THE TEXAS AGGIE.
Published Semi-Monthly at the A. & M.
Press, College Station, Texas, except dur-
ing the summer months, when issued
monthly by the Association of Former
Students of the Agricultural and Mechan-
ical College of Texas, College Station,
Texas.
1.. A. Ubr, '17 President
Tyree lL. Bell, 218s. ........000 Vice President
E. E. McQuillen, ’20...Executive Secretary
L.. B.. Locke, ?18............ Assistant Secretary
Subscription Price $5.00
Entered as Second Class Matter at
College Station, Texas
E. E. McQuillen................ Publisher
Directors
Knox lee, #208... cccvecci fan. Marshall
H.S KB -Deason, ’16:... » Li ns Port Arthur
Joe M. McRevnolds, ’22....... ..__....Mineola
F. D. Perkins, 97 McKinney
W. B. Francis, ’15 Dallas
Estil Y. Cunningham, ’10.......... Corsicana
W. L. Ballard, ’22
C..iR. Haile, .’12.......0%...4.
J... A. Stark, -’21
Elmore R. Torn,
WoC. "Tortenee; 18... Li ete i iciteninn Waco
Phil 'S: Groginski,«*16................. Fort Worth
C.D. Dodson, 20Y..........co..c.clictimmetefinis Decatur
T. B. Warden, ’03 Austin
Pl EsBorfle, 23) i nlc inti Brownsville
Marcus Gist, ’22 Odessa
W."W. Whipkey.: 21L...........c.ouunmsens Colorado
Oscar A. Seward, ’017..........cw.ie.... Groesbeck
A. P. Duggan, ’95 Littlefield
George G. Smith, ’30................ San Antonio
Richard E. Homann, ’27.. Junction
€. +1. Babcock, 17........... Beaumont
Col. "Pi Ti. LDOWNE,: "TD tik eroriirmimismsiete Temple
Albert G. Pfaff, ’27 Tyler
T. W. Mohle, ’19 Houston
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE '
1.-A.'Ohz, 717 San Antonio
Tyree L. Bell, ’15 Corsicana
E.R. Torn ,’27 Taylor
T. W. Mohle, ’19 Houston
Oscar A. Seward, ’07
STUDENT LOAN FUND TRUSTEES
1.4. Uhr, “U7 San Antonio
A. PF. Mitchell, 209.000 ccciiunrsissases Corsicana
E. E. McQuillen, ’20............ College Station
REPRESENTATIVES ON ATHLETIC
: COUNCIL
C. A. Thanheiser, ’01 Houston
Albert G. Pfaff, ’27 Tyler
THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
An ancient Greek legend told of
a robber named Procrustes, who
made his captives fit into a certain
bed by stretching those too short
or amputating those too long.
Usually there is a sort of teach-
ing implied in Greek legends or fa-
bles. Procrustes must be the patron
saint of those who would have
everyone think alike. He has a
large following in Russia, Ger-
many and Italy. In all three coun-
tries it is unsafe to differ from the
set standards of belief ordained by
those in authority. Such leaders, of
course, assume that their stand-
ardized beliefs are the principles
of a perfect system of society.
By contrast, the Anglo-Ameri-
can world, after centuries of pain-
ful experience, climaxed from time
to time by revolutions like those of
the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies, developed a system of gov-
ernment that permits free thought
and the free expression of one’s
opinions. Unfortunately in both
Great Britain and the United Stat-
es there are numerous followers
of Procrustes' who believe that, in
this country for instance, the 130,-
000,000 of inhabitants should in
religion or in politics all believe
what the self-appointed censors
think they should believe.
These Procrusteans, of course,
have the right to think as they do
but they have no right to compel
others to agree with them, com-
pelling all to fit into the same bed.
They are incipient Bolshevists or
Reds or they are Fascists, either
German of Italian in kind. If by
chance they should dominate the
Government in State or Nation they
would develop fixed systems, ini-
mical to democracy, even though
they conscientiously believed that
in so doing they were ‘“safe-guard-
ing the bulwarks of society.”
Yet nothing is truer than that
social progress comes by the clash
of differences in opinion, freely ex-
pressed, resulting in the survival
of the best in all and the elimina-
tion of the worst in each. 3
In this country there is much
ado about our high schools, col-
leges and universities. Our Pro-
crusteans charge that these are
radical and un-American. As a
matter of fact, students and teach-
ers with very few exceptions are
more truly Americans than are
their accusers. These have fixed be-
liefs and assume that society mov-
es backward, not forward. From
our higher educational institutions
of today will come probably four
fifths of tomorrow’s leaders, who
will attain leadership because they
are not afraid to think and to fol-
low their convictions. So-called rad-
icals, if oppressed, become worse
and cranky. Left alone, they cor-
rect one another’s errors and often
become wise leaders.
