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THE BATTALION
THE BATTALION
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Mechanical College of Texas.
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Entered as second-class matter at College Station, Texas, Feb. 17, 1905.
HAZING.
The News is of the opinion that the inquiry that has been conducted at
Austin concerning hazing at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, is
nothing more nor less than the gratuitous raising of a storm in a teacup.
Not all of us have had the pleasure and the privilege of attending a college
or a university, but The News ventures to say that, of those who have, some
thing like ninety-nine per cent are reading the reports of this investigation
with mingled feelings of disgust and amusement. The whole question is,
after all, so trivial in comparison with the weightier problems which the
Legislature has before it as to cause the average citizen of the State, we
think, to regard with fidgety disapproval the mere consideration of the
matter.
“Boys will be boys,” is an old expression, and yet it is one that we
would do well to ponder over occasionally. No one can ever hope or ex
pect to make angels out of a group of virile and energetic young men. In
quiries and legislation to the contrary notwithstanding, hazing can never
be wholly abolished at the Agricultural and Mechanical College or at any
other college in the United States. Furthermore, The News thinks it a good
omen and a fortunate one that it can not be done away with.
Every one who has gone to college knows that there is nothing ma
licious in the practice of hazing. In the large majority of cases, the hazed
enjoys his hazing to just as great an extent as do those who administer it.
A spanking with a wooden paddle does, of course, hurt to some extent, and
yet the boy who goes to college and who is not the recipient of some such
attentions is disappointed. He knows, as all students know, that the popular
freshmen are the ones who get paddled the most. Those who are left strictly
alone are usually not of the “goodfellow” type, and the neglect of the upper
classment to haze them is a silent sign that they are not eligible to the
ranks of congeniality and good-fellowship.
A certain amount of good-natured hazing is good for the recipient and
good for the college at which it is practiced. Hazing is a form of initiation.
The practice comes from one of the fundamental wellsprings of human na
ture. It is practiced in many places other than in colleges. The “horseplay”
of the various fraternal orders is hazing. The “roughing” of the old-time
cowpuncher who joined a new outfit was hazing. The ordeal which a cub
-^reporter on a newspaper is put through by his fellow-reporters and his city
editor in order to “try him out” is hazing. Hazing is, in short, an almost
universal institution, and its practice may be traced back to the customs and
manners even of our primeval ancestors. It is, in the last analysis, merely
the testing out of the “spunk” and the mettle of a man, and unfortunate is
he who fails to pass the test, or who is considered too far out of the pale to
be subjected to it.
If the Legislature is going to investigate hazing, why not let the
inquiry extend to all the walks of life? It can then close up shop at Austin
and spend the rest of its life at the job.
The testimony of a former student at the Agricultural and Mechan
ical College, J. C. Allen of Mart, a youth of 19 years old, is, we think, more
nearly indicative of the normal attitude of the average “fiish” or freshman,
than has been the testimony of some previous witnesses who appeared be
fore the committee. Allen testified that while a student he was hazed in the
manner described by previous witnesses. His first hazing was about thirty
minutes after his arrival. A bunch of boys from his home used a “fish killer”
on him. The “fiish killers” were not used in an inhuman or cruel manner.
Sometimes they would sting a little, but he did not mind it. The sophs forced
him to sing to them occasionally, and recite poetry. He sang “Home, Sweet
Home,” and “Until We Meet Again.” He was whipped about once a day
during his stay at the college, he said, and became used to it. He took it as a
joke, and believed a freshman had as much fun out of it as any one else. He
left A. and M., he said, with kindly feelings for the college. He had never
known of any student who left on account of cruel treatment by upper class-
(men. When he went to A. and M., he said, he expected to be hazed and
would have been disappointed if he had not got it. Whippings were given
with boards, bayonets and belts.
Cross-questioned by Cullen Thomas, the witness said that he had been
treated courteously by the college authorities. He had not reported the haz
ing incidents to them because he did not feel like it. The sophs were never
angry when they whipped the freshmen, he explained. The freshmen also
took the whippings good-naturedly, as a rule. A few of the boys probably
carried hazing too far, but he believed on the whole hazing was a good
thing, as it resulted in friendship, sportsmanship and fellowship.—The Dal
las News.
