Evening star., 1925-07-17
SCOPES LAWYERS
! REAL DEFENDANTS
Teacher Lost to Sight While
State AssailS Rival
Counsel.
BY ROBERT T. SMALL.

BY ROBERT T. SMALL.
DAYTON, Tenn. July 1.-THE
country has been misled by this eVo-
luton case. There is only nominal
prisoner at the bar-one Scopes. The
real men on trial are:
Clarence Darrow of Chicago.
Dudley Field Malone of New York.
Arthur Garfield Hays of New York.
One would be inclined to add the
fourth member of defense counsel,
Judge John Randolph Neal of Rhea
County, to the list of defendants, but
the home folks just seem to think that
he has fallen into bad company and
is more to be pitied than censured.
Judge Neal insists, however, that he
IS just as black-hearted an evolution
ist as any of the rest of them and
wants to sink or swim with his
brother lawyers.
Scopes Lost to Sight.
Scopes was lost sight of a long time
ago. Even Judge Raulston had TO
count "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo
yesterday to find if he was in the
courtroom.
The prosecution for days has been
whaling the life out of Darrow, Ma
lone and HayS-their views, their be-
liefs, their, modes of life, the things
they have done and the things they
have left undone, until all the coun-
tryside is convinced there is no health
IN the trio and that they ought 10 De
placed in jail for the good or the
public morals and religions. scarcely
q word has been spoken OF Scopes.
occasionally his name creeps in, but
when 1t does every one in the court
room appears puzzled and concerned.
William Jennings Bryan has point
ed the finger of scorn and hatred
at Clarence Darrow and has pllloried
him before the citizenry of Rhea
County as the defender OF Leopold
and Loeb in one of "the most das-
tardly crimes ever committed in the
United States" He has accused Oar
row of being one of those to deny
the virgin birth of Christ, to scoff
at all of the miracles of the Bible.
Darrow and his likes would send the
children of the country home from
their schools skeptical, inf1dels, agnos'
tics and atheists.
Defense Is Tainted.
other members of the prosecution
have taunted the lawyers from Chi
cago and New York. have by implica-
ton accused them Of wanting to cor
rupt the State of Tennessee and all
its people. The lawyers have been
herded in the prisoners dock. Their
deeds and misdeeds have been spread
into the records of the trial and sent
broadcast by radio through all the
length and breadth of the land.
And so now the people hereabouts
will listen to the verdict, not with
any regard to the effect 1t may or
may not have upon the fate and fu-
ture of one John Thomas Scopes, but
as to whether or not the foreign
LAWYERS" for the defense have been
able to get away with their fell doc
trines and shocking beliefs.
Darrow, Malone and Hays Will be
"guilty" or mot guilty" as the II
good men and true may decide when
eventually. IL ever, the case reaches
their hands. One was inclined to
believe a day or two ago that there
might not be q gibbet in east Tennes-
see high enough for the daring Oar
rpw, the mellifuous Malone and the
hard hearted Hays, but that spon-
taneous outburst in the courtroom
which greeted Malone at the conclu-
sion of his impassioned plea for the
light that biblicial students, scientists
and physicians might throw upon the
troubled case has been accepted as
at least an amelioration, if not re-
vulsion, of public sentiment.
Defense Is Skillful.
The defense has been skillful in its
fnaneuvering to put Mr.. Bryan and
the state in the position of fight
ing to shut out all efforts TO show
that a man may be an eVoluuonlSt
and still have abiding faith in the
Holy Scriptures. This narrow view
has not appealed deeply to the spirit
So; NI-hi iS a
here as in any other part of the land
and that perhaps is why the long ex-
pected eXhortation from Mr.. Bryan
seemed to fall so very fiat and why
the applause and the shouts of ap-
proyal which he had had every right
to expect went instead to Malone
who followed in the wake of the one
time boy orator of the Platte. Mr.
Bryan had been expected by the Day
ton popuface to nail the hated coun-
sci for the defense TO the cross, To
scar them in the Scourging flames OF
his forensic fire.
But Mr.. Bryan, it has been evident
since the very beginning of the trial,
has not been at ease or at his best.
The courtroom is not his forum. He
has found it virtually impossible to
address the court and say Your
honor" Instead he has turned to the
crowd and said my friends" Mr..
Bryan has been % years away from
the law; for 2S years he has been on
the Hastings, on the Chautauqua
platform and in the pulpit For all
these many years Mr.. Bryan has
known how to best the hecklers in an
audience or national convention,
but the barbed wits of the opposing
lawyers in this case have bitten
home. have found him all but de-
fenseless, as prizefghter too tired
and distressed to raise his guard
against ceaseless attack.
Advance Speech Hurts.
Mr.. Bryan's position has been made
all the more difficult because of the
fact that before the trial started he
asserted in a public speech that this
was to be a duel to the death between
the forces of evil and the forces of
good. Even in the courtroom itself
he has characterized the trial as a
struggle between religion and ire.
ligion-"Issue between the unbeliever
and the revealed word of God" And