Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
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57 “Big Crowd Watches Trial Under Trees,” New York Times, 21 July 1925, p. I.
58 Ralph Perry, “Added Thrill Given Dayton,” Nashville Banner, 21 July I925, p. 2.
59 Darrow, My Life, 267.
60 Transcript, 285.
61 Transcript, 302.
62 Hays, Let Freedom Ring, 77.
63 Scopes, Center of the Storm, 178.
64 Transcript, 302.
65 “Bryan, Made Witness in Open Air Court,” 1.
66 Transcript, 299.
67 Transcript, 304.
68 Ralph Perry, “Added Thrill Given Dayton,” Nashville Banner, 21 July 1925, p. 2.
69 Sterling Tracy, “Darrow Quizzes Bryan; Agnosticism in Clash with Fundamentalism,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 21 July 1925, p. 1.
70 Clarence Darrow to H. L. Mencken, 15 August 1925, in H. L. Mencken Collection, New York Public Library, NY.
71 Transcript, 305.
72 Transcript, 306-8.
73 Transcript, 311—12.
74 Corinne Rich, “Jurors Know Least About Scopes Trial,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 22 July 1925, p. 1.
75 “Scopes Fined $100,” Chattanooga Times, 22 July 1925, p. 1.
76 Sterling Tracy, “Scopes Is Convicted; Draws $100 Fine for Teaching Evolution,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 22 July 1925, p. 1.
77 Transcript, 316-17.
CHAPTER EIGHT. THE END OF AN ERA
1 Lawrence W. Levine, Defender of the Faith: William Jennings Bryan, The Last Decade, 1915—1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 355.
2 “Commoner Propounds 9 Specific Questions to Chicago Attorney,” Knoxville Journal, 22 July 1925, p. 8.
3 “Dayton Hears Parting Shots,” Nashville Banner, 22 July 1925, p. 4.
4 “Bryan Doesn’t Claim ‘To Know Everything’; He Replies to Foes,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 23 July 1925, p. 1.
5 Transcript, 338. (Bryan’s unused closing argument was printed as a supplement in the unofficial published version of the trial transcript.)
6 George F. Milton, “A Dayton Postscript,” Outlook 140 (1925), 552. For a similar comment, see Milton’s editorial, “Disgraceful Performance,” Chattanooga News, 21 July 1925, p. 8.
7 Ray Ginger, Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (London : Oxford University Press, 1958), 192; “Bryan Satisfied with His Recent Crusades,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 23 July 1925, p. 3.
8 Grace Dexter Bryan to Judge Sue Hicks, 12 April 1940, in Hicks Papers.
9 William Jennings Bryan and Mary Baird Bryan, The Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan (Philadelphia: United, 1925), 485-86.
10 Transcript, 339.
11 Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense (New York: Doubleday, 1941), 464; Joseph Wood Krutch, “The Great Monkey Trial,” Commentary (May 1967), 84; Robert D. Linder, “Fifty Years After Scopes: Lessons to Learn, a Heritage to Reclaim,” Christianity Today, 18 July 1975, p. 9.
12 Arthur Garfield Hays, Let Freedom Ring (New York: Liveright, 1928), 79-80. i13. “Dayton Snap Shots,” Nashville Banner, 12 July 1925, p. 8.
14 “Dayton Back to Earth,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 23 July 1925, p. 2; “Dayton’s Subsidence,” Nashville Banner, 22 July 1925, p. 8; John T. Scopes, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes (New York: Holt, 1967), 191-95.
15 Scopes, Center of the Storm, 194, 206-7.
16 Russell D. Owen, “The Significance of the Scopes Trial,” Current History 22 (1925), 875.
17 Herbert E. Hicks to Ira Evans Hicks, 22 July 1925, in Hicks Papers; “Malone Talks at Follies,” New York Times, 24 July 1925, p. 13; Arthur Garfield Hays, “The Strategy of the Scopes Defense,” The Nation, 5 August 1925, p. 158.
18 H. L. Mencken, “The Monkey Trial: A Reporter’s Account,” in Jerry D. Tompkins, ed., D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965), 51 (reprint of 18 July 1925 article); “Says Evolution Laws Will Become General,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 23 July 1925, p. 4.
19 Ralph Perry, “Both Won in Scopes Hearing,” Nashville Banner, 22 July 1925, p. 1.
20 T. W. Callaway, “Think Darrow Met His Match,” Chattanooga Times, 22 July 1925, p. 2; W. S. Keese, “Declares Bryan Shorn of Strength,” Chattanooga Times, 22 July 1925, p. 2.
