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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1940)
I Page 2- THE BATTALION -SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1940 The Battalion open forum STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Bechanieal 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-olaas matter at the Post Office at College Statisn, Texas, under the Act of Congress of March 8, 1879. Subscription rate, $9 a school year. Advertising rates upon request. Representedi nationally by National Advertising Service, Inc., at New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Aageles, and San Erancisoo. Office, Room 1**, Administration Building. Telephone 4-6444. Bob Nisbet Keith Hubbard _. George Fuermann Hub Johnson Tommy Henderson Phil Golman Pete Tumlinson _ J. B. Fierce T. R. Vannoy Editor-in-Chief Advertising Manager Associate Editor Sports Editor Circulation Manager Staff Photographer Staff Artist Editorial Assistant Editorial Assistant SATURDAY’S STAFF Earle A. Shields, Jr Managing Editor T. R. Harrison Assistant Advertising Manager Junior Editors W. O. Brimberry R. B. Pearce W. C. Carter Sports Staff Bob Myers Assistant Sports Editor Jack Hollimon Junior Sports Editor W. F. Oxford Sports Assistant Reportorial Staff Bill Amis, Charles Babcock, Don Corley, W. F. Keith, Z, A. McReynolds, Jack Nelson, L. B. Tennison Our Better Half TODAY AGGIE meets sweetheart in the annual joint assault on the stronghold of the Mustangs. The color, the pomp, the ceremony of the event are all told in glittering words, glowing phrases. The Bat talion takes time out to salute the girls from “the school on the side of the hill.” You T.S.C.W.-ites are the object of our deepest affections and our highest admiration. You are our ideal, our inspiration. You, our fellow sufferers in the realm of higher education, have provided a retreat from the steady grind of books and studies. Your school is the pro vider of good times, of things to remember as long as we live. As in the days of old when the knight went forth to do battle with his fair lady’s standard fluttering from his sleeve, the gridiron knights of Texas A. & M. today do battle in honor of the fair ladies, who themselves as well as their standards will be fluttering from the sleeves of their warriors. Our heart and soul are in the game today. If we win the glory and honor are yours. We think not on defeat. Coach Homer Norton Texas A. & M. College College Station, Texas Dear Homer: I didn’t get to speak to your yell leaders after the game so I wish you would convey this message to them. We appreciated very much their coopera tion last Saturday and at no time did they disturb our play except when we took the spread forma tion—and of course it is difficult to hear signals under any conditions on that type of formation. I think the fine spirit of your splendid cadets should not be dampened in any way, and I think the way it was handled last Saturday was excellent. With best wishes for the remaining season, I am, Sincerely yours, Fred C. Thomsen Director of Athletics Friends—Before and After A FOOTBALL GAME is being played today in Dal las between the Texas Aggies and the Mustangs from Southern Methodist. So hard a fight will it be that not even the players themselves will venture a prediction on the outcome. But this to remember— the fight is to be confined to the gridiron. We are friends now before the game; we will be friends after the game whether we win, lose or draw. There has been rivalry between A. & M. and S. M. U., yes, for many years, but the rivalry has been a rivalry of friendship and good feeling. Be tween the two schools has been a distinct absence ■of the hate and petty jealousies shown between anany schools. If the Aggies lose the game today, the corps will naturally be disappointed and broken-hearted because we believe so strongly that our team has the will to win, the spirit that cannot be beaten. But if the victory goes to the host team, we know it will have been a clean battle, and that the better team won the game. It will be our privilege tonight to help them celebrate their victory. There will be held no grudges. If the Aggies win today’s game there will be rejoicing and celebrating. Our string of victories will be run out to eighteen straight. Our hardest game will be behind