1
CIRCULATION 5,400
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER
OF THE CITY OF
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS
Station, Texas.
The Battalion
DIAL 4-5444
STUDENT TRI WEEKLY
NEWSPAPER OF
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
YOL. 39
PHONE 4-5444
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, THURSDAY MORNING, FEB. 14, 1940.
Z725
NO. 51
Costume Ball Opens
Social Activities
Architects Swing
Out Friday Night
At 1st Spring Prom
John Sullivan To Play
For Annual Club Affair
In Sbisa Hall at 9 p. m.
It’s here! A. & M.’s yearly
crowded and gay social season will
begin in full swing when the Archi.
tectural Society presents John
Sullivan and his popular Houston
Orchestra for a costume frolic in
Sbisa Hall Friday night at nine
p. m.
The Architectural Society will hit
a note of novelty in opening the
social season when its costumed
dancers are swayed by a costumed
orchestra. The theme of the dance
will be “Famous Characters from
History.” Dancers will wear cos
tumes depicting their favorite
characters of history and John
Sullivan’s band, too, will be in
dress of historical figures. Band
stand decorations will consist of a
large history book with ancient
characters drawn on it.
All arrangements for the dance
have been completed and all
architectural students and their
friends are expected to attend.
Sullivan’s orchestra has obtained
great popularity from many uni
versity bookings and a long en
gagement at Houston’s famed
Sylvan Beach. Sullivan will pre
sent many interesting specialties
including The Three Freshmen,
The Brass Choir, The Triple
Tongued Trumpeteers, vocal solo
ists, trombone trio, and instrument
al soloists.
The orchestra, which has played
here before, made a great hit with
the students of the last summer
school session during the very
successful Summer Press Club
Dance.
Bids for the Architectural Society
Dance may be obtained through
students in the Architecture De
partment at two dollars per couple.
All dancers must wear costumes
to the dance, which will last until
one o’clock.
Saturday night a corps dance
will be held in Sbisa Hall to the
music of the Aggieland Orchestra.
Scrip will be one dollar.
PRESIDENT WALTON TO
ADDRESS MEN’S GROUP
IN HOUSTON SUNDAY
A. & M.’s President T. O. Walton
has accepted an invitation to speak
to the men of Woodland Baptist
Church, of which Rev. W. M. Har
rell is pastor, at Houston, Sunday
morning, February 18, Rev. Harrell
has notified The Battalion.
A number of A. & M. men are
expected to be in the congregation
that morning. Everyone who
wishes to attend is welcome.
Opportunities For
All On the ‘Rat’—
Take Them. . .
Many opportunities exist
on The Battalion staff for
those students who desire to
take advantage of them.
Advertising Manager Larry
Wehrle has announced that
there are three vacancies for
juniors on his advertising
staff. Juniors with either
Monday, Wednesday, or Fri
day afternoons off who would
like to fill these positions are
asked to see Wehrle in 217
hall 11 as soon as possible.
All students wishing to join
the editorial staff are being
invited to do so by present
ing themselves at The Bat
talion Office and announc
ing their intentions.
The Battalion Office, in
case you don’t remember, is
122 Administration Building.
Cadet Players Will
Meet Tonight at 7:15
The Cadet Players, newly organ
ized dramatic group on the A. &
M. campus, will have its first meet
ing of the second semester tonight
at 7:15 in the lecture room of the
Agricultural Engineering Build
ing.
The club, whose purpose is the
production of one- and three-act
plays, was organized at the end
of the last semester to stimulate
interest in draamtics at A. & M.
All prospective new members are
invited by officers of the club
to be present at the meeting to
night.
COLLEGE FILM
CLUB ORGANIZED
BY A. &M. PROFS
Club to Lease Films
Which Do Not Ordinarily
Reach Popular Audiences
The College Film Club, newly
organized campus club, is a fac
ulty organization for bringing to
the campus films that do not ordi
narily reach this part of the coun
try and do not show to popular
audiences.
When the club was organized
last month, the membership was
to be limited to 160 members.
However, the use of a larger hall
for showing the films allows a
larger membership, and the sub
scription list has increased to 190.
The original plans were to present
the pictures in the Animal Indus
tries lecture room, but now the
larger Physics lecture room will be
used.
The first picture in the series
will be shown next Wednesday be
ginning at 7:30 p. m. It will be
a French film “Mayerling,” star
ring Charles Boyer. No one will
be admitted except club members.
Other shows scheduled for the
second semester are “Thunder Over
Mexico,” “Carnival in Flanders,”
“Peter the First,” a German film
entitled “Der Hauptmann von
Koepenek,” and “Grand Illusion.”
Officers of the club include R.
