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THE BATTALION
-TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1940
The Battalion
STtTDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and
Hechanic&l College of Texas and the city of Coiiege Station, is
published throe 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 Aet 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 Angeles, and San
Francisco.
Office, Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone
4-M44.
Bob Nisbet EdItor-in-Chief
Keith Hubbard Advertising Manager
George Fuermann Associate Editor
Hub Johnson Sports Editor
Tommy Henderson Circulation Manager
Phi) Oolman ; Staff Photographer
Pete Tumlinson Staff Artist
J. B. Pierce Editorial Assistant
T. R. Vannoy ; Editorial Assistant
Tuesday Staff
Bill Clarkson Managing Editor
Jack Hendrick Assistant Advertising Manager
Junior Editors
Lee Rogers E. M. Rosenthal
Sports Staff
Bob Myers Assistant Sports Editor
Jack Hollimon Junior Sports Editor
Reportorial Staff
Jack Aycock, Don Corley, J. M. Ruling, Ralph Inglefield, Tom
Leland, W. A, Moore, J. M. Speer, Jack Decker.
Let's Get a Bargain
FIFTY-FIVE AGGIES paid the ultimate price for
their country and for a cause they thought was just
and right. Whether or not their cause was right is
not doubted, but the need for laying their lives on
the alter can be doubted. Europe today is an answer
to that question.
Now 22 years since the end of that tragedy, this
country faces a new peril. It is said our country is
in danger. If it is, there are thousands of Aggies
today who are ready and. willing to go at the drop
of a hat to insure the safety of this our country we
love so well. There are millions of other Americans
who feel the same way. If our country is at stake,
there is no sacrifice too great that we would not
make in order to preserve and protect it.
The 55 Aggies who died in the World War
thought their country was at stake when they died.
They belived they gave their life that this country
might live. If they had it to do over again, and not
knowing more then about the causes of the war but
just that their country was in danger, they would
gladly die again. That 55 were real Aggies.
Some 2,000 other Aggies served through the •
war as officers, proof that .A. & M. is a great mili
tary institution.
But here is a point that is emphasized by our
annual services to the World War dead. Before we
lay the lives of 55 or more Aggies on another alter
in another war, let’s make doubly sure that the
cause is worthy. There is no amount of money that
could pay the loss of those boys’ lives. One life would
be a high price for all of Wall Street’s millions.
It is said that our hemisphere is endangered by
the covetous dictatorships of Europe. Perhaps we
are. Who are we to say? But it is we, who cannot
know all the intricacies of the foreign situation,
who will pay for the decisions of those who do know
and who will decide the graveness of the situation.
We pray in the name of those who have gone
before and in the name of those yet to go that our
leaders consider the causes and realize the value
of the lives that will be the medium of exchange
in the bargain of war.
“Save the world for democracy” was considered
a good cause then. They fought in vain. What a poor
bargain they made. Students and ex-students beg
and pray that the leaders of our country make sure
they are right before they go ahead.
If we desire to pay the price, let’s get a bar-
:gain for our expenditure.
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile
A SMILE is worth a thousand words. Confucious
said the same about a picture. Who it was that first
thought of putting the two together remains un
known. But whoever it was laid the cornerstone for
all advertising. Think back over the countless ad
vertisements in magazines and on billboards. Re
member how many showed the picture of a smiling
face? Then you begin to get the point.
A smile is a universal language. Everyone
knows its meaning. There is no country but a smile
is recognized as a gesture of proposed friendship, of
good will, of rightful intentions. A smile has saved
the lives of many pioneers and explorers, who,
knowing not the language of native tribes, knew
the countless value of a smile.
Once there was a card that hung over the desk
of a big business executive that read, “It takes 83
muscles to frown, but only 18 to smile.”
Politicians have learned the lesson of smiles.
Take Big Jim Farley or President Roosevelt as
examples. Who has seen them frown in any public
appearance. Of course they know better.
In fact, go to any individual who deals with
people. Ask him about the value of a smile. He will
tell you a smile is the secret of success. The “million
dollar smile” didn’t get its name from the money
the song brought.
There was once a man who lost his job and re
turned home to break the bad news to his wife only
to discover upon reaching home that his house and
garage had burned with nothing except the lives of
his wife and daughter saved from the flames. A
quick check into his coat pocket reminded him that
he forgot to pay the last installment on his in
surance.