us. But in the joy and excitement of winning let us not forget that the other team lost the game. Respect for their feeling will not take the spice from the sweetness of victory. The students from S. M. U. are as close friends as A. & M. can claim in the Southwest Conference. After the game as well as before, this fact will be evident. The Aggies are out today for victory, but they want an honorable victory. We want no part of bitter dissension whether we win or whether we lose or whether we draw. We’re friends and intend to remain so. The outcome of one game cannot and will not wreck that friendship. FRANK LOVING PRESENTS: / Heard the Preacher Say BY REV. NORMAN ANDERSON Pastor, First Presbyterian Church A reasonable faith undergirds the religious be liefs of most intelligent people. Some of them have not taken the trouble to discover the foundation in reason for their beliefs, but the foundation is there and is in evidence to the one who takes the trouble to dig under the surface for it. I am going to dig a little for the foundation in reason for my belief in God. The science of logic is the tool this time because it is its foundation in rea son that we are seeking. In most of nature about us, we see order and apparent purpose. Sometimes we fail to see it in a particular thing, but it is so often apparent that we are inclined to assume that the reason we do not see it in everything is not because it is not there, but because we are limited in our knowledge and perspective. We are finite in what appears to be an infinite universe. However, we notice that order and purpose seqm to be inseparable from mind. Writing paper is flat and white. It is intelligently adapted to its use and order and apparent purpose. We trace it to its source and find that it was made by the mind of a man working for a purpose. The same is true of a walking cane or an adding machine. Each seems to be orderly and adapted to a purpose. At the source of each of these, we find mind working with a purpose. The same is true of anything that has order or apparent purpose. It is true of a knife, a building, a wash-board, a book, a shoe, or anything else we choose to examine. If it has order and pur pose and we can trace its source, we find mind. Are we not then justified in claiming that we have discovered a law, that whenever there is order and purpose, mind is at the source. It proves true in all cases that we can test. Now let us apply the rule to the Universe. The Eclipses, day and night, the phases of the moon, the seasons, are all predictable with mathematical accuracy. There is order. There is vegetation and soil adapted to its need, animals with vegetation adapted to their need, provision for the re-seeding of the soil by the cycle of sowing seed time and har vest. There is purpose. If in every case where there is order and apparent purpose and the source is tracable we discover mind to be responsible, it is reasonable to assume that at the source of the or derly Universe there is a Mind, or God. Belief in God, then, is on a firm foundation of reason. As the World Turns. i Looking Good Today FROM LAST YEAR’S corps trip to Ft. Worth came compliments and praises galore about the fine ap pearance the cadets made in the city and about the fine impression the city in general received of the school and its students. This year letters have been received from San Antonio and from Waco dripping praises for the “snappy appearance” made by the “soldier boys. ’ How much better this sounds than to hear from hotel managers complaining of broken furniture, excessive drinking, missing equipment, disorderly conduct or something of the kind! We would like to leave as favorable an impres sion of our cadet corps with the people of Dallas as has been the case in our other trips in recent years. The personal appearance of each man can not be too neat nor too clean if that goal is to be reached. A well-groomed man in uniform is a thrilling sight, but a sloppy one is repulsive. Unbuttoned collars, loosened Sam Browne belts, unpressed slacks, dirty shirts and floppy caps are all common faults that could be remedied were the individuals guilty of these offenses interested in improving the reputation and good will of the school. But the fault that will bring harsh criticism more quickly than all the rest in viscious combination is