M. Weaver, who is the chairman
of the committee for the organi
zation; S. O. Brown of the Biology
Department, secretary; T. F. Mayo,
librarian; and S. B. Zisman of the
Architecture Department.
Stated Mr. Weaver, “We believe
this will be a distinct addition to
the cultural life of the community.
Present indications are that there
is a great local demand for this
type of entertainment.”
If the program works out as
successfully as the officers hope,
the opportunity to join this organ
ization will be extended to stu
dents next year.
Nation That Divided Under
Abe Lincoln Now Honors Him
Kay Kyser To
Pick Vanity
Fair Beauties
Pictures of 46 girls, entered
by members of the senior class for
the Vanity Fair section of the
Longhorn, were sent by air-mail
Wednesday to Kay Kyser, of radio
and film fame, who will make
the final selections for the Long
horn. Kyser notified George
Smith, Longhorn Editor, and Mick
Williams, Vanity Fair and Senior
Favorites head of the Longhorn,
of his acceptance Tuesday of the
invitation to select the beauties for
A. & M.’s annual.
According to members of the
Longhorn staff, this is the largest
number ever entered in such a
contest at A. & M. Of the 46
sent to Kyser, eight will be select
ed to be placed in Vanity Fair. The
remaining 38 will be entered in
the Senior Favorites section, 218
pictures having been turned in to
this section alone.
One full-length picture and one
bust picture of each girl were sent
to Kyser, who is at the present
filling an engagement at the Park
Lane Hotel in Miami, Florida. He
will have completed his selections
within two weeks and the pictures
are expected back at A. & M. be
fore the end of February.
Kay Kyser, an ex-student of
the University of North Carolina,
is a popular member of the air
waves with his School of Musical
Knowledge, broadcast from coast-
to-coast each Wednesday night at
9 a. m., and is particularly popu
lar with college students all over
the United States.
ENROLLMENT FIGURES BOOSTED AS
5,336 REGISTER FOR SECOND TERM
Dean Bolton Attends A.I.E.E.
Meet, Talks With Ex-Aggies
Banks in every city over the
nation were closed Monday to hon
or the birthday anniversary of the
president who led the United States
through the war between the
States.
Three-quarters of a century ago
his name could not be mentioned
in polite society in Southern cities.
Today, with sectional prejudices
gone, every son and grandson of
the Confederate and Union armies
are proud of Abraham Lincoln.
It isn’t so strange that he
should be so loved and respected
by friends and former foe. Lin
coln didn’t want the Civil War.
Secession and slavery followed
immediately after his election.
Even though he didn’t tolerate
slavery, he did not fight because
of vengeance toward the South
and its people.
The sincerity of of his attitude
stirred the feelings of all present
when he delivered his address at
the battlefield at Gettysburg. In
■short, direct words, he pictured
the undesirable effects of “a house
divided against itself . . .”
Born of Southern parents in
Kentucky, February 12, 1809, his
first twenty-five years was in pov
erty. He split rails for his daily
bread. He borrowed books from
neighbors to study by the fire
place at night. He used a grape
vine when surveying. He had en
tered the law profession, but it
was not until after long years of
partnership practice, several dis
appointing terms in the legisla
ture, violent debates with Douglas,
and his speeches in New England
and the Mid-West, that political
leaders of the nation took notice
of him.
And when he was chosen presi
dent it even astounded the mem
bers of the young Republican
party that had elected him.
Today Lincoln stands among the
world’s great.
A Son of Mother Nature, Dr. O. M. Ball
Has Been in "Who’s Who” Ever Since 1912
Social Security
Heads To Address
Economics Meeting
The Economic Club will present
a five star program tonight at
7:45 in the Chemistry lecture room
consisting of a film dealing with
the Social Security Program and
short talks to be given by four
important officials from the So
cial Security Board at Washing
ton.
Officials of the Social Security
Board, who will appear at the
meeting to be on the program,
will be Mr. Z. E. Avery, manager
of the Austin Field Office Social
Security Board; Miss Harriet
Moore, State Department of Public
Welfare, Bryan, representing the
Public Assistance Programs; Mr.
George Spears, Houston, represent
ing the Texas Unemployment Com
pensation Commission; and Miss
Margie E. Neal, Educational Repre
sentative Informational Service
Social Security Board.
They are the leaders in their
respective branches of the Social
Security and the Economics Club
is fortunate in having such an ar
ray of principal workers appearing
on the same program.
By Bob Nisbet
A man who has done his share
in bringing fame and a good name
to A. & M. College is Dr. O. M.
Ball, curator of the College
Museum. Not many of the boys
now in college have had the pleas
ure of his association because he
resigned from active duty as a pro
fessor in 1937, but from 1903, when
he first came to the college until
the time of his resignation, Dr.