A wise Jew once said in sub-
stance, “Let those men alone. If
they speak falsely, their words will
fail. But if they speak truly, they
win, because God is with them.”
, | though badly burned hope was held
‘thing that every economically lit-
CARY NEBLET SMITH, ’34
Cary N. Smith, ’34, who died
following an explosion at Gulf,
Texas, on Thanksgiving Day, was
the son of Mr. and Mrs. Travis L.
Smith, Jr., ’98, 308 Hyde Park,
Houston. He was employed by the
Humble Oil and Refining Co., and
was at work installing a gas meter
when the accident occurred. Al-
for young Smith’s recovery until
shortly before his death in Hous-
ton on December 15th. His many
A. & M. friends join with the AG-
GIE in expressing to his bereaved
parents and brothers their deepest
sympathy.
TOMMY MAYO
HIS COLUMN
What becomes of our incomes,
anyhow? A part, of course, is spent
for goods and services such as buy-
ing shoes and having them shined.
The rest (darned little, if you ask
me!) is “saved”.
rk
But what becomes of “savings”?
(not only of yours, friend ex-Ag-
gie, but of those of the big shots
up North?) Well, the orthodox an-
swer is, I believe, that it is the
nation’s savings which, accumulat-
ed in banks and elsewhere into
large gobs, supply the necessary
capital for building factories, open-
ing mines, and in general starting
enterprises which produce useful
things for all of us and pay to us
poor devils the wages with which
to buy them and to lay up more
savings to invest in starting more
factories and so on ad infinitum.
* * -
My own childlike belief in this
charming rhythm has been some-
what rudely shaken by an article
in the November issue of “For-
tune” (of all places!), written by
Dr. Harold G. Moulton, head of
the infinitely respectable Brook-
ings Institution. In “The Trouble
with Capitalism Is the Capitalists,”
Dr. Moulton summarizes the fruits
of a gigantic research project re-
cently completed in four fat vol-
umes. What startled your corres-
pondent in the article was some-
erate person probably learned at
his economics prof’s knee: That
only a certain proportion of the
nation’s savings ever gets into pro-
ductive investment.
x * si
The rest (more than half of our
total savings between 1922 and
1929) is “frozen” in safe deposit
boxes, in investments in wild plac-
es like Peru, and in various forms
of sterile speculation which help
not at all to increase our supply of
useful goods or to give us more
jobs and consequently more buying
power.
Tarr
This was one jolt that Dr. Moul-
ton, with the whole ponderous
weight of the Brookings Institu-
tion behind his punch, gave to my
sense of economic all-rightness.
Another blow came from the main
ponit of the article and, indeed, of
the whole Brookings study.
ger Bae’
Capitalism works satisfactorily,
as I understand from this article,
just in proportion to the ease and
promptness with which prices go
down as profits and wages descend.
If the prices of certain important
kinds of goods go down fast
enough, things eventually get so
cheap that the nation as a whole
can begin again to buy in large
quantities, even with its diminished
income. Then the old roller-coaster
starts up the next slope, since to
satisfy this reviving demand, fac-
tories reopen and begin again to
sprinkle wages into the parched
pocket-books of the huge employee
class.
* * *
Round Pegs In
Square Holes
The Aggie is in receipt of an-
nouncements for Civil Service ex-
aminations to cover the following
positions; Senior Genetics (Hort-
(Horticul-
ture); (Horticul-
ture); Physiologist (Horticulture);
Pathologist (Horticul-
Assistant Physiologist
Cytologist
Morphologist
iculture);
Associate
ture);
(Horticulture). These positions pay
from $2600 to $4600 per year, and
applications for the examinations
must be on file with the Civil Ser-
vice Commission not later than
January 27, 1936.
Also announced are Assistant to
Technician (Forestry); Assistant
Geophysicist; Accountant and Aud-
itor; Assistant Accountant and
Auditor; Senior Accounting and
Auditing Assistant. Applications
must be on file not later than Jan-
uary 20, 1936.
Campus visitors during the holi-
days were Mr. and Mrs. Gordon R.
Thomason, ’26, of Chicago, Illinois.
