Center of the Storm

1

Deep Roots

Clarence Darrow spent his life arguing - teaching, really -
that a man is the sum of his heredity and his environment.
He thought that my life, as well as his, was a powerful
Exhibit A in proof of that thesis, and I think he was right.
Heredity and environment are the all-powerful factors
that, blended in the crucible of chance, control every individual.
Every life shows some evidence of these shapers of
personality and physique. If to some persons the influences
are concealed or are not readily apparent, in other lives
they are spelled out in detail. My own life is a study in
environment, heredity, and chance.

Darrow, who next to my father has influenced me most,
had a genius for reasoning from cause to effect. In 1924 he
saved Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold from the death
penalty by convincing a Chicago judge that they were victims
of their past: heredity and environment. A year latter
Darrow was my defender in the "Monkey Trial" at Dayton, 
Tennessee. Although I had done nothing so heinous
as murder, some Fundamentalists to the contrary, my trial
was even more publicized than that of Loeb and Leopold.
How did I get there? Why had I volunteered to be prosecuted 
for teaching evolution in a public school, thereby violating 
the criminal code of Tennessee? Again, the answer
is heredity and environment. In many ways my case was as
much a vindication of Darrow's central belief as any he
ever tried. It was the only instance in which he volunteered
his services.