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)