Page Eight 



EVOLUTION 



January, 1929 



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: 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 of March 3, 1879. 



VOL. II, No. 1. 



JANUARY, 1929 



CONVENTION REPORTS 



As this issue of EVOLUTION goes to 

 press the world's greatest gathering of 

 scientists is convening. Undoubtedly 

 from their sessions will come (orth many 

 a message marking an advance in science, 

 pushing farther out the frontiers of human 

 knowledge, perhaps throwing a search- 

 light beam from our little island of light 

 into the encompassing ocean of darkness. 

 And they may give us an inkling of what 

 the scientific method means, an apprecia- 

 tion of the thoroughness and infinite care 

 that attend the announcements of scientists. 



The next number of EVOLUTION will 

 contain some informal reports of the Con- 

 vention. 



A RESOLUTION NEEDED 



Surely it is not too much to hope that 

 from the Convention there will issue a call 

 to mobilize the friends of science for the 

 pending struggle against organized reli- 

 gious bigotry. May it speak in unmistake- 

 able terms to those who would turn back 

 the hands on the clock of progress by pass- 

 ing laws against the teaching of evolution. 

 Certainly the Advancement of Science de- 

 mands a militant championship of the 

 right of teachers to teach the truths of 

 science. Anything less would be a denial 

 of all sense of social responsibility. 



ALMOST TV^'O TO ONE 



The vote on the anti-evolution referen- 

 dum in Arkansas is reported as; YES 

 108,991; NO 63,410. Majority 45,581. It 

 is interesting to note that the heaviest vote 

 AGAINST the proposed law was cast in 

 some of the solidly fundamentalist rural 

 districts. This Is explicable only on the 

 theory that these good people were con- 

 fused by the awkward wording of the 

 <]uestion and thought that by voting NO 

 they were voting against the teaching of 

 evolution. There's a real man's sized job 

 ahead, friends, to educate the people. 



IDEAS TO CLASH IN NEW YORK 



A real clash of ideas will take place 

 «hen Rev. W. B. Riley and Joseph Mc- 

 Cabe meet in the great evolution debate, 

 Thursday February 7th in Mecca Temple. 



This will not be a mere war of words 

 between elocutionists to entertain an 

 audience. Each speaker is in deadly earn- 

 est. Each will do battle for his most pro- 

 found convictions. Each, through a life- 

 time of activity on behalf of those con- 

 victions, has already achieved 'world-wide 

 recognition as their champion. 



Rev. W. B. Riley, President of the 

 World's Christian Fundamentals Associa- 

 tion, is prime mover and chief organizer 

 of the anti-evolution campaign. He has 

 participated in twenty debates on evolu- 

 tion, and according to the judgment of the 

 audiences he defeated the evolutionist in 

 all but one of them. 



Prof. Joseph McCabe received his early 

 training in the Catholic Church and was 

 at one time in a monastery, but he now 

 has back of him thirty years of fighting 

 for freedom of teaching. He is known on 

 three continents as the greatest popularizer 

 of science. Wherever English is spoken 

 live his students and disciples. 



These two champions have met in the 

 arena before. According to Rev. Riley, 

 Prof. McCabe is the only man who ever 

 won a decision over him in debate, and 

 that before a rationalist audience in Chi- 

 cago. At their most recent meeting in 

 Toronto, Canada the audience voted three 

 to one for Riley and against evolution. 

 Of course it is only fair to state that there 

 they were overwhelmingly fundamentalist. 



So each speaker will be specially anx- 

 ious to win the approval of the cosmo- 

 politan audience that New York will fur- 

 nish for this final and decisive debate. 



In addition to the vote of the audience, 

 it is planned to have a committee of thirty 

 three judges. 



EVOLUTION is naturally pleased at 

 being instrumental in bringing two such 

 outstanding personalities together in this 

 city. We do not care very much who 

 proves to be the better debater, nor how the 

 audience and judges vote. Our purpose 

 is to cultivate the Open Mind. We be- 

 lieve that the more both sides are heard, 

 the more we shall win over the forces of 

 fundamentalism. Rev. Riley has a similar 

 faith in his plea. Hence the debate. 



This promises to be such an intellectual 

 treat as has never before been offered in 

 this city. It is a tremendous undertaking 

 for such a youthful journal as EVOLU- 

 TION, and the co-operation of every 

 reader in the East is invited to make it 

 both a moral and a financial success. 



Start right now to organize a "line 

 party" for this debate among your friends. 

 Readers as far away as Boston and Balti- 

 more are expected to get up groups to 

 come to New York for this occasion. 

 Teachers should plan to bring their stu- 

 dents. All desiring blocks of seats should 

 reserve them at once. 



OF INTEREST TO SCIENTISTS 

 Most of the science articles appearing 

 in EVOLUTION popularize matters with 

 which every well informed scientist is al- 

 ready familiar. This is necessary to make 

 the journal of value to laymen. But in 

 every issue we expect to have at least one 

 article carrying in somewhat abridged 

 form the essential information contained 

 in studies published in scientific journals, 

 which because of their limited circulation 

 are not yet generalh' known. For instance, 

 the article by Dr. J. Leon Williams on 

 "New Evidence of Man's Relationship to 

 the Anthropoid Apes" in our last number, 

 and the article by Prof. Wm. K. Gregory 

 in this issue. 



During the course of the year EVOLU- 

 TION will contain much material that is 

 new even to the best informed men of 

 science. 



"THE FIGHT IS JUST BEGUN" 



EVOLUTION has endeavored to im- 

 press upon its friends the fact that the 

 anti-evolution agitation in Arkansas is not 

 a mere local phenomenon growing out of 

 the supposed backwardness of that State, 

 but the beginning of a far-reaching cam- 

 paign of fundamentalist fanatics to dom- 

 inate the schools. Here's confirmation 

 from the official organ of the American 

 Anti-Evolution Association, the Baptist 

 and Commoner, of November 21st, 1928: 



"The evolution fight has just started. 

 Other states will be encouraged to make 

 the fight since we have won in Arkan- 

 sas. Some of the legislatures may pass 

 the law and other States can initiate 

 it as we did in Arkansas. Yes, we 

 need money to push the work all over 

 the land. It is like the prohibition 

 fight. We went on with it for fifty 

 years until we got national prohibition 

 and now the work is to enforce the pro- 

 hibition law. It will be the same way 

 with evolution fight. THE FIGHT IS 

 JUST BEGUN. We have won in 

 Arkansas but there are forty-five other 

 states where the fight must be made 

 and then even after that we have the 

 rest of the world. Let us get narrow 

 provincialism out of us and have a 

 world vision for all the work. There 

 are many people who live outside of 

 Arkansas and many who live even out- 

 side the United States. Let us make 

 evolution illegal all over the world. 

 Let us thank God and take courage." 



This should help to disabuse those gen- 

 tle, diplomatic friends who thought that 

 by "keeping still" and ''keeping out of 

 Arkansas" they would "refrain from 

 arousing prejudice" and thus fool and de- | 

 feat the fundamentalists. 



Only an agressive campaign of popular 

 education can save the day for science. 

 EVOLUTION will co-operate with every 

 such endeavor. 



