EVOLUTION HELD UNDENIABLE - NATURE'S LAW, SAYS AUTHOR
Scopes trial report for the International Press Bureau & Universal Service
News article by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Los Angeles ~ July 5, 1925

It really does not make much difference what Mr. Scopes thinks about evolution, or what Mr. Bryan thinks about it.

They cannot change it by thinking, or talking, or by doing anything else. It is an immutable law of nature, and when we say that, it is just the same as saying that it is an immutable law of God -- that is, for those who believe in God -- for one cannot think of God and nature as separate and distinct agencies.

If we are not religious, then we must accept evolution as an obvious fact. If we are religious, then we must either accept the theory of evolution or admit that there is a power greater than that of God. And wy? Because if we are intelligent we must realize that we are constantly surrounded and influenced by manifestations of this universal law of nature.

We witness the evolution of the infant into the adult, of the seed into the plant, of the bud into the flower. If nature, or God, had seen fit to produce the adult, or the plant, or the flower without requiring them to pass through any preliminary stages of development, it would probably have been a no more remarkable feat for omnipotence than the marvelous miracle of evolution that has been slowly and laboriously unfolding -- not an individual, not a species, nor a world, nor a solar system alone, but an entire universe -- since omniscience conceived the thing called time.

I do not believe that the most ardent anti-evolutionist will question the existence of the Cro-Magnon man, or hesitate to admit the possibility of our descent from him; nor will he deny that man's mental attainments, unfolding from the savage brains of this primitive ancestor, have broadened and improve in the 25,000 years since the people of this extinct race drew in red ochre the mammoth, the bison and the lion upon the walls of their caves, and if he admits this, which is obvious, then he must admit that nature, or God, purposed that there should be improvement , or development, or unfoldment, or evolution in some slight degree.

If he admits the Cro-Magnon man, and he must-- if he has progressed beyond the moral attainments of the Cro-Magnon -- he must admit that the Neanderthal man was less developed both mentally and physically than the Cro-Magnon and that he existed prior to the latter.

If we have developed from the Cro-Magnon, then, of course, it is quite possible that the Cro-Magnon developed from the inferior Neanderthal, or at least from t he same anthropoid stem.

Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan during the trial

~ From Burroughs' Thoughts on Science and Religion

.BURROUGHS PLANS NEW STAGE LINE
Laird of Tarzana Files Application With City;
Gets Service Promise
The Los Angeles Times ~ January 11, 1923

Edgar Rice burroughs, author of "Tarzan of the Apes" and other popular novels, has appeared  before the Board of Public Utilities in the role of a motor-bus line promoter. Mr. Burroughs having filed application for a permit to operate "The Tarzana Stage Line" between Zelzah and Hollywood, via Roseda, Encino, Tarzan, Cahuenga Pass and Highland avenue.

"I have no desire to go into the stage line business," said Mr. Burroughs to the utilities board, "but I am interested in obtaining stage service across San Fernando Valley. The existing stage line buses go like h--l, are always crowded, and give no local service, so I though I'd start a stage line myself."

Mr. Burroughs is interested in the development of a new San Fernando Townsite, which he has named Tarzana, after the central character in many of Mr. Burroughs's novels.

The managers of the stage lines told the board they believed plans could be worked out by which the existing lines could give the cross-valley local service which Mr. Burroughs's proposed line would give. The board took the Tarzana stage line application under advisement, pending negotiations between Mr. Burroughs and the stage line owners. In case the conferences result in a n agreement for satisfactory local service, Mr. Burroughs's application for a new line will be withdrawn.

 

THE SADDLE HORSE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Bridle Path System Linking Los Angeles with sea and Mountains 
Gives Horsemen Advantages Such as Few Other Cities Enjoy
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
Los Angeles Times ~ January 1, 1925

Winding canyons between green hillsides; oaks centuries old; great sycamores, gnarled into fantastic shapes; a bridle path  now in the shade of evergreen foliage to break again upon a grassy meadow-land; a good foliage at your right -- a deer, perhaps, a coyote or a mountain lion; fresh air, the exhilaration of movement and of freedom, the electric tingling of the nerves imparted to you from the high-strung, powerful living thing beneath you -- this is the joy of the horseman in  Southern California.

