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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 8, 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
Fhsocided Golle&ide Press
IJILL MURRAY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LARRY WEHRLE ADVERTISING MANAGER
James Criti Associate Editor
K. C. (Jeep) Oates Sports Editor
H. G. Howard Circulation Manager
Tommy Henderson .'. Asst. Circulation Manager
‘Hub' Johnson Asst. Sports Editor
Philip Golman Staff Photographer
James Carpenter Assistant Photographer
John J. Moseley Staff Artist
Junior Editors
Billy Clarkson George Fuermann Bob Nisbet
A. J. Robinson Earle A. Shields
THURSDAY STAFF
Ray Treadwell Managing Editor
J. W. Jenkins Asst. Advertising Manager
Don McChesney Asst. Circulation Manager
Phil Levine Editorial Assistant
R. V. (Red) Myers Jr. Sports Assistant
Senior Sports Assistants
Jimmie Cokinos Jimmy James
Junior Advertising Solicitors
L. J. Nelson A. J. Hendrick
Reportorial Staff
Jack Aycock, Jim Dooley, Walter Sullivan, D. C. Thurman,
Murray Evans, Joe Taylor, Thomas Gillis, Don Corley, Bill Amis.
BATTALION RADIO STAFF
George Fuermann Battalion Announcer
Charles A. Montgomery Associate
Watch for Fire Traps
“For twenty years I have traveled 25,000 miles
annually in fire prevention work. Each year I am
astonished how frequently luck plays the major role
in safeguarding against disaster buildings where
people assemble in large numbers. In far too many
oases, ignorance or wanton disregard of the funda
mentals of fire safety places your life and mine in
jeopard,” a national fire prevention worker recently
wrote In Readers Digest.
He continued, for example: “In New England
I saw a new movie theater, seating 2,000. It had a
secondary exit as required by law; but this exit op-
«ned Into a 4 1 /2-foot areaway, which had no outlet.
It could accommodate about twenty people. How
would you like to be in a fire there on bank night?
Equally startling was an auditorium seating five
thousand, in which the secondary exit opened eight
feet above the river—and not even a flight of steps
leading down!
“In Ohio I got to church late on Sunday and
found one of the main doors locked. The usher ex
plained that it was the minister’s idea—so he could
get down to the door to greet everybody as they
left. Meanwhile 750 people were dangerously con
fined in a building with only one inadequate exit.
I saw the same foolhardy procedure in a hotel, where
a watchman padlocked all the fire escape doors at
night ‘to keep burglars out.’ In both cases, conditions
were remedied when local fire chiefs promised to
chop down the doors if they were found locked
again.”
Many of us confronted with facts like these,
think they affect only the other fellow—that they
don’t exist where we live. The truth is that it’s a
rare town where similar glaring hazards don’t exist.
Those hazards are our problem. And it’s our duty to
eliminate them before tragedy occurs.
it
Let's Get Acquainted
There are many young people who attend col
lege four years and never voluntarily engage in
any sort of heart-to-heart talk with a single profes
sor, the one free source that is available for the
asking to acquaint, guide and initiate a young per
son in the ways of his elders and the world into
which he must eventually go.
Most collegians don’t seem to realize that the
dignified, seemingly hard-boiled instructors were
once just as young, just as green and inexperienced,
just as troubled with moral and religious problems,
and just as in need of help as students today. Above
all, they are prone to look upon their professors as
more or less mechanical machines, who live in a
world apart from the students and whose prime ob
jective is work for the sake of work.
Very few students try to see assigned work in
the light that it is assigned them. On the other hand,
the only way a professor can ascertain if an indi
vidual’s inner spark is a mere reflection or a true
fire is through testing his students.
Ip reality, if the professor’s soul weren’t com
passionate and understanding, his life would never
have been dedicated to the painstaking task of teach
ing our youth, which would be an intolerable exist
ence if his character were otherwise. Furthermore,
the majority of professors don’t want their teach
ing to stop with classroom lectures and welcome
nothing more than an office chat with a student.
