FAMOUS CASE RECALLED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 20 February 1935, Page 6

FAMOUS CASE RECALLED

Tennesse Refuses to Repeal its “Monkey Law”

TEACHING OF EVOLUTION VOTE IN LEGISLATURE (United Freia Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) Received 2.45 p.m. to-dav. NASHVILLE, Feb. 19. By a solemn vote of 67 to 20, the Tennessee legislature to-day refused to repeal the State’s famous “monkey law,’’ banning the teaching of the theory of evolution in publicly maintained schools. The action recalls the conviction a decade ago of John Scopes, a school teacher, for violation of the law, and the famous trial in which the late Mr s'illiam Jennings Bryan defended Die fundamentalist- conception of Biblical teachings, while Mr Clarence Darrow argued for the “scientific method’ ’ of public education. The case aroused world-wida interest because of the points raised, and also h,v the noted counsel engaged Itimately, however, the State liecame the laughing stock of America because of the absurd lengths to which the issue was carried and Tennessee was only too anxious to forget the trial and the ridicule to which it became subjected.