Gordon is secretary-treasurer of
the Chicago A. & M. Club and
lives at 7669 Rogers Avenue, Chi-
cago. He is with the Mason-Neilan
Regulator Company. His work
takes him over most of the mid-
west. He reports that all A. & M.
| men in Chicago were getting along
satisfactorily and that they seem
to be enjoying their life in the
windy city.
cally, anyhow) why we have al-
ways climbed safely out of former
depressions (1873, 1893, etc.). Pric-
es were flexible in those days of
small independent competitors.
Whenever times began to get bad
and incomes to go down, prices
went down too, presumably be-
cause business men tried to keep
their worried heads above water
by undercutting each other.
* * Ed
But, Dr. Moulton says, in these
days of great monopolistic corpo-
rations, prices stick. They refuse
to fall as fas as, in bad times, they
ought to fall. Hence they fail to
reach the low level at which they
might tempt people to begin buy-
ing large quantities of the right
kind of goods. And so the upgrade
movement is painfully delayed if
not permanently prevented.
* * Ed
It all seemed very sad, and I
read along eagerly to find out the
answer. (I quickened my pace, that
is to say, to about the rate of
speed attained by the faster types
of snails.)
ES sk *
Alas! By way of solution, the
good Doctor merely remarked, in
more or less ringing tones, that
this situation constituted a chal-
lenge to American Business Men.
Now, I take it that prices stick
because the corportations, having
largely abolished competition in
certain key fields, are able to
make them stay fairly high and
find it profitable to do so. And
after all, who can blame an outfit
which makes steel, for example,
if it seeks its profit in bad times
in keeping prices high by making
less steel? Who is there to tell
such groups authoritatively to
open the throttle wider, making
more steel and selling it by lower-
ing the price?
Unfortunately, the apparently
profitable process of cutting pro-
duction would seem logically to in-
volve the firing of a lot of people,
and so of still further reducing the
national buying power. But surely
Capitalism rests on the principle
that each man (or corporation)
must seek, within the law, his own
profit. So how can Dr. Moulton’s
“Challenge to American Business
Men” induce them to let prices go
down unchecked—and thereby to
lose good money, temporarily, at
any rate. :
Well, shall we abolish the wicked
corporations and restore the free
competition of the brave days of
yore when men were men and
prices were flexible? One answer
is: Try and do it! Another is: With-
out corporation organization we
couldn’t to save our lives, get
enough goods produced to satisfy
our needs. All of which is very de-
pressing to the hopeful reader of
Dr. Moulton’s article. Perhaps, af-
ter all, he (this reader, I mean)
ought to have kept in his place
and read a murder mystery to be-
gin with. That would at least, in
the end, have identified the mur-
derer for him!
(From The Dallas News)
This, as I understand it, is (basi- |
WEDDINGS
Roberson - Saddler
Announcement has been made of
the wedding of Miss Nannie Faye
Saddler to Mr. Clarence W. Rober-
son, ’28, of Terrell. The wedding
was solemnized on December 18,
1935. Mr. and Mrs. Roberson are at
home at 604 N. Francis St., Ter-
rell, Texas.
Wright - Minter
News comes to us of the mar-
riage of Miss Mary Frances Min-
ter, of Midland, and Mr. Alfred P.
Wright, ’35, of Alice. Mr. and Mrs.
Wright are at home in Houston at
the present time.
Beckham - Orr
Miss Mary H. Orr, of Dallas, and
Mr. Will C. Beckham, ’25, of Dal-
las, were recently married at the
Kessler Park Methodist Church of
Dallas. They will make their home
in Dallas.
Shaw - Parks
The wedding of Miss Janie Parks
and Mr. Millard Shaw, ’35, of
Spring Creek, was solemnized at
the home of the bride’s parents,
Mr. and Mrs. A. FP. Parks, of
Farmersville. After a brief honey-
moon, Mr. and Mrs. Shaw are at
home in Lockhart, Texas, where
Shaw is an engineer for the Soil
Conservation Service located at
Lockhart. '
Herren - Meyers
This office has received the news
of the marriage of Miss Geraldyne
Elaine Meyers, of Detroit, to Mr.
John C. Herren, ’29, of Tulsa, Ok-
lahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Herren make
their home at 1335 S. Rockford,
Tulsa, Okla.
Shepherd - Atwood
The wedding of Miss Margaret
Atwood, of Beaumont, and Mr.
George W. Shepherd, ’33, of Beau-
mont, was celebrated on November
15, at the First Methodist Church.
Following a lovely wedding trip,
Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd are at home
at 2075 North Street, Beaumont,
Texas.
