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January 16, 1968 Volume XLIX No. 9 SdltoziaCd Fall Quarter As A Perspective . f Manhattan Prints Brighten Art World The beginning of any academic year will necessarily be one of inde cision and disorganization. But the fall at Mercer was one of gross floundering on the part of the t'lus ter and its component parts. For this we the Editors are clearing up and already in this the first paper the improvements have become ob vious Problems have been of the nature of staff coo|>eration and Ed itorial continuity. This is the winter time in what is not actually the most lively area ol the world. We intend to run a survey of the student lardy concern ing problems in the academic and student activity spheres. The SGA is preparing a student primary for the Presidential campaigns that are going to begin soon; this will be in conjunction with over three hun dred campuses elsewhere A new INSIGHT program may material ize this quarter with emphasis on a different area of debate from Viet Nam. Sports begin in earnest and later baseball will diversify this area. But getting back to the topic in dicated by the headline; We have been through a quarter of comment and some answer. The GBC did not show where Mercer would get her money for the Science Center; the University has not indicated a source for these needed funds. We do not see these funds coming from nowhere unless our business depart ment has become so efficient that it now prints money. As each stu dent is an investor in the Corpora tion of Mercer they should know By Steve Darby With the presidential elections approaching, many interesting pos sibilities arise concerning the pros pective candidates around the coun try. The Democratic Party is pretty well set on its choice for president. You just don’t change horses in the middle of the stream. The vice president |>osition might be up for grabs, though. It is all up to L.B.J. A high cabinet jrosition for H.H.H. has been hinted at and after the latest events that took place in the Defense Dept., the possibility is feasible. Reagan-Lindsey. Romney-Nixon. Nixon-Percey, Nixon-Reagan, Per- sey-Lindsev and on and on and on. The combinations that could be de rived from this group of candidates iH endless. In the G.O.P., it’s any body’s game. The story doesn't end here. There is h great similarity between this coming election and the one of 1948 In '48 Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrat party took from both of the major parties a block of the southeastern states. Ex governor George Wallace of Alabama could if their annual investment stands to expand because the low rates of the Federal Government are to be refused. Again we have an indication from WSGA that they are revamp ing the archaic handbook. Are we to be constantly put off with the statement, "we will be ready soon to make the results known?” SGA this quarter intends to re write its Constitution to make it a more viable basis for student gov ernment. All of these disconnected tidbits of information should distill into quite an active quarter in the realm of student activity and opinion. But what of and what is student opin ion? We have sometime been dis appointed at ourselves and at other times at the mass of students. Our response has been a poll with an other planned this quarter. We can see a time of expression during the Presidential primary but what we are anticipating most are the SGA elections during the spring. We saw in the fall an abortive Dulcimer election and with this in perspective we plan a week of Cluster sponsor ed ralleys during the SGA elections. This should bring out the latent is sues at Mercer and better inform the individual student of his choices. With Fall Quarter in perspective we intend to focus upon the build ing of student ability. We can only do this through concern and you can only become concerned if in formed of the issues at hand. do the same thing but with differ ent consequences. Throw in also a peace candidate in the form of a Robert Kennedy or a Eugene Mc Carthy, and things really would be hopping. It might hop right into the House of Representatives where the end results could be anyone’s guess A man named Lester Mad dox just last year won under similar circumstances. The key to the elections will be the primaries, beginning with the New Hampshire primary in March. The New Hampshire primary could weed out early the weak and strong. McCarthy and Wallace will have a hard go of it if they keep their same platforms. McCarthy's platform thus far has been formu lated around a dis-enchantment with the Viet Nam policy of the administration, while George Wal lace is running solely on !)is image as a