Ball figured prominently in the
affairs of the colTege as head of
the Biology Department.
Not altogether another Lincoln,
but certainly possessing many of
his sterling qualities, Dr. Ball is
also a son of Mother Nature Af
one time in sndurBO
he staked out Ai«aqri
of ground in
the land and tilled the soil. That
was before he decided to enlarge
upon his store of “book-learning.”
Having made that decision, he
enrolled in the University of Okla
homa as its first student of botany.
Later he studied for his doctor’s
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Dr. Ball shown at his work in the College Museum
degree at Leipzig University in
Germany.
In 1903 Dr. Ball first came to
A. & M. as professor of biology.
At that time he was the sole teach
er in the department, lacking the
benefit of any assistants. When
(Continued on page 8)
Saturday Deadline
For Manuscripts In
Aggie Play Contest
All students having entries for
the Aggie Play Contest must have
their manuscripts in to C. O.
Spriggs of the English Department
by Saturday morning at the lat
est to be eligible for any of the
$40 offered in prizes, managers of
the contest have announced.
The original requirements for
the plot of the play were that it
must be a murder mystery with
A. & M. life used as a background.
Due however, to the difficulty of
writing murder mysteries or to
lack of interest in that type of
play, the contest managers opened
the contest to any type of play
based on A. & M. life and entries
will be on any type desired by
the writers.
Prizes for the contest are $25,
$10 and $5. However, no prizes
will be awarded unless the judges
decide that the best plays are
worthy of production. The plays
may be submitted in either narra
tive or dramatic form.
Managers of the play contest in
tend to sponsor the production of
the winning manuscript during the
spring term if the document justi
fies the effort. '
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5,500 Expected To
Register Before
Registration Ends
*■
Around 6,400 Students
Enrolled for Entire
Year, Tops All Records
5,336 students have registered for
the second semester with the Reg
istrar’s Office, according to an of
ficial announcement Wednesday
afternoon. According to previous
estimations this total is expect
ed to reach almost 5,500 by Mon
day, February 26, which is the last
day that students may register for
the second term.
Of this number, approximately
250 students will be enrolling in
A. & M. for the first time this
year. Of these, 125 are old stu
dents returning to finish their work
and 125 are new students who are
enrolling in A. & M. for the first
time.
Shown above, left to right, are-
R. E. Hellmund, chief engineer for
Westinghouse; Dean Frank C.
Bolton, vice-president of Texas A.
& M. College; and Marvin W.
Smith, nationally-known ex-Aggie
who graduated with the class of
’15 and is now vice-president in
charge of enginering for Westing-
house. They were among the prom
inent people attending the annual
winter convention of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers
in New York City, January 22-26.
Smith was conferred the profes
sional degree of electrical engineer
ing at A. & M. in the fall of 1938.
Dean Bolton took his undergrad
uate college work at Mississippi
State College and his graduate
■work at Ohio State in electrical
engineering. He was head of the
A. & M. Department of Electrical
Engineering from 1909 to 1932,
was dean of engineering here from
1922 to 1937, and since the latter
date has been vice-president and
dean of the college.
A large number of ex-Aggies at
tended the A.I.E.E. convention.
Among the well-known former stu.
dents Dean Bolton talked to there
were R. B. Steele, ’22, superintend
ent of Canadian National Tele
graphs; E. W. Boehne, ’26, an out
standing engineer with General
Electric; and T. G. Banks, ’31,
radio engineer for the Bureau of
Air Commerce of the U. S. Depart
ment of Commerce.
Nine Out of Ten Song Hits Written
By Unknowns Instead of Tin Pan Alley
Music students of Texas A. & M •
with a yen for composition are in
vited, along with youthful song
makers from all over the nation,
to submit their efforts to the prac
tical test of criticism and publi
cation, according to an announce
ment received from New York song
news centers.
On October 1st, 1939, an Advis
ory Board staffed by Paul White-
man, Guy Lombardo, Kay Kyser,
and Billy Rose selected the nation’s
outstand amateur songwriters. Of
the ten writers whose songs were
chosen for publication, nine were
college or university graduates.
This in itself is unusual since Tin
Pan Alley has always been singu
larly devoid of college-bred “hit”
songwriters. More important,
however, is the fact that unknowns
at last, are able to break into
professional writing circles.
By means of a unique plan, un
known songwriters were given the
opportunity to collaborate with
leading ASCAP tunesmiths, there
by facilitating the discovery of
-novice authors and composers
whose talents merited professional
recognition.
The Song Hit Guild, headquar
tered in the heart of Tin Pan Alley
at 1619 Broadway, New York City,
is the originator of this project.