‘Wheless - Green
On November 16, Miss Frances
Green, of Dallas, became the bride
of Mr. Jesse H. Wheless, Jr., 26,
of Dallas. Mr. and Mrs. Wheless
are at home to their many friends
at 3914 Ross Avenue, Dallas, where
both are employed in the Resettle-
ment Administration offices.
Sloan - Munsey
On December 12, Miss Eleanor
Munsey, of Corsicana, became the
bride of Mr. Robert E. O. Sloan,
27, of San Saba, Texas. Attending
the couple were Mr. and Mrs. Paul
Sloan, ’31, a brother of the groom.
Mr. and Mrs. Sloan are at home
to their. friends at Floresville, Tex-
as, where “Bobby” is with the Soil
Conservation Service.
BIRTHS
Mr. and Mrs. H. D. Murray, ’31,
are receiving congratulations from
their many friends over the birth
of a little girl, born on December
24. Mr. and Mrs. Murray make
their home at Leford, Texas and
receive their mail at Box 839.
R. A. “Bob” Kern, ’12, is president
of Kern-Limerick Incorporated, 116
North Spring Street, Little Rock,
Arkansas. The company handles
road building and maintenance
machinery, and contractors equip-
ment and supplies and is one of
the largest of its kind in Arkan-
sas. While known as “Bob” in the
Razorback state, Kern will be re-
membered by his A. & M. friends
as “Tramp” Kern, who was a star
quarterback on the AGGIE teams
of his day.
S. Milton Stubbs, ’34, recently
received his appointment with the
soil conservation service and is lo-
cated at Lindale.
Ward W. Newport, ’33, has mov-
ed from Bryan to Groveton, where
he will be in charge of the rural
resettlement administration prog-
ram.
A. M. “Bud” Emery, Jr. ’33,
is with the Goodyear Tire and Rub-
ber Company at Dallas. He and
Mrs. Emery live at 4023 Hawthorne
suggestions of A. and M. men.
the writer given.
and preferably short.
SO OUR SONS
CAN HUNT
Dear Mac:
Several months ago, while I was
in North Dakota doing work on
wild life preservation, you asked
me to write about my experiences
with the Biological Survey. This is
the first chance I have had to com-
ply.
I started to work with the Bio-
logical Survey at DeWitt, Arkan-
sas on August 27, 1934. The work
was to be on the lands of the White
River Company, which were scat-
| tered along the White River from
above Clarendon, Arkansas to near-
ly Arkansas Post, Ark.
The country where we worked is
overflow land, covered with vary-
ing amounts of virgin timber, sec-
ond growth timber, and under-
brush, all timber being hardwood.
It is situated in the White River
bottom, but in the backwaters of
the Mississippi. All streams be-
tween the Mississippi, White Riv-
er, and Lagrue Bayou were equal-
izers, as the water would flow in
different directions, depending on
which stream was the highest.
The country had been logged
some by Fisher Body Company, but
the main sources of living were
fishing, gathering mussel shells,
and some moonshining. The fish
were catfish and buffalo. All river
people lived in house boats, either
on scow hulls, or on floater logs.
All year round transportation was
by motor boat, as a car could only
be used in the river bottoms about
six months of the year. Mail was
usually delivered by the fish boat
that ran twice a week. The main
event of the year was the duck
hunting season in the fall, when a
lot of out of state hunters came in
for hunting.
This is a migratory refuge for
waterfowl. The bottoms abound in
shallow lakes, old cutoff channels,
and some bayous for nesting places.
Food is provided by acorns, wild
grasses, and is within flying dis-
tance of the Arkansas rice belt.
The Arkansas rice belt around De
Witt, Stuttgart, St. Charles, and
Gillette was within 25 miles of
any part of the refuge. The ducks
eat waste rice, under weight rice
from the thresher, and if the crop
is not in before the main migration
is on, will raid the shocks.
This is an old but still somewhat
isolated part of Arkansas. Arkan-
sas Post was founded by La Salle
in the 1600’s and was the original
territorial capital of Arkansas. De
Witt was over a hundred years old
and was the county seat of Ark-
ansas, County. St. Charles was
possibly older than DeWitt, and
had been an important place in
steam boat days. It was the site
of a naval battle in the Civil War
in which the U. S. S. Mound City
was destroyed with 166 killed. Has
"declined since those days, but will
be the headquarters of the refuge.
