CIRCULATION 5,500
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER
OF THE CITY OF
COLLEGE STATION
The Battalion
DIAL 4-5444
STUDENT TRI WEEKLY
NEWSPAPER OF
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
VOL. 39 122 ADMINISTRATION BUILDING COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 9, 1940
NO. 72
STUDENT BODY INITIATES CAMPAIGN TO SECURE
FIRST-CLASS MOVIES FOR COLLEGE STATION
Anson Weeks To Play For Cavalry Regiment
Noted Band
Here For
First Time
Well-Known Maestro
Is Music Composer
By Lee Rogers
Coining to Aggieland for the
first time is Anson Weeks and his
nationally famous orchestra, who
will play for the Cavalry Ball and
corps dance this week-end.
Weeks started on his road to pop
ularity on the west coast during
an engagement at the Mark Hop
kins Hotel in San Francisco where
he found his orchestra in great de
mand with colleges of that region.
His orchestra was one of the first
to be heard on the Lucky Strike
program from the west coast.
ANSON WEEKS
During the time that he spent
in the west, Weeks and his orches
tra made several musical shorts
for Paramount, but their plans for
a motion picture career were stop
ped almost before they were start
ed due to the demand for their ap
pearances in the midwest and east.
(Continued on page 4)
Annual Highway
Engineers’ Short
Course To Open
Sixteenth Meeting Of
Group Begins Tuesday
The sixteenth annual short course
for highway engineers will open
here Tuesday morning, April 9.
Registration will begin at 8:30
o’clock in the lobby of the Y. M.
C. A. and the opening talk will be
given by Col. Ike Ashburn, execu
tive assistant to the president,
at 9:45.
J. T. L. McNew, professor of
highway engineering will preside
at the morning session and Julian
Montgomery, State Highway En
gineer, of Austin, at the afternoon
session.
Bob Gentry, chairman, Texas
Highway Commission, Austin, will
discuss the problems in carrying
forward a State highway program
during the morning. T. R. Spence,
vice-director of the Engineering
Experiment Station, will also speak
during the morning and will dis
cus “Fact and Fancy in Engineer
ing Research.”
Regulation of traffic and traffic
accidents and their causes and rem
edies will be the main topic for
discussion during the afternoon.
Carl J. Rutland, Texas Power and
Light Co., Dallas, and Captain B.
B. Smith, Dallas Police Depart
ment, are the speakers assigned to
the traffic discussions and both
are nationally recognized experts
in their fields. It is due to their
efforts that Dallas has risen to
national prominence in safety con
trol in the past few years.
Aggie Killed
In Houston
Car Accident
Silver Taps was observed Sun
day night for Horace Jessie Long
of Houston, a member of M In
fantry, who was killed in an auto
mobile wreck in Houston early Sun
day morning.
Long, who was visiting his home
over the weekend, was killed in
stantly when a car driven by Jack
A. Downs, also of Houston, crashed
with another car driven by M. T.
Edmonds. Downs is an ex-student
of A. & M.
Funeral services were held from
the Fogle-West chapel Monday,
and burial was in Forest Park
Cemetary.
Long transferred here in Febru
ary from North Texas Agricultural
College, with sophomore standing.
He was majoring in mechanical
engineering.
Noted Agricultural
Economists To Talk
Here During April
Drs. Hibbard, Stokdyk,
Will Deliver Lectures
Two noted agricultural econo
mists, Dr. Benjamin H. Hibbard of
the University of Wisconsin,, and
Dr. E. A. Stokdyk, president of the
Berkeley, California, Bank for Co
operatives, have been engaged for
a week’s series of lectures here, ac
cording to Dean E. J. Kyle.
Dr. Hibbard will give four lec
tures during the week beginning
April 8. His subject will be “Re
cent Agricultural Policies”; “For
eign Trade in Relation to Ameri
can Agriculture”; “Farmers’ Move
ments”; and “Land Policies”. He
B. H. Hibbard
also will conduct three seminars
for graduate students and staff
members on agricultural economic
problems.
Dr. Stokdyk will appear during
the week beginning April 15. His
(Continued on page 4)
MOURSAND TO SPEAK
TO PRE-MED BANQUET
IN SBISA HALL TONIGHT
Dr. W. H. Moursand, dean of the
Baylor Medical College, will ad
dress the Pre-Medical College of
A. & M. tonight at 6:30 following
an informal banquet to be given
in his honor in Sbisa Hall.
