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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1928)
4 THE BATTALION THE BOTTALIOM Published every Wednesday nitht by the Students’ Association of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Subscription price $1.76 per Year. ALL ADS RUN UNTIL ORDERED OUT Accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized October 18, 1922. All undergraduates in the College are eligible to try for a place on the Editorila Staff of this paper. Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors who are interested in journalism for its own sake, are urged to make themselves known to some member of the Staff. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor -Associate Editor Sports Editor Associate Sports Editor Assistant Sports Editor News Editor '. Associate News Editor Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor Exchange Editor Associate Exchange Editor Literary Editor Associate Literary Editor -Associate Literary Editor BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager - Assistant Business Manager Circulation Manager W. C. MORRIS R. R. PEEPLES L. J. FRANKE P. C. FARRIS , W. L. KENNEDY T. A. P1LKEY G. O. MOUNT J. M. HOLMES E. L. ANDREWS W. T. COLEMAN J. J. LOVING R. H. SHUFFLER H. D. MAPLES R. O. PEARSON E. R. LAWRENCE W. C. JOHNSON W. C. TIMMERMAN G. M. WRENN J. X. HUDSON L. N. BOURLAND M. X. DIETXRT J. K. FONTAINE ....... A SHORT STORY WRITTEN EX PRESSLY TO AND FOR THE BAT’S NON-EXISTENT LITER ARY PAGE. All the possible acts of man come under two general heads, those he can do and those he would like to do; once in a great while some individual endowed with more than his ordinary share of courage arises for a moment to shine in glory for ever more by doing something he really wanted to do, doing it openly and with no fear of consequences. When this happens we have a story and a hero. This is the record of such an event but un fortunately the hero’s name must be withheld for he, as is often the case, has since repented of his actions. Nevertheless this hero is a cadet here at A. & M. and many of you know him in the ordinary walks of life. Onr hero found it necessary to break with his girl just before Christ mas, whether his reasons were pecu niary, social, or rose from the effects of a more serious attachment is of no consequence. He broke all former ties and did not send her a present, only a card. The girl was highly incensed of course and called down cupid’s curse on the innocent hero, and called him many names also but he, being bless ed with foresight, took particular pains to see that he should not be close enough to her to hear the names. Unfortunately for the hero how ever he was invited to a dinner to which this girl had also been invited, he did not learn of her invitation un til a few hours before the dinner so he had to attend. He girded himself for the fray and, surprising as it may seem, with his heart in the proper place went to the dinner. Nothing of any consequence hap pened during the dinner except that the hero found he must eat his food highly spiced with hard looks from the girl and her friends, as this was getting off easy so to speak, he set tled himself down to really enjoy the excellent dinner placed before him. Just as the meal was coming to an end and the general hubbub of con versation somewhat at a standstill, one of those divinely created daugh ters of Eve that are able to go through life with never a thought, leaned across the table and in her best Sunday school manner said: “Oh ! I’m just dying to know what you gave for a Christmas present, she refuses to tell us a thing about it.” “Oh,” said the hero very nonchantly, God bless him, “I gave her something very valuable, something of great historic importance, something for the possession of which men have fought and died and languished in prison, something most women are never allowed to have, something in fact that our noble, upright God fear ing, honest, generous, longsuffering, and wealthy nation is founded upon. Namely, my dear, her Liberty.” HOW MODERN YOUTH REVOLTS We often wonder whether modern youth has any different ideas on life than any other previous generations of youth born in ages when parents had lost self-control and conventions had broken down. Roughly, it seems to us that the so- called “revolt of modern youth” falls into two parts. A good proportion of modern youth are “revolting” be cause they are simply out for pleas ure at all costs, and have no stern parents to spank them and send them to bed. A large number of our modern youth are really very serious about the revolt, and as Judge Lindsey stat ed, are submitting the older genera tion and its civilization to a strict and frank cross-examination. These types must be separated. The first type merit scant consideration. They can best be dealt with by kind and elementary education disseminat ed far and wide, and if possible un known to them. They should grow up and do the work fitted to their intelli gence, and be regulated by wise and simple laws, which the more serious of modern youth may develop the ability to frame. The other type, which is quite pow erful owing largely to the increase in universal education and the popularity of higher education is certainly criti cizing existing conditions very sever- ly. It looks upon a world where con ventions, like the discarded shells of the crayfish which were once useful, rule the average person’s life. “The law (written or unwritten) says this and that, therefore we must adhere to it, for our elders and betters favor it.” Thus spoke our parents. Modern youth who is in revolt asks why these laws are being used. Do they make for the ideal life? And after seeing the world smoth ered in trouble, erupting every now and then into wild and fierce conflict over questions that could have been settled by a couple of conciliatory acts and turning its head away in shame from things that are evidently more evil though far less harmful, than those institutions which are glorified. The world might just as