■SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 1940
PAGE 2
THE BATTALION
The Battalion
STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OP
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
The battalion, official newa
Mechanical College of Tex
times
techanica
ub'ished three
Tuesday, ’
■weekly fro
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
rom June through August
1 newspaper of the Agricultural and
as and the city of College Station, is
skly from September to June, issued
•rnings; and is published
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.,
it New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San
Francisco.
Office. Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone
*-6444. 5
1939 Member 1940
Associated Golle&iaie Press
BILL MURRAY
LARRY WEHRLE
fames Critz
E. C. (Jeep) Oates
fL 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 STALF
Acting Managing Editor
Asst. Advertising Manager
Editorial Assistant
. Cecil De Vilbiss
Tames Critz
Don Burk
W. C. Carter —
Junior Editors
A. J. Robinson Billy Clarkson .........
Senior Sports Assistants
Jimmie Cokinos Jlmmy JameS
Janior Advertising Solicitors Woodman
J. M. Sedberry - -- - -- -- - G - Woodm
Reportonal Staff
Lee Rogers, E. M. Rosenthal, W. A. Moore, Glenn Mattox, Les
lie Newman, M. L. Howard.
Right Attitude
We like the attitude of John Alex Kimbrough
toward his job, which happens to be toting a foot
ball in the fall of the year.
New Year’s Day John Alec, who is just a kid
of 22 years for all his ferocity on the gridiron,
ran wild in the Sugar Bowl at New Orleans.
The critics say he won the football classic al
most single-handed, but when the yelling was over
and John sat in the dressing room, nursing bruised
and tired muscles, he summed up the afternoon
in a few words:
“All I can say is that I was following ten good
men out there.”
Another young fellow who completed an amaz
ing feat back in 1927 said about the same thing.
“We, my plane and I, flew the Atlantic,” said
Charles A. Lindbergh, who at that time was not
a colonel, a scientist, a society man or a political
figure, but only a humble mechanic with a taste
for adventure.
In these times when the first person is used
so freely by unworthy men, it is refreshing to find
a hard-hitting, square shooting young fellow like
John Alec Kimbrough using the editorial “we” and
giving credit to others.
We need more of that spirit in the world, as
an antidote for the Hitlers and Stalins who send
young fellows like John Alec out to die on battle
fields and then boast about how “I” whipped ’em.—
From Houston paper.
Mistakes
When a plumber makes a mistake, he charges
twice for it. When a lawyer makes a mistake, it
is just what he wanted, because he has a chance
to try the case all over again. When a carpenter
makes a mistake, it is just what he expected. When
a judge makes a mistake, it becomes the law of the
land. When a preacher makes a mistake, nobody
knows the difference. BUT, when an editor makes
a mistake—heaven help him!
Boxing for All
In analyzing the value of boxing as a sport
the following statements from the book, “Boxing,”
.by O’Brien and Bilik, prove important:
“Boxing is almost an ideal form of physical
recreation. It offers the youth and mature man
•a clever and fascinating athletic pastime. It is a
^scientific sport combining a form of vigorous ex-
■ercise with a maximum of mental activity. There
is probably no competitive sport that requires as
much mental agility as boxing. You have to think
while under machine-gun fire. You have to see,
plan, and act instantaneously. There is no chance
for a second thought, for “time out,” or “huddle.”
Either you have grasped the opportunity or it
is gone.
In childhood and youth are laid the founda
tions of character and health. Boxing aids in the
development of both. In itself an excellent form
of physical activity, it is rounded out by the
supplementary training. Since thorough, physical
conditioning is an almost indispensable prerequis
ite in the attainment of proficiency in boxing,
those who become interested in the sport usually
strive to build up their strength, speed, and
stamina.
The vigorous health gained thereby is in
variably associated with an abundance of “pep,”
“drive,” “dare,” aggressiveness. Boxing breeds
confidence, gameness, self-denial, sportsmanship,
mental alertness. It enables you to stand a lot
of knocking about, to take misfortune with a grin,
and good fortune without getting a “swelled head.”
It teaches self-control under the most trying cir
cumstances, respect and confidence for your fel
low beings, tolerance, control of emotions and
facial expressions, ability to take and give as a
man. General opinion to the contrary, very few
boxers are mean or cruel. It is a game to them,
a game challenging their manhood, testing their
mettle, offering the joy of physical and mental
combat, and earning them the knowledge that
they have been tried in battle and have not been
found wanting. It is an exhaust for the super
abundant energy of vigorous youth.
