"FIRST DOWN, KENTUCKY"

Over in Kentucky they are having quite a little discussion as to whether they ought to permit the Darwinian theory of evolution to be taught in the state-supported schools. "The entire state", we are told, "has been aroused by allegations made on both sides"; William Jennings Bryan has even consented to stump for the "antis". The main opposition comes from the rural districts where the opinions of the distinguished biologist are held to be contrary to the Bible "as it is written". Evidently the people of Kentucky are unwilling to admit that "Bo" McMillin and his team are descended from anything so plebeian as monkeys.

Harving decided that the evolutionary hypothesis of the late Charles Darwin is moonshine, the Kentuckians appear strangely reluctant to swallow it. It is a sad commentary on transportation conditions that even such a weighty matter as the Darwinian theory should have been sixty years on the road across the Appalachians. The rest of us have our jazz, and our divorce problem, out movies and our bonus bills, but "The Origin of Species" is as completely vanished from the public mind as are last year's "Follies". The mental agony which rocked the world half a century ago now shakes Kentucky to its foundations; fifty years hence, they will doubtless be discussing the "freedom of the knees" as vehemently as we do today. But in their rush up the intellectual field, the Colonels are starting with an enormous handicap of time; and if they really intend to "buck" the well-tried scientific line, they are likely to find themselves thrown for a decided joss.