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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1940)
PAGE 2 -SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1940 The Battalion STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF TEXAS A. A M. COLLEGE Th« Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Xechanieal 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 ia published weekly from June through August. Entered as second-class matter at the Poet 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-M44. 1939 Member 1940 Associated GoUe&iate Press RILL MURRAY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LARRY WEHRLE ADVERTISING MANAGER James Critx Associate Editor E. 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 SATURDAY STAFF James Critz Don Burk W. C. Carter R. V. (Red) My ers Junior Advertising J. M. Sedberry ... Acting Managing Editor Asst. Advertising Manager Editorial Assistant Jr. Sports Assistant Solicitors G. M. Woodman Reportorial Staff E. M. Rosenthal, Lee Rogers, Glenn Mattox, W. A. Moore, Bob Parker, L. B. Tennison | CHAINED 1 | WEARINESS | On every campus, we suppose, the matter of student leaders, and campus “big shots” boils down to the same thing—or the same men. It is at least true at A. & M. that the few men who WILL do the work eventually do the things that mark men student leaders. The Emory Wheel has analyzed the matter, and we think that they have beefed well. We wish that we had taken the time to do the same beefing first, hut we didn’t so we quote the rather winded Wheel editorial. This newspaper does not think that the Wheel (editorial offers a solution. We are sure that it does riot, but we print it in these columns just to get .•a load off our chests that any college newspaper staff is glad to get off. * * * On Emory’s campus today there is a small group of weary men. In the group are ten or twelve seniors and four or five juniors. They are tired of Emory, its ■classes and its activities. They are chained by campus opinion, a roguish master which binds them with such titles as campus leaders, “big shots,” “activity men.” They feel obligated to the university and to its student life. This small group trudges through activities, each member living on cigarets, black coffee, late bours, and nervous energy. Each one realizes his health is being impaired, each one knows his grades are suffering. Yet he trudges on. It’s too late to quit. The activity man as a senior is sick of it all. He wants to sit around the hall or house once in a while and listen to records or the radio. He wants to talk about his girl, dances, automobiles, and campus politics. He wants to feel that some night he can go to bed before 2:30 confident that he knows his lesson for the next day. He’s sick of staying up all night, of answering a thousand ques tions, of making everybody mad at him. He wants to be “one of the boys” again. The activity man feels that after three and one-half years he’s done enough for his fellow- students and his school. Now is the time to get out and look for a job. Comprehensives are com- ing up soon. And yet, that old sense of obligation is always prodding him. It makes him accept duties he doesn’t want, do things he’s tired of doing. He ruins his health, misses' a lot of pleasure, and wears a couple of keys. Activities have always existed at colleges and will exist as long as man can drive pleasure from a feeling of mastery over others. Cynics say activ ities exist only because students are foolish enough to try to build up lines of type under their name in the senior section of the annual. Others point out that activities are good because they give men experience along certain lines, and that men enter activities because they realize this fact. Still others sincerely believe that men, without thoughts of keys and other high honors, enter activities merely for the love of competition and the sat isfaction gained from a job well done. Time takes its toll in activities. Freshmen come out for them in droves. During the sopho more year the number drops. As juniors, even more realize they’re not suited. Consequently in the fourth year the burden is thrown on a very few. Once a man has proved himself a capable and dependable worker, more work and more responsi bility is piled upon him. Not only students, but faculty directors of various activities take ad vantage of his sense of obligation. They exploit his willingness to woik for others—to work even to the extent of his own uin. With so much to do, the leader (at least the type who is not genius enough to handle all his activities and his school wort: satisfactorily) slumps in his studies. Time taken by his