennessee, to prosecute the aged professor, and as news dispatches state that court open
 ed with prayer and the reading of the
 first chapter of Genesis, there is lit
 tie doubt but that Mr. Scopes will be
 summarily convicted.
 Unfortunately the fact that the ped agog has violated state law is being
 overlooked by the adherents of evo- lution and those who claim that evo- lution and the Bible cannot agree in common upon the origin of man. The Bible declares that Man was made in the image of God, who took one of His creations ribs and fashioned wo- man. Of this there can be no doubt, if we are to believe in the divinity of the Son of Man and take the Bible as our authority for mans origin. But, unfortunately, the Bible has neglected to state the proportions and general Fsh q oct t0,sfe,+ @f unless he has evolved into the pres ent partially civilized state of the pre- sent time, how are we to account for the lower grades, such as the Bush man, the pygmy, the savage and other species of the genus homo. There can be no doubt that the world has ad- vanced considerably since the day that Adam raised his head from the green. sward and regarded the curious creat
 ure at his side. If man is guilty of moral turpitude and criminal intent 1n teaching biology, why is not Luther Burbank more guilty for taking a rose or a plant made by God and transpos- ing it into something else. If the veg etable kingdom has evolved from the lowest depths of fern and swamp grass why not theorize that man also has changed greatly in appearance since he skipped over the greensward in escaping the sabre-tooth tiger and the pterodactyl If the megatherium and the behemoth lived before man was eVoIVed then considerable epoch of time must have elapsed since the ere ator first surveyed his work and called 1t good. If the auroch and the three. toed horse have been modified into present day animals, what might hab- 1tat, food and customs have done to bring man up to radio concerts and jazz bands
 1T we know our Tennessee and we think we do, it is the last state in the union which should attempt to prove of disprove scientific subjects, It should confne it's efforts to prose- cutting the violator of it's laws and shunt William J. Bryan and Clarence Darrow into the arbolados, keeping to the subject in hand. If Prof Scope has been guilty of violating the state laws, convict him. If he has not. free him. If Christianity is pillioried in the Dayton court room, it will be ill for all concerned. It has been found impossible to legislate convictions either into or out of the average mans head, and some of our greatest sci | entists have disagreed with Darwin Ii man was evolved from an ape. we are willing to concede that it was hard on the apes. If he is as he was first created we believe we could take some native spruce and few zeroline cans and put more intelligence into our creation than some jurors exhibit.