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MERCER CLUSTER
APRIL II. ISM
Letters to the Editor
Dear Sir:
A few years ago, the University
of North Carolina's Chapel Hill
Press published a book about Amer
ican colleges and universities that
had been founded or co-founded by
Jews
Mercer was among them. Jesse
Mercer, founder of the Christian
Index and the Georgia Baptist Con
tention, was a smart man and great
preacher. He wrote the section on
religious freedom in Georgia's Con
stitution and managed a campaign
from Gov. George Troup against
General Elijah Clarke whom he dis
liked
But Jesse Mercer’s Jewish second
wife, Nancy Simon, was the gal
who put up the money that
launched Mercer at Penfield, Geor
gia in 1833. She handed him
$75,000 without a quibble for the
project.
Josiab Penfield, a Savannah sil
versmith, gave $2,500 to buy land.
So not a dime of Baptist money
went into the founding of Mercer.
It has been just about that way
ever since. Up until the 1950's the
Georgia Baptist Convention was
giving Mercer around $30,000 a
year to educate its ministers. They
were spending ten times that much
on training foreign missionaries.
The Southern Baptist Conven
tion under which all the Baptist
Colleges are supposed to be. has
never given them a nickel, although
it drains the State Convention
funds annually and heavily.
Of the 50-odd buildings cur
rently on the Mercer Campus, all
were erected by gifts from private
individuals, the students and
alumni. (People like the Ryals
family (law building), the Potters,
the Roberts, the Lees, the McCom-
mons. the Willetts, the Wares and
the Stetsons) The Administration
building, prid, of the campus, was
built in 1874 with $100,000 given
by the City of Macon; Willingham
Chapel by the Willingham family
and alumni; the original library by
Andrew Carnegie.
The same is true of Mercer’s en
dowment funds. Approximately, of
$11,000,000, all but about a mil
lion was given by private individ
uals, foundations and alumni.
So there really isn’t much Bap
tist money at Mercer. Of the
school's annual $5,000,000 opera
ting budget, 82% is paid from stu
dent tuition, auniliaries, endow
ment funds and private individuals.
The Baptists pay about 7% of the
total, but they wan and demand
100% control. So the best possible
outcome of the church-state row
would be the amicable severance of
Mercer from the Georgia Baptist
Convention. Both would profit.
James Henry Jones
Dear President Nixon:
Regarding the tragedy
taking place in Biafra, we
urge you to devote your
energies to furthering the
policies which you stated
in your speech of Sept
ember 10, 1968. The fol
lowing statements are
from that speech.
The terrible tragedy of
the people of Biafra has
now assumed cata
strophic dimensions.
Starvation is daily claim
ing the lives of an esti
mated 6,000 Ibo tribes
men, most of them chil
dren. If adequate food is
not delivered to these
people in the immediate
future, hundreds of thou
sands of human beings
will die of hunger.
Until now efforts to
relieve the Biafran people
have been thwarted by
the desire of the Central
Government of Nigeria to
pursue total and uncondi
tional victory and by the
fear of the Ibo people
that surrender means
wholesale atrocities and
genocide.
But genocide is what
is taking place right
now-and starvation is
the grim reaper.
This is not the time to
stand on ceremony or to
“go through channels’’ or
to observe the diplomatic
niceties. The destruction
of an entire people is an
immoral objective, even
in the moat moral of
wars. It can never be jus
tified; it can never be
condoned.
Voluntary organiza
tions such as the Red
Cross, the Church World
Service and Caritas have
rushed thousands of tons
of protein-rich nourish
ments and baby foods to
the vicinity of the
stricken region. Much of
the food remains nearby
while these children
starve to death.
The time is long past
for the wringing of hands
about what is going on.
While America is not the
world’s policeman, let us
at least act as the world’s
conscience in this matter
of life and death for mil
lions.
The President of the
United States is a man
charged with responsi
bilities and concerns all
over the world. But I
urge President Nixon
to give this crisis all the
time and attention and
imagination and energy
he can muster. Every
friend of humanity
should be asked to step
forword to call an end to
this slaughter of the inno-
cents in West-Central
Africa.
America is not with
out enormous material
wealth and power and
ability. There is no better
cause in which we might
invest that power than in
sparing the lives of iimo-
Who Holds Veto Over RW6A? XS™
The purpose of this article is to
clear up matters concerning who
has the power, the Dean of Women,
the President, or both, to veto rules
passed by RWGA, and the circum
stances under which such power is
exccrcised..
The answers came from Presi
dent Harris, and are best expressed
by him. President Harris writes,
“AH power regarding the conduct
of all the University endeavor
resides by the law in the Board of
Trustees." But, “the Trustees dele
gate by one method or other their
legal power over campus arrange
ments to the President of the Uni
versity. The President, in turn, dele
gates to different campus bodies
and persons various functions and
responsibilities. He has delegated
to ... in this case RWGA, the
power 'to initiate rules of life and
action. He invites this actively, sub
ject always to his review . . and he
is charged by law to disapprove or
modify decisions which in his dis
cretion he judges to be unwise in
the overall interests of the college.”
“The Dean of Women is the
special advisor to the President on
matters relating to the life and ac
tions of women students have. The
Dean of Women is called upon to
express her points of view or rec
ommendations on proposed actions
by RWGA. She does not veto. The
President vetoes if any is done, or
modifies.” But certainly, as the
President goes on to say, he “gives
extended consideration” to the
Dean's views.
