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■THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1940
THE BATTALION
The Battalion
STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
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; also it 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 Aageles, and San
Francisco.
Office, Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone
4-6444.
Bob Nisbet Editor-in-Chief
Keith Hubbard Advertising Manager
George Fuermann Associate Editor
Hub Johnson Sports Editor
Tommy Henderson Circulation Manager
Phil Golman Staff Photographer
Pete Tumlinson — Staff Artist
J. B. Pierce Editorial Assistant
T. R. Vannoy Editorial Assistant
THURSDAY STAFF
George Fuermann Acting Managing Editor
George Woodman i Assistant Advertising Manager
Junior Editors
Tom Gillifl
Bob Myers
Jack Hollimon
W. F. Oxford
D. C. Thurman
Sports Staff
Assistant Sports Editor
Junior Sports Editor
... Sports Assistant
Reportorial Staff
Z. A. McReynolds, L. B. Tennison, J. M. Speer
Inter-Church Council
Another cause and effect item has come to our
attention lately. Do students stay away from local
churches because there is not enough room, or have
the churches failed to build sufficient room because
students lack the interest to attend?
In any case if the latter item can be assumed to
bear any weight at all, certainly there should be no
stone unturned to create this needed student in
terest. If we consider the latter item to be wholly
irrelevant to the case, it would still be advisable to
guard against the failure in interest.
A remedy for the lack of student interest has
been found, and it has been submitted to several of
the local pastors with general approval. The idea
is this: create an inter-church council among the
students from the various churches on the campus
to coordinate the efforts of the various denomina
tions in the pursuit of their common ideals. Cer
tainly all the churches have the same ultimate
goal, and in general have similar ideas of attain
ing these goals.
Modern civilization’s greatest lesson is the les
son of cooperation. The survival of the fittest still
holds to a certain degree, but man is gradually
learning that cooperation will bring mutual benefits.
In forming this inter-church council, it has been
suggested that two students from each church on
the campus be selected to represent their church
on the council. One faculty advisor would be select
ed to meet with the group and offer suggestions.
The most important function of this group
would be to promote the idea of church attendance
among students. Each church has its problems of
getting its message to as many as is desirable. No
one will admit that “all the sheep are in the fold”.
Rather it would seem from the percentage of
students taking active part in church work that we
come to school to forget our duties in the church
or at least to take a vacation.
The purpose of the group would not be in ad
ministration but in discussion and planning, co
ordinating and combining the churches into one
concentrated war on enemies of religion itself. That
such a group need be established seems evident
enough. The Battalion hopes that such movement
be started in the very near future.
College Station News
Basically this paper, The Battalion, is printed
for the students of Texas A. & M. College, and as
such it will continue to be. However, last year the
city council of College Station saw fit to declare
The Battalion the official publication of the city.
Immediately upon such recognition we began to
consider our news and our features in the light of
providing the broader aspect of professor and local
citizen reader interest. We hope to continue to do
this. But we feel that not enough College Station
news finds its way into the columns of our paper.
We have a suggestion to make. Why not edit
once a week a separate sheet inside the pages of the
regular paper devoted entirely to College Station
happenings and distribute these copies exclusively
to faculty members and local residents? In that
way the paper could still carry out its purpose of
printing student news and could still strive for pro
fessor interest in its news, but at the same time
could also give the faculty a paper they could feel
was their own.
We would welcome replies from faculty mem
bers on the matter, and any action taken will be
based upon these answers.
This Collegiate World
A fairly comprehensive picture of the average
sorority girl on the Washington University campus
at St. Louis is conducted in a survey in Student
Life, campus publication.
Some of the conclusions follow:
“She comes in assorted heights, dressed and
shaped according to latest fashion. Her well-curled
hair is becoming, and she will seldom cover it with
a hat; but just let a suspicion of rain appear and
she wads it up under a bandana and looks like some
one who should be slaving in Russian wheat fields.
“In spite of her 12-hour study average weekly
she keeps her grades well above the campus level,
makes more B’s than C’s, and inspires all kinds of
tales of apple-polishing by the less successful male.
“She thinks about men almost as much as they
like to think she does, but her thoughts are not al
ways to their credit. Rather often she has more
dates than she wants, because that’s the only way
she can be sure to have the ones she really does
want.
“Two or three nights a week she has a more or
less formal asked-for-in-advance, definite-destina
tion date. In between time she may lunch or go for
rides or have boys drop in. Certainly she spends
hours on end “jellying,” which she may or may not
consider a great waste erf time. (Jellying—A campus
term meaning an inexpensive date, usually several
hours sitting in a restaurant over a soda or dish of
ice cream.)
“She has an allowance and usually buys her
own lunch at the school cafeteria or an off-campus
restaurant.