So vast is the area covered by mountain trails within the limits of the city that one may ride day after day without encountering another horse-man, yet we know that there are 606 horses in our local commercial stables with an average of nearly 2500 rides each week, and these in addition to many privately owned stables which are constantly growing in number.

And why all this equestrian activity? Perhaps this question is best answered by quoting from an article by Dr. A. J. Ochsner of Augustana  Hospital, Chicago, one of America's noted surgeons:

It is my object to point out the actual value of horseback riding systematically carried out, in increasing a man's possibilities in the way of being a productive member of society.

There is no other form of exercise that so fully affects every nerve and every organ of the human body in a healthful way as does horseback riding. Moreover, the rider's attention is centered upon his horse, so that he cannot and will not let his business or professional troubles interfere with the pleasure of the ride. Nothing will bring out a healthy glow more quickly or enjoyably than this exercise. Nothing will more promptly put one's organs of digestion and those of elimination into the way of performing their physiologic work properly. On horseback, one is forced to breathe deeply, and this, in the open air, in itself means an enormous advantage to a man who spends his working hours in intensive, concentrated mental activity.

What has been said regarding adults applies with equal force to boys and girls. Nothing can be of greater benefit in their physical, intellectual and moral development than systematic horseback riding. It will go far to outweigh the handicap of living in the city. 

The value of riding is unquestioned, and there are few cities in the world that offer the horseman such advantages as are found in Los Angeles. From Griffith Park to the sea stretch the Santa Monica Mountains, which, for a distance of twenty miles and with a breadth of eight or nine, are filled with delightful canyons and innumerable bridle paths. It is possibly the possession of this natural playground that has, more than any other one thing, fostered and encouraged riding in this community, so that today we have not only an established bridle-path system, connecting a part of the residential district with these natural trails, but a comprehensive plan for the future that will link up the city with the sea and give access to the mountain trails at many points.

For several years we have been saying that the saddle horse was coming back in Southern California, and while the habit of this prophecy grew upon us the saddle horse came back so naturally and so swiftly that we scarcely realized it, until we scanned the roster of the horses now owned south of the Tehachapi and perceived that, in addition to the hundreds of using-horses, we have some of the finest show horses in America. It is the show horse and the horse show that stimulate interest in riding, but it is the great mass of the people who are taking it up who will form the backbone of the sport here, as they do in eastern cities, and unquestionably in far greater numbers since our climate permits of all-year-'round enjoyment of horse -- a fact that is luring eastern stables to Los Angeles, to the upbuilding of the sport here and the ever-increasing pleasure of the horseman who has experienced the exhilaration of the early morning ride in the friendly loneliness of the Santa Monica Mountains.

What is possibly the outstanding five-gaited saddle horse of America, Eastern Star, winner of the $10,000 stake at Louisville in 1923, is owned here by Mr. Marco Hellman. Edna May's King, the sensational five-gaited stallion owned by Revel Lindsay English, won the same stake at Louisville this year, and his five-gaited mare, Cerise, won the $1000 stake at Springfield, Ill.

Among the long list of prominent Southern California horses are The Nobleman, winner of the combination class at Sacramento, owned by Mrs. Charlotte Duncan Anderson; Irving W. Hellman's Rosewall, winner at Pomona and Portland; Scandal, winner at Rochester, South Shore and Portland; Brilliant, reserve champion at the Rochester Horse Show in 1923, winner of the $1000 stake at the St. Louis Horse Show in 1923 and three-gaited champion at the South Shore Horse Show, Chicago, 1924.  Ben R. Meyer's Daughterty Dare, five-gaited champion, at the Ambassador, 1923; and Wildfire, three-gaited winner at Pomona this year.

What will probably prove one of the strongest contenders for the five-gaited honors in 1925 is William W. Mines' mare, Elizabeth Gries, while the Bel-Air Stables' Hottentot, always a consistent performer, is expected to give a good account of himself, as are Miss Cecelia De Mil's Golden Lady and F. W. Matthiessen's Coolidge, both winners of the three-gaited classes at Pomona; and Miss Josephine M. Thomas's Lady Dawn, winner of the three-gaited novice class at the same show, while William W. Mines will also show his five-gaited saddle stallion, Miraculous, winner at St. Louis, 1923, and also at American Royal, Kansas City, 1923.

