530 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1454 



United States Greologieal Survey. Ages ago 

 (this part of ^the Atlantic Coastal Plain was 

 from itime ito time covered by itihe sea, into 

 ■which streams swept vasit quantities of mud, 

 sand and gravel and boulders which formed 

 thick depcsits ithat covered large areas. When 

 ithe regioo finally emerged from 'the sea the 

 Potomac River cuit its valley in these deposits, 

 which were carried aljou't here and ithere aiso by 

 smaller streams. The larger boulders are de- 

 rived from the granite on whi<ih the gravel lies, 

 bvit some of ithe smaller pebbles come from 

 pants of ithe Potomac ibasin beyond the Blue 

 Ridge and cithers from veins of quantz in the 

 granites of the Piedmont Plateau. 



Over the layer of plant debris and muck in 

 this old swamp fine clay and pebbles were laid 

 down Iby streams of water during the glacial 

 epoch, wihen Ithe noifbhern part of North 

 America, as far soulth as northern Pennsyl- 

 vania, was covered with immense sheets of 

 thick ice, showing that the trees lived in the 

 la'tter part of tbe Grealt Ice Age, which is vari- 

 ously estimaited to have ended from 20,000 to 

 30,000 years ago. 



OPPOSITION TO EVOLUTION IN 

 MINNESOTA 



It was reported in Science last week that 

 at a conference in St. Paul, JUinn., of pastors 

 representing Baptist, Congregational, Presby- 

 terian and Lutheran dhurehes, it was decided 

 to issue a call for a state-wide meeting of 

 Protestant ministers to oppose the teaching of 

 evolution in Ithe public schools of Minnesota. 



At this meeting, which was held on Oeitober 

 26, the following resolutions were passed : 



Preamhle — As American citizens we believe in 

 the complete separation of ehureh and state, and 

 are opposed to religious teaching in public 

 schools — higher or lower. 



As those, who msh to teach Christianity must 

 support their private schools, we believe it but 

 just that those who wish to teach anti-Christilan 

 theories should 'be forbidden the use of tax sup- 

 ported schools for propagating their opinions. 



Whereas, The evolutionary hypothesis has come 

 to be accepted by many American teachers, and is 

 increasingly taught in the public schools of Minne- 

 sota, including high schools, our state normals 

 and state university, and 



Whei'eas, This hypothesis, after sixty-three 

 years of stud}', remains wholly unproven, and 

 has increasingly shown itself to be a foe to the 

 Christian faith, denying as it does 'the veracity of 

 the Scriptures, 



Therefore &e it resolved, That we, citizens of 

 Minnesota, representing thousands of our fellow 

 citizens, hereby utter our protest against this 

 propaganda of infidelity, palmed off in the name 

 of science, and we call upon the trustees of state 

 institutions to demand of teachers a cessation of 

 such teaching and the removal from our schools 

 of such text-books as favorably present the same. 



We do this in the interest of true science vs. 

 science falsely so-called; and in the interest of 

 fair dealing. 



"We hold that the first amendment to the con- 

 stitution of the United States, "Congress shall 

 make no law respecting an establishment of reli- 

 gion, ' ' was never intended to be interpreted that 

 the state should become sponsor for irreligion; 

 and that it is manifestly unfair to impose taxes 

 upon Christian taxpayers to inculcate teaching 

 inimical to the Bible and destructive of civiliza- 

 tion itself. 



We have waited patdontly for this hypothesis to 

 either prove a truth or to pass from public in- 

 struction. Having now no prospect of either, we 

 demand that the state shall prove its impartiality 

 toward its citizens by dispensing with a subject 

 that is utterly divisive; and is, in the judgment 

 of thousands of its taxpayers, utterly false. 



And we declare that if the school authorities 

 prove derelict in the enforcement of the law re- 

 lating to the teaching of religion or of theories 

 subversive of the Christian faith, we will appeal 

 to the legislature for the enactment of such laws 

 as shall elimLnate from our tax-supported school 

 system this autiscientifie and antiseriptural 

 theory of the origin of man and the universe. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNITED 

 STATES GEOLOGIC SURVEY 



On November 15, David White completes 

 ton years service as chief geologist. This con- 

 tribution to the adminisitration of the survey 

 has been at the expense of his own seientifle 

 work, even though he has thereby increased the 

 scientifie value of the work of his associates. 

 lit seems fair tfhalt his oft-repeated request for 

 permission to return to his own geological 

 situdies should now be granted, not only to 

 gratify the natural desh-e of an investigator 



