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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 9, 1940)
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, THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 9, 1940 Z725 NO. 85 Colorful Festivities Friday Climax Year For The Class Of ’40 Engineers’ Day, Mothers’ and Dads’ Day A.A.IJ.P. BANQUET Fill Weekend Calendar of Activities Two-Day Program Of Activities To Entertain Parents Numerous Ceremonies And Shows To Be Highlights Of Parent Entertainment As a mass tribute to Aggie par ents, the Corps of Cadets will stage its annual Mothers’ and Dads’ Day Review on Sunday, May 12. The review, however, will be on ly the high point of the whole weekend in which parents of A. & M. students will be honored and given the opportunity to become more thoroughly acquainted with their sons’ school and work. Everything possible is being done to make the parents and visitors feel welcome and to give them a parents’ portion of the famous Ag gie spirit. Walton Hall is being vacated to accommodate the par ents who will spend Saturday night on the campus, and the new Kiest Lounge in Dormitory No. 2 will be open from 2:00 Friday until 8:00 Sunday night for their enjoyment. The first part of the weekend’s program is the Engineers’ Day show, in which all the engineering departments will give displays showing the work of their depart ment and other things of special interest. The displays will remain open and in charge of students from 9:00 Saturday morning until 9:00 that night. Much of inter est to both parents and Aggies may be gained by a tour of the displays. As has been customary for the past several years, the Brazos County A. & M. Mothers Club will have a tea Saturday, honoring all visiting parents in the Y. M. C. A. lobby from 2 until 5 p. m. This display of hospitality and friend ship has been one of the outstand ing things for the visitors in past years. Also at 2:00 o’clock Sat urday the Aggie baseball team will play the Baylor team on Kyle Field. A reception for the parents will be held that night by the college president in his home. Dr. and Mrs. T. O. Walton will receive the visitors at 7:30. For those who wish to dance, Russ Morgan will play in Sbisa Hall from 9 until 12. The traditional flower pinning ceremony will be held by each or ganization from 8:30 to 9:30 on Sunday morning. Each organiza tion is formed in its usual place, and the commander’s mother or sweetheart meets and pins a Moth ers’ Day flower upon the breast of each cadet. First-sergeants of organizations in the old area may get their flowers in the Y. M. C. A. lobby at 8:00 Sunday morning. First-sergeants in the new area may get theirs at the old consoli dated high school at 8:00 o’clock. Also at this time the organization awards are made. Following this ceremony, the corps of cadets will march in review for the visiting parents at 10:00 o’clock. Here the parents will see the entire corps drawn up in one body and will re alize the tremendous size of the corps. (Continued on page 4) New Head of Texas Welfare Society mmm The Texas Welfare Association, which held its annual convention at Galveston last week elected Daniel Russell, head of the Depart ment of Rural Sociology at Texas A. & M. College, as president. The Association also voted to meet in Dallas in 1941. Engineer Corps To Show Combat War Operations According to plans announced this week, the A. & M. Engineer regiment will sponsor an exhibit in the A. & M. Engineering Show Saturday showing the construction and operations of military engi neers during combat. The entire exhibit will be done in miniature and promises to be most realistic. The featured topics will include a trestle bridge, dou ble-apron fence (barbed wire en tanglement), concertina (barbed wire obstacles), demolition equip ment (detonator, explosives, etc.), gin pole, stereoscope and anaklyph (used in connection with aerial pho tography), camouflage, pontoon bridge, mapping equipment. These exhibits will show that one of the most important funda mentals embraced by the operations of military engineers is efficiency, and all of their work is intendedly, of a temporary nature. For ex ample, a bridge to be used for transporting troops during a battle would be considered 100% effi cient if it collapsed immediately after the last man went over. All are welcome to attend this exhibit which will be shown in Room 101, M. E. Shops, where engineering students will be on hand to explain the above named topics. To date, the Engineer regiment is the only military unit at A. & M. to announce an exhibit for En gineers’ Day. Dr. Levell To Speak To Baptist Students Here Friday Night The A. & M. Baptist Student Union is to have the privilege of hearing Dr. Frank H. Leavell, a world-youth leader and head of the Southern Baptist student work. The event will be all the more im portant to the B. S. U. because this year is the twentieth anniversary of the coming of Rev. R. L. Brown to the campus. It is also the twentieth anniversary of the be ginning of the B. S. U. work in Texas. Mr. Leavell will speak Friday night to the first all-Bap- tist student banquet held