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