activities forces him to cut classes. His grades suffer. At the same time underclassmen see that the leader isn’t making good grades and begin to harbor the idea that maybe grades don’t mean much after all, especially if such respected men—men who are popular and who “do things”—make only mediocre marks. The activities themselves suffer. The few are the powers in so many campus doings that they have little time to put on single activi ties. Men who might have handled well the high positions have to give away to these “all-activity” men. Most practical solution lies in the individual himself. May the freshmen and sophomores realize that too many activities are a burden, an abomina ble burden. Let them pick their best fields and stick to them. What we need is more balance. ★ DOCTOR, LAWYER, MERCHANT, CHIEF— What are you going to be? How do you intend to pass your unspare time (if any), keep unwel come animals from the door and earn the right to pay an income tax? Probably you don’t know yet; if you do you may change. Anyway, don’t let anybody rush you. It’s better to be a street massager at 50, still look ing for the right job and marking time while you look, than to be a successful bank president at 20 —if being a bank president doesn’t suit you. Speaking of being a square peg behind a bank president’s desk, don’t lose faith in your own ability to pick yourself a job. Nobody else can do it as well as you. Try garbage collecting, gas jerking, yacht owning—anything you want, but keep try ing until you find something that appeals to you. You’ll eventually find it; you’re bound to if you sample enough different kinds of work. By the time you find your dream job you may be eligible for an old-age pension, but you will be glad you tried everything and didn’t stand for any railroad ing. —Baylor Lariat. WAR OF STARVATION There has been bitter fighting in this war—• but the armies have been hardly involved in it as yet. The weapons used have been economic and diplomatic. And now, as the war enters its second half-year, the question of food begins to over- -shadow all others. Well known are the Spartan measures taken in Nazi Germany to conserve her meager food supplies—typical German diet, judged by American standards, is at a bare subsistence level. The Allies moved slower in restricting food, but they too have recently been forced to take drastic steps. England which must import or die, has clamped down hard on the nations dining table. Each adult is per mitted to spend but one-and-ten a week (about 40 cents) on pork, beef or mutton. Whiskey production has been decreased two-thirds. Across the channel, in France, home of the gourmets, still more severe restrictions have gone into effect—^restaurants can serve only two-course meals, pastry shops must close three days weekly, etc. And spokesmen for the allies have intimated this is but the start. Fear that the Allies may be shut off from es sential supplies has caused some to forecast their probable defeat—U. S. Ambassador to Britain Ken nedy is reported to have said that Hitler has a 55-45 chance of winning. However, the bulk of the experts are betting on Britain and France if it is a lengthy war. Germany’s main hope, some think, lies in “blitzkrieg”—lightning war to force a swift de cision. COUNTIES OF THE U. S. There are 3,072 counties in the 48 states, of which Texas has the greatest number, 254, and Delaware the smallest number, 3. San Bernardino County, in California, is the largest, with an area of 20,175 square miles, New York County is the smallest, with an area of only 22 square miles, Bristol County, in Rhode Island, is the next smallest, with 24 square miles. Citing another case of extremes, Armstrong County, in South Dakota, with an area of 540 square miles has no postoffice, while Allegheny County, in Pennsylvania, with 725 square miles, has 150 postoffices. And speaking of postoffices, Leadville, Colo., is the highest, being 10,190 feet above sea level, while Calipatria, California, 175 feet below sea level, is the lowest. North Carolina and Virginia have exactly 100 counties each. States have more than 100 counties are Illinois, 102; Kansas, 105; Missouri, 114; Ken tucky, 120; Georgia, 161; Texas, 254. In Louisiana these subdivisions are called parishes, of which the state has 64. As the World Turns... By DR. AL B. NELSON England expects Italy to declare war. British merchant ships have been ordered out of the Med iterranean Sea. The British battle fleet has left the North Sea and is in the Mediterranean and both Greece and Yugoslavia have called reserves to the colors and are fortifying their frontiers. English leaders just warned the Balkan states not to wait too long to