Review: The Scopes Monkey Trial (Images of America: Tennessee) by Randy Moore

I've always been fascinated by the Scopes "Monkey" trial, especially after watching the brilliant performances of Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly, and Frederic March in the classic Inherit the Wind (1960). (The 1988 film starring Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards is God awful and should be destroyed.) As we've been reading Marion Rogers biography of Mencken for my reading club, I thought I'd review some of the more salient features of the trial. This is a terrific book for that with supporting photographs.

I was not aware that Mencken had already left Dayton before the climactic interrogation of Bryan by Darrow. I knew it was hot, but did not know that that famous event was also outside the courtroom on a platform under the shade of the trees. The courtroom itself, was the largest in Tennessee, and pictures taken during the trial reveal just how large the crowd was. Scopes himself went on the study geology and worked in South America for an oil company. Ironically, the jury was barely in attendance during the trial, having been sent out repeatedly while the lawyers wrangled over procedural issues. The fine itself was never collected and the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution, remained on the books until 1967 when it was successfully challenged. It was followed in 1968 by Epperson v Arkansas when the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated an Arkansas law of similar ilk.

Bryan was a tragic figure. An immensely popular populist he was nominated to run for president on the Democratic ticket three times ,and had he not associated himself with the anti-science movement would have gone down in history as far less of a buffoon. Darrow himself had supported Bryan in his quest for the presidency. Dayton ruined what was left of their former friendship and Bryan died six day later following his usual gluttonous repast. (He was diabetic.)

In his defense, much of Bryan's antipathy toward evolutionary theory was its misuse by natural selection advocates who then made the leap to eugenics. The textbook that was being used in the school was filled with racist statements and its portrayal of evolution (there are pictures of the page in question in this book) was worse than simplistic. "The author, George William Hunter, not only asserted the biological difference of races, he insisted on the vital importance of what he called “the science of being well born”—eugenics. Like most progressives of the time, Hunter believed in “the improvement of man” via scientific methods. That meant promoting personal hygiene, proper diet, and reproductive control. A Civic Biology also has suggestions for what to do with “bad-gened” people, in a section called “The Remedy.”

A prophetic paragraph from Bryan's never delivered speech: Science is a magnificent material force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm-tossed human vessels. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed, but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the slip of its compass and thus endanger its cargo. (https://newrepublic.com/article/128144/dark-history-liberal-reform.)

If you are looking for a compact review of the events and characters of the trial, this one is perfect.