here. He is the southwide secretary of the organization. High School Bands Compete For Honors At Baylor This Week More than 5,000 young musicians from high schools in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma will swarm the Baylor University campus Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the national high school band com petition for region six, Ben S. Peek, director, said. The band meet will be the larg est held in the United States dur ing 1940 with 82 bands and 9 or chestras from 150 towns in at tendance. There will be also rep resentatives from 75 schools reg istered for individual contests. Although not entered in contests the outstanding Orange, Texas, Bengal Guards, unique all-girl drum and bugle corps, directed by H. J. Lutcher Stark, lumberman, will attend the festival. The corps, including rookies, and substitutes, numbers 235 girls. Electric Sign On E.E. Bldg. Heralds Engineers’ Day Wm. P. Smith, AIEE Prexy, Student in Charge of This Year’s 11th Annual Show Texas A. & M.’s eleventh an nual Engineers’ Day has been heralded for the past week by an electric sign on the tower of the Electrical Engineering Building, but this big day for the engineers is not until Saturday. All prep arations have been made to make this show of the greatest interest to the visiting parents and to ac quaint the Aggies themselves with the work of all departments other than their own. William P. Smith Jr., president of the A. I. E. E., is the student in charge of this year’s show. The goal of the show is for this to be the largest of all previous Engi neers’ Days and if possible, larger than the engineering day of any other leading college or university in the state. The Engineering Coun cil, made up of the officers of the student chapters of the various engineering societies on the cam pus, is acting as coordinator for the various exhibits. The chapters participating in the show are the (Continued on page 4) Ceremonies To Be Performed to the Music Of Russ Morgan and His Noted Orchestra Tribute Dinner To Take Place Tonight in Sbisa Banquet Room at 7:00 With 150 tickets already sold, fully 200 faculty members, wives, students and guests are expected to attend the annual spring ban quet tonight of the A. & M. Col lege Chapter of the American As sociation of University Professors, according to an announcement made Wednesday by Dr. I. P. Trot ter, president of the local chapter. The banquet will take place to night at 7:00 o’clock in the ban quet room of Sbisa Hall. Feature of the banquet will be a dinner tribute to Dr. Edgar Odell Lovett, president of Rice Insti tute, who will also deliver the main address. Dr. Lovett will speak on “Student Interest In Intellec tual Standards.” Representatives of other Texas colleges which have accepted in vitations to send representatives to the banquet include Baylor, San Marcos, and Rice with delegates also expected from the University of Texas. Tickets for the banquet may be obtained from Dr. Trotter at the Agronomy Department and are 85 60 cents for student admission. All students and outsiders that possi bly can have been invited to at tend the dinner, and in addition, members of the Scholarship Hon or Society have been invited to attend after their regular meeting. Lovely Carolyn Clarke, featured Russ Morgan, leader of the noted vocalist with Morgan’s orchestra, orchestra playing for the senior who will appear both Friday and dances tomorrow night and the Saturday nights. corps dance Saturday night. Friday’s Just a Day to Most of Us But to Seniors It’s Day of Days By Ray Treadwell Friday, May 10 may be just an other day to most people, but to the seniors of A. & M. it is their biggest day of the year, and one to which they have looked for- | Again: OUR AIMS AN EDITORIAL EXPRESSION The Texas Aggies are already entering into the fifth week of their concerted stay-at-home-and-study, save-your-money, support-a-local-theater campaign—and we can remember how a few people at the beginning of the movement predicted, with little faith in Aggie “stick-to-it-iveness”, that it was going to “blow over” in a couple of days! Since the beginning, there have been some skeptics who have persisted in taking the wrong attitude about every phase of our decision not to patronize the theaters of Bryan until we have convinced either the Bryan Amusement Company or the Dallas picture distributing agents for this area that the present high-pressure, discriminatory, monopolistic, unfair contract now held by the Bryan shows (by which no picture may be shown at College Station until 45 days after it’s been to Bryan) is relinquished in our favor, by either the Bryan firm or the Dallas distributors. There have been continuous and countless rumors falsely maligning the purposes of the Aggie campaign. Although The Battalion has explained the situation several times at length, the rumors continue to flow thick and fast. It seems necessary at this time again to restate our purpose. Our purpose is simply this: to secure first-class, first-run pictures and date-to-date showings of them, on a free and equal basis with Bryan. We are not concerned with who at College Station