Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/70

 Gen. Stewart—Might as well give it to any other book?

Mr. Darrow—Certainly.

Gen. Stewart—And no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship?

Mr. Darrow—Certainly.

Gen. Stewart—What is there in this that requires you to worship in any paricular way?

Darrow—That is the part we claim.

Gen. Stewart—I think so, too. There is as little in that as in any of the rest. If your honor please, the St. James Version of the Bible is the recognized one in this section of the country. The laws of the land recognize the Bible; the laws of the land recognize the law of God and Christianity as a part of the common law.

Mr. Malone—Mr. Attorney-General, may I ask a question?

Gen. Stewart—Certainly.

Mr. Malone—Does the law of the land or the law of the state of Tennessee recognize the Bible as a part of a course, in biology or science?

Gen. Stewart—I do not think the law of the land recognizes them as confusing one another in any particular.

Mr. Malone—Why does not this statute impose the duty of teaching the theory of creation, as taught in the Bible, and exclude under penalty of the law any other theory of creation; why docs not that impose upon the course of science or specifically the course of biology in this state a particular religious opinion from a particular religious book?

Gen. Stewart—It is not a religious question.

Mr. Malone—I am asking why.

Gen. Stewart—You are getting right back to the proposition of the police power, where the legislature, through the exercise of police power, passes a law directing a particular curriculum in the schools.

Mr. Malone—I do not want to interrupt.

Gen. Stewart—All right, go ahead.

Mr. Malone—Not only do we maintain not only is the police power of the states not the power to direct any particular line of study, but it is not the law—

Gen. Stewart—This act could not turn his religious point of view or his religious purpose. The question involved here is, to my mind, the question of the exercise of the police power.

Mr. Neal—It does not mention the Bible?

Gen. Stewart—Yes, it mentions the Bible. The legislature, according to our laws, in my opinion, would have the right to preclude the teaching of geography. That is—

Mr. Neal—Does not it prefer the Bible to the Koran?

Gen. Stewart—It does not mention the Koran.

Mr. Malone—Does not it prefer the Bible to the Koran?

Gen. Stewart—We are not living in a heathen country.

Mr. Malone—Will you answer my question? Does not it prefer the Bible to the Koran?

Gen. Stewart—We are not living in a heathen country, so how could it prefer the Bible to the Koran? You forced me then, in advance of the matter I am arguing now, to get down to the absolute basis of the proposition that it is the exercise of the police power; that is the question that is involved. That is what it must turn on.

Mr. Malone—The improper exercise—

Gen. Stewart—The improper exercise of the police power and dictation of what should be taught in the public schools?

Mr. Malone—Yes, sir.

Gen. Stewart—Do you say teaching the Bible in the public school is a religions matter?

Mr. Malone—No. I would say to base a theory set forth in any version of the Bible to be taught in the public school is an invasion of the rights of the citizen, whether exercised by the police power or by the legislature.

Gen. Stewart—Because it imposes a religious opinion?