Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/121



Gen. Stewart—Your honor, I except to that part of the statement that has brought in Mr. Bryan's name.

Court—Have you finished your statement, Mr. Malone?

Mr. Malone—No, sir, I have not.

Gen. Stewart—And that you strike his name out.

Court—I hardly think that Col. Bryan's name should be injected into your statement, Col. Malone. I will just exclude it—eliminate it.

Mr. Malone—Will your honor hear me first?

Court—I will hear you.

Mr. Malone—I suppose this court, at any rate, will take judicial notice of the fact that Mr. Bryan is a most important member of this prosecution, in the court's mind, and in my mind. I suppose the court will take judicial notice of the fact that Col. Bryan is a recognized leader of his day and Col. Bryan's name is used in this connection in the same way that any other great leader's name would be used in that connection. My relations with Mr. Bryan have been such for so many years, he would be the last one to think anything I have to say here would have any personality in it. There is no reflection upon him in presenting our views, where we are representing conflicting ideas. I maintain that I have a right to use Mr. Bryan's name as representative of the views conflicting with our own

Court—I do not think Mr. Bryan's personal views are involved in this case, so I think it is not proper in connection with this statement to mention him, and sustain the motion to eliminate his name.

Mr. Malone—Your honor, will you give me an exception?

Court—Yes.

Mr. Malone—Shall I continue?

Court—Yes.

(Mr. Malone resumes reading on the fourth page of his written statement.)

Insert Mr. Malone's statement, page 8, between immediately following first paragraph thereon, after the word 'Force,' insert:)

These words, your honor, were written twenty years ago by a member of the prosecution in this case, whom I have described as the evangelical spokesman of the prosecution, aid we of the defense appeal from his fundamentalist views of today to his philosophical views of yesterday, when he was a modernist to our point of view.

Gen. Stewart—Your honor, I want to interpose an objection again. He is treading upon the soil your honor directed him not to tread upon.

The Court—Yes, Col. Malone, I would like that you not make further reference to Col. Bryan. Let that be excluded.

Mr. Malone—Yes, your honor, I do not think Mr. Bryan is the least sensitive about it.

Mr. Bryan—Not a bit.

The Court—It is not a question of whether it gives offense, it is a question of your legal rights.

Mr. Malone—I believe I am acting in my legal rights and if your honor excludes that, I will take an exception.

Mr. Bryan—The court can do as it pleases in carrying out its rules; but I ask no protection from the court, and when the proper time comes I shall be able to show the gentlemen that I stand today just where I did, but that this has nothing to do with the case at bar.

Mr. Malone—One of the reasons for the defense was—

(Loud applause in the court room.)

The Court—I will have to exclude you, gentlemen, the jury is present now, and I cannot tolerate any expression of feeling on the issues in this case at all in the presence of the jury.

Mr. Malone—Your honor, I have been granted an exception?

The Court—Proceed. Yes.

Mr. Malone—We maintain and we shall prove that Christianity is bound up with no scientific theory—