He was cleaned out to his last cent, but he had
one asset worth all he had ever owned. He still had
left the power and the wjll to smile. He didn’t give
up and quit, but he went to work with his hands and
his smile. Before long he was back again at the
top.
The old saying about keeping that last nickel
so you will never be broke is a humorous suggestion,
but many have discovered that if you can smile, you
can spend that nickel and still be rich.
NEWS ITEM: “University of Maryland sophomores
rounded up several hundred freshmen and made
them ‘pray for rain.’ A rainstorm struck the campus
a few hours later.” This higher education is really
great stuff.
OPEN FORUM
DURING THE PAST two or three years the trad
ition of speaking to other Aggies on and off the
campus has practically dropped from the minds of
everyone. This tradition was one of the best trad
itions of the old A. & M. It seems that many of the
old traditions of the Aggies have been done away
with in the past few years, but let’s try to keep
this one alive. You Sophomores try to remember
this and also remind the Freshman about it at your
next meeting.
Mike Florence
Dear Sir:
October 19th was my first trip down to Col
lege Station. I was much impressed with the trad
itions and customs of the Cadets.
I appreciate most of all the fine reception that
the T. C. U. students received. If all of the Cadets
are as thoughtful as a certain senior mechanical
engineer—then A. & M. is fulfilling its purpose of
producing fine young gentlemen. Needless to say, you
really have a fine ball club.
M. Hopkins
A T.C.U. backer and staunch supporter of A. & M.
Man, Your Manners
BY I. SHERWOOD
EVERY YOUNG MAN is seeking the perfect girl,
the one above reproach, whom he can be proud to
introduce to his parents and friends—to this end
he continues to have dates until he finds her.
In a man’s column it shouldn’t be necessary
to say what a man desires in a woman, but it might
be a good idea to mention some of the things that
a woman desires in a man.
A Woman Likes A man who makes her feel
that she is the one woman on earth for him. She
loves small attentions and courtesies, and having her
birthdays and anniversaries remembered. Until
engaged, suitable gifts are flowers, candy, or books.
No woman wants to be thought of as helpless or
fragile, but she does like the idea of being protect
ed.
Most women are more conscious of details than
men. They like things done correctly and are apt
to be critical about formalities. No matter what
she says, she enjoys having men rise in her pres
ence, hold doors open, and pull her chair out for her.
Casualness and poise are intriguing in a man,
but conceit and smugness are out.
Every girl likes a man to be polite to her fam
ily, respectful to older people, and courteous be
cause it is a pleasure, not a duty.
Dates It is the man’s privilege to ask for
dates, and no matter how slow he is doing it, no girl
should hint or suggest one herself. In asking for a
date a man should state what he has in mind. This
gives a girl a chance to decide whether she has
right dress or not. (That is important to a girl.)
A man should never break one date for another.
This holds true for the girl, also.
Blind Dates Accept blind dates with your
eyes wide open, and through those people whose
friends are the same type as yourself. In this way
you will avoid people you do not care to know. It
is best to be pessimistic about a blind date, and
then you may be agreeably surprised. Never for one
moment let the young lady know that she doesn’t
come up to your expectations.
Double Dates Serve their purpose for the
one who is having a blind date, thus transforming
a difficult situation into a pleasant ' foursome.
Among four people enough ideas should be produced
to insure a good time for all.
As the World Turns...
BY DR. R. W. STEEN
THE TWO TERM tradition was shattered in rather
convincing fashion last Tuesday. The Roosevelt pop
ular majority was impressive, while the electoral
majority will be overwhelming. However, the re
sults can not be described as a landslide. A great
portion of Mr. Roosevelt’s majority of 4,500,000 votes
was built up in the solid south. The
vote in most sections of the coun
try was very close. So close, in
fact, that a shift of 500,000 votes
properly distributed would have
resulted in the election of Mr. Will-
kie. On the other hand, a shift of
200,000 votes, properly distributed
would have given Mr. Roosevelt
a unanimous vote in the elector
al college. The electoral vote will
be: Roosevelt 449; Willkie 82.
President Roosevelt has just
announced that Britain is to re
ceive fifty per cent of defense items produced in
this country. As the industries here swing in pro
duction at higher rates American aid to Britain will
become constantly more important as an item in
fluencing the outcome of the war. Meanwhile Ger
many’s attempt to blockade England by means of
sea and air attacks upon her commerce has reach
ed a high point. There are plenty of ships as yet,
but losses have been large and it seems that a new
system of defense will have to be instituted to guar
antee England against want.