The first group of songs selected
by the Guild’s distinguished Ad-
vistory Board were assigned to
Santly-Joy-Select, Inc., the music
firm that published such world-
famous “hits” as “The Music Goes
’Round and Around,” “Three Lit
tle Fishes,” and “The Man With
the Mandolin,” among others. This
firm gave the successful writers
advance royalties and Regulation
Songwriters contracts.
“Holy Smoke” (Can’t Ya Take a
Joke,) the first of the selected
songs to be introduced, is well on
its way to the “hit” class having
been performed by such radio lum
inaries as Kay Kyser, Paul White-
man, Blue Barron, Kate Smith’s
Ted Streater, the Merry Macs on
(Continued on page 8)
Classes for the second semester
officially started Tuesday morning
and absences occurred by students
registering or returning to school
late will be charged against them.
Total registration for the entire
year has not yet been tabulated but
pre-registration reports indicate
that the total number will be
approximately 6,300 or 6,400
students enrolled at A. & M. for
the 1939-40 session. Registration
for the first term totaled 6,086 and
with the additional 250 for the sec
ond term previous registration rec
ords will be topped.
Official college calendar dates
for the second semester are:
March 22-25, inclusive, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday-
Spring Recess.
May 31, Friday—Commencement
Sermon and exercises.
June 1, Saturday—Final Review.
June 1, Saturday to June 8, Sat
urday—Second semester examina
tions.
BRITH HEAD TO
ADDRESS A. & M.
GROUP SUNDAY
M. N. Dannenbaum of Houston,
first vice-president of the Seventh
District of the B’Nai Brith, will
be guest speaker at the open
meeting of the A. & M. Hillel Club
Sunday evening at 7:30 in the re~
ception room of the mess hall.
Mr. Dannenbaum will speak ora
“The Jewish Scene at Home and
Abroad,” and will be introduced by
Will Nathan, attorney, also of
Houston.
The Bryan B’Nai Brith Lodge
will be joint hosts with the col
lege club for the occasion, and
will serve refreshments to those
attending. The meeting is open to
the public, and a welcome is ex
tended to all those who wish to
familiarize themselves with pres
ent-day conditions of Jewish life.
Assembly Hall Goes Into ‘Big Time’ Status
With Matinees, Unique Two-Run Free Shows
By George Fuermann
“The most valuable entertain
ment asset of A. & M. College.”
Thus opinioned a recent campus
visitor in respect to the Y.M.C.A.’s
campus picture shows. As if em
phasizing the visitor’s remark, the
“Y” has recently instituted a series
of improvements and advancements
in its Assembly Hall shows which
include two free shows on Sunday
afternoons with matinees on Mon
days, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays;
bringing better pictures to the
campus earlier than heretofore; and
the addition of new, modern sound
equipment.
Now in their sixth year of ex
istence, the Sunday afternoon free
shows are one of the most popular
forms of Aggie entertainment.
Sponsored by the A. & M. Former
Students Association, the practice
of showing free shows is the only
one existent in American colleges
and universities today. But the de-1
mand for the shows have become
so pronounced—as evidenced by
the more-than-capacity attendances j
-♦■each week—that two showings of-fular time. The purpose of the
each feature will be made through
February and March as an experi
mental trial. The two features
will begin at 12:45 and 2:30, and
a reliable authority has indicated
that the quality of the free shows
in the future will surpass by a wide
margin the pictures of former
years.
Second in order in the recent
Assembly Hall advancements are
the afternoon matinees. Long an
advocation of many students, the
afternoon shows became a reality
Tuesday afternoon when several
hundred cadets attended the first
matinee showing, “The Four
Feathers.” Typical of all Y.M.C.A.
shows, the matinees will be made
up of the best pictures available
and will be shown on Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday after
noons at 3:30. The Monday after
noon feature will also be shown
matinees is to provide pictures
at a time when many of the stu
dents have “time on their hands.”
Cadets are often unable to attend
the 7:30 shows because of study
requirements.
The bringing of better pictures
to the campus earlier than here
tofore has been evident since last
September, and a continued effort
is being made in that direction.
Early last December, new, modern
sound equipment was installed—
equipment which is the equal of
that in most metropolitan theaters.
But no discussion of the Y. M.
C. A.’s Assembly Hall shows would
be complete without mentioning the
important benefit shows held each
Thursday and Friday nights. By
this means various campus techni
cal and social organizations are
enabled to earn money to buy neces
sary equipment, send members to
Tuesday afternoon and night, and i national judging contests, and g;en-
the Wednesday matinee will be j erally help the organizations to
shown Wednesday night at the reg- function better.