Page Eight 



EVOLUTION 



A Journal of Nature 



To combat bigotry and superstition and 



develop the open mind by popularizing 



natural science 



Published monthly by 



Evolution Publishing Corporation 



96 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. 



Telephone: Watlcins 7587 



L. E. Kaiterfeld, Managing Editor 



Allan Strong Broms, Science Editor 



Subscription rate: One dollar per year 



In lists of five or more, fifty cents 



Foreign subscriptions ten cents extra. 



Single copy 10c; 20 or more 5c each 



Entered as second class matter at the 

 Post Office at New York, N. Y., January 

 7, 1928, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



NUMBER 10 



NOVEMBER, 1928 



LET'S CO-OPERATE 

 "The new attitude toward science on 

 the part of the people as a whole must be 

 met by a corresponding broadening of in- 

 terests and contacts on the part of re- 

 search workers. It is only through the 

 window of the press that the people as a 

 whole view science. It is the duty of the 

 scientific workers to assist in helping to 

 make the picture clear and comprehensive," 

 Science, Nov. 30, 1928. 



EVOLUTION was established to serve 

 as a useful medium in this effort to "make 

 the picture clear and comprehensive." 

 While it is always strict regarding facts 

 to merit the support of scientists it is also 

 clear and popular in style to be understood 

 by ordinary folk. It is small enough so 

 that none will argue "I haven't time to 

 read it"; cheap enough so none will say 

 "I cannot afford it." Many are taking 

 bundles of it to spread among their neigh- 

 bors. The rapid growth of circulation 

 during its short existence, in spite of the 

 absence of working capital, already proves 

 that there is a tremendous field in this 

 country right now for just such a journal 

 as EVOLUTION. Every friend of science 

 is invited to co-operate with EVOLU- 

 TION, so that it may measure up to the 

 fullest possibilities of usefulness. 



OUR POLICY 



In view of the fact that this issue of 

 EVOLUTION is going to nearly twenty 

 thousand readers who have never seen it 

 before, we reprint the following editorial 

 statement from our first issue: 



"EVOLUTION will be non-political, so 

 that ALL upholders of academic freedom 

 can support and use it no matter how they 

 differ on other issues. It will be non- 

 religious, never making any effort to re- 

 concile science with religion. Nor will it 

 make atheism its mission. It will carry 

 the positive message of facts from every 

 field of natural science and leave it to 

 the reader to make his own mental read- 

 justment." 



EVOLUTION 



The favorable reception accorded to this 

 announcement convinces us that this policy 

 will develop a large field of usefulness for 

 E\'OLUTION. With full realization of 

 the difficulties involved, EVOLUTION 

 will endeavor to hew to this line. 



OUR COVER 



The picture on the front cover of this 

 number of EVOLUTION is reproduced in 

 advance of publication by courtesy of G. 

 P. Putnam's Sons from the frontispiece of 

 ••Our Face from Fish to Man' by Professor 

 William K. Gregory. 



THE GREATEST IN HISTORY 

 The convention of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science 

 and its forty-seven Associated Societies to 

 be held in New York December 27th to 

 January 2nd promises to be the greatest 

 gathering of scientists that the world has 

 ever known. 



It has the opportunity to make itself not 

 merely the greatest in numbers, but the 

 jireatest in influence and achievement. The 

 old attitude of considering science and 

 learning as something apart from the life 

 of the people is happily passing away. 

 There is a growing sense of social re- 

 sponsibility among men of science. This 

 should not be repressed through consider- 

 ations of ''diplomacy." It should be en- 

 couraged to express itself, and grapple 

 with problems regardless of prejudice. 



Specifically, the problem confronts this 

 organized gathering of the most prominent 

 men of science what to do about the chal- 

 lenge thrown down by organized religious 

 fundamentalism. The fundamentalist tac- 

 tic of appealing to popular referendum is 

 stirring the deeps of bigotry, is bringing 

 into action a tremendous reservoir of ig- 

 norance that has been latent. Aroused, 

 it may become an overwhelming flood. 

 This problem can not be solved By ignor- 

 ing it. It must be met. If this convention 

 will frankly face the facts and mobilize 

 its mighty power to meet them, then in- 

 deed it will be epoch making and deserv- 

 ing of the title, ''The Greatest in History." 



PERNICIOUS PRACTICE EXPOSED 



On the opposite page we present the first 

 of a series of articles by Barrow Lyons, 

 New York journalist, dealing with the 

 general modification of biology school 

 texts to suit the fancies of fundamentalists. 

 EVOLUTION will expose this pernicious 

 practice of publishers who prostitute them- 

 selves .for profit. 



As an individual the author of scientific 

 texts is helpless before them. But through 

 their organizations scientists might wield 

 a power that would offset the baneful in- 

 fluence of organized fundamentalism and 

 encourage publishers of text books that tell 

 the whole truth. 



It is to be hoped that the American 

 Association of University Professors, which 

 has on the agenda of the coming New 

 York convention the subject "Recent Prob- 

 lems of Academic Freedom," will take note 

 of this situation and propose some action. 



November, 1928 



CONVINCING PROOF 



The original study by J. Leon Wil- 

 liams on "New Evidence of Man's Rela- 

 tionship to the Anthropoid Apes" as pub- 

 lished in the April number of the Journal 

 of Dental Research, from which our lead- 1 



ing article is taken, contains a mass of 

 most convincing detail accompanied by 

 fifty-two illustrations. It took the form 

 of a rather sharp criticism of certain state- 

 ments made by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 

 his recent book "Man Rises to Parnassus," 

 in which he argues against man's descent 

 from ape-like ancestors. In this Dr. Wil- 

 liams allies himself with Prof. Wm. K. 

 Gregory, Sir Arthur Keith and other 

 prominent men of science, who endorse the 

 theory of man's close relationship to the 

 apes, which is more and more generally 

 accepted by the scientific world. 



UNCONSTITUTIONAL? 



Somehow we fail to get excited over the 

 question of whether the Arkansas anti- 

 evolution law is constitutional or not. The 

 point should be carried through the courts 

 to be settled once and for all, and we hope 

 of course that this law will be .found un- 

 constitutional. It would make it much 

 more difficult for organized bigotry to 

 interfere with freedom of teaching on a 

 state-wide scale. 



But we know that even without such a 

 law fundamentalist school board members 

 '\vill not tolerate texts explaining evolution 

 and that they bring up the children in 

 superstitious fear. 



To us the great problem is not the con- 

 stitutionality of the law, but how to edu- 

 cate the people so that they would not 

 vote for such a fool law. This can not 

 be accomplished by a court decision. It 

 is a slow and unheroic task and will not 

 appeal to searchers for the limelight. But 

 it will appeal to every real lover of free- 

 dom to teach the truth, it will enlist every 

 earnest fighter against intolerance and 

 superstition. 



HOLD FEBRUARY SEVENTH OPEN 



A debate is being arranged between 

 Prof. Joseph McCabe and Rev. W. B. 

 Riley on the subject EVOLUTION- 

 FACT OR FAKE? to take place in New 

 York Thursday February 7th. Friends of 

 EVOLUTION, around New York should 

 make no conflicting engagements for this 

 date. Mark it in your calendar and keep 

 it open. Details will appear in next issue 

 of EVOLUTION. 



AT LEAST HE'S NO PUSSYFOOTER 



Charles Smith, back on his job in New 

 York and looking none the worse for his N 

 three weeks starvation on the Arkansas 

 front, reports with a chuckle: "They kept 

 me busy down there painting signs. As 

 fast as I could make 'm they tore 'em up. 

 But every time they tore one up, I made a 

 new one and bigger." 



