Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1940)
PAGE 2 ■SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1940 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 3, 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 4-5444. 1939 Member 1940 Associated Golle6iate Press BILL MURRAY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LARRY WEHRLE ADVERTISING MANAGER James Critz Associate Editor E. C. (Jeep) Oates Sports Editor H. G. Howard Circulation Manager “Hub” .Johnson Intramural Editor Philip Golman Staff Photographer John J. Moseley Staff Artist SATURDAY STAFF James Critz Acting Managing Editor Don Burk s.- Asst. Advertising Manager W. C. Carter Editorial Assistant Junior Editors A. J. Robinson Billy Clarkson Cecil De Vilbiss Junior Advertising Solicitors J. M. Sedberry G. M. Woodman Reportorial Staff Lee Rogers, E. M. Rosenthal, W. A. Moore, Glenn Mattox, Leslie Newman, M. L. Howard Telephone Rate Hike Perhaps the outstanding’ question that is be ing discussed in Bryan and College Station is that concerning the proposed increase in the rates to be charged by Southwest Telephone Company ... A proposal that is not meeting with a great amount of favor, but one that is faced by practically every municipality at one time or another . . . It should be interesting to note that the in crease change in the rates cannot be charged en tirely to the Southwest Telephone Company . . , The source of the entire proposal, we believe, can be found in the American Telegraph and Tele phone Company, largest organization of its kind in existence ... A vast business institution that owns or controlls practically all of the telephone, tele graph and cable lines in the United States. As we understand it, the Southwest Telephone Company is operating under the laws of Texas as an independent corporation . . . The statement sub mitted by officials of this company to the mem bers of the Bryan City Commission reveal that this company in 1939 made a net earning of 3.2 per cent on an investment with a depreciated value of $289,- 817.31, an amount less than the interest that would have been paid by many lending agencies .... These figures were based on the local income of the Southwest Telephone Company . . . that is the local connection rate charges and collections, and we have been told about 19 per cent of the total toll charges from long-distance calls. Perhaps an enlightening statement concerning the long-distance toll calls is in order . . . Some eighty cents of every dollar that is spent for calls of this nature goes to Bell Telephone Company, al lied with A. T. & T. The remainder of that dollar stays with the local system to be used to defray operation expenses which include salaries, taxes and other expenditures. We believe that the figures submitted to the City Commission are accurate in so far as they go . . . The thing about it is . . . they do not go quite far enough. Let’s make a comparison. Sup pose we owned three hundred newspapers and print ing establishments, each doing a gross business we’ll say of $20,000 per year ... to make the computa tions easy ... Of this $20,000 we will retain $4,- 000 for operating expense (which incidentally will not cover the cost) . . . and the remaining $16,000 we send to headquarters office for distribution. We could show a net loss, instead of a slight profit, on each establishment, providing of course we could do something about that other $16,000 per year. It’s not as simple as that with the telephone system, however. There are as many branches and divisions through which the mentioned eighty per cent must travel before reaching its destination . . . Numerous companies such as the Southwest Tele phone Company are operating throughout the United States on practically the same basis . . . The country is divided into divisions with each company serving its included territory . . . Each doing busi ness with one another, each retaining a percentage of the toll calls and each showing a small profit, or small loss, as the case may be. Most state gov ernments have laws regulating the amount of profit that a utilities group may make on a given invest ment. ... in Texas it’s 8 per cent on depreciated valuation of properties. Now enters the important topic of service . . . Which is one of the major factors in any company’s success. No doubt the dial telephone system to be installed by the Southwest Telephone Company in Bryan and College Station will prove a great aid and calls will be speeded up. Good service is de served by the public, whether it’s at the same rate or at one which has been increased. Should a grocery dealer increase his selling prices in order to give better delivery service, we doubt if his cus tomers would appreciate it ... We know they wouldn’t. So it is with the Telephone Company ... We are due good service without an increase in cost. Because every business must keep in step with progress or suffer losses in renumeration. We realize that the Southwest Telephone Company as a single communication system cannot show a huge profit, but the entire system with which it is allied does.