A KENTUCKY STATE BILL.
[TO THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR-" I.
Sie,—Bills introduced into the State Legislatures of America are often the source of innocent amusement-to the inhabitants of the Repjablie. I well remember, for example, the delight- caused. by, the member of a Western .Legislature who devised a Bill making it a penal offence_ for. bedclothes and beds. in hotels to be less than so many inches broad and more than so many inches long! Now I notice. that Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, has been calling attention in the Press to a. Bill introduced into the Kentucky State Legislature. His letter is so amusing that your•readers may like to see it quotedverliatim.—r am, Sir. &c., z.
[Coes.]: President Frank L. Morey; 'University of Kent-tray, Lexington, Ky:
My DEAR Fussier:us. McVey,— I have this:morning:your telimram :advising me that has "been. introduced. in: the Kentucky. Legislature. to 'prohibit by heavy penalty the, teaching...of evolution, or the. use of books favoring evolution, in all schools supported by public funda. This proposal ie I .take it, the result of the reaction of some enthusiastic admirer of the eloquent addresses' that have, recently been given on the subject of evolution• by: my good: friend, Mr. William Jennings Bryan: The, Bill, as you describe it, seems to me to lack vigor and completeness. It should, I think, be amended before passage to include. in its prohibition the use of any book in,which the word evolution is defined; used, or referred, to in any way.. It might even be desirable to include a prohibition of books that use any of the letters by, which the word evoltdian could be spelled; since in this -way-some unscrupulous person might, by ingenious effort, evade-Mosel-titers-provisions of the law.
I take it for granted that the-introducer of the Bill -lain dense commvaienswith the'rulers of Soviet Russia. since-ha-is faiths fully reprodacing one of, their fundamental. polities: Truly weare getting,ons
Faithfully- yours, jantiary 271h, 1922:
Nienores 111711RAT Br1111%.".
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