‘God’s highest creation’ made safe in textbooks

“Upward sweep of the Fundamentalist wave from the steppes of Texas toward the line of the Potomac, as revealed by a dispatch from Raleigh, home of the Hon. Josephus Daniels:

” ‘The North Carolina State Board of Education, headed by Governor Cameron Morrison, today voted to ban from the list of biologies to be adopted by the State high schools all books which in any way intimate an origin of the human race other than that described in the Bible.

” ‘ “Evolution,” said Governor Morrison, “means progress, but it does not mean that man, God’s highest creation, is descended from a monkey or any other animal. I will not allow any such doctrine or intimation of such doctrine to be taught in our public schools.” ‘ ”

— From H.L. Mencken’s fledgling American Mercury (April 1924)