—Bryan News. • ' As in most cases, there are bound to be circumstances and situations with which the South west Telephone Company is faced, that the general public understands little about. And doubtless when all the phones in College Station and Bryan are dial phones, the services will be greatly improved over that at present. But judging from widespread com ment, the company’s asking for a raise in rates at this time is particularly distressing, not only be cause of the facts given above, but also because of the extreme slowness and inefficiency of the service now being rendered. As The Battalion has pointed out before, in re sponse to numerous comments and queries, the service is far poorer than it should be. It seems that the telephone operators, for one thing, are too few in number to give the efficient service the public expects. We urge that if at all pos sible the company should add to the number of its operators. ★ It Doesn’t Belong to You Do you find that books from the library are frequently littered with markings by students? Underlining favorite passages or making per sonal comment is a habit which begins in classes, where the practice is required. It is a distinct aid to the student, but should be confined to personal property. Aside from the fact that such markings are wrong in that they damage library property, no two people would wish to mark the same selections. Half of the joy of reading comes from discovering for one’s self certain thoughts which seem to stim ulate the thinking of the reader. Not only does the habit detract from the con tents of the conscientious reader, but it is a decided nuisance to the library employee, who has enough to annoy him in catering to the whims of stu dents. Writing in library books has been carried be yond mere single, inexpensive editions which may be replaced if necessary. Marking in encyclo pedias and other valuable reference books, how ever, is another matter. Let’s think before we deface library property. —Baylor Lariat. ★ Texas Game Problems Fortunately, the Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission does not engage in hit-or-miss conserva tion. While it already is taking steps, with federal aid, to enlarge the range and quality of deer, ante lope, turkey and quail in Texas, one of its main proj ects is that of research to determine the needs, pos sibilities, and most effective methods for wild life restoration in Texas. This research is essential to the long-range planning required for successful restoration. In this connection, Will J. Tucker, executive sec retary of the commission, in a recent bulletin, states that studies are being made of the distribution of many kinds of game to show their population densi ties on one type of land and another. Deer counts on some ranches in the Edwards Plateau have shown that too many deer are being carried, with the re sult that the range is deteriorating. But other areas could support a much large number of deer, which in Texas as a while are sadly inadequate for the needs of hunters. Other studies are intended to show the effects of drouth, hunting pressure, predatory animals, plant succession and stream pollution. In addition, experimental areas are being established to demon strate the possibilities of wild life restoration. The game department is doing valuable educational work through clubs and schools and has been active in the formation of county wildlike planning boards con sisting of landowners and sportsmen interested in wildlife restoration. The present research in this field is expected to result in better understanding of Texas game prob lems and in more economical and more effective con servation. Ultimately, it will bring some game for sportsmen and thus give better results for their ef forts and expenditures, as well as for those of the taxpayers. As the World Turns... By “COUNT” V. K. SUGAREFF The Smith Committee of the House of Repre sentatives has found some faults with the admin istration of the Wagner Labor Relations Act. This act is administered by a board of three men from Washington, D. C., who have the power “to make, amend, and rescind such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of the law.” Regional boards were ap pointed to hear and decide cases throughout the country. From th« beginning (1935) both the Nation al Labor Relation Board and the