excessive drinking. In the eyes of the public one drink is convincing proof that any individual is dead drunk. Any word spoken after that point is abusive language and the conviction needs no proof— it is automatic as far as public opinion is concerned. Nelson THUMB FUN, EH, KID? Dick Johnson, University of Nebraska student, hitch-hikes nine miles every morning to attend classes and work at a bank in town. And Keyes Carson, Texas A. & M. student, holds an unofficial record for hitch-hiking from New York to California in four days. —Associated Collegiate Press BACKWASH By tale fuermann “Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster. DOWN AT SAM HAUSTON State college, Hunts ville, Texas, there’s a man who’s really busy: Earl Huffor, head of the speech department. In 23 years he’s been responsible for forming the college’s first band, organization of a department of public service and a department of speech arts, starting the college print shop, and organization of four clubs. He has directed the town’s Methodist chair for 23 years in addition to coaching debate, sponsoring various clubs, leading a civic organization, directing lyceums for the college, writing and poetry and playing golf. We don’t know anything about Professor Huf- for’s dietary habits, but he brings to mind the ob servation by the University of Missouri’s Professor Mullet: “IT’S ALWAYS BEEN AMAZING TO ME THAT A MAN WHO LIVED ON BAKED POTA TOES AND BUTTERMILK COULD DO THE THINGS BRIGHAM YOUNG DID.” Two Mass Movements . . . Today’s the day that Dallas becomes the converging point for two mass movements. Today s the day when 2,000 T.S.C.W.-ites and a few hundred S. M. U. coeds prove the truth of the old saying that a girl’s heart beats a little faster when she sees a uniform. Today’s the day when the Aggie’s Denton sister school, nee C. I. A., has its own corps trip. Every ticket to the football game has been sold, but that’s only secondary. The corps trip’s the thing that matters. There’s so much else to do on the annual corps trip that there’s always a few hundred cadets and T.S.C.W.-ians who make the trip hut don’t see the game. They aren’t very concerned about the ticket famine—there’s a few added attractions which make this event a “must” item when the students of these two celleges are concerned. Night clubs, picture shows, dance halls, skating Fuermann rinks, bowling alleys and park benches—they’ll all be so saturated with Aggies tonight that a stranger in town might well conclude that martial law had been declared. Housing facilities will be a little scarce. But the corp’s used to that. A few cadets will be ritzy—they’ve already reserved hotel rooms in advance and they’ll pay as much as $10 a room. But the story doesn’t end there. Seven or eight of the corps’ 6,500 will sleep in that room, and' the floor is none too good for those who draw the shortest matches. The park benches will get another play when sleeping time comes around, but there’ll be a lot of cadets who won’t do much sleeping tonight. They’ll wait till they return to college and then sleep it off in class. Dallas night life will be punctuated with “The Aggie War Hymn,” “She’ll Be Lopin’ With Peruna,” and a half-dozen other Aggie-Mustang songs; there’ll be a 24-hour furlough from thoughts of the activities of A. Hitler; the Demos, Republicans and George Gallup will take a back seat for a few hours; and even national defense talk will be taboo tonight. And then.comes Sunday morning, November 10—the whole thing is history, but the odds are six-two-and-even that a few thousand Texas collegians will remember the preceding day as long as they live. The Dallas corps trip is definitely the number one day in the 1940-41 life of a Texas Aggie where activities are concerned. By Tom Gillis “OVER THE MOON” is one of Hollywood’s attempts to build a picture around a single star who is in this case Merle Oberon. But with her high English forehead and looks and other assets she is not quite capable of carrying the whole load of a good feature by herself. This results in “Over the Moon” being a one woman show and she staggers under the dra matic load without being able to fully make it anything extra in the way of a movie. Merle has the part of a young English girl living with her pinch- penny grandfather, but who longs for the fun spots of London, Paris, Monte