segregationist. A broadening of the platforms of both of these candidates would be necessary in order to gain nation-wide appeal. Keep an eye on the primaries, conventions and the general elec tions. The 1968 elections could be the tightest race witnessed to date. By Diane Downer A sophisticated group of manhat- tan prints is on display in the Con nell Student Center Art Gallery that the art lover will find thor oughly complete and highly inter esting. This show wall reside at Mercer until January 28, and is lent to the University by the Muse um of Modern Art. The first six decades of 20th cen tury art are well-represented, and all the facets of life in the big city are completely and movingly illus trated. The sensitive critic will find both "the intimate life of the city and its omnipresent personal mass” inherent in each lithograph. Professor Hutto of the Art Depart ment calls the group "... a show of great craftsmanship, good tech nique, with a slightly 1920ish sty- lished look.” He believes it to be a fitting follow-up to the preceding pop-art show, and labels it as art that most everybody can enjoy. Feininger is represented by both his early and later work. The Kind er Kids is a very ckiver cartoon by the artist showing realism with flat planes and the memorial Ger- While reading Dr. Hugh J. Shon- field's best seller. The Passover Plot, Jesus was simply a man, so thought came to me. What effect would it have on contemporary Christianity if we were to take Shonfield's contention one step fur ther. According to The Passover Plot Jesus was simply a man, so strong in his conviction that he was the messiah. that he schemed and plotted to change the course of events, thereby fulfilling a majori ty of the messianic prophesies. Whether or not this viewpoint is possible or probable is irrelevant here. My interest is in conjectur ing on the effect on Christianity if conclusive proof were to be found that, in fact, Jesus was in no way divine. It is easy enough to foresee the effect on such sects as the Unita rians and Southern Baptists. The Unitarians would continue to prac tice their faith as they have in the past, since this discovery would only serve to strengthen one of their ba sic doctrines. There would be little or no effect on the Southern Bap tists either, who chose to believe whatever suits them best despite irrefutable arguments to the con trary. But what of the more objective Christians who base their very reli gion on the concept of the diviness of Jesus Christ? Giving up such a concept would necessitate an en tire reworking of their basic theo- gical doctrines and an entire reor dering of their lives. Granted, some have a faith which could overcome such a drastic change and could continue to function under the re man grotesquerie, while the Ger man artist Gross returns to the Gal lery in a less bizarre vein with his interpretative picture of Manhat tan. Hopper, Sloan and Davis of the Ashcan School, and Wengen- roth project their ideas of New York City, along with several for eign artists, whose pictures and highly varied outlooks on city life round out the grouping success fully—included are Omar Rayo, a Columbian artist, Jun’ichiro Se- kino, Japanese, and the English men David Hockney and Richard Hamilton. Robert Rauschenberg has one in triguing piece in the show—a litho graph with overlapping transfers of photographs, showing Broadway as a pulsing raceway for speeding can and track stars, and setting a mood that is full of the “tension and ner vous energy of contemporary city life.” Loneliness to mass joviality, emptiness to bustling are all to be found in the Manhattan prints—a group highly varied in approach but showing all the sides of the big city. mainder of Christian precepts. But there are myriad others whose faith is so grounded in the belief of Christ’s divine nature that their re ligious lives would come to a grind ing halt. For them, the loss of Christ would equate with the loss of salvation. And unfortunately, the loss of salvation would completely remove, in their lives, all incentive to follow the remainder of Christian doctrine. If Christ was not as he claimed, then they must forfeit the promises he made them. If Christ will not fulfill his promises to them, then why should they be bound to their promises to Him. Almost im mediately, I fear, the selfish or what are considered sinful desires which they had been supressing for great er gain through Christ would come rushing to the fore. And until they could create another instrument with the promise of greater reward they would live in chaos. My contention is that Christians without Christ would lose more than the basis for their name. They would lose their very reason for living