call for help or it may be too late. The British expeditionary force has abandoned southern Norway, because the Germans controlled all ports large enough to supply a great expeditionary force. Also because the Chamberlain government in Eng land is incapable of efficient and decisive action. Governor Earl Long, of Louisi ana, has pardoned many long-term criminals and commuted the sentences of others as one of the acts of his outgoing administration. Fortunately Texas has had the sense to take the power of pardon out of the hands of the occasional irresponsible gov ernors and has a Board of Pardons and Paroles to assist in this highly important function. Two important union leaders have recently been shown up as convicted criminals (Willie Bioff and George Scalise), and Westbrook Pegler, the columnist, recently said, “I could name a hundred thieves and gangsters, embezzlers and terrorists who hold office in unions . . .” Moses L. (Moe) Annenberg, publisher and dis penser of racetrack information, plead guilty to income tax evasion (he cheated the government out of $1,217,000 in taxes for 1936), and will now have to pay the United States about $9,000,000 in taxes and penalties besides facing a prison sentence. THE BATTALION SINGING CADETS MAKE BIG HIT AT TSCW AND THROUGH CENTRAL TEXAS When the “Singing Cadets” of Aggieland returned to school Sun day from their annual 5-day tour, they had been presented on 16 different programs, including one radio appearance, in several cen tral Texas cities, including Mar lin, Hillsboro, Waco, iWt Worth, Denton, and T.S.C.W., and Dallas. The cadets were the honor guests of the “Early Bird” program pre sented over WFAA last Saturday morning. The program had to be transferred to the Dallas’ Baker Hotel Mural Room because of the exceedingly large crowd which at tended. A statement in the Dallas Morning News said the cadets drew the largest crowd of any early morning broadcast in the history of Southwest broadcasting. At Denton the club sang for the girls and in turn were treated to a ‘backward’ girls’ tag dance. The cadets also enjoyed having break fast at T. S. C. W. and upon leav ing, the girls said that they “were very proud of their brother school.” While on tour the club intro duced the new song “Texas A. M. C.” and dedicated it to the wife of its author, the Tate George E. Perfect of Dallas, and accepted it for the school to be used as a new Aggie hymn. During the tour several dances and banquets were given the cadets, one by Nick Stuart, famed orchestra leader now playing in Fort Worth. Features on the programs in cluded Pat Patterson and his ac cordion; Reynolds Smith, soloist, and Gabe Fajardo, R. D. Saenz, and I. T. Trueba. Their accom paniment on the tour was by Marion Lyle at the piano. BACKWASH Bd George Fuermann “Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence."—Webster. Fuermann Backwashin’ around . . . The ju nior yell-leader election smelled: In one instance the writer knows of several Consolidated High School students who were hustled into Guion Hall in behalf of one of the candidates. Their seven votes, how ever, didn’t make an y difference in plk bUHh the outcome as the candidate in ques tion was not elect ed. In several cases cadets voted more times than the law allows. Two instances in par ticular are worthy of note, being the two voters who cast six ballots each . . . They’re not pro-Hitler, but three of the Cadet Singers were born in Germany—Sig Neu- bert, Werner Gohmert, and James Goldston . . . Thursday’s issue of The Dallas Morning News carried a lengthy, front-page story in re spect to the Aggies’ “non-patroni- zation agreement” where Bryan’s picture shows are concerned. The issue in question sold out within a few minutes after it hit the news stands and The News reports that nearly a hundred letters were re ceived from Aggies asking for cop ies. The article was reasonably un biased and presented a fair picture of the situation . . . Senior Charley Kyle, replying to a question in re spect to what he intended doing after graduation this June: “Well, the only offer I’ve got so far is a proposition to dig post holes for my dad.” . . . One of the campus drug stores is streamlining with the age—together with adding a sure-fire customer drawer, at least where Aggies are concerned. Re placing a male cashier with stream lined and attractive Barbara Mun- roe, business has already picked up and the Bryan blonde will probably start a new vogue where College Station cash register players are concerned. ® He couldn’t be bothered: One of the stories they like to tell best in Dorm Twelve concerns the unruffled composure of Earl “Bama” Smith. Bama, it seems, was sound asleep