•SATURDAY, JAN. 6, 1940
PAGE 2
The Battalion
STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OP
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 S, 1879.
Subscription rate, $3 a school year. Advertising rates upon
request.
Represented nationally by National Advertising Service, Inc.,
at New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San
Francisco.
Office, Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone
4-6444.
1939 Member 1940
Associated Golle&iate Press
BILL MURRAY _
LARRY WEHRLE .
James Critz
E. C. (Jeep) Oates
H. G. Howard
•'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 ST AIT 1
James Critz Acting Managing Editor
Don Burk Asst. Advertising Manager
W. C. Carter Editorial Assistant
Junior Editors
A. J. Robinson Billy Clarkson Cecil De Vilbiss
Senior Sports Assistants
Jimmie Cokinos — Jimmy James
Junior Advertising Solicitors
J. M. Sedberry - G. M. Woodman
Reportorial Staff
Lee Rogers, E. M. Rosenthal, W. A. Moore, Glenn Mattox, Les
lie Newman, M. L. Howard.
Bach, to Work
We think it’s not yet too late to wish everyone
a happy New Year. May A. & M, and the Aggies
he blessed with the most successful and prosperous
of years in the one now arrived.
At last we’ve come to the end of the most
hectic, the most triumphant football season in
the history of A. & M., a season of which the team,
the coaches, and the “twelfth man” may be justly
proud. But now that the Sugar Bowl game is
history, it becomes time for us all to start paying
a good deal more attention to the more prosaic
matter of books, classes, studies, grades.
Doleful though that subject may be to some,
there is still plenty of time and opportunity for
all of us to catch up with our work and bring up
our grades. There is no real reason for several
hundred students to “flunk out” at mid-term.
If we can just carry a small part of the en
thusiasm of the football game cheering section into
our work this next month, there need be no grade
deficits.
Thoughtless Act
A complaint has been turned in to The Batta
lion Office by a College Park resident from whose
yard two beautiful cedar trees were cut by fresh
men for company Christmas trees.
The trees were part of an elaborate hedge on
which the owner had spent considerable time and
money, and the unsightly gap left in the hedge will
cost even more to repair. Not only were the trees
private property having no connection with the
college, but they were cut from an eye-striking
hedge that added to the attractiveness of the owner’s
home.
The freshmen committing this action should
have been warned against such an occurrence, but
even without such warning should not have been so
thoughtless. Such a malfeasance ought never to
have occurred, and such disregard for private pro
perty and other people’s rights should be strictly
guarded against in the future.
Oil Tells Its Story
The average person in Texas, unless an em
ployee of an oil company or one who has made
a study of the petroleum industry, has only a
vague conception of the size of the business in
this state, its importance to the state’s prosperity,
its effect upon his individual welfare.
The industry has grown so big and within
so short a time that it has been difficult for
the average person, reading of its development from
time to time, to realize what has taken place or to
appreciate what Texas owes to it—the things that
it now enjoys but perhaps would not be enjoying
were it not for oil development.
Texas is the chief producer of the nation’s
oil and one of the largest producers in the world.
Forty per cent of all oil produced in the United
States and 38 per cent of all oil produced in the
world comes from Texas. Oil production and oil
activity have reached into practically every county
in Texas, to the benefit of the land owners, busi
ness and citizens of those counties. Of the 254
counties in Texas, 136 are now producing oil and
lease or other oil activity has touched all but 14.
Production last year, under proration and neces
sary holidays, amounted to 469,620,000 barrels,
bringing in an income to the state of roughly one-
half billion dollars for crude oil purchases alone.
To this figure, of course, was added the millions
paid out in refining, in lease and royalty pay
ments, in actual drilling and other development
expense. Directly and indirectly more than 500,000
persons are employed by the industry and oil money
flows through the channels of commerce in all
counties and in all towns and cities. None is un
touched nor has failed to benefit by its spending
power.