Conference
On Radical
Southern History
By Alex Hurdcr
White Southerners justifiably
call themselves rebels. The long
struggle of Southern rebels against
the system of big business and
Northern capitalism will the theme
of a CONFERENCE ON RADICAL
SOUTHERN HISTORY to be held
at Emory University in Atlanta,
Georgia on April 18-20.
The conference has been
planned by the Southern Student
Organizing Committee. It will fea
ture speakers, discussions and pan
els, ill emphasizing the radical role
which Southern working people
have played in the history of this
country. Papers on Southern his
tory written by Southern students
will be printed and distributed.
Black people have begun to
realize the necessity of learning
their own history. They have had to
learn that the black rebellion did
not begin in 1960 or in 1954, but
that it is as old as the presence of a
black working class in America. But
the white Southerner is still largely
unaware that he has a history of
combatting the system which has
made him poor
The mass media tell us only that
Southerners are racist and conserva
tive. School textbooks tdl us little
about ibe South that we can be
proud of. The April CON
FERENCE ON RADICAL SOUTH
ERN HISTORY will deal with
those suppressed events of South
ern history which are necessary to
cent men and women and
children who otherwise
are doomed.
Have the courage to
put your own words into
actions. "
In addition. President Harris
modified RWGA’s request for
changes in the women’s hours by
restricting the hours on Monday
through Thursday to 11 p.m. in
both MEP and the Freshman dorm,
instead of the proposed 12 p m. in
MEP. He says, however, “I am open
to debate on these hours...” and
RWGA hat approached him asking
him to reconsider the change.
President Harris also stated that
“1 am anxious to have the expres
sion of the assembled opinion of
.the Mercer women students
through RWGA. They must live by
the rules, and hence should share
with me a responsibility for them.”
Also, in regard to policy making,
it should be clear that the Presi
dent, in conjunction with the Dean
of Women, makes the polocics.
Beth Daniels, President of RWGA,
talked at length with Mr. Haywood
about this, and was told that he
(Mr. Haywood) finds, after notifica
tion by the President of a policy
change, the additional money that
the new rule or policy requires. Mr.
Haywood’s job is to budget the fin
ancial affairs, not to approve or
make policy.
In closing it remains true that
there must be, in all campus, mat
ters, close communication, coopera
tion, and trust among the students,
their representative, and all admini
strators; only then will the best re
sults for all concerned be obtained.
an understanding of the rebel tradi
tion.
For instance, few Southern
whites remember that in 1934 over
half the workers in Southern textile
mills walked off their jobs and re
fused to go back to work under
conditions that amounted to slav
ery. The more than 170,000 freed
mill workers were rounded up by
National Guardsmen and sent back
to the mills. In Georgia, the men
who quit work were placed in con
centration camps until the mills
were operating aga
Few remember thalin 1908 coal
miners in Alabama went on strike
against the Northern-owned Ten
nessee Coal and Iron Company.
Striking black and white workers
were evicted from their company-
-owned homes. They set up an inte
grated tent city in northern Ala
bama. The tents were burned down
by State Troopers. Black and white
workers repeated the strike in
1921 The walkout of 48,000
Philip Mullock, professor of law
at Mercer University’s Walter F.
George School of Law has been
conferred the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in philosophy by the Uirivcr-
sity of Oxford.
The degree was conferred on the
basis ai Dr. Mullock’s studies, at
the Universities of Oxford and
Pittsburg, of analytical philosophy
and mathematical logic. As a result
of these studies he wrote s doctoral
thesis demonstrating how new de
velopments of mathematical logic
can be usefully applied in illuminat
ing problem areas in the philosophy
of law and morals.
Dr. Mullock has been on the
faculty of the Mercer law'school
since 1959. He was conferred the
Juris Doctor degree by the Univer
sity of Chicago in 1958 and the
Master of Laws degree by the Uni
versity of Vaginia in 1959.
He is a member of the Georgia
and Vuginia Sate Bar Associations
and of The Queen’s College, Ox
ford. Dr. Mullock has written
various articles for professional
publications.
WHAT TO WEAR
(ACP) - The Forty-Niner, Cali
fornia Sate College at Long Beach.
For the coed who doesn't have a
thing to wear for the next protest
march, a London boutique has just
the thing; Featured is a drew in
deep red, shiny, aluminum-backed
Milium (sheds rain) with large, clear
plastic inserts center back and front
upon which to scrawl your message.
miners shut down all the mines in
the sate.
In 1928 President Harding tent
the 19th Infantry of the U. S.
Army into West Virginia to break
up a strike and a protest march of
while coal miners in that Appals
chian state. The Infantry invaded
West Virginia with tanks, airplanes
and machine guns in what
threatened to become a civil war
Union organizing was halted in
West Virginia for years.
These are only some of the in
stances in which Southern rebels
have halted mills and mines with
demands for unions, decent wages
and human working conditions.
The CONFERENCE ON RAD
I CAL SOUTHERN HISTORY will
examine these and other historic
events and why they failed, why
the South is still the poorest region
in the nation, and why unionisation
is still denied to many Southern
working people.
Wc\t jHercer Cluster
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