21 “Real Religion and Real Science,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 26 July 1925, sec. 1, p. 4.
22 Frank R. Kent, “On the Dayton Firing Line,” The New Republic 43 (1925), 259.
23 “Ended at Last,” New York Times, 22 July 1925, p. 18; “As Expected, Bryan Wins,” Chicago Tribune, 22 July 1925, p. 8.
24 “Dayton’s ‘Amazing’ Trial,” Literary Digest, 25 July 1925, p. 7.
25 “2,000,000 Words Wired to the Press,” New York Times, 22 July 1925, p. 22; “The End in Sight at Dayton,” New York Times, 18 July 1925, p. 12; Transcript, 316.
26 Howard W. Odum, “Duel to the Death,” Social Forces 4 (1925), 190.
27 “His Death Dramatic,” New York World, 27 July 1925, p. 16.
28 Scopes, Center of the Storm, 203; G. W. Rappleyea to Forrest Bailey, 7 August 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274; Austin Peay, “The Passing of William Jennings Bryan,” in Austin Peay, A Collection of State Papers and Political Addresses (Kingsport, TN: Southern, 1929), 450.
29 “Comment of Press of Nation on Bryan’s Death,” New York Times, 27 July 1925, p. 2.
30 Charles O. Oaks, “Death of William Jennings Bryan,” in Norm Cohen, “Scopes and Evolution in Hillbilly Songs,” JEMF Quarterly 6 (1970), 176; W. B. Riley, “Bryan: The Great Commoner and Christian,” Christian Fundamentals in School and Church 7 (October 1925), 9, 11.
31 “Evolution Issue in Congress, Forecast,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 30 July 1925, p. 1.
32 “Mississippi May Ban Theory of Evolution,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 31 July 1925, p. 1; “Tennessee Man Attacks Evolution,” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson), 9 February 1926, p. 3.
33 Frank R. Kent, “On the Dayton Firing Line,” The New Republic 43 (1925), 260; “Dr. John Roach Straton Challenges Darrow,” Johnstown Democrat, 20 August 1925, p. 16; Riley, “Bryan: The Great Commoner and Christian,” 11. About the same time, J. Frank Norris compared Bryan standing against Darrow to “Moses challenging Pharaoh” and “Martin Luther hurling his thesis [sic] at Pope Leo X. It is the greatest battle of the centuries.” See James J. Thompson, Jr., Trial as by Fire: Southern Baptists and the Religious Controversies of the 1920s (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1982), 132.
34 Cohen, “Scopes and Evolution in Hillbilly Songs,” 176—81; “Demand for Special Record,” Talking Machine World (15 September 1925), 83; see also Mel R. Wilhoit, “Music of the Scopes Monkey Trial,” typescript, Bryan College Music Department, Dayton, Tennessee, 1995. The country music classic, “A Boy Named Sue,” a distant cousin of these Scopes songs, was inspired by the Scopes prosecutor Sue Hicks. Juanita Glenn, “Judge Still Recalls ‘Monkey Trial’—50 Years Later,” Knoxville Journal, 11 July 1975, 17.
35 H. L. Mencken, “Editorial,” American Mercury 6 (1925), 159.
36 Ronald L. Numbers, “The Scopes Trial: History and Legend,” Southern Culture (forthcoming); “Dayton and After,” Nation 121 (1925), 155-56; Mencken, “Editorial,” 160; Maynard Shipley, The War on Modern Science (New York: Knopf, 1927), 3—4.
37 “Darrow’s Blunder,” New York World, 23 July 1925, p. 18; “Darrow Betrayed Himself,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 23 July 1925, p. 8.
38 “The Scopes Case Counsel,” Religious Weekly Review, 27 June 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 276; Brower Eddy to John R. Neal, 10 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274; Edwin Mims, “Modern Education and Religion,” 6, in Mims Papers; Raymond B. Fosdick to Roger N. Baldwin, 19 October 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274; Roger N. Baldwin to Raymond B. Fosdick, 21 October 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274.
39 ACLU Executive Committee, “Minutes,” 3 August 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 279; Forrest Bailey to Clarence Darrow, 2 September 19
25, in ACLU Archives, vol. 275 (quoting from earlier letter to Neal); Rappleyea to Bailey, 7 August 1925.
40 Forrest Bailey to Charles H. Strong, 12 August 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274 (similar letters in same volume); “The Conduct of the Scopes Trial,” The New Republic 43 (1925), 332.