Texas’ fine highway system and its fine and
steadily improving school system are beneficiaries
of oil development. The gasoline tax last year
amounted to more than $40,000,006, three-fourths of
which went to the state highway fund and one-
fourth to the school fund. The oil industry last
year paid in gross production taxes direct to the
state, $13,681,672, which was in addition, of course,
to the ad valorem taxes paid to the counties and
the federal tax. The ad valorem taxes paid in the
counties where development has taken place have
been the chief source of revenue and the largest
factor in their upbuilding within recent years. The
state’s biggest taxpayer, the oil industry has not
sought to evade its responsibility in this respect
but as naturally would be the case with any
industry of its size and rapid growth, it is ex
posed to the danger of becoming a target for ex
cessive increases—a danger that should be of as
much concern to the public as to the industry, lest
it be crippled and the state’s welfare be injured
thereby.
It is because the public lacks full understand
ing of these things and their relation to its own
well-being that the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and
Gas Association has launched a statewide newspaper
advertising campaign to be conducted for a year.
The advertisements will be strictly factual; the
campaign informative and educational. A proper
knowledge of the facts, rather than uninformed
opinion, will be the sole objective.
The association deserves to be commended for
its action. Every Texan should desire to be fully
informed about an industry that contributes so
much to the well-being of his state, and should
profit by it as much, if not more, than the indus
try itself.—Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
OPEN FORUM
Courtesy On the Highways
Texas A. & M. “Y” Cabinet
College Station, Texas
Gentlemen:
Yesterday, while driving between Houston and
Dallas I encountered two Texas A. & M. cadets
along the highway and gave them a lift into Dallas.
It has always been my practice to pick up
college boys along the roads, particularly those who
wear the uniform of the United States Army, for
I realize that many of these boys are not in a fi
nancial position to visit their homes except by this
means of travel. I have invariably found them
courteous and grateful for the assistance that is
given them.
What impressed me very much on the occasion
just mentioned was a little card presented by Jim
my Radford, of Denison, Texas, one of your stu
dents, in which was noted his name and address,
and also an expression of his gratitude for the
ride. To me that was a most gracious gesture,
and I feel sure will serve to bring much good
will to your students. The spirit behind that lit
tle card will go a long way to make upright and
useful citizens of your undergraduates, and I want
to tell you that whoever conceived the idea has
done a great thing for your school.
Very sincerely yours,
Paul D. Torrey, Chairman,
Topical Committee on Production Practice
American Petroleum Institute.
Books You'll En
J°X
By Dr. T. F. Mayo
BOOKS PREFERRED BY STEPHENS COLLEGE
GIRLS
At Stephens College a “Reading for Pleasure”
Library is maintained in the parlor of each dormi
tory. Last year the following books were most
popular in the dormitory libraries:
Moats: No Nice Girl Swears.
Phillips: Skin Deep
Parker: Not So Deep As A Well.
Undset: Kristin Lauransdatter.
Cronin: The Stars Look Down.
Post, Emily K.: Etiquette.
Mitchell: Gone With the Wind.
Buck: The Good Earth.
Parlmer: Facts and Frauds in Woman’s Hygiene.
Galsworthy: End of the Chapter.
# Rutgers University has a new course in the
organization of public relief.
Intercollegiate athletic competition has been
abandoned by Bard College.
St. Mary’s University (Texas) owns a bus for
athletic trips that holds 53 passengers.
As the World Turns...
By DR. AL B. NELSON
Frank Murphy, former high commissioner to
the Philippines and former governor of Michigan,
present Attorney General of the United States,
has been appointed to the vacancy on the Supreme
United /States. Mr. Murphy will be
remembered as the governor of Mich
igan who defied the law by encourag
ing the illegal sit-down strikes. Many
will criticise the appointment of a
man who has no respect for the law
to a post on the highest court of the
land. However, the desire to retain
party harmony in election year will
probably prevent a fight against his
confirmation in the Senate.