shows them—so long as they are shown. We will restate what has been stated in The Battalion on three separate occasions: the campaign is not directed against any person or firm in Bryan other than the picture shows. If any business there is suffering, it comes about as an unfortunate result but not an object of our movement—the result of the discriminatory practices of the motion picture business. Cadet Colonel Woody Varner yesterday made the following statement for The Battalion and the cadet corps: “WE ARE DEFINITELY MAKING PROGRESS. “Representatives of three major distributing agencies have been at A. & M. during the past week conferring with picture show operators, college officials, and leaders in the student movement. “They are amazed at the solidity of the student body, the unanimity and strength of its feeling. One and all, they have expressed sympathy with the purpose of our movement, and have given us encouragement to believe in our ultimate success. “The Bryan Amusement Company obtains all its shows on a percentage basis, with a required minimum averaging 30 to 35 percent. It’s revenues have fallen to the minimum. “Representatives of the distributors admit that their rev enues from the Bryan shows have fallen ‘more than fifty per cent’, and that of course the movement has hurt them. “Right now they are endeavoring to reach a compromise agreement, and have made several compromise offers. “However, I feel sure that the cadet corps would not be satisfied with anything else than date-to-date booking with Bryan. And I think we’re going to get it. “Our object to begin with was free and equal availability of shows with Bryan—and we’re not backing down a single foot until we do achieve this.” Rumors have also been circulated that the Aggies have been “breaking over”. It is true—just as was anticipated from the very begin ning—that there have been a handful of Aggies going to the Bryan shows—dressed in civilian clothes. These boys, who call themselves Aggies, are again re minded that they are non-representative, “non-reg”, and non- Aggies, in lack of both uniform and spirit. The old axiom still applies: There’s bound to be a rotten apple in every barrel. cents for outside admission and- '**®*"d 'to with eager anticipation. For it is the date of the Senior Ring Banquet and Dance! When this most noted and out standing event of the class of ’40 is presented Friday night in the simple but beautiful military man ner for which it is unsurpassed, it will mark the outgrowth of an idea formed five years ago to make the senior class dance at A. & M. the most outstanding event of its kind. And today it is, for the ring ceremony Friday will be the largest and most elaborate of its kind ever presented by a mili tary institution. For years, until the class of 1936, the senior dance has been nothing more than a stately senior prom. True, it was an outstand ing event for the seniors, but it possessed nothing to set it off from the thousands of other sen ior proms given at other colleges and universities. However, members of the 1936 class decided that they wanted something distinctive and partic ularly worth remembering and so in their dance they included all the pomp and quiet charm for which the West Point affair was noted, plus Aggieland traditions, and the result was that to the larg est military school in the United States came the largest, most out standing military ring dance. So outstanding was the first senior ring dance given in 1936 that leading newspapers sent re porters and photographers to cov er the event. Since that time the original sen ior ring used in the turning cere mony has twice been replaced with a newer, more up-to-date model but the actual ceremony and dance -f-have remained substantially the same. This year’s orchestra, Russ Mor gan, will be in keeping with plans of other ring dances which have always, with the exception of the first affair, featured an outstand ing nationally-known orchestra. When the first dance was planned it was felt that the Aggieland Orchestra would fit in better with the simple military theme and for that reason it was used. Previous senior proms, however, had fea tured the music of such orchestras as Anson Weeks and Joe Candulla and this practice was readopted in 1937. Since that time Henry Halstead, Glen Gray, and Del Courtney have played for the tradi tional affair. Morgan’s orchestra is probably the best-known and is expected to be the best-received of any yet to play for the senior dance. Subscriptions To Walton Portrait Fund Close On May 15 The T. O. Walton Portrait Fund Committee has announced that sub scriptions to the fund will be clos ed on May 15 but until that time donations will still be accepted. The portrait will be completed ahead of schedule and will be pre sented to the college at commence ment. The presentation will be made at the annual joint Faculty- Former Student Commencement Luncheon. The Walton Fund Committee is made up of M. J. Miller, ’ll, chair man, and John C. Burns, ’04, treas urer. Donations should be sent to the T. O. Walton Portrait Fund Committee, 1603 Fort Worth Na tional Bank Building, Fort Worth, Texas. AGGIE JUNIOR