■SATURDAY, NOV. 18, 1939
PAGE 2
THE BATTALION
The Battalion
STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Texas and the city of College Station, is
published three times weekly from September to June, issued
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings; and is published
weekly from June through August.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at College
Station, Texas, under the Act of Congress of March 8, 1879.
Subscription rate, $3 a school year. Advertising rates upon
request.
Represented nationally by National Advertising Service, Inc.,
st New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San
Francisco.
Office, Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone
4-S444.
1939 Member 1940
Pissocioted Golle&iote Press
STAFF
BILL MURRAY —
LARRY WEHRLE _
James Critz
E. C. (Jeep) Oates
H. G. Bioward
“Hub" Johnson
Philip Golman
John J. Moseley .
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Associate Editor
Sports Editor
Circulation Manager
Intramural Editor
Staff Photographer
Staff Artist
SATURDAY STAFF
James Critz Acting Managing Editor
Don Burk Asst. Advertising Manager
Ross Howard Asst. Circulation Manager
W. C. Carter Editorial Assistant
Junior Editors
A. J. Robinson Don K. Hill Cecil DeVilbiss
Senior Sports Assistants
Jimmie Cokinos Jimmy James
Reportorial Staff
J. W. Amyx, W. G. Bohning, P. H. Brown, G. M. Green.
M. L. Howard, W. A. Moore, Jack McGarr. Leslie Newman,
J. A. Shelton, Earl Vezey, Alden S. McKellar, E. M. Rosenthal.
Houston Stunt
Last Wednesday a group of students, thirty or
more in number, boarded several cars and left
for the fair city of Houston, with one objective
in mind, to visit its famed Rice Institute and strike
the match which would start off their pre-Owl-Ag-
gie game bonfire.
The Owls had a different idea in mind and
had been expecting such an action from A. & M.
students. They were waiting for the College Sta
tion students, with “more boys than a person
thought attended Rice.” A fight ensued after an
attempt by these A. & M. students to light the
bonfire, and as a result several students suffer
ed injuries; and bad feelings, which were bad
enough beforehand, were fired up between the
schools.
This was an act of poor sportsmanship on the
part of a few students, which has been reflected
back upon an entire corps. So far this year A. &
M. has been doing well in its football games, play
ing its games “fair and square,” and the students
should follow the same example, acting their parts
accordingly.
There has always been keen rivalry between
A. & M. and Rice, and the game Saturday will be
rough. One football player remarked that in former
years after students had pulled such a trick as
they did Wednesday night, the football players
of the opposing teams slugged when the game
officials were not in a postition to see the acts.
As the thing stacks up now, after students
have pulled such a stunt, instead of the guilty
ones getting the real punishment, the football team
pays for the act as well as the entire student body
whose reputation is injured.
The fish knew no better because they believed
it to be right with upperclassmen leading the ac
tion; the sophomores evidently had learned no bet
ter; and it seems the juniors must not have been
brought up right either. When students of an
other school try to burn our Thanksgiving game
bonfire, we think it is the worst sort of sports
manship. Does the action of a few of our students
in Houston seem any better to the majority of
the Aggies? We should think not. At present it
is left to the seniors to see that no such action
comes up again, and that students behave proper
ly during their stay in Houston this weekend.
Modem College Ideas
College student leaders of the midwest, at a
meeting conceived in freedom and dedicated to great
er student influence in administrative affairs, have
set up a new program of undergraduate action.
“How Can College Help the Student to Func
tion More Effectively?” was the central theme of
a two-days conference held lately at Bradley Col
lege, in Peoria, Illinois. Taking part in the meet,
which represented one of the first efforts of col
lege students to get together to solve their own
problems, were the University of Chicago, Principia,
Armour Tech, Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, Knox and
Bradley.
Conclusions and recommandations reached by
the conference include the following:
1. Class attendance should not be compulsory
except in those few courses where the nature of
the subject demands it, such as languages, mathe
matics, etc. If a professor cannot mak« classes
interesting enough that students will attend vol
untarily, he should be discharged.
2. Class attendance should not directly affect
grades.
3. All college programs should require survey
•courses designed to provide an understanding and
familiarity with general principles and materials
involved in the “core of knowledge” which befits
an educated person.
4. There is validity to offering survey courses
both before and after specilization, so long as they
are taken before graduation.
5. There should be curricular freedom beyond
the required survey courses.
6. Academic and vocational work can best be
handled as separate departments of the same in
stitution, so that each department, each individual,
can contribute to the function of the other and to
the function of the university as a whole.