well admit its disgrace for its complete failure to withstand the barrage of youth. But youth is like some professors that we know. It has set questions that perhaps cannot be answered by itself. Suppose that youth does wreck the most important conventions of present-day life, and sponsor new standards? Will these new standards be any better than the old? Perfect they may be ideally, foolish they may be practically. We think that human nature—that awful mixture of good and evil—will prevent the revolution of youth from demoralizing mankind, if unforeseen difficulties in the new processes make that possible. At the same time we fear that human nature will prevent the new standards of life from bring ing about perfection. At best, they may only purify for the time being. The old process seems likely to go on. Common rules of morality bring about laws, laws usher in conventions, conventions become distorted and use less, and the world comes back and starts up a new code, or the beginning of a new process.—McGill Daily. FEAR AND EDUCATION Ordinarily, when one mentions fearj it instills the idea of nervous reaction to more or less dangerous stimuli, stimuli that are, usually, dangerous to the continued existence of the thing so frightened. Death, or the cessa tion of life, is the chief fear of the animal world in so far as man is con cerned and death has never been ex plained, except as an end of the physico-chemical existence of the cells of which man is made. Therefore, any fear of death is a fear of the unknown. An uncertainty in a world that we like to consider a sequence of certainties, for though we say that nothing is certain but death, death is relegated to the hindermost part of our brain and if possible would be pushed completely out of it. This constant recollection of an end to earthly existence takes the form of fear, fear of an unknown. But death can not be said to be man’s only fear. Pain is another dominant one and at first glance ap pears to be a fear of the unknown. But man is afraid of pain because it presages death, or the stages death usually follows. Very few are afraid of the prick of a pin but if one thinks the pin is poisonous Darkness, a sudden noise, an un expected stumble, are all sometimes conducive to fear. Why ? They bring in the element of the unknown. And just so does the fear of divine punish ment, of wild animals, of snakes and so forth. Familiarity breeds con tempt and knowledge breeds bravery. The two go hand in hand. Therefore an education may be said to be a releasing of the mind from fear so that it may progress, for nothing is so stifling to invention and exploration as fear. It was religious fears that held the world of material development back so long. Education then is the eradication of ignorance productive of fear. FEWER MISFITS WANTED The American college fails to equip its students for a career. This is what Dean Robert E. Hawkes of Columbia University would have us believe. He makes this rather startling statement in his annual re port which was made public recently by President Butler. In attributing this fault to the American college, he seems to be speaking of the young man who en ters the university without any defi nite aims as to his future course. He isn’t concerned with the high school graduate who has his college course mapped out to fit him for whatever he wishes to work at in life. This type of student will take care of himself. However, the former presents a challenge to the educational institu tion. It is a duty, says Dean Hawkes from which many faculties are shrink ing, for the university to shoulder— the responsibility of ferreting out the track along which the greatest and most concentrated interests and ca pabilities of its students run. The chief remedy for the situation is, of course, frequent personal con ferences, not only in the freshman year, and in the sophomore year, but often enough so that a check might be kept on the aims of the average classman, so susceptible to change. Then, and only then, will there be fewer misfits at graduation time. —Daily Northwestern. TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY All college students possess one thing in common. They have only twenty-four hours each day in which to live. When we come to investigate just how this time is spent we find no two students alike. All work, eat, sleep, have a certain time for student activities and social intercourse; what remains is “loafing.” The intelligent student will mark off definite inter vals during the day for each. He will sleep eight hours, work eight hours, and play eight hours. If he allows any period to encroach on the others on wastes fruitful hours by “loafing,” he is not getting the best out of col lege life. For why should college life differ from that of the citizens of the com munity at large; a citizen’s working time is regulated, why not a stu dent’s ? How does the average student spend his time? Let us say that Sunday may be con sidered a day given to prayer and rest, Saturday afternoon and evening are given up to recreation and entertain ment. Eight hours per day are given up to sleep. Deducting these, we find left only sixten hours per ordinary week day and four hours Saturday morning—84 hours in all. Most of us can eat three meals in two hours; then we spent at least 12 hours per week in eating. If the average student has fifteen lectures a week, including con ferences, but 58 hours remain. Travel ing and personal toilet occupies at least two hours per day (more for women); hence 42 hours are left. It is to be hoped that there are no students at college who take no part in college activities. Supposing on the average, the ordinary student devotes one afternoon a week to athletics and one evening to clubs or other activi ties—eight hours of his time; 36 hours remain. Conversation and social in tercourse occupy at least an hour per day. If not, the student should see that it does, making the best use of his opportunities at college of making friends. Thus there are left but thirty (Continued on Page Seven)