There is some indication that the United States
is planning to take over French islands in the Carib
bean. The Vichey government has become so thor
oughly subservient to Berlin that it takes some im
agination to consider it an independent government.
There have been many reports of German “inspec
tors” making their way to the islands, and the
United States seems to feel that they are there
for no good. Some Washington opinion indicates
that American intervention may come before De
cember, while other sources indicate that there will
be no intervention unless it is made necessary by
an attempt to transfer ownership of the islands.
Armistice Day was celebrated in America, but
little attention in Europe. The present condition of
the world makes it significant that the day celebrat
ed in relation to the last war was Armistice day—
not peace day. Perhaps what the world had was not
peace at all, but merely a twenty-one year breathing
spell.
R. W. Steen
BROTHER-PRESIDENTS
DR.. GEORGE M. SMITH \S PREXY
AT SUSQUEHANNA UNIVERSITY
WHILE HIS BROTHER.CHARLES J.
SMITH IS PRESIDENT OF
ROANOKE COLLEGE/
Chemical Industry Ready To Play
Its Part In National Defense Program
BY DR. E. B. MIDDLETON
Associate Professor of
Analytical Chemistry
America’s problems todays is de
fense. All the terrors of war are
loose in the world, and we must
be prepared to resist any assaults
on our freedom. The personnel of
the chemical industries are well
equipped to do their part in ans
wering this urgent challenge. The
year 1940 has not found the United
States in the serious plight that it
was twenty-five years ago at the
outset of World War I. Conditions
now are different, and perhaps the
most surprising differences are to
be found in fields related to chem
istry. It can truly be said that we
are living in a chemical age.
A quarter of a century ago chem
ists were not numerous, and
their activities were circumscribed.
Chemical processes in industry,
which give employment to great
numbers of chemists today and
provide incentive to great num
bers of others, were relatively few;
and the chemical industry was yet
to begin its phenomenal growth.
Membership in the American
Chemical Society, which may be
taken as a suggestive gauge of the
chemical profession, was held by
7170 persons in 1914. By 1940 this
number has increased to 25,060. It
is not likely that chemically train
ed personnel will be a serious
problem in any reasonable pro
gram of preparedness.
It is true that the chemical in
dustry at present has not large in
stalled capacity for the production
of purely military explosives such
as TNT, picric acid, mustard gas,
and other similar materials. How
ever, the production or nitro cel
lulose has grown as a result of
the constant demand for it in the
manufacture of plastics and lac
quers. While present producing
plants might not be immediately
convertible to smokeless manufac
ture, yet they would be able to
furnish highly trained technicians
and workmen to form nucleus
groups in new plants and to pro
vide modern experience closely re
lated to powder manufacture on
which producing units can be
based. Similar situations exist with
respect to the other chemica wea
pons of war.
Mercury for fulminate to be used
in detonators has been largely im
ported from Spain, but disturbed
conditions there have curtailed this
supply. Chemical ingenuity has
provided substitutes for this, and
the situation in regard to this re
quirement has been relieved.
Our production of motor fuel is
ample to meet any possible need
so far as can be foreseen. Aviation
fuel, if used in ‘blitzkrieg” quanti
ties is amply available, provided
special plant capacity is increased.
This is reported to be relatively
easy to accomplish.
Platinum, vital in 1917-18 for
its catalytic action in sulfuric acid
manufacture has been largely re
placed by anadium oxide catalysts.
New deposits, worked by improved
methods, are supplementing accu
mulated stocks of manganese, chro
mium, tungsten, and antimony.
Tin is classed as a strategic ma
terial in that the United States,
the major consumer, produces none,
while the major producers con
sume little. About three quarters
of all the metal has been obtained
from a relatively small geographic
area which includes the Federated
Malay states, the Netherland In
dies, Siam, Burma, Indo China, and
lower China. The United States is
more completely dependent on far
away sources of supply of tin than
is the case with any other mater
ial.
The rubber situation is more
complex, largely because the sny-
thetic rubber-like plastics com-
mony called “synthetic rubbers”
are in such active development.
