Volume 18 , Issue 14

1925 Scopes Hastens Home To Await Trial

Have you ever wondered about John T. Scopes, the youthful science teacher, accused of expounding the theory of evolution to his class at the Dayton, Tennessee high school?

We found the following in The Hutchinson News, Hutchinson, Kansas, dated 13 June 1925, Saturday, page 1: "Scopes Hastens Home To Await Trial After Spurning Movie Offer."

Found on Newspapers.com

Memphis, Tenn., June 13 (1925) (AP) -- An earnest young man, to which the original copy of the constitution of the United States apparently appealed more than movie and publicity offers of a small fortune, was on his way to Tennessee, prepared to be the self-termed "goat" next month (July, 1925) in the Tennessee evolution case.

John T. Scopes, the youthful science teacher, accused of expounding the theory of evolution to his class at the Dayton, tenn., high school, left New York, the New York Times said, after refusing offers aggregating $150,000.

Stopping off in Washington on his way home after conferences with defense counsel in New York, the defendant evinced greatest interest in the glass-enclosed document of American rights and in the chamber of the supreme court, where eventually a final decision in his case may be handed down.

Refusing all money offers which included $150,000 for a motion picture in which he would appear, because, it was said, he felt trial was a serious matter, besides which nothing else mattered, Scopes viewed the supreme court chamber with a distinctly thoughtful expression, it was noted.

Meanwhile, arrangements for the trial continued at Dayton. The influx of newspapers writers was expected to be so great that a telegraph company announced it had assigned ten operators to move the story of the trial out of the little Tennessee town.

William Jennings Bryan, who will assist the prosecution in Scopes' trial, gave further expression to his views on science and religion in addressing high school graduates at Miami, Fla. Mr. Bryan declared that "science is a great thing," but that "religion is the greatest thing."

"Education without religion may destroy you or make you a menace to those about you," he said. The heart is more important than the head."

Mr. Bryan referred to the "little case in Tennessee" asserting that it was joked about at first, but that there was no joking now. Declaring that the greatest criminal lawyer in the country and three other outside lawyers would defend Scopes, Mr Bryan said that the book used by the defendant "contradicts the Bible and sends home children believing that the Bible is a lie."

Another outside view on the evolution question was given by Former Gov. R. A. Nestos of North Dakota, who was visiting at Nashville. Declaring himself a "fundamentalist," the former governor said that he could not "wholly agree with a lot of things being said and done by that group of which I claim to be a part."

"My impression is that most of our controversies come from lack of definitions, that in using the term evolution, for instance, we mean so many different things our opinions fail to meet in a great many of these arguments."
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