regional boards met opposition from the employers and the em ployees. The Board, with neither background nor precedent, was confronted with many difficult tasks and it seems only logical that it would de velop some errors of commission and omission. The Board regulates the relations between 300,000 em ployers and 17,000,000 employees. It is impossible not to include in such a large organization some inexperienced theorists, impractical people, igno ramuses, bigots, and even pathological cases. It should be known, however, that the act was pass ed to establish rights for labor which were not guaranteed before, and that as yet no employer has found any legal “flaw in the Act.” * * * It seems that we have learned a lesson from the last war (1914-1918). Loans are prohibited to the present belligerents. Besides, our government has informed Great Britain that we would accept some gold but we want more of Britain’s American in vestments in exchange for war materials. These investments include the holdings of British sub jects in the United States, Canada, and Latin America—amounting to about $8,200,000,000. Last week England rekuisitioned the personal holdings of 60 selected gild-edged stocks. England will pay the holders of these stocks the market price (as of February 17) and sell them to build up a cash balance in the United States. The sale, however, would be gradual so as not to depress security prices. This is a toally different policy from loan ing the belligerents billions of dollars, most of which have never been paid. * * * The usual seasonal decline in the January ex ports was reversed last month. Our exports during January, 1940, amounted to $368,550,000—70 per cent over January, 1939. A good deal of these exports was made up of war materials. Texans, though, would be interested to know that last month was a record month both for cotton consump tion at home—730,143 bales; plus 1,125,000 bales exported. THE BATTALION Collegiate Kaleidoscope cMovtn /r > e4Kmr' DU ~ ‘ ‘ by Dob N isbei WORLD'/ Y0UNGEZT FRATERNITY BROTHER. [Pete Urowm.jr., year old son OF THE BASEBALL COACH AT OOLDRADO ST. COLLEGE OF EDUCA TION, TOOK THE PLEDGE IN DELTA RSI AND SIGNED THE PETITION Wm HIS HANDPRINT/ The heights daily news staff of NEW YORK UNIV. DISTRIBUTED 50,000 COPIES OF THEIR PAPER AT THE NYU.- FORDHAM GAME LAST FALL IN YANKEE •STADIUM. IT WAS THE LARGEST SINGLE ISSUE OF ANY COLLEGE PAPER/ BACKWASH By George Fuermann “Backwash: An agitation resulting; from some action or occurrence.”—Webster. Fuermann Backwash’s Ugly Boy champion ship is under way in high gear. With hillbilly bands, campaign managers, soap-box orations, and political dickering of the profes sional kind, the contest saw over 700 votes cast in the first day’s balloting. The candidates them selves are front page news, but too little is said of the energetic, ambitious cam paign managers. There’s Eddie Hall’s Otis Hatka who is assisted by Mike Rodriguez, Alex Charles, Farris Ivie, Eber Peters, Bob Logan, Frank Duke, and Cecil Johnston. The Band’s Roy Chappell has J. H. Focke and Bill Beck. Legett Hall’s candidate, S. D. “Red” Martin, has Clayton Bird, Bill Bohning, and Bill Cur- ECENT ECORD ELEASES Mitchell Ayres and his Fashions in Music have been packing the Ber muda Terrace Room of the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn for the past several weeks. In fact, the public’ enthusiasm for this hand some young maestro and his tal ented group of entertainers has been so marked that the manage ment has signed Ayres for the Terrace Room until at least April of 1940. While in this location, Mitchell Ayres has three coast-to- coast broadcasts a week, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. Such air time has already commenced a de mand for his records. Two novel ty tunes, favorites with this or chestra’s audiences, comprise rec ord B-10541. Vivacious Mary Ann Mercer is vocalist for both tunes and reveals personality, vocal talent, and showmanship of the highest calibre. Both ROW ROW ROW and MA (He’s Making Eyes at Me) are oldies. These revivals are in the accepted style of the moment and will undoubtedly be doubly attractive on coin phono graphs. • Bob Zurke’s band has one of the most promising ditties for 1940 on the “A” side of his record of the week. HOLY SMOKE, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and mu sic by Royal Marsh, packs a dou ble-barreled appeal through both words and music that cannot fail to ring the gong. A newcomer to the Zurke band, Gus Ehrman, handles the singing assignment in this medium swing interpretation. The companion-piece, SOMEBODY TOLD ME, was written by Mack Gordon and Henry Nemo. This is a love ballad equal in appeal to HOLY SMOKE but entirely different