7. A knowledge of the so-called cultural sub
jects, such as music, art and literature, is absolute
ly essential to a college education.
sf: 4:
The Battalion agrees with these ideas, in the
main. Modern colleges are adopting them more
and more. A. & M. has adopted some of them,
and in our opinion, should adopt the rest.
Parade Of Opinion
Despite the fact that the eyes of the nation
are on the European war and the congressional
battle over neutrality, many are taking quick side-
glances at the current political situation, and not
the least interested of these side-glancers are the
nation’s collegians.
Although the national-party political activity
is still slight on most campuses, there are many
indications that collegians in 1940 will take an
active part in what political experts predict will be
the hottest campaign in many a year.
At Indiana University, alma mater of Paul V.
McNutt, prominently mentioned as a Democratic
presidential nominee, the Republicans have enrolled
more than 500 students in a campus Republican
club. The group is going in for both political and
social functions, and last week held a large dance
at which a nationally famous orchestra entertained.
The University of Kansas Daily Kansan sees
the current international situation as strongly af
fecting politics in 1940: “Party politics are still in
existence at least among the voters, and 1940 is be
coming more than the promise of a new calendar
from the local grocery store. If America should be
dragged into a war before next November, would
it not be feasible to induce John Gullible Public to
avoid changing horses in the middle of the stream ?
Many citizens wear blinders put on by straight-ticket
voting forebears. They refuse to recognize political
trends that are obvious to the point of alarm.
The moon is made of green cheese; and the Bremen
has evaporated, but can one find a handful of ex
perts who will sincerely phophecy ‘it can’t happen
here?’ ”
The University of Iowa Daily Iowan sees the
situation in this light: “The Roosevelt stock has
gone up tremendously since the beginning of the
European conflict; Roosevelt can not be blamed
for that. It is natural for the people in a time of
strife to gather behind a leader. It will be an inter
esting election—this coming presidential race. The
new deal will still be an important issue in the cam
paign, but the final score will be effected much by
the support Roosevelt has won° by his wise guidance
of the foreign policy.”
It’ll be a sad calamity if Roosevelt does achieve
a third term, according to the St. John’s University
Record, which says: “By accepting a third term, if
given him, Mr. Roosevelt may be opening the door
through which dictatorship will come and liberties
may go. What an ignominous account he would
receive in history! And why? Not because he wants
the glory of a third term in itself, but because he
has duped himself and believes that he alone can
better America! If he could awaken himself, he
would value his place in history and in no uncertain
terms scorn the third-term idea!”
That’s the college opinion on politics this week.
It is certain to be more definite and more prominent
as the pre-nomination battle grows in intensity.
The post office department this winter will issue
a special one-cent stamp honoring Harvard’s famous
president, Charles Eliot.
Famed cartoonist “Ding” Darling will address
the national convention of the Associated Collegiate
Press in Des Moines, October 27.
As the World Turns...
By DR. AL B. NELSON
Strikes financed by U. S. Government! The
U. S. Government not only encourages and aids
labor in other ways but actually finances labors
strikes. Laborers go on strike, then collect unem
ployment insurance, though they could be working
if they desired, and then when the unemployment
insurance runs out either direct or work relief is
given, even though the strikers may be
breaking the law at the time.
The slow-down strikers in the
Chrysler Auto plant are giving us a
splendid example of how such a sit
uation works out.
There is a serious shortage of
,jiew and used cars reported in Dallas
as a result of the combined effects
of automotive strikes and the adver
tisement given by the State Fair Auto
Show which attracted more people
than the Auto Show at Chicago.
Irish neutrality in the present war is called
to the attention of the American people by the
Christiain Science Monitor and other news sources.
Germany and others have made much of the fact
that Ireland failed to follow England into the
war, but additional facts are overlooked: first, that
the Irish government has fixed prices so the Eng
lish can continue to buy Irish meat and potatoes at
low prices, and second that English warships and
fighting planes coming into Irish territory are
not interned.
The Irish are protesting the President’s act in
including Ireland in the war zone and prohibiting
American ships from carrying goods there. If this
provision of the neutrality act is revised, as it leg
ally should be since the Irish are not in the war,
then American ships could carry goods to Ireland
and Egland could easily carry them the short
remaining distance.
There are three new theaters of war in pros
pect: Russia may attack Finland and bring in the
Scandinavian Peninsula; Germany may invade Hol
land and Belgium, or may attempt to go through
Hungary to Rumania. Any one of these three pos
sibilities would probably make a world war of the
present a localized struggle.