Ignoring college parasites, who fool no one but
themselves in trying to soft soap their way into good
grades, it seems that more of us should strive to
know through intimate association those who teach
ns. The road beyond college is arduous and long, and
the counsel of our elders is necessary equipment.
★
“It’s Really Spring!”
Following is an editorial entitled “It’s Really
Spring”, which appeared in The Texas Aggie, news
paper published for ex-Aggies by the Former Stu
dents Association. This was in the April 15 issue,
which also reprinted the complete, original story
from The Battalion on the student body’s campaign
to get movies for College Station on an equal basis
with Bryan.
IT’S REALLY SPRING
One of the surest signs that spring has arrived
on the campus is some form of unusual and some
times disturbing student activity. The Aggie pre
sents elsewhere in this issue the student Battalion’s
account of a struggle between the cadet corps and
the motion picture interests of Bryan.
Many former students will recall activities of
a similar general extracurricular nature developing
at about this time of the year. For this reason the
Aggie feels that former students will enjoy reading
of this latest campus sensation.
In mentioning the matter in this vein, the Aggie
has no intention of belittling the present efforts of
the student body. In all fairness it would seem that
there is. something wrong with a business system
whereby a community of approximately 9,000 people,
over 6,000 of them students, can be denied first-run
motion pictures.
But regardless of this particular issue, it seems
to the Aggie there is something quite healthy in the
uniform action of the entire student body in rallying
behind its leaders for a cause it believes is fair and
just. Further, so far as the Aggie has found, the
entire student movement has been handled with
care, and in such a way that no particular personal
ities, or meanness of thought or action, have been
involved.
At any rate, rest assured that spring is here.
Parade of Opinion
By Associated Collegiate Press
CENSUS
The nation’s college press, always ready to
choose up sides for a healthy editorial slugfest, is
in virtually unanimous agreement this week on one
topic that has stirred bitter debate in other quarters.
The national census, those who guide the student
publications believe, is not taking undue liberties
by prying into private lives. Students in the nation’s
colleges and universities are being advised to co
operate fully in the decennial nose-count. And they’re
being reminded that statistics available only through
the census are citally needed in solution of the
nation’s ills.
The Census Bureau, it is pointed out by the
Glenville, W. Va., Teachers College Mercury, “needs
in two ways the help of students in the gigantic
task of assembling facts about 132 million Amer
icans: First, by making sure that their parents will
report them to the census enumerator, and second,
by supplying their parents with certain information
they will need in order to report on them accurately.
The University of Kansas Daily Kansan, while
conceding that “the list of questions Uncle Sam
has prepared for his Q-Men to ask for personal and
intimate as well as multitudinous,” adds that “co
operation with the 1940 census takers in every way,
by every person in the country, will pay dividends
in a number of ways.”
Pointing out that revealing of financial secrets
in income tax returns has stirred no storm of dis
approval, The Daily Iowan at the University of Iowa
observes that a more universal survey occuring
only every ten years should not meet with any
resentment. More important than the mere accumu
lation of figures is the necessity for full data for
use in a long-needed attack on the unemployment
problem.
“Two things,” believes the University of Min
nesota Daily, “should keep the census above political
taint. In the first place, the questions for the new
census are not the product of a few bureaucrats, but
have been prepared over a fairly long period with
the aid of suggestions from private citizens and
organizations. In the second place, if the government
is to continue in the new social and economic era of
public welfare, it must have fuller statistics to per
form its task well.”
Whatever thunderous political cries there may
be “agin” the ten-year check-up, there can be little
doubt that America’s collegians are distinctly “fur”
the tabulation.
\
As the World Turns...
By “COUNT” V. K. SUGAREFF
The meteoric invasion of Scandinavia has
brought world-wide repercussions. The battle line
has been drawn from Greenland to the Near East
and no one can foresee where it may be extended
tomorrow. Our neutrality has been seriously affected,
both at home and abroad. Greenland has been
brought within the orbit of the Mon
roe Doctrine, and the President has
instructed the Red Cross to aid the
inhabitants of that region. Our eco
nomic relations with Scandinavia
have been disrupted. Far more im
portant for us is the changed atti
tude of the American citizens who
trace their origins to the countries
recently occupied by Hitler. Poles,
Czechs, Slovaks, Austrians, and
Scandanavians number nearly 10,000,
V. K. Sugareff 000 people in the United States.
They exert considerable influence on
our present policy and will no doubt influence our
future action. They are interested in an allied vic
tory and will go far to help the allies win the war.