Because of its inestimable value as a health
and character builder, boxing should be taught
wherever the youth of today is being molded into
the man of tomorrow. Colleges have taken up this
sport with a vim. I hope to see the day when
boxing will be considered as much an essential
in the physical education program as is swim
ming.
Boxing is indeed a fine sport. More Aggies
should take part in it here.
Parade of Opinion
By Associated Collegiate Press
FINLAND. Soviet Russia and her communist
supporters in the United States have a new place
in the minds of the nation’s collegians—a position
right beside Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in
the gallery of those who can no longer have the
sympathies of the thinking college youth.
This is the conclusion that must be drawn by
a careful study of the shift of student opinion—a
shift that was suddenly brought from the “approval”
to the “disapproval” end of the opinion-pendulum’s
swing by the invasion of small Finland by monster
Russia. Here is how the college press reacted to
the latest dramatic move in the campaign of the
totalitarian states for world domination:
Said the Harvard University Crimson: “And
now it is Finland. Russia is the arch-criminal this
time, not Germany, and so far as the United States
is concerned she has committed an outrage with
possibly even less justification than those of the
Reich. As the (Russia) becomes a great Baltic
power again, she appears more like the Imperialistic
Russia of old than a new Communist Union, with
purely selfish designs intended neither to help nor
to hinder Adolf Hitler. For America and the other
neutrals, if they were not convinced by the Russo-
German alliance last August or the joint Polish
seizure of September, the Finnish invasion will re
move any hesitation they had in placing Russia
and Germany in the same category.”
In the same vein, the Cornell University Daily
Sun said: “Those communists throughout the
world who have been rationalizing the Nazi-Soviet
pact, are now faced with a real problem. Their
assertions that Russia would never stoop to im
perialism were proved lies when the first Red
bomb fell on Finland. All that Red Russia stood
for in the communist circles of the world has been
repudiated. Russia has at last shown her true
face to the world and it is not a pretty one. The
prospect of a general war has been renewed. Per
haps it is the darkness before the dawn.”
In the widdle west, the University of Minne
sota Daily continued the nation-wide denunciation
of the Russian invasion: “The whole affair was
staged with the cold relentlessness of a Chicago gang
killing—and with the same effect. When Russia
saw that war was the way to win her ends in
Finland, she deliberately took the path to war.
Nothing short of a complete Finnish surrender could
have averted the invasion. Nothing can justify
it.”
Man, Your Manners—
A person in the street or anywhere in the
public should be careful not to talk too loud; do not
attract attention to yourself by loud laughing, and,
above all, do not wear conspicuous clothes. Your
behavior in public is the test of good breeding.
QUESTION: How long should a cadet remain when
making a call in the home of a faculty
member?—H. I.
ANSWER: If he is calling on business, he should
not stay longer than it takes to com
plete his business. A social call should
last about twenty or thirty minutes; if
he has been entertained at dinner and
no other entainment has been plan
ned, he should not stay longer than an
hour after dinner is finished.
As the World Turns...
By DR. AL NELSON
Guam fortification talk revived: defense desires
to spend $4,000,000 there this year and Japan is
once more beginning to “throw fits” at the idea.
Also, the naval expansion program still contends
that their expansion is purely defen
sive and that their navy should be as
large as that of the U. S.
Finns invade Russia—the early
Russian news headlines have actually
come true at last. After destroying
two Russian divisions in quick suc
cession the fighting Finns have cross
ed the Russian border and are in
their turn threatening the Russian R.
R. supply line.
Nelson Maury Maverick, the publicity-
loving mayor of San Antonio, made a speech to
the students of Georgia Tech and is reported to have
advised the Southerners to “throw in with the
Yankees” in order to improve our economic status.
The trouble with our economic status now, accord
ing to many people, is that it has been thrown in
with and by the Yankees too much already, and
that we really need consideration according to our
separate and individual needs and problems, and
not have our prpblems lumped in with those of
sections whose problems of economics are entire
ly different.
Baths in Germany are not limited to Saturday
and Sunday, as that is the only time they are
allowed to heat water. (Of course they can take
cold baths if they desire.)