The New Budget proposed by the
president would provide for an ex
penditure of nearly nine billion dollars for the com
ing fiscal year. This would be over two billion
dollars more than our estimated income for the
same period.
land and France are sending war supplies and are
land and Frace are sending war supplies and are
talking of expeditionary forces, Sweden is sending
organized volunteers, Italy has sent planes and
volunteers, and the United States is sending money.
The Hoover committee has sent over a quarter of
a million dollars in the last few weeks, most of
it raised in contributions of one or two dollars
each.
Madame Perkins, U. S. Secretary of Labor, who
does not want Harry Bridges deported, appointed
the dean of the Harvard Law School to investigate
his connection with the Communist party in order
to find out whether or not he should be deported.
Many witnesses testified that Bridges is a Com
munist, that they had seen him pay dues, but
Landis ruled that he is not a Communist but is just
a radical. Bridges is the alien leader of labor on
the Pacific coast.
The Rose Bowl game, whose victorious team
was tied two times during the regular season, was
given nearly two columns in “Time” magazine
which gave only three lines to the results of the
Sugar Bowl. (Editor’s comment: Fooey on “Time”I)
Court of the
Nelson
THE BATTALION
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?
mm w'wri
Now if everyone has cussed and
discussed the various bowl games
and had his say about the game
in New Orleans, we can settle back
down and begin to think of movies
again.
We note that Kay Kyser brings
his radio show to the movies in
a picture called “THAT’S RIGHT
YOU’RE WRONG” now showing
at the Palace. I missed connec
tions with the dope on this show,
but boys that have seen it say
it is a plenty good show.
The four daughters and John
Garfield return to the screen in a
show that is a show in itself, but
at the same time is more or less
of a sequel to “Four Daughters.”
This one is called “DAUGHTERS
COURAGEOUS.” It is still con
cerned with the daughters and
their boy friends, but this time the
tribe has to settle the problems
of mama and papa. Claude Rains,
as the ex-husband, returns home
just as Fay Bainter, the mother,
is about to marry a steady and re
spectable business man. His
charming personality soon wins
over the support of the daughters,
and he becomes a pal with Priscil
la’s new boy friend who is a
wanderer like himself. Quite a few
stormy scenes occur before both
Claude and John go off together
to keep a date with the universe.
About the closest the pic
ture approaches the cutthroat type
is the time the four girls gang
up and shave Claude Rains month-
old crop of whiskers. The prize
for novel occupations should be
presented to John Garfield who
spent his time selling teeth from
Moby Dick, the whale. This show
lacks just a wee bit of rating three
grade-points, but we’ll call its rat
ing two plus.
“FAST AND FURIOUS” stars
Ann Sothern, who, if you will re
member, made her name in a
show called “Maisie.” The story
involves her hubby, Franchot Tone.
She tries to solve a double murder
while Franchot gets involved in
a deal in a bathing beauty contest.
It is all very complicated but works
out nicely in the end. At least the
title fits. This show is also in the
two grade-point class.
WHATS SHOWING
AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL
Saturday 12:45—“DAUGH
TER S COURAGEOUS,”
with the Lane sisters and
Gaile Page.
Saturday 6:30 and 8:30—
“FAST AND FURIOUS,”
with Ann Sothern and Fran
chot Tone.
AT THE PALACE
Saturday — “THAT’S
RIGHT, YOU’RE WRONG,”
with Kay Kyser and his or
chestra.
Army recruiting was stimulated
by modern advertising methods to
make a peace time record of 50,-
826 enlistments in the period be
tween July 1 and November 9, ac
cording to Col. Lloyd B. Magruder
of the recruiting service.
Congratulations To The
NATIONAL CHAMPION FOOTBALL
TEAM
AGGIELAND STUDIO
North Gate
BACKWASH
By
George Fuermann
“Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence."—Webster.
Somewhere in New Orleans . . .
Jimmy Cokinos and Paul Lowry
are telling one about a waiter in
one of the Sugar Bowl city’s cafes.
The two Aggies
ordered a couple
of cups of coffee
without cream,
and a minute lat
er the waiter re
turned and anx-
i o u s 1 y pointed
out, “I’m sorry
but we’re out of
cream. Would
two cups of cof
fee without milk do just as well?”
