To Push Bible Reading Bill in Ohio State Legislature

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

That the battle to force the Bible into the Public Schools of Ohio is to be resumed with renewed vigor at the coming session of the Ohio Legislature is the prediction made by Dr. A. C. Diffenbach, liberal church leader and editor of the Christian Register, in explanation of warnings issued by him in an address at the Institute of Polities at Williamstown, Mass.

Elements responsible for the Fundamentalist movement in the South, which has for its aim the enactment of legislation prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools and colleges, are preparing to back the fight for anti-evolution and pro-Bible legislation in Ohio, Dr. Dieffenbach declares.

Anti-evolution fighters have crossed the borders and are perparing to concentrate efforts in Ohio. Dr. Dieffenbach claims that the central agency in the nation-wide Fundamentalist and pro-Bible movement is the World Christian Fundamentalist Association, under the presidency of Dr. W. B. Riley, and who has just announced that each year the association will choose Legislatures of two or three important States for objectives.

In discussing the situation, in Ohio, Dr. Dieffenbach pointed to the heated legislative battle at Columbus two years ago, which sentered on the Bible bill. This bill was passed and was vetoed by Governor Donahey.

Governor Donahey’s concluding word in his veto message of May, 1925, was: “As Governor of all the people, sacredly pledged to uphold the spirit and letter of the Constitution, I can neither abridge nor compel religious worship in any form, and, therefore, in the name of the founders of our free country and its soldier defenders, living and dead, I must return this bill herewith to the house of its origin, unapproved.”