in its construction. Zurke’s new girl singer, Evelyn Poe, reveals an engaging voice of the wide-eyed variety. In both of these recordings, the Storytone piano, a new electrical develop ment made by RCA Victor and the Story and Clark Piano Company, is featured by The Ole Tom-Cat of the Keys. ry. And there’s several dozen “un official” managers for other can didates. The willingness is there, but a realization of his ungainly ugliness, the professional standing he has attained in that field, and the ineligibility of Battalion staff members have prevented your writer from being a candidate for the honor. • The way of things . . . “Sadie Hawkins’ Day” at Sam Houston State Teachers College today has attracted more than a hundred Ag gies to Huntsville . . . Gerry Mann: “I just barely will have a date for the Field Artillery Ball.” . . . A. D. Thomas: “Something should be done about these “bird- dogs” which abound so freely at A. & M. dances.” . . . Several Leap Year banquets were held at Col lege Station night before last. As usual at such affairs, the girls reversed the usual procedure and escorted cadets to the functions . . . Voting in the first primary of the column’s Ugly Boy cham pionship closes tomorrow night at mid-night. . . . The second primary, to be held next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, will be a race between the five high men in the current election. • “Ancient” is a mild word: Backwash recently took time out to cross-section the student body on what it thought were the two oldest jokes existent. With amaz ing consistency, here’s the one that almost everyone voted for: “Who was that lady I seen you with last night?” “That was no lady; that was my wife.” And, a close second: “Why does a chicken cross the road?” “To get on the other side.” • It shows a decent respect, any way: A quote from a daily newspaper of a not-too-distant city reads: “. . . and they are so valu able that their pelts are not used for fur coats until after the animals have died.” This column just received the an nouncement from Mrs. Schulman of the Bryan Amusement Com pany that “GONE WITH THE WIND” has been changed from the Palace and will play its Bryan engagement at the Queen Theater. The date of playing will remain the same as previously stated, March 13 through March 19. Warn ing in advance—G.W.T.W. is a top-notch show well worth any and all praise given in its behalf. Swinging back to the campus, we find for Saturday one good show and one not so good. “ETERNALLY YOURS” stars Loretta Young and David Niven, the perfect combination. Niven is still just a bit new to screen fans to be classed as a heavy star, but his popularity is growing by leaps and bounds. Loretta Young, who for many years has been the heart beat of many a swain, carries the dramatic end, and with her inimita ble personality and charming looks does a good job. The story is of a sleight-of-hand artist who robs a just-too-perfect young man of his fiancee by marrying her himself when she comes to have her character an alyzed. The marriage proves suc cessful except that the magician insists on jumping out of airplanes with his hands handcuffed behind him, and other such stunts; and also that he will not settle down with his wife in a little home in Vermont. So Loretta divorces David. How he contrives to win her back before the too-perfect young man completely dominates the scene—well, that would be giv ing it away. I’m tempted to rate it to three, but will be satisfied with two grade-points. The not-so-good show is “AN GELS WASH THEIR FACES,” a sequel more or less to “Angels With Dirty Faces.” The only differ ence is that this show hasn’t the benefit of the acting of James Cagney and Pat O’Brien. When “Dirty Faces” was made, Ann Sheridan was practically unknown. Now Warner Brothers shoves the whole sequence onto her shoulders to carry alone. Frankly the re sult is not so good. In the first place, Ann Sheridan is not partic ularly beautiful, regardless of the “oomph” campaign. Second, she cannot act, and there is no room for argument there. Rating: one grade-point. WHATS SHOWING AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL Saturday, 12:45 — “AN GELS WASH THEIR FACES,” with Ann Sheridan. Saturday, 6:30 and 8:30— “ETERNALLY YOURS” — with Loretta Young and David Niven. AT THE PALACE Beginning Sunday—“THE MAN FROM DAKOTA,” with Wallace Beery. AT THE QUEEN Sunday and Monday—“A CHILD IS BORN,” with Jef fry Lynn. BRING YOUR CAR TO US for a SPRING CLEANING and LUBRICATION BRYAN MOTOR Company Westinghouse REFRIGERATOR KRAFT’S RADIO SHOP Radios and Appliances CORPS DANCE SATURDAY NITE, MARCH 2 9 till 12 DE COURTNEY “CANDID CAMERA MUSIC MAN” —Featuring— Three Male Vocalists Sbisa Hall Scrip $1.00