Education: Descent of Man

Some 900 miles north and 1,800 miles west of the spot where the celebrated Scopes "Monkey Trial" shocked the world, and a full 35 years later, the state of Washington's supervisor of curriculum guides, John M. Howell, announced: "Now, of course, no one really believes the Darwinian theory ... If Darwinian evolution is true, then the Bible is untrue, and I prefer to hold by the Old Book rather than to accept a worthless theory."

Supervisor Howell, 65, a onetime Seventh-day Adventist missionary in South America, assured everyone that his own view was not necessarily the state's. No state teacher was under fire for teaching evolution, though "his own mind should tell him that he is doing wrong in so teaching." But the damage had been done. From the size of the uproar, it appeared that the majority of the people of Washington subscribed to Darwin's theory. Most embarrassed of all: Lloyd J. Andrews, state superintendent of public instruction, who had appointed Howell and who is seeking the Republican nomination for Governor. "Howell got his job," observed a Democratic wit, "only because he delivered the temperance vote to Andrews."

Knowing only too well that the fittest survive in politics, Andrews last week removed Fundamentalist Howell from his post, is looking for a less conspicuous spot to put him in. In Washington State's modern school system, the missing link is now John M. Howell.