While declining to estimate what income Edgar Rice Burroughs receives as royalty on his novels, John Shea, vice-president of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., led the State Corporation Department yesterday to believe the returns are of considerable magnitude when he was called to testify in an investigation being made by the department into an application of the corporation to issue bonds.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. of which the author, his wife, and Mr. Shea are officers, has petitioned the State Department for permission to sell $200,000 worth of 7 per cent first mortgage bonds. Proceeds from the sale are to be loaned to the El Caballero Country Club to purchase 126 acres of land on Ventura Boulevard from Burroughs and improve it.

Shea told State Corporation Commissioner Daugherty that the chief income of the corporation is derived from the royalties on Burroughs's novels and that the salaries the corporation pays the author and his wife are in excess of $16,000 each.

When asked what assurance he could give as to the corporation's earning power in the future, Shea likened Burroughs to a soap manufacturer who can guess at this income only by guessing at the amount of sales he expects to make. It is the plan of the novelist, Shea said, to turn out at least two stories a year and this year he will turn out three.

The author's works have been translated into twenty-one foreign languages but motion picture rights never have been sold, Shea said. The hearing will be continued Friday.
 

James Pierce, star of "Tarzan" and other motion pictures, was married to Joan Burroughs, daughter of Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Pierce's first starring vehicle, at the author's home at 5245 Mecca avenue, Tarzana, last evening. 

The short ceremony was conducted in the garden of the Burroughs ranch home before a floral altar, with Dr. Edwin Pratt, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hollywood, officiating. A reception and dance for the fifty guests, representatives of the local motion-picture colony and immediate friends of the family, were held following the ceremony.

Hulbert Burroughs, brother of the bride, acted as best man and Mrs. Burroughs attended her daughter.

The couple left last night for a honeymoon in the East. They will return here October 1 to their new home at 4154 Dixie Canyon avenue, Van Nuys.

Mr. Pierce is a graduate of the University of Indiana and was a member of the all-American football team. He later coached football at Glendale High School and it was during that time he met his bride and was offered the opportunity to take the lead in the film version of her father's story. The bride is 20 years of age and Mr. Pierce is 27.

 

Tarzan As An Example
Lee Side o' LA by Lee Shippey 
LA Times ~ November 22, 1929

Edgar Rice Burroughs is convinced that his Tarzan stories are good for children because his own children grew up on them, and he thinks they are the best of children. 

"We tried to keep the books from them at first," he said, "But couldn't. They almost know them by heart. And the only back effect we've ever noticed is that for awhile one of the boys wanted to eat with his hands, because Tarzan did that wehn a boy."

This series depicts Tarzan's boy, at 12 years of age, inheriting his father's strength and love of adventure and he will be found fully worthy of his romantic and indomitable sire. 

UNUSUAL STORY 
The first of the series was "Tarzan of the Apes," and told of Tarzan being left in the dense forests of the African coast when his father and mother, Lord and Lady Greystroke, died after being stranded in the wild ruthless country.

An ape-mother found young Lord Greystroke and raised him. He grew into young manhood among the apes, adopting their cunning and primeval habits, but retaining many human characteristics despite his surroundings.

Tarzan was taken from he country by men with white skins, like himself. In civilization he estalished his right to his father's title, but abandoned it and returned to his native forests when his love affair with Jane Porter ended in favor of another man.

EXCITING EVENTS
In "The Return of Tarzan" it is disclosed that Tarzan has made an implacable enemy of the Russian , Rokoff, found cheating at cards on the returning boat. In the Golden City of Opar, Tarzan again finds Jane, and, his rival having died, Tarzan marries her. A year later a child is born. In London where the family begins living as Lord and lady Greystroke, Rokoff kidnaps the mother and child. Tarzan finds the trail and again heads for the jungle.

This highly exciting series dealt with "The Beasts of Tarzan." Lord Greystroke, with his primeval knowledge, befriends Sheeta, the panther, and brings Akut, the leader of the apes, to his service. With them he pursues Rokoff to the death but is faced with an equally vengeful enemy in Paulvitch, Rokoff's accomplice. With Sheeta and the apes Tarzan rescues his wife and child but Paulvitch escapes. Reunited with his family Tarzan returns to London. 

