Gerald W. Smith Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Gerald W. SrriLth
Was this in any way a controversial question?
A. Yes, it was a controversial question. Of course, those were t& days
of the evolution trial. We had chapel at Knox, w &shrran year,
chapel every day just before lunch. Then, after nly f'reshrran year,
was changd to three days a week and chapel attendance was mdato
Faculty mrrS3ers spoke, and I recall all three years in chapel, two peeches
t
each year. One by Dr. Longdon, the physics professor of whom I spe , and
one whose nam escapes at the moment, but who tawt the courseqin
Bible, old and new testament. Each year each of them mde a speech, Long-
don accepting the evolution theory and the other professor trying to ex-
pound the literal translation of the story of Genesis. Dr. Longdon would
come in to say that the evolutionary process cam along and he would quote
the Bible to the effect that a day was as a thousand years in the si@t of .
God and, therefore, each of those evolutionary things spelled out in Genesis
as happening in seven days srd&t have taken eons. Whereas, the other pro-
fessor would corn and insist that that was seven calendar days. It was
not a bitter struggle, but yes, the evolutionary trials were followed with
considerable interest . , ,
Q. Well now, did this kind of conflict set off reverberations in the
minds of the students?
A. No, no, student bodies in 1924 to 1928 were not the activists of today.
Student bodies were mre passive as far as that part of it goes. No, we
sat around and chatted about this thing and that and talked about it, but
so far as there being any organizations fomd or strong editorials in the
papers, school paper and so forth, no, Knox was not that kind of a . . .
Q. Knox at that tirre, in Galesburg was fairly well insulated, I guess, f'rom
much of the mainstream of life, it would have gotten newspapers, I guess,
but I don't know. Was that so?
A. No, I don't think so, I think we were pretty weil tuned in to the dnstream
of life and I think we had a faculty of scholars, and of people with
broad eno& Interests and who were active enough in m y of their fields.
There were a rimer of such-Dr. Con~r, of whom I speak, was strongly
active in the political domain. He had once been the myor of Gale burg
and Professor Kern, who was the chairnen of the Modern Languages De$artmnt
was a man who was very active in all of the political and socia mvemnts
of the day and who traveled as a lecturer in those Melds and was
fairly wel-hown .
Q. So Knox encouraged this kind of thing.
A. Yes, and Professor Curtis, who was the chaim of the Depar*tmnt of
Business and EconomLcs was a well-known scholm in the field and was tuned
in with many of the developmnts of the day. DuTeng fYeshrran year at
Knox, Dr. McConahey, who had been the president for flve or six years be-
fore I went there, resigned to becorns the president of Weslegan College in
Connecticut and subsequently becm the governor of Connecticut. He had
this kind of a flavor. His successor, Dr. Albert Britt, who was the