ELECTED CHAIRMAN ON ASCE’S TEXAS STUDENT BRANCH Britt Christian, junior of Com-'fthe entire convention moved tem- pany B Engineers from Jeffer son, Texas, was elected chairman of the Texas Student Conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers at the recent meeting of the organization in Galveston. The office, which is the highest student executive position in the organization, was conferred upon an Aggie for the first time. As chairman, Christian will pre side at the annual fall and spring conventions held next year. porarily to Texas City, where the huge electric crane, used in con nection with the transcoastal “sea train,” was explained and demon strated. Immediately afterward, the group returned to Galveston for the semiannual dinner-dance. Saturday morning started with a convention breakfast, the guest speaker being George W. Seabury, secretary-treasurer of the nation al A. S. C. E. Other speakers Over 700 Seniors To Participate In Traditional Rites A. & M.’s class of ’40 will cele brate the crowning social event of their college years and their com ing graduation Friday night with the long-awaited fifth annual Sen ior Ring Banquet and Dance, to the noted music of Russ Morgan and his orchestra. More than 700 members of the class and their dates will be pres ent in Sbisa Hall when Max Mc- Cullar, president of the class, welcomes the members and their dates. W. W. Sullivan, student manager of Town Hall, will act as toastmaster. Beginning at 7 and lasting until 9 p. m., the Banquet and Ring Cer emony is an occasion never to be forgotten. With the soft music of Russ Morgan and his orchestra drifting through the room filled with uniformed cadets and their escortees, each senior and his date will, in turn, ascend the steps be hind the huge Ring, and pause in its center. The young lady will then remove the senior’s class ring from his finger and replace it in the opposite position, with the ’40 toward the end of the finger. He will wear it thus henceforth and forever. The couple then exchanges a kiss and descends the steps to the front, returning to their seats. Only speaker of the evening will be Cadet John L. Dodson, Class Historian, who will trace the his tory and accomplishments of the most active class of ’40. Following the Banquet, the Ring Dance will begin at 10, or as soon thereafter as possible. Russ Morgan and his orchestra will play their inimitable “music in the Morgan manner” until 2 a. m. Morgan is without a doubt one of the most popular maestros ever to visit the campus, and the magic of his bat on is expected to weave a charm over the hearts of all the dancers. Although the Ring Dance was begun as an annual affair only five years ago, it has already be come the most eagerly-awaited oc casion of the year for each grad uating class. Social Secretary Ham- ner and associates have spared no pains in making preparations for the most complete and enjoyable dance in the history of Aggieland. In addition to contracting a top- notch band, such innovations as printed invitations, never, before used, were arranged for. And the favors, which are being molded as exact replicas of the top of the senior ring, are said to be the most beautiful ever given. Plans Announced For Summer Tour In Economics An announcement of the third annual Agricultural Economics Summer Travel Course 400s was made recently by J. W. Barger, head of the department. The purpose of the course, which will be held during the second ses sion of summer school, July 22 through August 31, will be to study agricultural practices, particularly poultry, vegetables, ranching, and use of land for purposes of recrea tion, forestry, and lumber. Farm ing conditions in the dust bowl and marketing of farm commodities will be other units of particular study. Anyone who is granted the con- The Texas Section of the Amer- were Dean Gilchrist of A. & M. and Dean T. U. Taylor of the j sent Mr. Barger may make the University of Texas. trip, for there are no courses pre- c . . . . Next the professional and stu- scribed as prerequisites. The six- ican ^ocie > o Civil Engineers j jgnt chapters of the organiza- | week subject carries a six-hour I . f m t T e ! t0 " recently Wlth S tion held their respective business credit value. The basic cost of the seven een . - M. seniors, Dean ! mee ti n g S . Saturday afternoon stu- 1 trip, which includes transportation, C t. n sevoral members of ■ dent papers were presented. A. ' meals, lodging, and registration, t „,in fiogm.enng faculty at- & M .. s Jack West, who spoke on will be $187.50. The contingent of WiZ, T „ “Early Surveying in Texas,” won students and their leader, L. S. n a w'T’ 1 *’' S - M - Pi*™- Payne of the Agricultural Eco- U., and Texas A. & I. were rep- 1 resented at the meet. Saturday evening the entire con- nomics Department, will travel vention group went aboard the 17,000 miles by automobile or bus After the registration, several : pleasure cruiser Galvez for a ride | through twelve states in the Rocky interesting professional papers; in Galveston Bay, after which it j Mountains, Pacific Coast, and were presented, following which | adjourned. | Southwest regions.