What I don't understand is this, your Honor, the prosecution inside and outside of the court has been

ready to try the case and this is the case. What is the issue that has gained the attention, not only of
the American people, but people everywhere? Is it a mere technical question as to whether the
defendant Scopes taught the paragraph in the book of science? You think, your Honor, that the News
Association in London, which sent you that very complimentary telegram you were good enough to me
to show me in this case, because the issue is whether John Scopes taught a couple of paragraphs out
of his book? Oh, no, the issue is as broad as Mr. Brayn has published it and why the fear? If the issue
is as broad as they make it, why the fear of meeting the issue? Why, where issues are drawn by
evidence, where the truth and nothing but the truth are scrutinized and where statements can be
answered by expert witnesses on the other side -- what is the psychology of fear? I don't understand
it. My old chief -- I never saw him back away from a great issue before. I feel that the prosecution
here is filled with a needless fear. I believe that if they withdraw their objection and hear the evidence
of our experts their minds would not only improve but their souls would be purified.
I believe and we believe that men who are God-fearing, who are giving their lives to study and
observation, to the teaching of the young -- are the teachers and scientists of this country in a
combination to destroy the morals of the children to whom they have dedicated their lives? Are
preachers the only ones in America who care about our youth? Is the church the only source of
morality in this country? And I would like to say something for the children of the country. We have no
fears about the young people of America. They are a pretty smart generation. Any teacher who
teaches the boys or the girls today an incredible theory -- we need not worry about those children of
this generation paying much attention to it. The children of this generation are pretty wise. People, as
a matter of fact I feel that the children of this generation are probably much wiser than many of their
elders. The least that this generation can do, your Honor, is to give the next generation all the facts,
all the available data, all the theories, all the information that learning, that study, that observations
has produced -- give it to the children in the hope of heaven that they will make a better world of this
than we have been able to make it. We have just had a war with twenty million dead. Civilization is
not so proud of the work of the adults. Civilization need not be so proud of what the grown-ups have
done. For God's sake let the children have their minds kept open -- close no doors to their knowledge;
shut no door from them. Make the distinction between theology and science. let them have both. let
them both be taught. Let them both live....
We want everything we have to say on religion and on science told and we are ready to submit our
theories to the direct and cross-examination of the prosecution. We have come in here ready for a
battle. We have come in here for this duel.
I don't know anything about dueling, your Honor. It is against the law of God. It is against the church.
It is against the law of Tennessee, but does the opposition mean by duel that our defendant shall be
strapped to a board and they alone shall carry the sword? Is our only weapon the witnesses who shall
testify to the accuracy of our theory -- is our weapon to be taken from us, so that the duel will be
entirely one-sided? That isn't my idea of a duel. Moreover it isn't going to be a duel.
There is never a duel with the truth. The truth always wins and we are not afraid of it. The truth is no
coward. The truth does not need the law. The truth does not need the forces of government. The truth
does not need Mr. Bryan. the truth is imperishable, eternal, and immortal and needs no human agency
to support it. We are ready to tell the truth as we understand it and we do not fear all the truth that
they can present as facts. We are ready. We are ready. We feel we stand with progress. We feel we
stand with science. we feel we stand with intelligence. We feel we stand with fundamental freedom in
America We are not afraid. Where is the fear? We meet it! Where is the fear? We defy it! We ask your
honor to admit the evidence as a matter of correct law, as a matter of sound procedure and as a
matter of justice to the defense in this case.