Carlo, and Nice. The grand father dies and leaves her a huge fortune and in love with a young doctor, Rex Harrison. Now she has her chance to have her fling but the doctor is afraid the money will come between their love. Not the money, however, but the parasites and leaches who come to beat her out of her fortune threaten to end their affair. As expected, after the fling is over they meet in Venice and love comes back. Contrary to the one star per picture theory, “RHYTHM ON THE RIVER” scatters its drama tic load onto four semi-major stars who are able to do a more balanced job of carrying it. This show is the movie debut of Oscar Levant, one of the intellectual stars of “In formation Please” and author of the recent book “A Smattering of Ignorance.” Since his intellectual specialty also runs to music, this feature gives him some chance to use his ability. The story has longfaced Basil Rathbone as a fake music com poser who keeps up his reputation on the ghost writings of Bing Crosby and Oscar Levant. Basil is rather musically embarrased when Bing quits so he hastily hires Mary Martin as a pinch hitter. Without knowing that they almost work for the same composer, Bing and Mary get into a romance that con siderably messes up Rathbone’s contract’s for songs. They work out their difficulties, however, and Rathbone gives Crosby and Mary their due as hit composers. Lillian Cornell is another radio star who makes her first movie appearance in “Rhythm on the River” and it must be said that the appearance is delightful, even if she has a very minor part. “Only Forever” is the only song out of seven from this musical which has attained any marked degree of prominence. Homework. Here’s one to pass the time while riding the train to Dallas—and the odds are plenty to anything you can name that not one in a thousand will work it. Deposit $50 in bank; then— Draw out $20 Leaving $30 Draw out 15 Leaving 15 Draw out 9 Leaving 6 Draw out 6 Leaving 0 Total $50 Total $51 The room with the padded walls is at the other end of the car! 0 Aggie Miniature. One of the one hundred Bengal Guards who performed to perfection last Saturday afternoon on Kyle Field was stricken ill and taken to the nearby home of Registrar E. J. Howell. A few hours later it was time for the Guards to return to Orange and the belle needed an escort—or two—to help her to the depot. Just as the problem was grow ing acute and it appeared that someone would have to call a dor mitory and ask for cadet-aid, eight juniors walked in and, with typical Aggie chivalry, carried the patient to the train. “The most exciting thing that eves happened to me,” quoth she. Said the Aggies, “We were lucky to have a chance to do that.” • Commercialism. Radio-listening Aggies heard the affirmative answer to an A. & M.- T. S. C. W. seven-thousand name petition Thursday night when Kay Kyser played “The Aggie War Hymn” on his regular coast-to- coast broadcast. The whole thing turned out to be a double-dip af fair, however, when Kay (who used the number in connection with his “College of Musical Knowledge” asked a quizee, “Is that (the War Hymn) the school song of Texas A. & M., Texas A. & P. or Texas P. & M. ?” The girl thought the matter over and finally came back with “Texas A. & P.” 2500 “Little Sweethearts” Are Ready For Dallas Trip By Dorothy Schmittgens through the dorm for a girl who Editor, The Lass-0 wants a blind date, if it’s an Ag- Take 2500 girls and 6000 Aggies, ^ is ^ady. mix well in Ownby Stadium and You ve got something down there downtown Dallas, add a touch of f at we have been tr y in S to define football team and Lizzie yells, bake f01 m y ears - and haven’t done it yet. well in the brisk air of November Tw0 can hve more chea P 1 y than 9 for the fifth annual corps trip. one at the Ellen H - Richard s Cot- The 2500 little sweethearts of ? g ' e ’ haven of home economics stu- T. S. C. W. are looking forward dents who are learnin g h °w to keep to the highest point in their 1940- hoase by keeping one - 1941 careers as much as beautiful Tbe ex P erimen t of preparing and Mary Margaret McCarthy, winner seivm £ m eals at a cost of 11 or - • • — - -- 12 cents a day was carried out to of Aggie-Day honors, according to six Aggies who knew how to pick see if, in case of national emer- sia .nggies wnu Knew now XO piCK ’em. Tall, graceful Miss