AN ALUMNUS PUBLISHES OPINION ON A. AND M. HAZING.
The A. and M. Hazing Incident.
To the Editor of The Post:
McKinney, Texas, February 19.—Notwithstanding the experience of
the Legislature of 1913 in its attempt to abolish hazing at the Agricultural
and Mechanical College, which resulted in the expulsion of 500 students, in
the disruption of the college, and in an effort on the part of its enemies to
move the institution to Austin, we are again witnessing a legislative investi
gation, along the same lines. If history repeats itself, nothing but harm to
the college can come of it and possibly another law against hazing will be
passed.
I realize that members of the legislature are driven on by grossly
exaggerated charges of brutal and outrageous treatment of certain students
of the Agricultural and Mechanical College and not withstanding the psy
chology of hazing, in a large military school, they as well as large numbers
of people throughout the State are taking the matter very seriously.
Now it is not my intention in this article to defend the practice of
hazing, but I do want to try to show the boys’ side of it.
During my four years ’stay at the A. and M., I never saw a single
instance of brutal or outrageous hazing of any student. While it has been
a number of years since my student days, I have kept in close touch with
conditions at the College, through numerous visits and personal contact with
members of the student body and I have not heard of a single case of hazing
that could be characterized as outrageous or brutal, and I firmly believe that
if the testimony could be taken of the hundreds of alumni of the College,
many of whom occupy the highest positions in the business and professional
world, their testimony would be the same as mine.
What is termed as hazing has been practiced to a greater or less
degree by the students of the A. and M. since its foundation. The main
features consist of spanking freshmen, making them carry upper classmen’s
trunks, sing, dance and recite poetry. These indignities, if one sees fit to
call them that, are administered in a spirit of fun and comradeship, com
mon in red-blooded boys of this nation, and not in the spirit of wild Com-
manche Indians, bent on the torture of some hated enemy, as some seem to
believe.
The college spirit of loyalty of the A. and M. alumni and student body
is unsurpassed. If they were brutally and outrageously hazed, as some
people seem to think, how is one to account for the great love they bear
fheir alma mater.
It has been my observation that there are two types of boys. One is
a boy who does not get along with the student body at A. and M. One is a
boy who believes he is better than his fellows and that he is too good to be
subjected to the pranks which it has been the custom of years to practice on
freshmen. This kind of a boy is usually a mollycoddle and tattletale and na
turally makes himself unpopular.
Another type is a boy who gives way to homesickness and complains of
hazing to his parents, hoping to get their consent to leave school.
I feel that I speak advisedly when I say that it is from these two types
and their parents or friends that most of the complaints of hazing come.
From the thousands of other red-blooded, real 100 per cent American
boys, who have attended the College no one has ever hard a word of com
plaint. They feel nothing but affection for old A. and M. and her traditions.
Then why because of the complaints of a few boys who on account of
their disposition, are unable to adapt themselves to the student life at A. and
M., should the College be subjected to periodical legislative investigation
such as has almost wrecked the institution in time past ?
It is a matter of my personal knowledge that President Bizzell, Major
Ike Ashburn, several regular army non-commissioned officers, as well as
the entire staff of cadet officers of A. and M. are doing all in their power to
stop hazing, so what can the legislature do that they are not doing?
<. It is very easy to say, stop 1800 boys cooped up on a campus for
months from playing what they consider harmless pranks on each other, but
doing it is a different matter.
The government has been unable to stop it at West Point or the Naval
Academy. The State of Virginia has been unable to stop it at V. M. I. So
what right have we to expect our Texas boys at A. and M. to be different
from other American boys ? I’ll admit that they are not angels. Neither
are they devils.
If I should be called upon by the investigating committee to say in
my opinion whether hazing as practiced at A. and M. College is good or
harmful for boys, I should say that it is good, because it teaches a boy to
meet strangers under all conditions. If he has any inclination to be snobbish
or a cad, it soon takes it out of him. He becomes democratic in his ideas
and is made to realize that, what a boy is, and not what he has, really counts.
At A. and M. everybody is on the same footing. The uniforms cover the
rich and poor alike. F. D. PERKINS.
—Houston Post, February 23, 1921.
AS A MATTER OF PRIDE.