Jimmie Cromwell, wealthy husband of super-
wealthy Doris Duke, has just been appointed min
ister to Canada, a job where the necessary expenses
are more than double the salary allowed. Only
a wealthy man can afford to accept the appointment
because of the expense of holding down the job.
Secretary Ickes, of the Interior Department, is
now telling the nation why certain men would not
do for president next term. Ickes says that Garner
will not do as a candidate because he is too
old, and John Dewey will not be a good Republican
candidate because of his age (it seems he is too
young). It would be fitting now for Ickes to tell
what age has a monopoly on ability.
To the person who wrote an anonymous letter
to the editor of The Battalion in regard to Mr.
Murphy and Madame Perkins: If the writer will
send his name in and acknowledge the letter as his
own, it will be printed in full at the request of the
writer of this column.
Collegiate Kaleidoscope
After thinking about “Mr. Smith
Goes To Washington” for a few
days, I’ve about decided that its
three grade-point rating was not
quite enough. Please permit me
to change it to three plus; I’m
sure everyone will agree that it is
the best show that has played
here in many a day. It is still
showing at the Palace today, so
those who have not seen it have
a chance to do so yet.
The show at the Assembly Hall
Saturday afternoon, “UNEXPECT
ED FATHER,” is just so much
time wasted except for the per
formance of Baby Sandy. Of
course babies are always cute.
Foolishness is sometimes used to
fine advantage in shows, but ab
surdity is always boring.
The story deals with Dennis
O’Keefe and Mischa Auer, friends
who live together, taking charge
of an orphan baby with the help
of O’Keefe’s sweetheart, Shirley
Ross. One night during an act,
Mischa Auer hides the baby in a
chair which turns out to be a
throne for one of the musical num
bers. When the curtain opens,
the audience goes wild at Sandy’s
antics in the throne. However at
this time the baby’s uncle, hearing
of the baby’s stage success and
thinking he could make himself
some money, arrives to claim
custody of the child. The finish
is fast and furious with O’Keefe
rushing across the state to stop
his girl from marrying another
man, marrying her himself, and
the two adopting the baby. One
grade-point.
“DUST BE MY DESTINY” stars
Priscilla Lane and John Garfield,
the two have played in the “daugh
ters” pictures, and who return in
another show of the same caliber.
John Garfield, having served a
sentence for a crime he didn’t
commit, is bitter against the world.
Soon he is arrested for vagrancy
and sent to the county work farm.
The foreman has a beautiful daugh
ter who immediately falls in love
with Garfield. In a fight over the
matter, John gets the blame for
the father’s death. Together he
and Priscilla, the daughter, flee.
The two lead miserable lives dodg
ing the law, and Priscilla finally
gives them both up to the police,
and stands trial. Then comes a
dramatic plea for John and the
thousands of “nobodies” like him.
It might stand two grade-points.
I7~ 1 —-
WHATS SHOWING
AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL
Saturday 12:45—“UNEX
PECTED FATHER,” with
Baby Sandy, Dennis O’Keefe,
and Mischa Auer.
Saturday 5:30 and 8:30—
“DUST BE MY DESTINY,”
with Priscilla Lane and John
Garfield.
AT THE PALACE
Beginning Sunday—“IN
VISIBLE STRIPES,” with
Jane Bryan, Humphrey Bo
gart, and George Raft.
^ Musical Meanderings ^
By Murray Evans
There has ben some talk laterly
of Benny Goodman’s being on the
downgrade in popularity. Such
rumor probably arose out of the
fact that the erstwhile “king of
swing” was switched from a Tues
day to a Saturday night broadcast,
with Bob Crosby filling in the
vacancy. But as a matter of fact,
Benny still boasts an aggregation
composed of some of the top
flight musicians in the business.
There is Ziggie Elman on trumpet,
Fletcher Henderson on the piano,
Toots Mondello on sax, and Charlie
Christian on guitar. On a recent
program Goodman brought back
memories by playing “Don’t Be
That Way.” He may be slipping
momentarily, but you can’t keep a
good band down, and with his pres
ent band roster, the odds are on
his forging to the undisputed lead
ership of swing which he enjoyed
a year ago.
The Hit Parade last Saturday
night listed “Scatterbrain” as lead
ing the pack, and for the second
consecutive week. It’s a tune
something like “Annabclle” and
“Josephine”; just doesn’t ever end
unless you stop it in sheer desper
ation on some convenient “turn
around.” And then it seems im-
complete. But it does have dis
tinctive rhythm in the popular
polka tempo, which probably ac
counts for its placing first on the
Hit Parade.