McCarthy gency ’ America could live on car- is a speech major, inclined toward lots ’ ca hhage, sweet potatoes, salt government and political debate. P° rk ’ shimmed milk, dried fruit, The smoky-eyed, brown haired fa- sor 3 hum < corn m eal and other plen- vorite developed her graceful car- ^ul, inexpensive foods. Weight of the girls is being riage and queenly bearing from modeling at the Fair Store in Fort Worth, her home town. checked to see if the diet is able to maintain a standard weight besides MUSICAL MEANDERINGS BY DR. AL B. NELSON A major election result was the immediate an nouncement by Secretary of the Treasury Morgan- thau that congress will be asked to hike the debt limit from forty-nine to sixty-five billions of dollars. This will be the second hike this year. Another result will probably be increased aid to England. This move was held up for political reasons, but now that political skins are safe for another four years the safety of the nation may at least receive consideration. Real gains in addition to help for the British will he the resignation of John L. Lewis (if he keeps his word) and the defeat of Jimmy Cromwell (Doris Duke’s husband) as “Boss” Hague’s candidate for senator from New Jersey. In the column last week the report of the cap ture by Chinese of the city of NANNING was changed into the capture of NANKING by some well intentioned person who thought the writers pen had slipped. By Murray Evans There is no denying the mass ap peal which the string band enjoys, and especially in this cotton coun try. To illustrate, just last week end on the Waco Fair grounds a large crowd was gathered in and around a big tent. Addicted to in quisitiveness, I sauntered over to see what there was to see and found one of the Waco radio string bands tuning up. Helped by a microphone and a public address system they started on a cordial resemblance to “Little Brown Jug” —and did all right too. This acted automatically as a magnet for the few remaining souls wandering airplessly around the, grounds, for they scurried up to hear. Requests were numerous, and the band did justice to all of them in exception ally good string band hill billy style. These boys were advertising for some kind of tractor and called plenty of attention to same. Some body’s advertising manager in Waco deserves back pats, incident ally, for the idea. It might be in teresting to know just what the concession operators on the other side of the carnival thought—or said—to see their side of the grounds swept clean of customers and nickels. Very. Henry Baushausen, veteran trum peter in the Aggieland Orchestra, walked away with a nice prize last week from a radio broadcast. The idea was to send in a jingle, so Henry, looking forward to the game in Waco, threw this verse together in an odd moment. (Henry says the moment must have been very odd, indeed, but you can be the judge of that.) “Oh just how long can Waco last? These Aggie boys are tough and fast; They say, when Kimbrough whizzes past, ‘Heah come a man’!” BRAIN TWISTER Stanford university food research institute holds that Germany can prevent a critical food shortage in occupied nations by releasing wheat '-'A l/IAj AICA JLl\JAllv2 LUyVil* t ° Stoddard “barrack” doors were its ability to satisf y the appetite thrown open Friday afternoon and furnisl1 energy, when junior Aggies attacked the Man-about-town Linton Wells, campus for a skirmish prelimin- au ^ bor and correspondent, will tell ary to the blitzkrieg of Dallas "Phis Troubled World and ■ November 9. Those Who Make It So” next Aggie hearts were softened "Ptiursday night when he appears through their stomachs by a steak on ^ be cam P us - fry in Lowry Woods before the Trav eling 12 times around the only bonfire and pep rally that a fitting background for T. S. C. W. ever has. The pennant radio ’ s firs t “Roving Reporter” arrayed Gymnasium was the scene wbo now newscas ts over Colum- of the collegiate hop that was kept bia Network - A stowaway on the moving at a rapid pace by “Paul ^ rs f round-the-world-flight, Wells Joneses.” kas since been decorated by 12 gov- Good news to Aggies with Tur- ernin ents and hold commissions in key Day dates at their sister school ® everal arm ies. He is the author of is the ultimatum passed by Stu- “ Blood on the Moon,” recent best dent Council that students who