as they do, or at least as they claim to do. It is not out of an in nate desire or greed for more than they presently have. It is out of an innate fear of their own mortality. Since by their belief in Christ they do at least attempt to supreas what is sinful in their nature, perhaps the motive should not be of concern. Yet it nevertheless remains interes ting to ponder what new motives they might create, should this par ticular one be removed. Perhaps they might even find it within themselves to remain Christian for unselfish reasons. A Quick Rundown For Now Election Time Approaches; "The Passover Plot" .... A Book Review By David Sibley ^ftftenrr Cluster EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tom Cauthorn Wright Davfa Cartoons ... Roger Poston, Haywood Turner Photographer Bob Johnson News Editor ..... :.. .... Dianne Downer Staff Wardlyn Milk, Don Ripley, Chris Greis, Susan Scott, Gary Johnson, Cathy Geron, Dianna Downer Charles Goolsby, Shamo Young, Cornelia Tlran at I, Ginny Scherer, Lois Scheller, Anna Rougman. Linda Poe, Ed Ward Special Correspondents BUI Wehunt, Ed Bacon Faculty Advisors , Prof. Anthony Stansfeid, J. O. Pains BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGING EDITOR Bob Lanier Stave Darby Copy Editor Paul Kirk Contributing Editors Becky Sims, Ed Beckwith Business Specialist Christy Tyler Exchange Editor - Russ Drummond Executive Editors BUI Dayton. Bobby Phillips Sports Editor .. ....: — Art Hapner Feature ErBtor : Dan Nowell Feature Staff Karan Riven, Milton Moon, Clyde Hoover, Judy White, Stave Derby. Roger Ball. Read Banka Social Bdlton Leonard Bona. Carol Brace Letter To The Editors Letten to the Editon should fc limited to 200 words and are to procedure Unsigned letters wiH not ba prist, Dear Editor: The editorial in the last edition of the Chiatar. “Where Was i Messiah’ Last Sunday?*’, mi have more appropriately bean as titled “Where Was the ‘Enteritis ment’ Last Sunday?”. It is indi unfortunate that an uninfoma and comparatively meager audit were about to be subjected, to thei amazement, to two liturgical work both appropriate for the see Thank God their Sunday was totally marred, due to the interns sion which allowed some of them escape. How the critic could feel tors* thing amiss about the psrformane is incomprehensible. The Mag nig cat, indeed, comparable to any Handel’s most melodious works, one of the four great monument choral compositions of Bach. Writ ten expressly for the Christn Vespers in 1723, it is the most e; be rant and concise of Bach's gr choral works. The Christmas On torio indeed challenges com pan with any of Handel's works graceful counterpoint, dramatx characterization, and pictorial r* presentation. The Christmas On torio, a series of six cantatas the festivals of the Christmas Epiphany season, together with Magnificat, sublimely heralding tk the advent of the Messiah, couh hardly comprise a more suits hi program for the Christmas These works can scarcely be r* garded as poor substitutes for “greater" Messiah. The compiler of the Mr—id text, a British literary dilettanti Charles Jennens, created an rangement of Biblical excerpts a series of episodes that little dramatic continuity and absolutely no story. There ia comparison here to the continuit) and message in the Bach teife Handel's v/ork was not designed stimulate piety and devotion si thus, although based on Holy Wi the Messiah cannot be consider a piece of truly religious music, the chapel was half empty, then is not surprising, for Handel m really writing for the theater, si like most theatrical composers, I always had his "audience” in mil The Ms—ish is a deliberate appi on Handel's part to a middle cla audience of theater-goers rath than religious devote—. The Mi siah was conceived along — broad lines that would sasily I appreciated by the public. Despil its admitted grandiosity and ms nifieence, the Messiah remains lx for the concert hall and no' I chapel The opportunities to hear t Messiah during the Christmas a son are countie—. The occasion! hear these two magnificent wad of Bach are rare indeed. The gleet which continues to ba tlx of these masterpieces is most i fortunate. Tbs Mercer family should inda be grateful to its music faculty a chorus for their attempt to f these works their due measure public performance. My peraoa gratitude to them for an hour devotion minus the gymnastics King George II, but rather a 8s day which became e time to ca template quietly within ourssh the rebirth of the Messiah fl Bach works psrhaps produc'd “visible” display of amotion, I they are works of an indivxM nature, hallowed by a sense of turgical dignity. Sincerely yours. Jam— R. Harvey Department of Modem Foreign Languages