As the war extends, we shall find it more difficult
to maintain our neutrality.
The probability of an attack by Hitler on Bel
gium and Holland immediately brought the status
of their colonial possessions into the limelight. The
Dutch East Indies are of vital interest to us. We get
$100,000,000 worth of crude rubber from the East
Indies and $50,000,000 worth from the British Malay
states. A large portion of our tin comes from that
region, moreover. Japan has also expressed “deepest
interest” in the status of the Dutch East Indies. Our
reply to this expression of interest was a bill of
approximately $1,000,000,000 for naval armaments.
There is already some contention for a navy large
enough to defend both the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans.
Mussolini hopes to profit from the latest war
events, but it is doubtful that he will soon enter the
war on the side of Hitler. The maneuvering of the
Italian fleet in the eastern part of the Mediterranean
Sea is hardly indicative of such a move. Italy needs
her fleet in her home waters. Mussolini must be fully
aware that no matter which side he joins in this war,
he is bound to play a small role. Italy’s exposed
boundaries are a constant warning to Mussolini of
the great dangers to Italy, should he join Hitler.
The Balkan states also are experiencing another
case of jitters, but their independence is secured as
long as the three dictators—Hitler, Stalin, and Mus
solini—cannot agree among themselves on the divis
ion of these regions.
THE BATTALION
-THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1940
BACKWASH
By
George fuermann
“Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster.
Down Military Walk . . . For the
ninth consecutive week,, “Tuxedo
Junction” leads the Aggie hit pa
rade. Maestro Jack Littlejohn fur
ther pointed out
that “A 11 The
Things You Are” is
again in second
place for the sec
ond week and a
newcomer, “John
son Rag,” hit the
number three spot
at the Cotton Ball
and the following
corps dance . . .
Cadets haven’t got a chance: A rea
sonable attractive girl who is a
reasonably good dancer will dance,
on an average, five and a half
music measures with a partner be
fore she is cut-in on at A. & M.
dances . . . Amongst other things,
A. & M. is an engineering college:
Thousands of cadets depend daily
on the clock in the rotunda of the
Academic Building in making class
es on time, but, for the second
time this year, the time-keeper is
on a strike. How long this time?
. . . Tuesday’s column pointed out
that Harold “Frog” Duncan rated
tops in the world of large-size
shoes with 14%, but Werner Goh-
mert takes Harold’s measure with
size 15 . . . The Cadet Singers
have a new Aggie “fight” song
which will be publicly presented
for the first time on their current
spring tour. The corps will have an
opportunity to hear it for the first
time soon after the group returns
next Sunday. The song, incidentally,
should prove to be a winner with
Aggies everywhere . . . The annual
influx of F. F. A. boys earlier this
week saw a tremendous drain on the
supply of collar ornaments possess
ed by local merchants. One “whole-
hog-or-none” lad had a string al
most a foot long, composed of ev
ery insignia available, running
down his shirt front.
•
California—here we come:
Whether or not very many cadets
will be able to follow the team to
Los Angeles next October for the
U. C. L. A. game is uncertain—
and doubtful—but one thing ap
pears to be certain . . . we’ll have
a grade A, number-one yelling
section in the stadium if we want
it.' 1 Unless the corps says “No,”
Warner Brothers will probably co
operate in forming the first all
female yelling section for the
world’s largest all-male college. The
deal being . . hundreds of Warner’s
attractive extras could learn the
Aggie yells and sound off in a body
at the game, supplemented by what
ever cadets and former students
that are on hand. But the question
involves a matter of principle . . .
and Backwash would like to know
what you—the corps—think about
the idea, which originated with
Warner Brothers publicity agent,
Bill Lewis.