seBer - wish to go to Austin to the Texas- Sheila Barret, impersonator de- A. & M. game will be excused ftom i uxe > transformed T. S. C. W.’s their Thursday classes provided P acke( i auditorium into the glam- they return to the campus Friday orous Rainbow Room high above morning. The double Thanksgiving New York ’ s rooftops Tuesday when grief has changed to a wonderful sbe a PP ear ed on the drama series opportunity to get two holidays in P rora ^ m a «d gave a typical night the place of one. show before the laughing “Aggies are different from other aU(J ience. boys,” emphatically state T. S. C. Take-offs on the great and near- W. girls in a student opinion poll great ridiculous situations were so on blind dates that was taken on de f tl y done that they were listed above the ordinary mimicry. Lionel Barrymore singing Minnie the Moocher, Fanny Brice as the wick ed Scarlet, and W. C. Fields as the campus. More than two-thirds of each class is in favor of blind dating on the corps trip, and here’s your ea Hcarl ft> and w - Fields as chance, boys—95 per cent of the ^ be dask ' n g Rhett, and Zasu Pitts Mr. Brown asked Mr. Smith to perform the following operations in the order named, without Mr. Brown’s being able to see Mr. Smith’s work: (I) Write an integar, prefer ably of one or two digits, to save labor on the part of Mr. Smith. (II) Multiply this number by the next higher integer. (III) Multiply the result of (II) by 225. (IV) Add 56 to the result of (HI). (V) Tell Mr. Brown all the re sult of (IV) except the two right- hand digits. Mr. Smith gave 4064 in response to the request of (V), whereupon Mr. Brown, after a moment’s com putation, informed Mr. Smith that his results after step (IV) was 406406, and that the number he originally chose was 42. Mr. Smith confirmed these statements. How did Mr. Brown reach his conclusion ? reserves to them. freshmen think it’s a wonderful discussin S movie censorship with id ea> Will Hayes were some of the verbal The thought of the week-end caricatures Portrayed in the skill- , . . __ Till WHATS SHOWING AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL Saturday 6:30 and 8:30— “OVER THE MOON”, fea turing Merle Oberon, Rex Harrison, and Louis Borell. Monday and Tuesday, 3:30 and 7:30—“RHYTHM ON THE RIVER”, starring Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Basil Rathbone, Oscar Levant, and Lillian Cornell. AT THE CAMPUS Saturday—“PUBLIC DEB NO. 1”, with Elsa Maxwell, George Murphy, Charlie Rug- gles, Brenda Joyce, Mischa Auer, and Ralph Belamy. Saturday midnight, Sun day, Monday—“WHEN THE DALTONS RODE”, starring Randolph Scott and Kay Francis. has made the college spirit run ful P erformance - like wild-fire over the campus. The Holdm g the scor e down to 3 to 1, game, Dallas, the dances, are all T - S ' a W -’ s hocke y team lost a . ... Wpll _'Pr\n nrlvf- 4-‘U -4-4 «1 essentials, but it’s A. & M.’s con tribution to the corps trip that has raised everyone’s spirit. Little sisters of the agricultur- - al college agree on the fact that the lar ^ est crowds that had ever . _ rr o -f-V* /-I -P/-V-M ^ well-fought game to the National Hockey Team that is touring the country. Proving their mettle, the girls battled 50 minutes before on ai wiicge dgiee uii uie xact mat Aggies have the REAL college £ athered for outdoor competition spirit and Saturday afternoon foot- ° n tbe cam P us - ball games that echo by radio down T - S * C - W/s score ’ the fourth the halls of the dormitories are P ° mt ever made of the 14 teams contagious to the school that has that the y hav e played, followed a no team of its own. 55-yard run down the field, a quick For days after this week-end pass into the strikin ^ circle and girls trudging up hill to class will a ^-controlled striking rush, be humming “Aggie War Hymn” ^ rea ^ freat l- 0 II nd such en- and “Spirit of Aggieland,” already thusiasm for the sport as there local hit parade favorites on Lake is here ’” said Mar i orie Morse, man- Dallas and Lowry Woods picnics. ageT o{ the national squad. It’s not the uniform that the girls like—it takes much more than that. It’s the fact that the Aggies who visit Denton are the type that rate superlatives form the students here. “Hellos” on the street are generously given to an Aggie and when the cry rings Good FRIED CHICKEN at SOUTHERN CHICKEN GRILL Highway 6—Bryan