MORE ADVENTURE
"The Son of Tarzan," beginning Monday, is as swift moving and thrilling as the preceding series of the pictorial exposition of the widely discussed and translated novels of Mr. Burroughs. The boy, a strong likeness of his father, is fearless and adventurous. His mother, however, fearing that love of primitive excitement will lure him from the solid achievements of comfort and civilization, shields him from knowledge of his father's antecedents.
But Tarzan's sworn enemy, Paulvitch, pursues his evil designs in the boys life and from them spring the drama and adventures which will be portrayed daily in The Times, beginning Monday.
.

 

Tarzan Creator Acquires Title to Golf Course
LA Times ~ April 5, 1932

Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan stories, yesterday became the sole owner of the El Calballero Country Club and golf course near the San Fernando Valley town of Tarzana, and will operate it as a public golf links, according to an announcement made by Ralph Rothmund, the author's secretary.

The property has passed through a series of financial difficulties during the past two years following its successful operation as a private club for several years. The corporation was force into a receivership about six months ago. The name El Caballero will be dropped, Rothmund said.

 

Jungle Writer Testifies
Burroughs Tells of Quitting Breakfast Club;
LA Times ~ September 24, 1932

Edgar Rice Burroughs, writer of jungle fiction, was one of the early members of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, but he resigned within a year, according to his testimony yesterday in Superior Judge Smith's court, where he was called as a witness in the suit of Herman S. Shapiro and others against the estate of the late Maruice De Mond, founder of the club, to determine the organization's ownership. 

Just why he resigned was not divulged, the court sustaining an objecdtion to his reasons for withdrawing in 1926. He said he had carried on numerous conversations with De Mond, ut that little pertained to the club's management.

"It concerned  mostly entertainment," he declared.

Tarzan's 'Father' Irked by Pseudo 
'Ape Men' of Ring and Mat
LA Times ~ May 20, 1939 Countering hte flood of protests from dozens of managers of psudo-Tarzans abouit the district, Edgar Rice Burroughs, thrill fictioneer yesterday brought forth visual evidence to support is contention that Johnny (Tarzan) Weissmuller is his one candidate for the role.

Photo Filed
Copyrighted Sept. 14, 1938, under entry No. A-125070, Weissmuller's photograph is on file in Washington in the Copyright Bureau.

This, feels Burroughs, should certainly give him the right to approve of Tarzan and disprove all the rest of the claimants, even if the fact that he is the father of this jungle brain child was not held as sufficient reason.

Cites Dictionary
Burroughs furhter points to Webster's International Dictionary in its definition of Tarzan, which says that it is a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, to prove his claim and his ability to choose.

In the meantime, wrestlers, fighters and other bearers of the Tarzan title are getting set for concerted action. 

Johnny, official Tarzan is performing at the New York Fair.

 

Shooting Citizens
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
Los Angeles Times ~ January 24, 1940

A citizen has been arrested and booked on suspicion of manslaughter because, after hearing a noise in the kitchen of a girl friend and seeing a prowler, he shot the man after warning him three times and ordering him to come out with his hands up.

During the past 12 months I have read in the Los Angeles newspapers accounts of at least three innocent men being shot by plainclothesmen of the police or Sheriff's forces for running away from what each one though was a holdup, but I have not read that any of these peace officers was arrested or booked.

After one such incident, I wrote to the Police commission suggesting that plainclothesmen be forbidden to shoot except in self-defense or in the defense of others. The Police Commission did not see fit to acknowledge my suggestion.

It is not entirely clear to me why a police officer should be vested with the combined  authority of judge, jury and executioner; why a citizen should be put in jeopardy of his life without legal trial, or any trial whatsoever.

My interest in this matter was aroused by an experience that one of my sons had with a couple of the highly intelligent, courteous and efficient bully-boys of the Los Angeles Police Department. He was accosted, insulted and manhandled on a lonely street in Bel-Air one night last year and accused of being the "Phantom Burglar" of Bel-Air.

His first and natural reaction when he saw two men leap from a car and come for him was to run, for he believed that he was about to be the victim of a hold-up or a kidnapping. Had he run he would have been shot.

I wrote to the Chief of Police about the matter but never got any satisfaction other than that one of the officers came to my son and complained of the tone of my letter to the Chief.

I then wrote to the Police Commission, but I guess they were too busy with marble games and other important matters to consider the safe-guarding of innocent lives. 

It seems to me that something should be done about this shooting of men simply because they run away from an imagined danger. If it is a capital crime to run, at least give us a fair trial and an opportunity to kiss our loved ones good-by. Perhaps, inasmuch as we protect sage hens and speckled trout with a closed season, we might have a closed season for runners.