One thing, incidentally, appears
to be reasonably certain: The en
tire Aggie Band will make the
trip . . . and they deserve it. The
show they will put on in California
will be almost without precedent in
that state of self-imposed superla
tives.
9
A bartender’s point of view:
A College Station woman, re
cently visiting in New Orleans,
struck up a conversation with one
of that city’s more or less color
ful bartenders (as if a colorless bar
tender ever existed!) without let
ting the whiskey-skeet know that
she was a Texan. “I don’t suppose
those Texans spent much money,”
she said. “Oooh yes,” was the re
ply, “they traded in their boots
and spurs and came down with a
hatful of money!” After recover
ing from this one, the Texan con
tinued her cross-examination with,
“Were the Aggies a well-behaved
bunch?” “Best-behaved group of
collegians ever to visit New Or
leans,” was the quick deply. “Tex
ans are loud people,” he concluded,
“but they’re not bad! They didn’t
make any trouble at all for us.”
•
Dallas, the Sheridan football, and
the Dallas A. & M. Club stag:
Coach Norton, Walemon Price,
John Kimbrough, Ernie Pannell,
and the writer marched on Dallas
last Friday with Warner Brothers
representatives Henry Krumm and
Bill Lewis. Texan Ann was abed
with the flu, so the autographed
football was given to the lovely air
line hostess, Norma Fredrickson,
who will, in her own turn, give
the ball to the Sheridan belle.
Highlight of the trip was the
Dallas A. & M. Club’s annual stag
party held atop that city’s Buick
Company. With 850 ex-students in
attendance, the brew and sand
wiches were plentiful, and the best
“bull session ’ of the writer’s ex
perience were in full sway. If all
former student clubs are like the
Dallas organization, then being an
“ex” is something to look forward
to.
^ Musical Meanderings ^
By Murray Evans
Here of late there have been vaT
rious ratings in The Battalion of
the “name” orchestras visiting our
campus this semester. At the be
ginning of the season Lawrence
Welk and his crew were boosted
as the “best yet”. Then Bemie
Cummins replaced Welk as the
favorite. But then Shep Fields mov
ed in, and all the others were cast
into the limbo of “so-so’s.” At this
writing Anson Weeks ranks tops in
the latest student survey.
Why all this chronology, you
ask? Well, it’s just groundwork
for my contention that “out of
sight, out of mind”,,is ruling the
roost when students are asked their
favorite band of the season. It
goes to prove that he who laughs
last, laughs—or something.
Of course we all differ; that’s
what makes a horse race. But while
we’re about it, let me toss in my
say on the run, and then you may
roar and rant as you will.
Lawrence Welk brought the best
band here to date, ’tis the humble
opinion of myself. His was an ex
tremely smooth, well-rehearsed or
ganization. His arrangements con
tained a hatful of new ideas in
the realm of sweet swing. The elec
tric organ, presided over by the
thoroughly capable Jerry Burk,
gave the rhythmic section a depth
and continuity that the ordinary
four-piece rhythm section can nev
er touch. This instrument will pro
vide plenty of competition for the
piano, and may even supplant it
in orchestras of the future. All of
Welk’s men were pleasingly ver
satile and commercial enough to
register enjoyment while they
worked. Nobody, and especially the
Aggies out for a night of relaxa
tion and merriment, wants to see
a Sphinx-like aggregation of musi
cians on the stand. Welk had an
ear-to-ear smile that you just knew
was genuine. His band sounds es
pecially good on recordings; this is
where defects, if present in any
band, will stand out like sore
thumbs.
As to the No. 2 band, I think
Shep Fields should take over that
spot without any argument. (Well,
not much.) He overcame the handi
cap of a style designed for hotel
dinner dancing and blossomed out
with a brand that pleased (and
surprised) all those skeptics who
thought him incapable of satisfy
ing college dance requirements.
