Page Eight 



EVOLUTION 



September, 1928 



EUOUmON 



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: Watkins 7587 



L. E. Katterfeld, 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 ot March 3, 1879. 



NUMBER 8 



SEPTEMBER, 1928 



WE GREET THE R. P. A. 



Through the kind co-operation of the 

 Board of Directors of the Rationalist 

 Press Association in London this issue of 

 Evolution is being sent to their entire 

 membership throughout the world. 



This may seem like "carrying coals to 

 Newcastle," for certainly every member of 

 this progressive organization is already an 

 evolutionist and emancipated from relig- 

 ious superstition. And Evolution is not 

 published primarily for the entertainment 

 or information of those that are convinced 

 evolutionists. But Evolution offers itself 

 as an instrument for evolutionists to use 

 in their work of enlightening their friends 

 and neighbors. We hope that all English- 

 speaking Rationalists will find it a useful 

 weapon in their fight against intoieiance 

 and fanaticism no matter where they live. 



Although bred of bigotry in the United 

 States, the World's Christian Fundamentals 

 Association has the avowed purpose to 

 suppress in the entire world all teaching 

 of science that conflicts with the Bible 

 story of creation. Rationalists everywhere 

 will surely gird their loins io help beat 

 back this renewed attack of preacher up- 

 on teacher. 



Two friends of intellectual freedom have 

 made this world-wide mailing of samples 

 of Evolution possible through their gen- 

 erous contributions. Frank Gosling of 

 England covers the postage costs, and A. 

 Nielen of the United States paid for the 

 three thousand copies. We invite others to 

 follow their splendid example and furnish 

 enough funds to make Evolution a real 

 power, able to cope with militant funda- 

 mentalism and help win the world for the 

 Open Mind. 



TWENTY STATES TO VOTE ON 

 EVOLUTION 



There is a tendency to look upon the 

 Arkansas anti-evolution referendum as 

 merely an evidence of local backwardness. 

 Few realize that in Arkansas there is tak- 

 ing place the opening skirmish of a tre- 

 mendous campaign that has been planned 

 far in advance by the fundamentalist 

 generals. 



They have already announced their in- 

 tention to place this question on the ballot 

 in every one of the twenty States that have 

 Initiative laws. That means: Arkansas, 

 Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, 

 Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana. 

 Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, 

 Oklahoma. Oregon. South Dakota. Utah, 

 Washington, California and Colorado. 



Maynard Shipley. President of the Sci- 

 ence League, writes: "Watch Oklahoma. 

 If Arkansas goes anti-evolution in Novem- 

 ber, Oklahoma will be next. Slraton is 

 out there now, also Brown and others of 

 the "flying squadron"." 



The only way to meet this fundamental- 

 ist menace is POPULAR ENLIGHTEN- 

 MENT. In this Evolution hopes to serve, 

 and invites your immediate co-operation. 



THEY'D CALL A SPADE A SPOON 



The most preposterous pretense put 

 forth by fundamentalists is that they favor 

 ■"separation of church and state", and that 

 they oppose evolution because it is a "re- 

 ligion", and they "'do not want religion 

 taught in the schools." This is like call- 

 ing a spade a "spoon." 



The fact is that the passing of an anti- 

 evolution law immediately takes control of 

 the class-room out of the hands of the 

 teachers and puts it in the hands of the 

 local preachers. 



A fundamentalist apologist, Eugene Mc- 

 Sweeney, writing in their official organ, 

 says: "The Anti-evolution law is nothing 

 more than a modern application of the an- 

 cient law of blasphemy. It merely says to 

 the teacher. 'You shall not deny the story 

 of God's creation in the class-room, because 

 it alienates the students from the love of 

 and reverence of God.' " 



Exactly. And who would be the official 

 snoopers to ferret out teachers under this 

 ""modern application of the ancient law of 

 blasphemy'"? Who but the pulpiteers? 

 And woe unto the teacher who doesn't toe 

 THEIR mark. 



Do the folks in Arkansas really want to 

 make their schools mere annexes to their 

 churches? Then pass the anti-evolution law. 



AN OVERSIGHT 

 The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory should have been credited with the 

 illustration "Comparative sizes of living 

 and extinct Proboscidea" used on page6 of 

 our August issue. 



JUST A SUGGESTION 

 If the preachers are to tell the teachers 

 what they may and may not teach regard- 

 ing natural science, shouldn't they be re- 

 quired to have at least a little bit of 

 scientific training? Is it fair to force the 

 teacher to pass a stiff examination before 

 being allowed to teach science, and require 

 nothing of the preacher? Why shouldn't 

 the parson have to pass similar examina- 

 tion under the Department of Education, 

 or else keep his mouth shut? 



PARSON VS. PEDAGOG 



The clergy have always claimed the 

 right to control education. The school- 

 masters have always resisted the claim. 

 There is an irreconcilable difference, a 

 three hundreds years' war that may well 

 keep going three huijdred years more, that 

 most probably will keep going in some 

 form so long as both parsons and peda- 

 gogs remain on the earth. 



For the ideals of pedagog and parson 

 must always, of necessity, be in conflict. 

 The teacher's duty is to make his pupils 

 think; and to this end he acquaints them 

 with just as wide a range of ideas and 

 principles and facts and theories and 

 points of view as, in his professional judg- 

 ment, they are capable of utilizing at each 

 stage in their development. With their 

 opinions he has no concern. His duty is 

 done when his pupils understand the na- 

 ture of each possible opinion and the 

 reasons for accepting or rejecting it. 



Not so the clergyman. His professional 

 duty is to make his parishoners believe; 

 and to this end, quite rightly, he strives 

 to limit their range of ideas, principles, 

 facts, theories, and points of view; for he 

 knows, again correctly, that belief results 

 from narrowing the mind, not from ex- 

 panding it. Unlike the teacher, he is re- 

 sponsible for people's opinions, and he 

 takes an obvious method of controlling 

 them. So the man who wants people to 

 think, and the man who wants to keep 

 people from thinking, have to fight out or 

 compromise a difference that they cannot 

 adjust. — From address of Edwin Tenney 

 Brewster before Rationalist Society of 

 Boston published in The Truthseeker. 



STORY BY McKECHNIE 

 In our next issue will begin an en- 

 trancing story by H. N. McKechnie, 

 author of "Heir of All the Ages," entitled 

 '"Twigs from the Family Tree," and ex- 

 plaining in fiction form how our ancestors 

 may have branched off from those of the 

 apes. 



UNDERMINING OUR 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 



By Oscar 0. Whitenack 



(Extracts from leaflet issued by Colorado 



Rationalist Association) 



"PXAMINATION of a few fundamentalist 

 propositions will show the quality of 

 their teaching and its effect on our edu- 

 cational system. 



They say: "There is not a shj^ed of evi- 

 dence for evolution." But sir Arthur 

 Keith, standing before the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science last 

 year, declared: "The evidence of man's 

 evolution from an ape-like being, obtained 

 from the study of fossilized remains, is- 

 definite and irrefutable." And no ta scien- 

 tist in his audience nor in all Europe and 

 America QUESTIONED THAT STATE- 

 MENT. 



They say: "Man has existed but a few- 

 thousand years. He could not have lived 

 through the ice-age of ten thousand years 



