Life, 1922-03-09 · page 17 of 34
Life — March 9, 1922 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon ("Well! I'll be D——"):** This depicts a man with a telescope observing what appears to be religious or political figures on the right side. The sign reads "SEE A CLOSE-UP OF THE MOVIE WORLD," satirizing how cinema sensationalizes and magnifies events. The hat flying off suggests shock or surprise at what's being observed through magnification. **The Text Commentary:** The article discusses William Jennings Bryan's involvement in Kentucky's evolution controversy—the famous Scopes trial era debates over teaching Darwin's theory in schools. Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate turned religious activist, opposed evolution. Life magazine mocks both Bryan and evolution's opponents, arguing that belief in evolutionary progress demonstrates sufficient faith that accepting Darwin's theory shouldn't be difficult. The satire suggests Bryan's mental faculties haven't improved since his famous "Cross of Gold" speech, implying his religious arguments lack intellectual rigor. The overall tone is one of bemused contempt for the anti-evolution position.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
thinks about treaties in the Senate, that there is a worse thing for the world than a pact which seems to involve the United States in an alliance, and that is a new failure of the United States to function as a treaty-making power. rhe argument about the new treaties is —the Tribune's argument, for example —that any effort to improve or reject any of them is dangerous, and that they must go through to prove that our Uncle Sam has not succumbed to paralysis, temporary or otherwise, of the faculties for international co-opera- tion. It is a strange result of party man- agement in dealing with the Treaty of Versailles that it should have led to the present extreme unwillingness to hin- der the Senate from passing anything that it will. It reminds one curiously of the way in which people deal with a lunatic—they humor him and let him have his own way as far as possible; refrain from agitating him; refrain from crossing. him, and hope for the best. closet OF Te YTUCKY is all torn up, so the papers say, over Darwin's theory of evolution, which some of the ad- vanced Kentuckians wish to have im- parted to the young in the schools, to the scandal of other Kentuckians who adhere to the written word of the Bible as a final authority on questions of derivation. These objectors, it seems, have had Mr. Bryan in the State, to argue their case in various cities. Mr. Bryan will have nothing to do with the theory of monkey ancestry. It is funny. Somebody ought to tell Mr. Bryan and the Kentucky objectors about the value of hospitality to Dar- win’s theory as a practical lesson in belief. Look at it as it is set forth in the carly pages of Wells’ “Outline.” Wells traces life down through its course from its start as seaweed on the shore of the emerging land to our times. Folks that can believe that man started as the Darwinians think he did, and has improved and progressed as much as they believe he has, can be- lieve anything. Their powers of belief have been exercised: and that is valu- able. They will believe in time all that is necessary, quite as much as Mr. Bryan does, and just as good. Truth always agrees with truth. So much as is true of what Darwin surmised will presently agree with all that is true of what Mr. Bryan believes. All that is necessary is to give it time. Mr. Bryan has turned from politics to theology and written a book about it. His mind in this new field is the same mind as heretofore. It does not improve any. His instincts are mainly good. His mental discriminations are faulty, just as they were in the last cen- tury when he talked at Chicago about the cross of gold. Mr. Bryan will probably never be any better, but neither will he be any worse. S. M comicbooks.com