Pierce Butler, one of the last remaining con
servative members of the United States Supreme
Court, is dead. When his successor is appointed F.
D. R. will have appointed five out of the nine mem
bers of the Court. If this appointment is made on
the basis of politics instead of fitness for the
offire it will mean untold harm to the country,
for these five men wil probably control the de
cisions of the Court for a generation.
A1 Capone is out of jail again but is in a
hospital on the verge of total insanity. Few people
will be able to see any advantage in preserving
any legal fiction of sanity for him.
Collegiate Kaleidoscope
BACKWASH
Bu
George Fuerraann
An ARMY OF 21,000 PLAYERS
MAKE UP 700 COLLEGE TEAMS /
SINGLE SAM COLLECTS AROUND
$2,000,000 IN FOOTBALL TAXES /
WHATS SHOWING
AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL
Saturday —“WUTHERING
HEIGHTS,” with Merle
Oberon, David Niven, and
Donald Crisp.
AT THE PALACE
Saturday preview, Sunday,
and Monday—“ETERNALLY
YOURS,” with Loretta
Young, David Niven, and
Zasu Pitts.
“WUTHERING HEIGHTS” is
one of the creepiest shows ever
producad that was not originally
intended for a horror show. Queer,
in the full Aggie interpretation,
is the best adjective for the show
that could be thought up. It plays
Saturday night at the Assembly
Hall while we are all gone to Hous
ton on the corps trip.
Those responsible for the gloomy
business are the following cast:
Cathy Mexle Oberon
Heathcliff Laurence Olivier
Edgar David Niven
Dr. Kenneth Donald Crisp
One of the factors that contrib
uted to the unusual mood of the
show is the setting in the bleak
moors of northern England.
Heathcliff and Cathy are in love
and have been since early child
hood, but she is the lady of the
Wuthering Heights estate and he
is a servant boy. The attractions
of the dancing and parties of the
richer set lure her away and she
marries a neighboring playboy.
Heathcliff runs away in a storm.
Years later he returns rich, buys
Wutherning Heights and marries
Cathy’s sister-in-law. The two
marriages are misery for all con
cerned, and the show finally ends
in a tragedy. I refuse it more
than one grade-point.
Loretta Young comes to the Pal
ace Sunday and Monday with Dav
id Niven in a fairly good show,
“ETERNALLY YOURS.” In this
show Loretta marries a magician
and becomes an associate helper
in his act, but his many feminine
friends make her jealous, and she
does a disappearing act of her
own. When he finds her, she has
divorced him and has married an
other man. This presents quite a
puzzle for his magic powers to
solve. Off hand I’d give this one
two..grade-points.
Collegiate Review
"Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action er occurrence." Webster.
Down Military Walk . . . Aggie
with the longest name: Theodore
Frederick Paul Wischkaemper Jr.
Thirty-three letters—count ’em. . .
Backstage with
the Cossack
chorus Thursday
night after the
concert, Sig Neu-
bert was the on
ly Aggie able to
. converse fluently
with the- thirty-
— 8 six Russians. Sig
Fuermann and the . Russians
are both expert
German linguists . . . Bleachers
are being borrowed from Texas U.
which will be put in the Kyle Field
Stadium end zone to help seat the
40,000-odd persons expected for the
Turkey Day grid classic . . . Add
to life’s minor tragedies: T. P.
Collier was notified that his name
had been called for the $300 bank
night prize in his home town thea
ter last week . . . One of the best
entertainments ever to be brought
to the campus was Thursday night’s
second Town Hall presentation,
the world-famous Don * Cossack
Chorus . . . “The ‘dust bowl’ is no
more,” says an Artillery freshman.
“Now it’s the ‘mud hole’!”
•
Maybe they’ll form a club:
Calling all bald or near-bald Ag
gies. The idea being: Colonel
Ashburn, Tommy Littlejohn, and
Backwash are trying to persuade
the F. W. Fitch Company to in
clude the Aggieland Orchestra on
their list of bands to play on
Fitch’s Summer Band Wagon next
summer. Fitch, as you may know,
takes the cream of college and uni
versity dance bands for their sum
mer programs, and A. & M.’s band
is the equal of any of them. At
any rate, a picture of bald Aggies
and profs will be sent to the
Fitch Company to prove to them
that their products are in demand
down College Station way. Five
cadets have volunteered thus far
including Jim Word, Dan Martin,
“Rock” Audish, “Dog” Dawson,
and Roth Parker.