Oren Tucker, his orchestra, and
little Bonnie Baker, of “Especially
For You” and “Oh, Johnnie” fame,
joined the Hit Parade last week
for regular appearance. Bonnie is
from Houston, Texas, by the way.
Dorothy Thames, the girl who
you might remember sang with the
Aggieland Orchestra the second
semester of last year, is now vocal
izing for Nick Stuart at the Plan
tation Club in Dallas.
Cole Porter wrote the score for
“Dubarry was a Lady.” IT WAS
WRITTEN IN THE STARS is
perhaps the most important song
in this production. When Porter
has a good idea, he seldom misses,
and he possessed an exceptional
inspiration when writing this most
promising hit. Ray Eberle is vocal
ist in the smooth sweet-swing
Miller interpretation. The compan
ion piece, JOHNSON RAG, leans
a little more to the swing side
and is performed in the most ap
proved jitterbug fashion.
Requests for the new Frankie
Carle composition, SHADOWS, in
dicate that this number may reach
the height of its predecessor, “Sun
rise Serenade.” Artie Shaw and
his orchestra plays a beautiful,
medium-slow swing version of
SHADOWS featuring Shaw’s clar
inet and the orchestra’s velvet
toned sax section. The companion
piece, DIDN’T KNOW WHAT
TIME IT WAS, is the Rodgers and
Hart hit from “Too Many Gilds.”
Helen Forrest is vocalist.
BACKWASH
By
(eorge Fuermann
“Backwash: An agitation resalting from soms action or occurrence.”—Webster.
Well all right ... The staff
had hoped this would get out:
Mary Kate Jordan, a Waco high
school girl, writes an Aggie jun
ior, “Having seen my first copy
of The Battalion
Magazine, I think
I have been pass
ing up a lot of
laughs as well as
valuable informa
tion.” . . . The
Economics De
partment’s popu
lar and affable
law professor, Dr.
P. L. Gettys, re
cently “brought the house down”
when he declared that “Eastern
women think more of their dogs
than they do of their husbands.”
. . . Curtis LeDoux: “You can’t
kiss a girl unexpectedly. The near
est you can come to it is to kiss
her sooner than she thought you
would.” . . . And it was Percy
Bennett who recently pointed out
that, “I had coffee and a head
ache for breakfast.” . . . “Politics
be damned,” says Aggie Audie
Belcher. Audie was the only Tex
as collegian to attend Houston’s
recent Jackson Day Dinner and,
as such, “They treated me like
a prince” Audie affirms.
•
The contest closes on February
15:
The Aggie writing the best one
hundred words or less on the sub
ject, “What I Like (Or Don’t Like)
About T.S.C.W.-ites” will win a
subscription to The Battalion Maga
zine and newspaper and, if the
winner already receives the publi
cation, it will be sent to any ad
dress in the United States he
wishes. All entries must be sent
to the writer, Box 2279, College
Station, Texas, and, as mentioned
before, the contest closes on Feb
ruary 15.
Ten cadets and one graduate as
sistant will act as a committee of
judges, the committee being com-;
posed of Henry Hauser, Joe Gault,
Robert English, Tom Richey, Mack
Duncan, Derrell Pitts, Don Peter
son, Bob Lynch, Mick Williams,
Willard Clark, and graduate assist
ant Troy Wakefield. Besides the
winning entry, which will be pub
lished in the T.S.C.W. student pub
lication—The Lass-0—the best
runners-up will appear in a future
issue of The Battalion Magazine.
•
Well - - - ?
It would seem that the boys at
Brown University are showing real
initiative. After every exam date
is published, a group of them get
together and make up official
notices for their student publica
tion to the effect that such and
such a teacher will be unable to
give his hour exam as per sched
ule because of a cold or some other
minor illness. The newspaper, of
course, usually prints the notice
without going to the bother of
checking its validity with the main
office; the result being that about
two-thirds of the class doesn’t
show up and nobody has been able
to pin the blame for the skull
duggery on anyone in particular.
The Battalion, by the way,
checks the validity of such notices
before printing them!