Claire Nunn his songstress, can
teach Barbara Hutton a thing or
two about the art (you question?)
of jitterbug singing. And when
she wasn’t singing, she was play
ing a barrelful of piano. If you
didn’t see the manner in which she
attacked those ivories, it is your
loss; it looked something like the
typewriter touch system. Also par
ticularly pleasing as male vocalist
was Hal Derwin, guitarist de luxe,
and with a soft baritone voice which
topped by a few shades the efforts
of all other gentleman chirpers on
the bandstand thus far.
In conclusion, I would put Ber-
nie Cummins in show place and
omit all reasons for same, except
that every last one of his men was
a veteran who played solidly, with
MOTHERS’ DAY SPECIAL
One 8x10 Picture Worth $2.50
FOR $1.50
Only one to each person at that Price
Offer Expires May 11th
AGGIELAND STUDIO
JOE SOSOLIK, Proprietor
By TOM GILLIS
As thrilling a saga of the sea
as has come out of Hollywood in
a long time is being shown here
today and tomorrow for the bene
fit of the Rural Sociology Club.
Not at all the least interesting part
of RULERS OF THE SEA is the
thick brogue and quaint syntax
used by the English characters as
they portray early nineteenth cen
tury English seamen and sea people.
Especially Will Fyffe, as the old
engineer and dreamer of steam
crossings of the Atlantic, gives sev
eral magnificent moments as he
speaks his soliloquies praising his
dreams and his engines.
The story is of one of the first
Atlantic crossings made by a ship
entirely under the power of steam.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is an ambi
tious first mate on a sailing vessel
who quits his captain because of
cruelty to his men. Will Fyffe
meets Douglas and is happy to
have found a young man who knows
the sea and a little engineering to
help him perfect his plans and mod
els for his beloved engines. Old
Fyffe’s daughter, and since her
WOOD FIRST IN
A.S.M.E. MEET
John W. Wood, senior mechanical
engineering student, won first place
for A. & M. at the recent meeting
of the American Association of
Mechanical Engineering Student
Conference. The conference was
held at Lubbock last Friday. The
conference is an annual feature of
the A. S. M. E., and Texas Tech
was host this year to the 150 stu
dents who attended. Wood’s select
ion on “Performance of Screen-
filled Cooling Towers” won the
first place prize of $35, the first
time an Aggie has ever placed so
high. Wood built a model of his
cooling tower to help demonstrate
his subject. Another Aggie, George
W. Wheeler of F Engineers, placed
tenth in the contest with a paper
on “Metalock.” The contest and the
conference are annual features
sponsored by Group Seven student
branches of the A. S. M. E.
nary a bobble.
Now none of these orchestras
stand head and shoulders above the
others. They are all “big-name”
bands, top-notchers, and their rep
utations were not dished to them on
silver platters. Each has a style
which is intended to please most
of the people all of the time. Act
ually their ideas of rhythm and
phrasing are identical in most re
spects. It is “style”, the individual
mark of each band, in which they
differ. And that, precisely, is what
makes the ranks of Joe Public
come to odds as to who is “best”.
’Tis a relative term. ’Tis a matter
of opinion, pure and simple.
All of which goes to show how
differently we are geared when the
subject of musical taste is con
sidered!
household and guardian to the old
mother’s death, the mistress of the
man, is Margaret Lockwood. After
passing through all the trials and
more than any struggling inventor «
and visionary must go through, and
meets the difficulties of legality,
competition, getting a backer, etc.,
Douglas and Will take one of their
steam-propelled coastwise vessels
and start across the stormy north
Atlantic. Margaret Lockwood com
es along as stewardess to be near
her father and Douglas, with whom
she is now in love. More trials and
storms beset them, but the faith
and ability found only in true gen
iuses finally carry them into New
York harbor victorious, but with
lovable old Will Fyffe, the chief
engineer dying from scalds caus
ed by a burst steam pipe. Douglas,
in his hour of triumph, promises
the dying father to take care of
his daughter and build better steam
engines for the worlds of seamen
to follow their path with steam.
The moving and gripping action
of this show transmits to the audi
ence somewhat of the faith of the
old inventor as he pleads for his
beloved models. This is a truly
great story of the sea and how
man has conquered it with steam.
Shorts for the program are a Ted
Fio Rito orchestra number and a
night club comedy.
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