•
A. & M. on the Columbia Broad
casting Company’s network:
It was Thursday night that John
Hix included as a major part of
his weekly “Strange As It Seems”
program, a dramatized story of
how Victor “Choc” Kelley ran 245
yards to score a touchdown for A.
& M. against L. S. U. in a game
back in 1907.
Kelley is now coaching on the
Pacific Coast and the broadcast
included his personal appearance
before the microphone.
•
Bill Stern, ace N. B. C. announc
er who broadcast the Aggie-Pony
tilt last Saturday, remarked that
one of the reasons he was sent to
Texas was to see the Aggies play
football in respect to All-Ameri
can possibilities and as a team as
a whole. “Philadelphia sports writ
ers,” Bill said, “come back home
following the Aggie-Villanova
game singing highest praises pf
the Aggie team. Especially did
they call the team a well-balanced
unit—every man an individual
powerhouse.”
•
One more week and Backwash’s
dog-naming contest closes. Get
your entries in now.
^ Musical Meanderings ^
Midland College has a special Since inauguration of an unlim-
courtesy week during which stu- ited cut system, Williams College
dents wear such tags as “smile” reports a steady improvement in
and “thank you.” the gratfe averages of seniors.
Twenty per cent of Boston Uni- Six per cent of the 1,300 men
versity’s students are the victims students at the University of North
of problems arising out of our Dakota have Robert for their first
complex social and industrial or- name. ^
der.
In response to a call for help,
.Three hundred representatives of coast guardsmen in Chilmark,
colleges in all parts of the world Mass., rushed to No Man’s Island
were represented at the Catholic and milked a cow. The island’s
University golden jubilee celebra- caretaker was sick, and his wife
tion. didn’t know how to milk.
By Murray Evans
The corps dance last weekend
was a success in every sense of
the word. There were no inter
missions; Tommie Littlejohn and
Fahy Godfrey “swung” at each
other for thirty-minute intervals
from 9 until 12. Ella Bundrett,
vocalist with Godfrey, was as love
ly as advance notices reported her.
Outstanding performer in the God
frey organization, however, was
Kenny Regier, who is an ex-Aggie.
Kenny played two years (1937-
1938) in the Aggieland Orchestra
and is now considered one of the
best bass violinists in Texas.
The Aggieland Orchestra was at
its best Saturday night. Jack
Littlejohn’s new number, “I’d Rath
er Be A Texas Aggie,” was intro
duced and was liked so well it
had to be repeated twice. The
orchestra, thirteen strong, first
does a vocal ensemble of the tune
and then settles down to the mu
sical score as arranged for the
entire band.
The current popular “What’s
New” was written by Bob Hag-
gart, bass man for Bob Crosby’s
Orchestra; Haggart first called it
“I’m Free.” Best recording of it,
however, is not the one by Crosby’s
band, but the one by John Scott
Trotter, sung by Bing Crosby.
Trotter has one of the very best
accompanying bands in the busi
ness; he emphasizes harmony and
the “sweet” effects. His violin
section rates ace-high, and on this
record, it performs the best bit
of backgrounding this writer has
ever heard. Her it, and be con
vinced.
Here’s What You Have
To Do If You Want To
Be An “A” Student-—
Hickory, N. C.—If you want to
be an “A” student, take the ad
vice of Harold L. Hoffman, a
psychology major at Lenoir Rhyne
College.
Here are the five steps to aca
demic success that he recommends:
1. Study. Remember that those
students labeled “geniuses” really
study for their superior marks.
2. Love “all” the opposite sex,
not just one of said sex. This
tends to create a superior, “I’m-all-
right,” frame of mind.
3. Cultivate a liking for your
professors and for your studies.
Hard to do perhaps, but if at
least a neutral attitude is adopted
toward each professor and each
study, and a sincere effort is made
to master the subject, success will
be yours.
Every college student has some
one interested in his success—a
father, a mother, a sister, a broth
er, perhaps a sweetheart, an
aunt, or an uncle. Develop an “I’ll
show you” attitude. Prove to those
financial, loving, and/or spiritual
backers that you are equal to the
task.
5. Be a good “mixer”—put on
the old personality with your as
sociates, for creating a favorable
attitude in the eyes of your fel
low students will make you as an
individual happy, light-hearted, and
free-desired qualities for a suc
cessful student.
Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Owl?
THE EXCHANGE STORE
“AN AGGIE INSTITUTION”