LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE FUNDAMENTALIST TRIAL IN AMERICA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The widespread publicity given by the English papers to the trial of an obscure school teacher in Dayton. Tennessee, for violating a law which forbids the teaching of the theory of evolution will probably lead some people to suppose that an obscurantist Fundamentalism is an American characteristic and that Tennessee is a typical State.
Will you allow me space in your widespread paper to state certain facts which may show why serious-minded Americans do not look on the proceedings at Dayton either as a comedy or a tragedy, but recognize that it is a natural—indeed, inevit- able—result of the history of Tennessee ? Perhaps it may not be impertinent to call attention to the fact that sixty years ago obscurantism was not unknown in England. Those who recall the panic produced in country vicarages and cathedral closes by the publication of Darwin's books will recognize that what the world is seeing to-day in Dayton is not an American phenomenon, but an inevitable effect of new knowledge when it seems to come into conflict with religious convictions. The truth is that there are parts of America which are, theo- logically, about sixty years behind England. But to suppose that Tennessee is typical of the United States, or even that Dayton reflects the whole mind of the people of Tennessee, is as absurd as to suggest that some back district of Australia is typical of the British Empire. The fact is that the settlement of Tennessee makes it unique.
Those who are familiar with Roosevelt's Winning of the West will remember that while the leaders of the migration across the Appalachian range were men of stout heart, who pushed on, undeterred by savage enemies nor overcome by hunger and thirst, but were buoyed up by a great hope of a promised land, all were not like them. Those who did not turn back settled in the new land, cleared the forests, built cities—later to become notable ones—such as Memphis and Chattanooga and Knoxville ; they founded schools and colleges and have played no unimportant part in the political life of the Republic. But the men of faint heart settled down in the " coves " of the mountains of West Virginia. Later they trekked along the ridge to Kentucky and North Carolina and Tennessee. These people, it should be remembered, were of pure English stock. They still retain idioms familiar to Shakespeare. Indeed, they are representatives of the much belauded "Nordic race." But what with intermarriage and loss of contact with the larger world outside they became a peculiar people. Few of them could read and—alas !—they are proud of their ignorance. That they did not relapse into barbarism is probably due to the heroic labours of the early Baptist "Circuit riders" who put the fear of God into their hearts, but whose theology had never gone beyond the dogma- tisms of "The Bible, and the Bible alone, the religion of Protestants." Had this been accompanied by the Enalish proviso, "as interpreted by sound scholarship," we should no more think of calling Dayton " Monkeyville " than we would think of calling Shrewsbury by such an uncomplimentary name. These people are the primitive Fundamentalists. They are not an object of contempt. They are pathetic survivals of a theory of revelation which most educated people have abandoned. One can imagine what a frenzy of religious hatred might be evoked by an appeal to the religious instincts of such a people. To them the slogan " God or monkey" would not seem ludicrous ; it would inflame their passions, and reason would play a small part in the action they would take.
Of course, these mountain people do not represent a - majority of the voters of Tennessee, but when the mountain stream was joined to the river of the plain the volume would become irresistible. This is what has happened. The dominant religious body in Tennessee is the Southern Baptist Church. They are the most unprogressive and probably the most vin- dictive of the Protestant Churches. That organization must not be confused with the great Baptist Church of which such men as Professor Glover in England, and Dr. Fosdick in America, are illustrious examples. The Southern Baptist Church is as much an ecclesiastical anachronism as the mountain folk are an anachronism in civilization. They are teaching what practically most Protestants believed in the seventeenth century. To them the Bible is the last word on every subject which can engage the mind of man. These two forces have joined together and passed a law forbidding the teaching of any theory of biology which is not in accordance with the record of Genesis.
But the Englishman may at this point ask if such an example is not likely to spread. Here is where American humour comes in.
The cultivated people of Tennessee—Catholics, Presbyter- ians, Episcopalians—are not greatly disturbed. They know that one of the advantages of our Federal system is that it enables a certain State to try experiments which other States are too conservative or too wise to undertake. Not a few, I suspect, recall the saying of Benjamin Franklin : "Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will go to none other." If the foolish people think that such a law as the Legislature was induced to pass will do good and stop the spread of knowledge, let them try it. When they find that the private schools draw from the public schools, that children who might attend the State colleges go to other States to be educated, when Dayton has gotten all the advantage it can expect from free adver- tising, and begins to be ashamed to have the town called " Monkeyville," the law will be repealed and Tennessee will become what its founders intended it to be.
Of course, the judicious must grieve, especially when we remember that this controversy is likely to have disastrous influence upon the religious life ; but that is the penalty we have to pay for a Democracy based on universal suffrage. We think it worth the price. I am sure there are to be found wise lawyers who will say that this preposterous trial will do great good. It will be a striking example of a truth America needs to learn : that Law is the root of anarchy ! The statute books are crowded with laws which no one intends to obey and which simple folk believe will execute themselves. Dayton is giving the whole country a much-needed object lesson.—! am,
Sir, &C., LEIGHTON PARKS.
Pain's Hill Corner, Lirnpsfield, Surrey.
[It is a pleasure to publish this generous letter from the Rector Emeritus of St. Bartholomew's Church, New York.—En. Spectator.]
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