It seems to me quite bad enough to have to be in constant terror of holdup men and kidnapers without having the Police Department shooting at us every time we go out at night.

Something really should be done about it. Perhaps The Times can suggest a solution.

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzana

 

BULBOUS DOMES AND NITWITS
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
Los Angeles ~ June 24, 1941

LA Ed Note: Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of "Tarzan," now is sojourning in Hawaii where, presumably, the Ape Man soon may start swinging from volcano to volcano and eating pineapple in the raw. Mr. Burroughs, regardless of Tarzan, however, has found time to write a "Letter to the Editor" -- the editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. This amusing missive, being applicable to the mainland as well as to the island paradise, is reproduced herewith:)

To a man up a tree, where I shall probably have to take refuge after writing this, it would appear that the childish antics of the Territorial Legislature, fortunately adjourned, constitute a very strong argument against conferring Statehood upon Hawaii, for it has conclusively proved that the Territory is not prepared for even partial self-government.

This, however, may be said with equal truth of practically every State in the Union. And why? To me, the explanation is simple: the utterly ridiculous system by which we go about selecting the giant intellects who spend our money and make the laws for us.

I believe that I am correct in saying that in nearly every large city of these United States of America a noble and ambitious citizen wishing to become a street cleaner must pass an examination and, among other things, must be able to read and write; but not so with those whom we elect to make our laws, spend our money, and guide our destinies.

There is nothing in the Constitution of the United States which requires that the president, even, shall be able to read or write: there is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent the election to this high office of a congenital idiot who could neither read nor write and spent all his time unraveling his socks. 

Of course that is reducing the thing to an absurdity; but how about our Territorial and State legislators? Perhaps we would all be better off if they confined their activities to unraveling their socks; but, unfortunately for us, they are not all congenital idiots; there are as many borderline cases who have studied oratory in high school.

This article is not prompted by any mere spirit of capriciousness on my part. I seek a solution to a problem which comes very close to answering the question of what is wrong with democracy; a political ineptitude such as wrecked France has almost wrecked Great Britain and threatens to wreck us.

I feel that we should exercise even greater care in the selection of our lawmakers than we do in the selection of our street cleaners, and I have a plan by which we may take at least a step in that direction. 

It is that before any person, otherwise qualified may become a candidate for any elective or appointive office he shall pass a comprehensive intelligence test to determine not what he knows about Greek literature, or the name of the seventh President of the United States, or who said, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley," but to prove just how much native intelligence he has -- the kind of horse-sense intelligence that Will Rogers had.

The present so-called intelligence tests which determine one's I.Q. are not sufficient. Many 10-year-old children pass them with flying colors, but I do not wish any 10-year-old children to make laws for me. 

I believe that if our bulbous-domed psychologists went into a huddle they could evolve such a test as would at least keep a majority of the nitwits out of public office.

If this fails we can put the street cleaners in our Legislatures. At least we know that they can read and write.

 

THE STORY OF TARZAN
by Edgar Rice Burroughs

TARZAN OF THE APES was my third story.  It was written in Chicago in 1912.  A PRINCESS OF MARS was the first and THE OUTLAW OF TORN the second. Which reminds me of an amusing review of the latter, which was not published in book form until about sixteen years after it was written.  The reviewer commented upon the great improvement and maturity of my style in this "later" work.

Tarzan seized the public fancy almost immediately. Just why he did so, I do not know. It is one of those things, like the Tariff and an Income Tax Statement, that have always been beyond me.  In Germany they named chocolates, cigarettes and cabarets after him; in Russia the Soviet government took cognizance of him when they discovered that both the Russian literati were reading him out loud to the rest of the communists in preference to Soviet propaganda; in England, the Prince of Wales named one of his horses Tarzan. Movie horses, movie lions and race horses bear his name. And now there is a United States Post Office called Tarzana.

Tarzan has appeared in newspapers, magazines and books; on the stage and on the screen; over the radio; he has been translated into sixteen foreign languages; in strip form, he is appearing in newspapers the length and breadth of the United States. I am told that it is estimated that twenty-five millions of people see Tarzan every day, in this country, in newspapers along.

Why all this popularity? I wish I knew; but not knowing, I can only be happy in the knowledge that he has brought a few hours of entertainment to so many people.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Tarzana, California