“She may look frivilous, but there’s a fifty-
fifty chance she has held down a paying job at
some time or other. She may even be the one girl
in a hundred who’s working her way through col
lege with a full-time job. She’s more apt to be the
one soroi’ity girl in 10 who earns her spending
money by working about seven hours a week.
“In general she’s a happy girl, fairly well satis
fied with her share of life.”
Associated Collegiate Press
Something To Read
By DR. T. F. MAYO
WHY IS A “BAD NEGRO” BAD?
The most widely and hotly discussed novel since
“The Grapes of Wrath”, is “Native Son,” by a Mis
sissippi negro named Richard Wright. It is the
story of Bigger, a negro boy in the black belt of
Chicago who half-accidently murders the daughter
of his white employers and brings upon his trail
not only the bloodhound of the Law but all the wol
ves of racial prejudice and hatred.
It would be a good book for every white Amer
ican, Southern or Northern, to read. In the first
place, it is a fine story, swift and strong. It is an
honest story, too: the negro author does not try to
excite your sympathy by giving his chief character
a heart of gold under a rough exterior. Bigger is a
really bad negro, and the girl he murders, and whom
is accused of raping, is the daughter of people who
are doing their best to be kind to him. There is no
sentimental softening of the picture.
But the thing that stays with you even longer
than the thrills and excitement of the story is an
understanding of what the real “negro problem”
would seem to be, namely: How are we to recon
cile the average American’s desire “to keep the ne
gro in his place” with that same average American’s
belief in democracy and equality of opportunity?
As we follow Bigger’s actions and his thoughts,
we gradually realize that the problem, so stated, is
insoluble. If we fill the air (as we do) with talk
about “the land of opportunity” and “the Ameri
can idea”, we cannot fail to stimulate the energy
and ambitions of young Americans: “But your ener
gy and ambition must be strictly curbed and finally
crushed out”, we are bound to produce “bad men”.
Energies aroused and then frustrated, will necessar
ily burst out through channels of violence. You don’t
have to be a psychologist or even much of a physi
cist to grasp that.
This is the “negro problem” as the reader of
“Native Son” comes to see it. The book offers no
solution. Being a novel, it is under no obligation to
do so. For that matter, nobody that this reviewer
knows of has ever offered a satisfactory solution.
Can you?
As the World Turns...
V. K. Sugareff
BY V. K. SUGAREFF
The country is witnessing a presidental cam
paign with no clearly defined issues. So far, neither
the Republicans nor the Democrats have developed
a single issue which may cause a serious cleavage
between the two major political parties. The Dem
ocrats have the advantage in that
they are in office and rest squarely
on their New Deal record. The Re
publicans seem at loss in formu
lating any definite issues of their
own. They are in agreement with
the Democrats on most of the major
issues except in matters of details.
Consider for example some of
the leading issues. The Republicans
promise to work out a new agri
cultural program but they accept
the one currently in practice. Just
promises might not get the farmers vote for the
party. They hope to change some of the harsh pro
visions of the Wagner Labor Act, but again they
admit that the act has done some good for labor.
Mr. Roosevelt, however, has promised to keep the
advantages gained by labor under the New Deal.
In regard to foreign policy the Republicans agree
with the Democrats. Mr. Wilkie admits that Eng
land is fighting today a decisive battle for demo
cracy. He advocates that we give England all pos
sible aid short of war. Mr. Roosevelt has been aid
ing the allies since the war started. Even the re
ciprocity treaties now in operation are to be re
tained by the Republicans if they win the election
in November. The Republicans are opposed to the
deficit and the public debt but they agree that both
must continue while the defense preparations con
tinue. They hope to balance the budget in non-de
fense matters by higher taxes. The Democrats are
already doing that.
Perhaps, the most important issue on which
the two parties differ seriously is the third term is
sue. The country seems indifferent to it. There are
many other important problems which interest the
average voter. Still the two term tradition would be
hard to overcome. Here again the Republicans are
confronted with their own doings. In 1927 and 1928
many Republican leaders, including Mr. Hoover,
Chief Justice Hughes of the United States Supreme
Court, Mr. Ford, and many Republican state legis
latures, were in favor of a third consecutive term
for Mr. Coolidge. We have recently brushed aside
one great American tradition in view of the present
day world conditions—A peace time conscript army.
The Walt Disney animated cartoon technique is
a new twist in engineering courses at New York
University to illustrate principles and mechanical
theories.
Grant Wood, celebrated artist, has been granted
a year’s leave from the art department of the Uni
versity of Iowa to devote full time to painting.
Dr. F. Stuart Chapin, University of Minnesota
sociologist, has been awarded the University Medal
from his alma mater, Columbia University.
R AfKWA^U Bu
ynvnnnjn George fuermann
"Backwash: An arltatlsa rwraRing frsa» aaaaa aattaa ar acrarrsnaa."—Wat
studios only released their extreme-
Once over lightly . . . Indications
are that Saturday’s A. & I. game
will draw the largest opening game
crowd in the history of the College.
