May 28, 1925—THIS DAY IN SCOPES HISTORY

Bryan writes to Dayton attorneys Sue and Herbert Hicks that John Scopes’s upcoming trial is “the easiest case to explain I have ever found…. While I am perfectly willing to go into the question of evolution, I am not sure that it is involved. The right of the people, speaking through the legislature, to control the schools which they create and support, is the real issue as I see it. If not the people, who? A few scientists, one in ten thousand? No such oligarchy would be permitted. Who then controls?... An employee works under the direction of his employer… Mr. Scopes will find that he has hurt the teacher more than anyone else… I will let the defendant have the money to pay [the fine] if he needs it. It is a test case and will end all controversy.”