110-Mile Walk

In North Carolina, where tobacco talks, Trinity [Methodist] College changed its name to Duke University for $1,000,000 a year of the late James B. Duke's money. Last week 112-year-old Wake Forest [Baptist] College agreed to walk no miles for some Camel cigaret money.

The college voted to move from Wake Forest (pop. 1,800), in the eastern part of the state, to Winston-Salem, the Camel capital. The lure: a free campus--probably "Reynolda," the 300-acre estate of Tobacco Heir (and Presbyterian) Zachary Smith Reynolds*--and $350,000 annual income. The college will keep its name and Baptist independence. The catch: North Carolina Baptists must raise $4 million to pay for the new buildings in Winston-Salem. Last week Wake Forest's Board of Trustees and the Baptist General Board voted that it could be done--and talked enthusiastically of a campus twelve times as big as its present magnolia-shaded 24-acre one. Wake Forest could then have 3,000 students instead of 1,224.

Wake Forest's decision to move must be ratified by North Carolina's 600,000 Baptists in state convention in November, but most Baptists thought the chances were good. The Rev. Dr. Levy L. Carpenter, who edits the official Baptist Biblical Recorder, was not so optimistic. The offer, he said, is "magnificent." But, warned he: "Wake Forest may lose its soul as a denominational and Christian institution if it accepts such a large gift from outside sources."

* Reynolds, at 20, was found shot dead at Reynolda in 1932. His second wife, Torch Singer "Libby" Holman, and his secretary were indicted for murder, but charges were later dropped.

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