According to college papers the “short skirt” and dancing “evils” are
rapidly becoming noticeable at the various educational institutions over the
country. Whether this is due to the initiative of some over-critical editor
whose comments started the wave of articles through the college publica
tions, or whether the numerous articles appearing have ample grounds for
complaint, we are not prepared to state. Nevertheless, whatever foundation
such articles may have, it is a matter of pride with us that at no time and
from no source have criticisms unfavorable to the college dances come to our
ears. As for short skirts—we have nothing to say. Spiral leggings and
leather “puts” are all that greet the College Station eye with anything like
regularity.
A REMINDER.
For those who have not yet written the “regular fellow” letter to his
dad this week, we wish to recall the fact that this is the week designated over
the country as “Father and Son Week.” Every son who is away from home
and the greatest man he knows of, his dad, should take the time to write an
especially long letter to his father. Tell him of the trivial things you usually
neglect. Take him into your confidence and open up with your plans, inter
ests, and work. He will appreciate it more than you will ever realize.
THE L. S. U. GAMES.
For the first time this season the Aggies witnessed the defeat of their
fighting Farmers on home territory. The effect was marvelous as the score
on the succeeding night indicated. Defeat seems to instill the old fight more
deeply than ever in Farmer teams. The loss of a game brings pep and spirit
of the corps to its highest point. The “Tigers” have the bettter end of the
scoring this season, yet we enjoy contests with them to the fullest. L. S. U.
has good teams, and teams that fight clean and hard. It is a pleasure to meet
them on field or court. Their quintet is the best that has ever played on the
local court this season. We salute the “Tigers”.
THE LOVING ARE THE DARING.
James J. Montague.
(Dancing is a regular part of the
training as West Point.—And should
be at A. and M.)
When a gallant cadet whizzes by with
his girl
To the jazz’s unrithmical beat.
Or joins in the dizzy, bewildering
whirl
With shimmying shoulders and feet,
And only at intervales pauses to puff
In the course of a hard dancing night,
Don’t think that he’s pulling unsoldier-
ly stuff,
For that's how they teach him to fight.
The lad who would stand undismayed
in a trench
Or calmly go over the top
Has often been noticed to shudder and
blench
While dragging a Jane through a hop.
The mind that can master the intri
cate dope
That the writers on strategy plot
Too often is sadly unable to cope
With the one-step, the glide or the
trot.
Wild war’s worst alarums have never
been known
A veteran dancer to stun;
Cadets who can skip to a braying
trombone
Never flinch at the roar of a gun.
And leading a wallflower out on the
floor
Who is lacking in litheness and beauty,
Implants in the earnest young student
of war,
Unswerving devotion to duty.
And so, thoug;h you fancy that danc
ing’s a sport
Unsuited to soldierly deeds—
Like crushing a salient or storming a
fort—
It’s quite what an officer needs.
Cadets who for four years through
the maze of the dance
Have side-stepped and eddied and
whirled,
If ever a mixup should give them a
chance
Will easily lick the whole world.
THE SLEUTH.
Now Barnes and Scudder are two nice
little men,
They always get home by half-past
ten.
But what they do, and where they go,
Is something we all should know.
Now, I am on to their little scheme;
Each night they borrow a snug lim
ousine.
And each in his turn takes the driv
er’s seat.
To roll up after his lady so sweet.
Now Barnes has a line that makes ’em
all fall;
And Scudder wasn’t built to be lone
some at all—
So we watched the speedometer for
two hours or more,
And it showed the miles they travel
ed was not quite four.
Now this same night we saw them
again,
And late as it was it was only half
past ten;
Their appearance was dirty, and their
countenance sad—
They kept mumbling about the hard
luck they’d had.
Now these men are proud and silent
as soup;
And if they knew I saw they’d knock
me for a loop—
But I was there and by the light so
dim,
I watched them change tires and come
home on the rim.
RIFLE TEAM AT TEXAS.
At a meeting of several students
of Texas University a rifle team was
organized and officers elected. This
team will meet the A. and M. Rifle
team some time in the spring. Plans
were made to meet some of the local
Austin teams during the season. Be
fore the war, the athletic depart
ment gave “T”s to members on the
team and an effort is being made to
have the custom revived.
——*>
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Graduate Optometrist and
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Office: Caldwell’s Jewelry
Store
Bryan, ....
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