University of the South - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Sewanee, TN)

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fewer persons engaged in agriculture than ever before. Citv life unfounded on the soil is the only life many Southerners know. It may be objected that there have always been cities and city-folk; but even in the city, the .Southerner has vet never remained too far from the soil. The South is still very much land-oriented, but forces are at work which can eventually re- duce significantly the Southerner ' s traditional feel for land. As Southerners move from the land, literally and figuratively, the old sense or order is lost to a certain de- gree, and old values become subject to change. The phenomenon of racial integration is something manv Southerners have found hard to ac- cept, yet the ease with which some of the South has accomodated itself is surprising. Southern religion is changing, becoming less a part of the total community life. Southerners are, to a certain extent, losing contact i?

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with their neighbors. But just as it is easv to overemphasize the virtues of the old South, so it is to concentrate too much on the changes in the new South. A strong argument can be made that many Southerners are try- ing, and succeeding, in retaining old values. We are not giving up our basic sense of humanism. The ques- tion now facing the South is how much, in the process of change, tradi- tional beliefs will also change: whether we shall embrace a new code, or retain that core of belief which is distinctively our heritage. We have the choice. In a very real sense, it is the same question with which Sewanee has to deal today. The face of Sewanee has changed a great deal in the last de- cade or two. We have gained a new librarv and science hall, we have new dormitories. Change has been more than physical, however. The year just passed has witnessed several truly remarkable changes in the traditional