one afternoon when two or three varsity football ers placed a foot-long garter shake in bed with him. Bama stirred . . . turned over . . . yawned . . . opened his eyes . . . gradually caught on to the idea that there was a snake in bed with him . . . looked at the snake somewhat disgustedly . . . and then turned over and went back to sleep after first muttering, “Hell, that little ole snake wouldn’t hurt anybody.” • Let’s have action: Backwash’s suggestion that the corps push a movement to dot the state with Aggie hitch-hiking sta tions—similar to the one erected by the Miller Service Station in Hearne—has been accepted with evident whole-hearted approval. Now—let’s do something about the idea . . . Let’s push the thing until we succeed in having these hitch hiking stations erected. Don’t fail to let Backwash know about any suggestions you may have in re spect to the movement. A forth coming Battalion will carry an ed itorial which will include a defi nite plan of action, but, remember, you can help write this editorial if ’7s>u will let Backwash know yonr own ideas in respect to making this undertaking a success. 9 Fate of the Sugar Bowl: Thursday’s column mentioned that New York’s World Fair had asked permission to borrow the famed trophy for display purposes. The Athletic Council has since de cided to loan the trophy—with certain necessary reservations. Be cause of the tremendous interest shown by the corps and hundreds of campus visitors in the Sugar Bowl, it will not be loaned until June when the long session has ended. Also, the Athletic Council ruled that the trophy must be re turned before the beginning of the 1940-41 long session next Septem ber. The display trophy will include a card telling who holds the trophy and will be excellent publicity for the college. University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., campaigned for a sustaining fund of $500,000 and received $503,685. Ten miles of radiator supply heat to 152 campus buildings at the University of Wisconsin. WHAT’S SHOWING AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL Saturday 6:45 and 8:30— “HE MARRIED HIS WIFE,” starring Joel McCrea, Nancy Kelly, Roland Young, Mary Boland, Cesar Romero, and Lyle Talbot. business lunch SPECIAL! ® Business people who like to dine well at a modest price, enjoy our lunch eon special where deli cious food is served promptly. • COLLEGE COURTS Coffee Shop East Gate HELLO FELLERS... We welcome you our place always. Your laughter and pep cheers us up. Plenty of room, too— Come in and play records and relax. Remember Mother on May 12. We have a nice selec tion of Mothers’ Day cards and gifts. HASWELL’S “Give With Pride” By TOM GILLIS The ex-husbands, suitors, law yers, and future husbands of at tractive little Nancy Kelly stage an intricate mixup in “HE MAR RIED HIS WIFE”, Saturday night’s show at the Assembly Hall. And with Nancy’s calm good looks and ready smile, she well deserves the attention of them all. Joel McCrea and Nancy are di vorced but friendly, and she firmly and sweetly insists on alimony. But Joel gets jailed for non-pay ment. On the advice of his lawyer, Roland Young, he tries to relieve himself of the financial responsi bility by getting Nancy remarried to Lyle Talbot. This would have been splendid except for the intru sion of the smooth Latin, Cesar Romero. His “romeo-ing” rushes Nancy off her feet. “A husband is a husband,” argues the lawyer, but rather than see his ex-wife married to Romero, Joel proposes to her again and is delightfully accepted. Nancy is somewhat piqued though, when she learns of the plotting to escape alimony, so she accepts the proposal of Lyle Talbot, too. Two bridegrooms and the one bride stage a dizzy climax, but the title suggests the ending. “He Married His Wife” is an ordinary show but with a much better than ordinary cast. Mary Boland lends her talent as an old matron to help the plotters get the wife remarried; Cesar Romero plays the slick, amorous, bird-dog to help upset the plot. Nancy Kelly is the center of the whole thing, as she should be, whose fresh young beauty also inflames Lyle Talbot. Roland Young, timid and bashful, completes the number of six well- known stars in this one feature. Announcing the Opening —of— Willo'wood Located Midway Between Bryan and College on New Highway No. 6 “WHERE GOOD FOOD IS BETTER” We Cater To Your Private Parties and Dinners G. C. Carnes, Mgr. Phone 1201J HERE IS cA COOL TIP! . . . Yes Sir! These slack ensembles are the coolest things you can wear when it is hot. Not only are they cool but they are attractive. Keep your feet cool by wearing a pair of these attractive sum mer sox. THE EXCHANGE STORE An Aggie Institution