Athletic Secretary
E. W. Hooker re
cently pointed out
that several of the
nation’s outstand
ing sports writers
would be here for
what was originally
expected to be a
strictly “routine”
game . . . Aggie-
Fuermann ^ 0rchestra>s
theme song for the past two years,
Jack Littlejohn’s “Living My Life
For You”, will be given a face
lifting by its composer within the
next few days. The new arrange
ment will be a so-called “rhythm”
number . . . Chemistry Department
Head C. C. Hedges has kept pic
tures of every graduating class in
chemical engineering since 1912.
. . . Facts in review: A. & M.’s
Former Students’ Association now
has more than $54,000 loaned to
cadets—a figure representing many
college educations which would
otherwise be impossible ... A re
cent Associated Press story say
ing that the A. & M. team would
fly to California for the UCLA
game was without foundation . . .
Feature of the past summer ses
sion was the three-day “Turnabout
Week” wherein College and Bryan
belles reversed the usual procedure
and escorted the males. Tops in
the deal was the corsage presented
to John Thomas by Barbara Mun-
roe. The make-up: One carrot,
three string beans, and one as
paragus tip, all neatly tied together
with a white ribbon.
•
Once an Aggie . . .
“Rotarygrams,” weekly bulletin
of the Beaumont Rotary Club, re
cently contained the following well-
grooved editorial comment which
any Aggie knows to be a truism
without denial:
“We live and learn. If we
don’t learn, we don’t live very
long or very well. At any rate,
we have learned that there is
no such thing as an ex-Aggie.
One may be an ex-student of
Texas A. & M. College; per
haps one might even—though
it’s doubtful—be an Aggie Ex.
But an ex-Aggie? Never!
When the old rocking chair has
got them, and their backs are
bent with the weight of years,
when the joints creek and pop
so loudly that it sounds like
infantry fire, when they move
—nay, when they’re laid in
their graves and covered with
the good rich earth of Texas,
they'll still be Aggies. And
more power to ’em. That’s the
spirit that has made the school
what it is today. And that
spirit of loyalty carries them
as real citizens of whom we
may be proud.”
•
The Last Smile
A story that’s going the rounds
concerns the fate-to-be of punsters
a hundred years hence. The tragedy
begins as a mob in a prison court
yard is yelling with joy. A punster,
it seems, will soon be hanged for
his crimes. The prosecuting at
torney had promised that if elected
he would clean up the country—
jokes included. This was his first
conviction.
But the state never would have
made the conviction if the punster
hadn’t thrown up his defense in
order to tell the jury that between
shots he had asked the victim,
“Tell me, if I’m boring you.”
And now the end was at hand.
The punster was marched up to
the steps to the gallows. The black
cap was adjusted and the noose
fitted snugly around his neck. The
warden paused before raising his
hand to signal the hangman.
“Have you any last words?” he
asked.
“Yes,” chirped the p«nster. “Keep
your trap shut.”
Faculty and Student
Directory To Be Ready
For Distribution Oct. 12
It is hoped that the Student Di
rectory for this year will be ready
for distribution by October 12 ac
cording to word received from the
Student Publications Office. The
Commandant’s file will be turned
over to the office for publication
on October 3. The file is being
checked for accuracy at present
due to the moving in and out of
students and the shifting of res
idences.
No new features will be added to
the directory, but all the old fea
tures are being retained.
GREATER PALACE
Thursday - Friday - Saturday
Prevue 11 P. M. Saturday Night
Lew Ayers - Loraine Day - Lionel Barrymore
in
“DR. KILDARE GOES HOME”
Also Shown Sunday - Monday
xy oxa leatures, as any oxo Aggie
can testify. The break finally came
A
last February when Metro-Gold
wyn-Mayer decided to release some
of their first class features that
were over about two years old.
Since then Twentieth Century-Fox,
Warner Brothers, United Artists
and Paramount have all agreed to
lease their films with the under
standing that no advance publicity
whatsoever will be given to the
It’s Time ...
... to have that Watch
SEE
Repaired.
J. W. PAYNE
2 Watchmakers to give
you 24 to 36 hour service
OPTOMETRIST
on your watch.
For
Eye Examination
DOBYNE
and Glasses
Jewelers
Masonic Bldg. - Bryan
North Gate
K»>
AGGIES...
Our Large New Shipment of Frames Has Arrived.
Come Early For Best Selections.
AGGIELAND STUDIO
North Gate
Joe Sosolik
Come By and Try
Our Delicious
Drinks and
Sandwiches
After you have finished your shopping, stop in at the
PALACE CAFE
Bryan
O. W. Mercer, Prop.
We appreciate the business you have
given us and we wish to thank you.
For Civilan and Military Clothes—
Don't Fail to See Us.
AGGIE MILITARY SHOP
One Block West North Gate