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.