•
It doesn’t mean a thing, but
now that finals are almost upon
us, here’s a bit of nonsense some
one recently wrote in respect to
what NOT to do:
“In promulgating your esoteric
cognitations or raticulating your
superficial sentimentalities and
amicable philosophical, or psychol
ogical observations, beware of
platitudinous ponderosity. Let your
conversational communicatioiis
possess a clarified conciseness, a
compact comprehensibleness,
coalescent consistency, and a con
catenated cogency. Eschew all
conglomerations of flatulent gar
rulity, jejune babblement, and
asinine affectations. Let your ex
temporaneous descantings and un
premeditated expatiations have in
telligibility and veracious vivacity
without rhodomontade or thrasoni
cal bambast.
“Sedulously avoid all polysyl
labic profundity, pompous prolix
ity, psittaceous vacuity, ventrillo-
quial berbosity, and ventriloquent
vapidity. Shun double entendre,
prurient jocosity, and pestiferous
profanity, obscurent or apparent.
“In other words, talk plainly,
briefly, sensibly, truthfully, pure
ly. Keep from using slang. Don’t
put on airs. Say what you mean.
Mean what you say. And don’t
use big words!”
Fnermann
AH WOMEN Charlton
Special to The Battalion from The Lass-O of T. S. C. W.
thing of the past, TSCW-ites, in °f them.
spite of on-coming finals, look to Some of you Aggies who ai
the future with bright eyes. After con ^onted with the problem c
all, it’s Leap Year, you know. empt y mai1 boxes almost dail
“Beetle” War- mig ' ht tr y writing open letters 1
litor of s ^ uden ^ bodies of Vassa
Lass-O, Wellesle y> and Smith.
across HeIen Ruth Porter, who rode i
brilliant ^ ew O r l eans on the special trai
mea as to how ^ ith the band ’ swears she woi
to raise money house shoes the whole time she ws
for our much m that Picturesque city. “For res
needed student comfort ’ there’s nothing like them,
says Helen Ruth.
News of three new buildings 1
be t>uilt on the TSCW campc
girls who have has been recei ved. One is to 1
“cussed out” the new bome of the president, a*
. r j Aggies pay the otber win be a memorial dormito
ffiven to the cnlWp W +V.o A
union building.
She suggests
that all TSCW
trifling sum of
25^, and in no
given to the college by the Amei
can Legion, and the third w
Tess Charlton Auip, auu m no ° 7 ~—
time at all we will have our build- bouse the Department of Edu<
ing paid for! tion - Tbat doesn’t exactly add
Some of the girls here corres- *° ” e J dorm ‘ tories at 1
mH with uni™™™ ™ii^ time ’ but its a good start.
pond with unknown college boys
at Annapolis, West Point, and Ran
What they say: . . .Mickie Ra
XTLimcipuiiO, vvtrsu JUUUIL, ctllU. XVan- ^
dolph Field, but Meta Turner, land ’ alw ays hesitate to critic
freshman, has received best re- l 117 date for getting drunk becau
suits from writing an open letter ^ either make him so asham
to all the students of Dartmouth that he wil1 g° out and get drui
requesting a few letters in return. a ^ over again, or else it will ma
Not only has she received stacks b ^ m mad and h® will go out a:
of letters from that school, but her ^ drunk a11 over again.” Margai
letter was sent on to the Univer- ^iHy. “Once I knew an Aggie w
sity of Washington, re-printed in wasn a heel.’ Bea Conley: “I
their college newspaper, and then no ^ scbocd that I mind, it is ju
sent to the University of Toronto. ^ be Masses and assignments th
Mail has been pouring in ever bore me.”
since. And now, Meta, who asked < - )n bbe cam pus last week-en
for letters because “being 350 Bodie Pierce slushing through t
miles from home is very dull”, is snow to see Hallie Beth Willin
much too busy just reading her bam *
Collegiate Review
A new method of storing heat
from the sun has been devised by
a Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology scientist.
A Worcester Polytechnic Insti
tute physicist is calibrating the
amount of sunlight that is found at
varying depths in the ocean.
Emory University has recently
received $3,000,000 to aid in the
development of a great university
center in the Atlanta area.
Gus Dorais, University of De
troit grid coach, is a candidate for
election to Detroit’s city council.
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology has set up a board to pub
lish books written by its faculty
members.
Cornell University has launched
a project to determine whether
critical thinking about social prob
lems can be developed in high
school pupils.