. . . The Battalion’s ace photograph
er, Phil Golman, was everywhere
at once in the Louisiana city film
ing the highlights of the three-day
celebration. Some of his “shots”
were used by United Press and
other large news syndicates . . .
Number one Christmas present
was Jim Thomason’s quart of
champagne which an Aggie fan
gave him at the close of the New
Year’s Day game . . . That New
Orleans people were good to Ag
gies is an established fact, but
Jim Sedberry thinks that “good”
is a mild way of expressing it.
Jim lost his wallet in the lobby of
the Roosevelt Hotel the day before
the game and two hours later a
native of the city returned it to
him after spending that much time
trying to locate him . . . And what
about the Aggie junior who bought
forty Christmas cards, addressed
them, stamped them, and returned
at the close of the holidays to find
that he had forgot to mail the
things!
•
Backwash takes time out to re
mind the coeds of our too-distant
Denton sister school, and others
over the state, that 1940 is Leap
Year.
Please act accordingly!
•
Here’s one of the best poems to
come the column’s way this year.
Gat Garrison did the writing and
your columnist believes that the
poem expresses the opinion of the
corps as a whole.
You’ve been to the battles together;
You took the foe as they came;
And each time you were the win
ner;
And always you played the game.
They saw you in all your splendor;
They hailed you as greatest of ’39.
To us you are the best in football
history;
To the Aggie cadets you’re the
team of all time.
When at last into the Sugar Bowl
you crashed,
Cheering thousands crowd into the
stands;
To watch that fighting power
house,
Crush the strongest foe in all the
lands.
A strong-hearted bunch of fighting
men,
A clean-playing team you’re known
to all.
You tackle hard and block ’em
clean.
You’ve the greatest backs that
ever carried a ball.
As season after season rolls by,
Great team after team we’ll live
to see
But the best of all these mighty
squads,
You, old team of ’39, to us, will
always be.
•
1939’s football season is his
tory, but its aftermath has left
some top-notch gridiron giggles
which the column passes on to you.
One concerns a certain sports
writer covering the Arkansas-Tex-
as game which Jack Crain jerked
out of the fire in the final seconds
of play. After the game, the
sports writer telegraphed a story
to his paper with a lead which be
gan like this:
“God and Jack Crain today de
feated the University of Arkansas
Razorbacks by a score of 14-13 . .”
The managing editor sent the
rhetorically-gifted sports writer
the following curt message:
“Check up on rumor that Coach
Fred Thomsen of Arkansas has
protested game on account God in
eligible for conference competition
under freshman rule.”
•
The Aggie bedroom:
Under the spreading branches of
the Roosevelt Hotel’s mighty
Christmas tree, some thirty-odd
Aggies did their New Year’s night
sleeping—what little of it there
was. The next morning several
still-reveling Louisianians woke
the boys up and bought their
breakfasts in a nearby cafe; and
forty-cent breakfasts at that.
Among those present at the not-
so-swanky but somewhat gay
party were J. C. Smith, A1 Knipps,
George Ogdee, Richard Litsey, Don
Ratcliff, C. A. Johnson, Dick Van
Orden, Irwin Thompson, Max
Rotholz, Keyes Carson, Perry Luth,
Oscar Ebner, David Giles, W. T.
Dorman, Ben Williams, and H. L.
Hall.
•
The Fox Movietone.. Company
has sent 400 feet of film in re
spect to the Turkey Day game
which will be shown in connection
with all shows in the Assembly
Hall today. After that the Fox
Company will donate the film to
the A. & M. Athletic Council.
During 1940
WE WILL STILL BE
SERVING THE NO. 1
Mexican Dinner
E-TEX SANDWICH SHOP
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
LET US HELP YOU TO MAKE 1940
Even More Prosperous and Successful
Than The Past Year
WE ARE READY TO SERVE YOU IN EVERY WAY
THE EXCHANGE STORE
’ An Aggie Institution
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