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TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century
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TIME, Almanac of the 20th Century.ISO
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1920
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20nat.5
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1994-02-27
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<text>
<title>
(1920s) Scopes Trial
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1920s Highlights
</history>
<link 04597>
<link 00024><article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
Scopes Trial
</hdr>
<body>
<p> [The 20th century had already proved to be a losing contest
between faith and science with the ascendancy of Einstein's
theory of relativity. Not just time and space but all things--even values--somehow became unanchored as basic givens
were challenged. The theories of Sigmund Freud, which made
mankind out to be in the sway of uncontrollable psychological
urges, led people to question even the most fundamental tenets.
But the Darwinian theory of evolution, which appeared to
undermine the very bedrock of the Bible and its account of the
creation of the universe, was too much for many Americans. The
state of Tennessee, for one, passed a law making it a crime to
teach evolution in the public schools, and in 1925 one John
Scopes was duly indicted for doing it anyway.
</p>
<p> It was the trial of the decade, with the waning William
Jennings Bryan (who died while the case was being argued)
undergirding the prosecution in support of traditional values,
and Clarence Darrow, wily trial lawyer, heading Scopes's
defense.]
</p>
<p>(JULY 20, 1925)
</p>
<p> About 8 o'clock, dusty wagons, gigs, buggies and small
automobiles come jogging in along the country roads. In them are
gaunt farmers, their wives in gingham and children in overalls,
who crowd toward the court house to get seats for the day's
proceedings in the trial of Teacher John Thomas Scopes, alleged
violator of the state's anti-evolution law, bewildered
instrument of Science and Faith which have accidentally chosen
Dayton as their battleground and in whose wake has come the
usual camp-following of freaks, fakes, mountebanks and parasites
of publicity.
</p>
<p> Such was the scene. Two days before the trial, Lawyer William
Jennings Bryan, chief of the prosecution, lumbered off a train
from Florida. The populace, Bryan's to a moron, yowled a
welcome. Going to the house he had rented, Bryan took off his
coat, wandered the streets in his shirt sleeves, a panoramic
smile of blessing upon his perspiring countenance, and
impressive pith helmet covering the bald, pink dome of his head.
</p>
<p> Slouching Lawyer Darrow, defense counsel, arrived. Finding shy
young Scopes in the crowed, asked Darrow: "Is Bryan here? Is he
all right? It would be very painful to me to hear that he had
fallen a victim to synthetic sin." Fumbling his soiled lavender
galluses, slowly masticating a quid of tobacco, Darrow squinted
across at Lawyer Bryan, rather voluptuous in a black mohair
suit, surrounded by assistant counsel.
</p>
<p>(JULY 27, 1925)
</p>
<p> Maintaining that the farmer-jurors, admittedly unfamiliar with
the theory of Evolution, were unfit to decide whether or not it
"denies Genesis" until they had heard an explanation of the
theory, the defense sought to put scientific experts on the
stand for the farmer-jurors' instruction. At once the
prosecution objected. The jurors, who had so far spent most of
their time wandering around outside the court house, trying to
avoid hearing the loud-spoken radio echoes of arguments within
the court over what was and was not fitting for them to hear,
were again banished from the scene.
</p>
<p> William Jennings Bryan, grim, impassioned, breaking a silence
of four and a half days with theatrical effect: "The people of
this state passed this law, the people of this state knew what
they were doing...The moment that law became a law anything in
these books (indicating the Biology text used by Teacher Scopes)
contrary to that law was prohibited...The facts are simple,
the case is plain, and if these gentlemen (counsel for the
defense) want to enter upon a larger field of educational work
on the subject of Evolution, let us get through with this case
and then convene a mock court, for it will deserve the title of
mock court if its purpose is to banish from the hearts of the
people the Word of God as revealed."
</p>
<p> After drowsing through these speeches, His Honor held with
Lawyer Bryan that the only question before the court was to
decide whether Teacher Scopes had taught Evolution.
</p>
<p> The afternoon's session was held out-of-doors and a great
crowd gathered. A treat was had by all. Mr. Darrow called the
opposing counsel Mr. Bryan as a witness to prove that the Bible
need not be taken literally, questioned him about Jonah and the
whale, Joshua and the Sun, whence Mrs. Cain, the Deluge, the
Tower of Babel. Mr. Darrow bellowed his purpose to "show up
Fundamentalism, to prevent bigots and ignoramuses from
controlling education in the U.S." Mr. Bryan shook his fist,
roared back his purpose "to protect the Word of God from the
greatest atheist and agnostic in the United States."
</p>
<p>(AUGUST 3, 1925)
</p>
<p> The pens and tongues of contumely were arrested. Mocking
mouths were shut. Even righteous protestation hushed its clamor,
as when, having striven manfully in single combat, a high-helmed
champion is stricken by Jove's bolt and the two snarling armies
stand at sudden gaze, astonished and bereft a moment of their
rancor.
</p>
<p> The death of William Jennings Bryan furnished Tennessee's
anti-Evolution case with a climax. In the trial itself there
remained nothing but the bald testimony of two schoolboys that
Scopes had "taught Evolution." Though the trial lasted a
fortnight, costing over $25,000, the schoolboys' testimony was
practically all the farmer-jurors were permitted to hear in the
courtroom. It alone constituted the basis for their verdict of
"Guilty." </p>
</body>
</article>
</text>