41 Bailey to Darrow, 2 September 1925; Clarence Darrow to Forrest Bailey, 4 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274.
42 Forrest Bailey to Walter Nelles, 4 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274; “Mr Hughes and the Tennessee Law,” New York World, 3 September 1925, p. 8; Arthur Garfield Hays to Walter Nelles, 9 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274; Walter Nelles to Arthur Garfield Hays, 10 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274.
43 Transcript, 288; Mencken, “Monkey Trial,” 51 (reprint of 18 July 1925 article) ; Joseph Wood Krutch, “Darrow vs. Bryan,” Nation, 29 July 1925, p. 136; Maynard M. Metcalf et al. to Michael I. Pupin, 17 August 1925, in Darrow Papers.
44 Forrest Bailey to John T. Scopes c/o Clarence Darrow, 29 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274.
45 Clarence Darrow to Forrest Bailey, 10 February 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Forrest Bailey to Franklin Reynolds, 23 December 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274. For an example of local attorneys handling matters, see Franklin Reynolds to Forrest Bailey, 10 December 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274.
46 See, e.g., Forrest Bailey to Walter Nelles, 4 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274; Forrest Bailey to Frank H. O‘Brien, 3 December 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274.
47 K. T. McConnico to Charles L. Cornelius, 16 September 1926, in Peay Papers, GP 40—24.
48 Austin Peay to Samuel Untermyer, 19 September 1925, in Peay Papers, GP 40-24.
49 “Condensed Minutes of Annual Meeting,” Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Sciences 1 (1925), 9; Wilson L. Newman to Austin Peay, 5 December 1925, in Peay Papers, GP 40-13.
50 For the correspondence to Peay on this matter, see Peay Papers, GP 40—13, which also includes a Nashville Banner article summarizing the letters. For the ACLU offer to support a challenge to the Mississippi law, see American Civil Liberties Union, “Press Service,” 20 March 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299.
51 George F. Milton to Austin Peay, 8 August 1925, in Peay Papers, GP 40—24; Franklin Reynolds to Forrest Bailey, 18 March 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; John T. Scopes to Roger N. Baldwin, 8 August 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299.
52 Forrest Bailey to Arthur Garfield Hays, 5 January 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Forrest Bailey to Robert S. Keebler, 5 January 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Arthur Garfield Hays to Forrest Bailey, 6 January 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Robert S. Keebler to Forrest Bailey, 9 February 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Arthur Garfield Hays to Walter Nelles, 9 September 1925, in ACLU Archives, vol. 274. Bailey miscounted the number of Tennessee and non-Tennessee lawyers on the defense brief. There were five “foreigners” (Darrow, Malone, Hays, Rosensohl, and the ACLU attorney Walter H. Pollak), and four “natives” (Neal, Keebler, Spurlock, and a local attorney named Frank McElwee, who had advised the defense throughout the trial and appeal).
53 John Randolph Neal to Forrest Bailey, 15 February 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299.
54 “Reply Brief and Argument for the State of Tennessee,” State v. Scopes, 154 Tenn. 105 (1926), pp. 14, 78-80, 380 (emphasis in original).
55 “Brief and Argument of the Tennessee Academy of Sciences as Amicus Curiae,” Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105 (1926), pp. 16, 90, 154.
56 “World Awaits Scopes Hearing Here Monday,” Nashville Banner, 30 May 1926, p. 1; “State Defends Anti-Evolution Law,” Knoxville Journal, 1 June I926, p. I.
57 “Supreme Court Hears Scopes Case,” Nashville Banner, 31 May 1926, p. 1.
58 Ibid.; “Anti-Evolution Law Called ‘Capricious’,” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 1 June 1926, p. 1.
59 “Supreme Court Hears Scopes Case,” 1.
60 William Hutchinson, “Darrow Makes Fervid Plea,” Nashville Banner, 1 June 1926, p. 1.
61 “Scopes Case Rests in Hands of State’s Highest Tribunal,” Knoxville Journal, 2 June 1926, p. 1; “Darrow and McConnico Speak in Scopes Case,” Nashville Banner, 1 June 1926, p. 1.
62 Ibid.; “Darrow Declares Science as Real as Religion,” Chattanooga Times, 2 June 1926, p. 1.
63 “Argument of Clarence Darrow,” Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105 (1926), pp. 17, 26-28, in Darrow Papers; Hutchinson, “Darrow Makes Fervid Plea,” 1; Hays, Let Freedom Ring, 80.