At DeWitt and other towns in
the upland, I found the people very
friendly. Got along fine with the
river people. However, in the bot-
toms it is a breach of etiquette to
ask a man his name or his bus-
iness.
Was transferred from Arkansas
to North Dakota on April 26th,
leaving DeWitt that day. Had a
fine trip up till we got to Grand
Forks, North Dakota. Ran into a
snow storm at Devil’s Lake, North
Dakota and was tied up two days
by blocked roads. The night we got
to Minot, the temperature was 17
below zero. That in itself was quite
a shock for a Texan who never
had seen zero temperatures. Was
then transferred to Mohall, North
Dakota, which is northwest of Mi-
not, and thirteen miles from the
Canadian border.
Here we were to work in the
breeding grounds of the ducks. The
| kees, a few Southerners,
(This column hopes to serve as a clearing house for the opinions, the ideas and the
All communications must be signed and the address of
Thev must he free from libel. personal abuse or critical personalities,
Readers of THE ACGIE ave invited to express their views upon
ducks nest in the Souris River val-
ley and in pot holes on the prairie.
The country is a flat level plain,
except at the Souris River which
is from thirty feet to one hundred
feet below the surrounding plain
and the glacial pot holes or small
ponds on the prairie. This country
is all glacial and is covered with
as much as three hundred feet of
glacial drift. Never did see any
bed rock or stratified deposits as
we know them.
This is some of the country that
was described in the Saturday Ev-
ening Post in the spring of 1935.
Had a time getting the dust out of
my eyes, ears, and hair. Also had
a time with the dust even working
in a sealed transit. Was unable to
see the sun for solar observations
for several weeks at one time. Gave
up field work in disgust several
times on account of the dust. Some
land here was ruined by wind eros-
ion, and quite a lot of wheat and
small grain blown out of the
ground.
The country is very flat, with
the exception of near the Souris
River where the prairie is gashed
with steep sided ravines called cou-
lees. The only trees are in parts
‘of the river bottom, and along the
| pot holes in the prairie It is main-
ly a wheat, flax, and ranching
country. Is better at ranching than
anything else.
The government is buying the
river bottoms, and what hill land
necessary to round out the refuge.
This is all sectionized land and is
usually bought in square blocks of
a regular subdivision of a sec-
tion. They are building dams to
flood portions of the valley, so as
to restore nesting places. It is hop-
ed also that the river water will
restore ground water level on the
prairies, and provide a resting
place for sea gulls. The sea gulls
destroy the grass hoppers which
are far worse than any I have seen
in Texas. Some of this land was
drained about 1918, and has never
made a good crop, and some of the
land that was making good crops
is now too dry.
There are three CCC camps on
the refuges now, clearing timber,
building roads, and planting aqua-
tic plants. They also riprapped the
branch line of the Soo Ry where
it crosses the refuge. They are
trying to have things partly ready
in the nesting grounds for the 1936
breeding season.
The people where I was are most-
ly Norwegians. Found a few Yan-
some
Irish, some Germans, and a few
Swedes.
The climate is cold most of the
year. The ground did not thaw out
till two weeks after Easter, and
the first killing frost was the 30th
of August. Ground was frozen by
Oct. 20. Fires felt good in June,
and had to be started again by
Sept. 10. Left there November 23,
and the thermometer had been as
much as seventeen below.
Was transferred to the Sabine
Lake refuge, with headquarters at
Orange, Texas. Have been working
in Cameron Parish, Louisiana,
around Hackberry, Louisiana, most
of the time. This is a winter refuge.
Am on the Orange-Cameron Land
Company land which is known bet-
ter to most Texans as Lutcher
Stark’s land. This is muskrat and
duck swamp. Will have to travel to
work in a motor boat, and live in
a trapping camp while on the job.
Have not been on the job enough
as yet to tell a lot about it.
In my travels around, I have
worked with G. E. McDaniel, Jr.,
17, CBE, G 7. Harris, Ex. 23.
Have run across several A. & M.
men here and one ’33 Petroleum
Engineer at Hackberry, Louisiana.
Yours truly
J. F. Kerr, "23, C.E.
P. 0. Box 729
Orange, Texas.
J. P. “Jake” Hamblen, ’25, is
sales manager of the Southern
Electric Supply Company, 1605
Preston Avenue, Houston. He re-
ports that his company is prepared
to do a big line of business this
year.
Donald C. Glass, ’33, has been
with the Humble Oil and Refining
Company since his graduation and
at present is located at Greta, Tex-
as. His mailing address, however,
is 511 Castano Avenue, San Anto-
nio.