Dr. Moursand wishes, during his
stay on the campus, to speak per
sonally with every student who in
tends to study medicine after leav
ing A. & M., no matter where the
student plans to go. He will hold
interviews in the faculty meeting
room of the Administration Build
ing between 2 and 5 p. m. today.
A. & M. Greets Farley Royally
Above are shown a few of the events that took place at Aggieland “Farley Day”, last Thursday, when
A. & M. welcomed United States Postmaster-General James A. Farley as its honored guest on the
campus.
Upper left, “Genial Jim” delivering his speech which was broadcast by WTAW, at the banquet in his
honor Thursday night which was attended by nearly 1,000 students, faculty members, and distinguished
visitors. A. & M.’s President Walton is seated at Farley’s right.
Lower left, at the banquet, “Jo-Jo” White, senior letterman this past season, is shown handing
Farley an unusual gift and one that pleased him greatly—a white football autographed with the signa
tures of the entire football squad for 1939-40.
Upper right, Farley is shown meeting Bill Duncan, another senior football star of this past season,
at the mounted, full-dress review of the entire corps held in the Postmaster-General’s honor Thursday
afternoon upon his arrival.
Lower right, Farley, with Colonel George F. Moore, Commandant, at his left, and Cadet Colonel D.
B. Varner and the corps staff at his right, is shown reviewing the corps. Paul Haines (extreme right)
bore the Postmaster-General’s flag.
Shep Fields and Entertainers Make Hit With
Infantrymen; Weekend Crowded With Festivities
By George Fuermann
From “Rippling Rhythm” to ring
ing swing, and jumpin’ jive to
swaying waltzes, versatile and ca
pable Shep Fields and associates
played to what is generally held
to have been the most successful
of Infantry Balls.
“Singing Cadets”
Plan Houston Visit
The A. & M. Singing Cadets will
leave College Station Thursday
morning to make several appear
ances in Houston.
The group will arrive in Houston
at 9:30 a. m. and during the morn
ing will appear for programs be
fore two high schools there. It is
not known at present which schools
the programs will be presented.
From the schools the Singing Ca
dets will go to the Rice Hotel for
a broadcast over station KTRH at
11:30, and during the noon hour
they will be the guests of the Hous
ton Rotary Club where they will
again sing.
The series of programs will be
continued Thursday afternoon with
an informal picnic and meeting with
the Houston A. & M. Mothers Club
at the George Washington Junior
High School at 5:30. At 7:45 Thurs
day evening the Singing Cadets
meet for a performance for the
Houston A. & M. Mothers Club at
the George Washington Junior
High School.
The trip will be made in two
chartered busses and the boys will
return late Thursday night.
as belles and coeds adding half a
thousand to Aggieland’s populace,
fifteen hundred Infantrymen and
their escortees celebrated the an
nual festivities with a continual
round of functions.
Beginning Friday night with the
Town Hall presentation of maestro
Fields and orchestra, the festivities
included a junior class party at the
Country Club and the Infantry
Ball Friday night, and the corps
dance Saturday night.
But “swing,” rather than the ex
pected “Rippling Rhythm,” was
king. “We play the kind of music
that our dancers want,” Shep de
clared. “There was little question
but what the Aggies wanted swing
and that accounts for the almost
total absence of the ‘Rippling Rhy
thm’.” Even so, his unique air
bubble music was also popular
with cadets and their dates. “Na
turally,” Shep further pointed out,
“we use ‘Rippling Rhythm’ on radio
programs to identify ourselves.”
Blessed with a fine personality
which makes him a number one
“front” man, Shep was surrounded
with a galaxy of capable stars.
Heading the list was vivacious,
lively, and gay Claire Nunn—a
singer with a definite “Aggie ap
peal.”
As well as being an ace with the
ivories and a conductor, Weeks
has turned his musical abilities to
ward composition. Some of his ori
ginal compositions include “I’m
Sorry Dear”, “Sorry”, “Tuck Me in
to Sleep”, “The Last Dance”, and
more recently, the haunting Hawai
ian strains of “Pali”.
(Continued on page 4)
ANNUAL HORSE
SHOW WILL TAKE
PLACE SATURDAY
Seventeenth Yearly Show
Will Include 24 Classes
The Seventeenth Annual Horse
Show will take place here at the
college on Saturday, April 13, ac
cording to an announcement made
by Col. George F. Moore, Command
ant, and chairman of the horse
show committee.
A total of 24 classes will be
shown and others may be added
for any class for which there is a
sufficient demand. The morning
events will begin at 10 o’clock and
end shortly before noon. The after
noon events will start at 1:30 and
conclude at about 5:30.