64 Hays, Let Freedom Ring, 80; “Religious Issue Flares in Scopes Case Pleas,” Chattanooga Times, 1 June 1926, p. 1; “Scopes Case,” 1 (Associated Press wire story).
65 Forrest Bailey to Clarence Darrow, 3 June 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Clarence Darrow to Forrest Bailey, 9 June 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Roger N. Baldwin to John T. Scopes, 10 August 1926, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299; Wolcott H. Pitkin to Felix Frankfurter, in ACLU Archives, vol. 299.
66 Scopes, Center of the Storm, 237.
67 Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105, 289 S.W. at 363, 364, 367, 370 (1927).
68 Ibid., 289 S.W. at 367.
69 “Scopes Goes Free, but Law Is Upheld,” New York Times, 16 January 1927, p. 1; “Will Ask Court to Rehear Case,” Nashville Banner, 17 January 1927, p. 1.
70 “Finis Is Written in Scopes Case,” Nashville Banner, 16 January 1927, p. 1.
71 Lida B. Robertson to Governor Peay, 11 August 1925, in Peay Papers, GP 40-13.
72 Shipl y, War on Science, III.
73 See, e.g., Virginia Gray, “Anti-Evolution Sentiment and Behavior: The Case of Arkansas,” Journal of American History 62 (1970), 357-65.
74 “Malone Talks,” 13; “The Inquisition in Tennessee,” The Forum 74 (1925), 159; Edwin Mims, “Mr. Mencken and Mr. Sherman: Smartness and Light,” in Mims Papers, box 19; Edward J. Larson, Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 83-84.
75 Hays, “Strategy of the Scopes Defense,” 157; Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life (New York: Grosset, 1932), 267. See also Hays, Let Freedom Ring, 79; Arthur Garfield Hays, City Lawyer (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1942), 215.
76 W. B. Riley, “The World’s Christian Fundamentals Association and the Scopes Trial,” Christian Fundamentals in School and Church 7 (October 1925), 39-40.
77 Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard, The Rise of American Civilization, vol. 2 (New York: Macmillan, 1928), 752-53.
78 Preston William Slosson, The Great Crusade and After (New York: Macmillan, 1931), 432-33. For a similar account, see William W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America (New York: Harper, 1930), 513.
79 Paxton Hibbon, Peerless Leader: William Jennings Bryan (New York: Farrar, 1929), 402 (quote); Morris R. Werner, Bryan (New York: Harcourt, 1929), 339-55-
80 For an extended analysis of this issue, see Paul M. Waggoner, “The Historiography of the Scopes Trial: A Critical Re-evaluation,” Trinity Journal (new series), 5 (1985), 161.
CHAPTER NINE. RETELLING THE TALE
1 Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties (reprint, New York: Harper, 1964), 163—71.
2 Ibid., 163-64, 170; Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life (New York: Grosset, 1932), 267.
3 Allen, Only Yesterday, vii-viii.
4 Roderick Nash, The Nervous Generation: American Thought, 1917—1930 (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1970), 5-8. See also Darwin Payne, The Making of Only Yesterday: Frederick Lewis Allen (New York: Harper, 1975), 98-103.
5 Ernst Mayr, personal communication, 1 December 1995.
6 Allen, Only Yesterday, 168—70; Paul M. Waggoner, “The Historiography of the Scopes Trial: A Critical Re-evaluation,” Trinity Journal (new series), 5 (1985), 161.
7 Gaius Glen Atkins, Religion in Our Times (New York: Round Table, 1932), 250-52; Mark Sullivan, Our Times: The United States, 1900-1925 (New York: Scribner’s, 1935), 644.
8 William W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America (New York: Har
per, 1930), 513; William W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America, rev. ed. (New York: Harper, 1939); Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense (Garden City: Doubleday, 1941), 437.
9 W. J. Bryan to Dr. Howard A. Kelly, 17 June 1925, in Bryan Papers; John Thomas Scopes to Editor, Forum (June 1925), xxvi.
10 William Vance Trollinger, Jr., “Introduction,” in William Vance Trollinger, Jr., ed., The Antievolution Pamphlets of William Bell Riley (New York: Garland, 1995), xvii—xviii.
11 Howard W. Odum, An American Epoch: Southern Portraiture in the National Picture (New York: Holt, 1930), 167-68. For a similar comment later in the decade, see Howard W. Odum, Southern Regions of the United States (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1936), 501, 527.