Newspapers / North Carolina Wesleyan University … / April 4, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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Editorial THE DECREE has recently found itself in a radical position. As this has not always been the case, the question becomes: has THE DECREE changed, or has its situation changed? We believe that our editorial record has been con sistent throughout the past year in endorsing and urging student power and students’ rights, in supporting the ideal of mutual respect among the members of the Wesleyan community, and in expecting the college ad ministration to keep its public and private promises. Such editorial statements have in the past not brought administration criticism or pressure to bear on us; and yet suddenly we find the full force of administra tion disapproval bearing down on us. As the facts broke about Mr. Hall’s dismissal, faculty members suddenly feared to be quoted in the press; the admin istration suddenly became unwilling to give us any more facts; and THE DECREE’S faculty advisor was sud denly subjected to great pressure to censor the story on Mr. Hall’s dismissal. We have, then, been journalistically consistent both in spirit and in fact and until now have received pa ternal approval from the administration. We can only conclude that the uncovering of the facts about Mr. Hall s dismissal has made it highly inconvenient for the administration to stick to its past declarations of principles. We are, indeed, sorry for the inconvenience to the administration; we do hope that their resort will be to honesty — at least within our community — rather than to blackening THE DECREE or Mr. Hall. ACUUTY D SToA.'J TV\«, U)V\‘»cV\ To 4rova ToftHics aovVtClinv Tell Tt^ee^ Vao1r QcT. A. Cc>U>ri^ ORUM by Dr. Allen S. Johnson In the past few years increasing attention has been paid by social scien tists and public figures to the problem of world population. Sir Julian Huxley, the eminent Brit ish biologist and lecturer, calls the population ex plosion ‘ the most im portant and the most ser ious of all the problems now besetting the human species.” Numerous demographers have pre dicted that if the world population continues to grow at the present rate, the human race in the next few decades will out grow all possible in creases in food supply. The only possible result, if this occurs, is war — war on a mass scale un dreamed of, war of the ‘‘haves” against the “have-nots.” We are on a collision course with catastrophe, and we show no signs of changing course in time. All these ideas have been presented repeat edly to the Western world, but thus far they have not shaken our apathy. The Roman Catholic pontiff has taken a rigid position against birth control within his com munion, a position chal lenged by laymen and clerics in the Church,but still the official position, Americans themselves usually take the firm at titude that the underde veloped world ought to take steps to control its population — but of course that isn’t our im mediate concern. Ameri cans have no problem with food supply. If anything, our problem is that we are too well fed. Nowhere in the Western world is there mass hunger. Too little attention is paid, however, to the un fortunate effects which population pressure is producing within the Unit ed States. We still look upon our own rapid in crease in population not with alarm but with pride. This is a holdover from a day when we were pop ulating a largely empty continent; we are no long er. Yet chambers of commerce still actively promote population grow th, and TV masters of ceremonies tout mothers of twelve as heroines. Acutally, the day of large broods of children is past. The average A- merican family today has only two or three chil dren. Most of our popu lation growth in this coun try results not from high birth rate as in the un derdeveloped countries but from a drastic lower ing of the death rate. Infant mortality has been practically eliminated,as have contagious diseases. But if our birth rate is not adjusted to approxi mate the lowering death rate, we will have the problem of continually expanding population. En terprising demographers project that if the pre sent rate of growth con tinues, in 365 years the United States as a whole will be as densely popu lated as New York City is now, and in 772 years— assuming we could still feed them — there would be only one square foot per person. Of course, such standing-room-only would in itself solve the problem! What is population pressure doing to us now as a society? Almost all tiie growth in population is taking place in cities, and the greatest amount in the sprawling mega lopolises such as that which stretches unbroken from Richmond to Bos ton. The problems which megalopolis presents — in housing, fire protec tion, air and water pol lution, employment and especially police protec tion and education — are even now getting com pletely beyond the power of municipal governments to solve. But perhaps ±e most serious aspects of over crowding are in the field of psychology. Gigantism in city growth exposes its inhabitants to fierce tensions and increasing frustration, to the anony mity of masses, to alien ation, irrational aggres sion and despair. Some of this, at least, is ow ing purely to overcrowd ing. Psychologists exper imenting with rat colonies say that rats, well fed and ventilated and cared for in every respect ex cept being overcrowded for long periods, will ul timately become “psy chotic” and begin behav ing in ways quite un-rat- like, How directly this principle can be applied to human behavior is, of course, problem matical and not subject to demon stration. I would venture the guess, however, that the rise in crime rate owes at least as much to overcrowding in cities as to decisions of the Su preme Court. And this only beings the catalogue of the ill effects of over population. So what do we do about it? Every day that passes makes the problem worse,and few Americans even recognize that pop ulation is a problem for uSo Some countries, faced by economic necessity, have undertaken massive re-education campaigns by the national govern ment and have succeed ed in stabilizing popula tion. Japan is a perti nent example. But first we must become concern ed— not only about the world’s problems, but a- bout our own. The tech niques of population con trol and of mass educa tion already exist. The money to finance a world wide educational project would be only a tiny frac tion of the cost of our moon project. What is lacking is a conviction on the part of the Amer ican people — and we are the only ones who can do the job — that the problem is urgent and must be solved. We are incredibly complacent, and until we get concern ed as a nation we will re main on a collison course with disaster. Dr. Davis (Continued from Page 1) Rocky Mount; freshman writing award, the Rocky Mount Rotary Club; Wes leyan Players Award (dramatics) given anono- mously; outstanding ath lete of the year. Rocky Mount Civitan Club; Phariss - Strickland French Award, given a- nonomously; John Paul Jones History Award, the Nash County Committee of Colonial Dames; out standing academic a- chievement. Rocky Mount Kiwanis Club; Dean of Students Award, to out standing student organi zations given by the dean; leadership and service a- ward for women, the Pilot Club of Rocky Mount; leadership and service a- ward for men, given by the college chaplain;and President s Cup Award senior Thomas to outstanding from President A. Collins. Special awards include three science awards given to students major ing in biology, chemistry, and mathematics; and the most valuable soccer player award, from Coach Bill Music. Carnival (Continued From Page 1) Chairman Bill Brantley also expressed his or ganization’s thanks to the two social fraternities, Nu Gamma Phi and Al pha Delta Chi, for their contribution to the eleva tor fund. ‘Crucible’ (Continued From Page 1) guilt and frustrated by a narrow faith which he cannot bring himself to deny. Carolyn Estes in the role of Abigail Williams proved herself an actress of competence and skill Her task was first to create a complex charac ter for the audience and then to devise a secondary character for the audience and then to devise a secon dary character whose de ceptions can motivate the other actors; she carried it off beautifully. Eileen O’Grady, in a role entirely unfamiliar (Continued On Page 3) CXtt Official Student Newspaper of North Carolina Wesleyan College t-DIIOR _ ^ sj„it:h manager ,...Tom Mowbray r nfrffr J°hn Hinnant ni manager. .....JoelMartin PniTo Julie Robinson Pwrwnr’uVo ^^'"^ISTANT ....Marsha White PR n n r r.^ .Baxter Smith tROJLCIS DIVISON MANAGER....... John Dorsey lousiness Address: Box 3146, Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, North Carolina WEiiKLY BY WESLEYAN STUDENTS. ^''-''^LISHLD do NOT NECESSARILY _K1J RLbLN I IflOSL OF WESLEYAN COLLEGE.
North Carolina Wesleyan University Student Newspaper
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April 4, 1969, edition 1
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