Many well-known Texas horse
men have forwarded entries for
the show and others have signified
that they intend to enter their hors
es.
Campbell Sewell, Houston, has
always shown his best horses here,
and has been a consistent winner
with his gelding, William the Con
queror, but since he sold his na
tional champion, the field will this
year be wide open for other top
saddle and harness horses.
Stock owned by the college and
the U. S. Army will be entered and
cadets will participate in events
open only to them.
Support-Local-Show
Move Effected At
Jr.-Sr. Class Meeting
Date-to-Date Showing With Bryan Of
Best Pictures Is Ultimate End and Aim;
Varner Says: “We^e Going To Get ’Em!”
By Bill Murray
SIX THOUSAND TEXAS AGGIES SUNDAY
TOOK CONCERTED ACTION TO GET FIRST-RUN,
FIRST-RATE, DATE-TO-DATE MOTION PICTURES
WITH BRYAN AT COLLEGE STATION BY REMAIN
ING AWAY FROM BRYAN THEATERS FOR AS
LONG AS NECESSARY TO EFFECT A SATISFAC
TORY SETTLEMENT. The movement first took ef
fect at the stroke of midnight Sunday.
Initiated last week at meetings of the organization
commanders and the Student Welfare Committee of A.
& M., the movement became a reality with a unanimous
motion on the part of 1,500 members of the senior and
junior classes in a joint mass meeting at Guion Hall
Sunday night, to abstain voluntarily from attending
any of the three Bryan motion picture houses.
At the meeting, Cadet Colonel Durward B. Varner,
chairman, pointed out that the Aggies spend at least
$64,000 annually in Bryan theaters, and $14,000 for
Y. M. C. A. Assembly Hall movies on the campus for
second-run shows 45 days (by existing contract) after
Bryan. It was also stated that the average attendance
of Aggies at the Bryan theaters, according to the Bryan
management, has been 40 percent of the total, up to
the present time; however, leaders of the student body
believe this average to have been more nearly 50 or 60
percent of the total.
Speakers pointed out that the additional cost of a
20-cent taxi fare to Bryan and return makes seeing
the movies there cost 45 cents.
"Vo Half-Way Measure,”
Declares Cadet Colonel
In the belief that the resulting decrease in attend
ance at the Bryan houses during the coming weeks or
months will do to convince the Dallas motion picture
distributing agents for this area that the city of College
Station with its 6,000 Aggies and 3,000 or more other
citizens is equally as fertile a field for motion pictures
as is Bryan, and at the same time that it should convince
the management of the Bryan theatrical enterprises that
existing contracts should be altered in the interests of
the A. & M. student body and of all parties concerned,
the entire student body of the college has joined whole
heartedly in this movement.
Stated Cadet Colonel Varner: “This isn’t any half
way measure. We’re all working with the same end in
mind—to secure first-class shows here at the same time
Bryan has them—and we’re going to keep up this stay-
at-home, save-our-money, support-our-local-theater
movement until we do get them, whether it takes two
weeks, two months, or two years!”
•
Organization Meetings Quick
To Get Movement Under Way
Following the well-ordered, business-like meeting
of 1,500 juniors and seniors—the largest percentage at
any class meeting this year—activity was quick to
get under way in preparing an effective and united front
to gain the desired end.
Company, troop, and battery meetings of every
organization on the campus were called to carry the ap
peal for cooperation to the sophomores and freshmen;
managers of the seventeen campus project houses and
ten off-campus houses were quick to secure the co
operation of the 1,200 non-dormitory students; many
faculty members and college employees added their sup
port to the move—and throughout Aggieland the senti
ment was the same ... to get first-rate, date-to-date
moving pictures with Bryan for College Station.
Aroused to fever pitch after many years of high-
pressure theater discrimination, Aggieland’s six thou
sand students are mobilized in an undertaking of com
plete accord, and the campaign is already arousing wide
interest and attention.
The story of the local theater situation went out to
the Associated Press and the United Press from the Col
lege Publicity Office Monday morning.
STATE BOARD OF REGISTRATION FOR
ENGINEERS MEETS WITH SENIORS
The State Board of Registration-
for Professional Engineers wilj hold
a meeting at College Station this
evening at 7:30, in the Chemistry
Lecture Room, according to an an
nouncement made yesterday by
Gibb Gilchrist, Dean of the School
of Engineering. Members of the
Board will explain to senior engi
neering students the engineers’
license law which is in effect in
Texas.
This information will be invalu
able to prospective engineering
graduates who expect to enter the
field of professional engineering,
and Dean Gilchrist expects a large
attendance.