While no one possesses all the
desirable characteristics of crude
rubber, each has some advantage
over natural material for special
uses. We have neoprene, Thiokol,
and Koroseal in experienced pro
duction. American made Buna is
around the corner, Butyl rubber
has been announced by the Stan
dard Oil Company of New Jersey,
and the B. F. Goodrich Company’s
synthetic Ameripol is replacing 50
to 100 per cent of natural rubber
in some tires. More research and
more development are needed.
Things would look very gloomy if
some catastrophe would cut off our
rubber importation and leave us
with only a few months’ supply on
hand. This is an extremely impor
tant part of our defense program.
It is something that cannot well
wait.
Our needs for strategic material
such as activated carbon, nitrogen,
potash, optical glass, and acetone
can be readily satisfied. Our na
tion is particularly well provided
with snythetic drugs, which now
represent such a large proportion
of medicinal products. An emer
gency in the supply of drugs and
pharmaceuticals does not exist.
BRAIN TWISTER
We omitted part of one of the
Brain Twisters published a week
ago. Here is the correct version:
Take your age, multiply by 2,
add 5, multiply by 50, subtract 365,
add the change you have in your
pocket (less than a dollar), add
115. Then the units and tens digits
give the change you have in your
picket, the hundreds and thousands
digits give your age.
Here are two more problems to
be solved by setting up and solving
sets of simultaneous equations.
Each letter represents a dif
ferent number and each number is
represented by a different letter.
First, a problem in subtraction.
PAY
ME
NOW
Second, a problem in long divis
ion.
DO | THIS | ONE
NT
El
EJ
IS
IS
Answer to addition problem.
14 | 6398 | 457
56
79
70
98
98
Answer to subtraction problem.
234
56
178
Technicolor is used to enter a ing to the Paramount Publicity
new field of “UNTAMED” at the Department, is “ah - KEEM tam-
Assembly Hall Wednesday. It is EAR - off” with the accent on
used to invade the north woods the capitalized syllables. It is much
of the Arctic and it looks pretty easier to just name it and take it
good with the swirling snow of a because he ends up dead by tech-
blizzard and other outdoor shots, nicolor. “Untamed” is based on
Technicolor has previously been Sinclair Lewis’ novel “Mantrap.”
used to bring all the colors of the
tropics and gaudy scenes of an
cient costumes, but nature’s colors
aren’t as much subject to the same
color exaggeration by the camera
as artificial tones, all of which
looks extremely bright and heavy.
“Untamed” concerns a rest cure
which society doctor Ray Milland
takes in the north woods and be
fore he gets cured he has stolen
his guide’s wife. Akim Tamiroff,
the guide, very conveniently gets
frozen to death in the blizzard.
Some other things take place dur
ing the show which lend atmos
phere to the Arctic setting.
Milland is still a doctor even if
on a vacation and he finishes an
operation for the local medico after
he has collapsed. And then there
is considerable dashing around
through the blizzard in search of
a valuable serum which is finally
brought in by guide Tamiroff’s dog
team with him frozen stiff on his
sled.
Just as a point of general infor
mation, the correct pronunciation
of Akim Tamiroff’s name, accord-
Topography and geography of
Texas makes rural line construction
much less expensive than had been
expected in early surveys at the
time the REA was created.
: *****
m
m
mmmm
Get them on these new
VICTOR AND
BLUEBIRD RECORDS
“I Can’t Get Started
With You”
Bunny Berigan
“Keeping Myself For
You”
Artie Shaw
“Five O’clock Whistle”
Glenn Miller
“Pumptom Turnpike”
Charlie Barnett
“You’ve Got Me This
Way”
Tommy Dorsey
Ask about the new
RCA Victoi Long Life Needle
HASWELL’S
Bryan
m
1 WHATS SHOWING
AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL
Tuesday 3:30 & 7:30—“RHY-
4 THM ON THE RIVER,”
- T ; starring Bing Crosby, Mary
Martin, and Basil Rath-
bone.
Wednesday 3:30 & 6:45—
“UNTAMED,” featuring
Ray Milland, Patricia Mor
rison, Akim Tamiroff, and
William Frawley.
AT THE CAMPUS
Tuesday & Wednesday—
“HENRY GOES ARI
ZONA,” with Frank Mor
gan, Virginia Weilder, Guy
Kibbee, Slim Summerville,
and Douglas Fowley.
For Active Sports
Or Quiet Hours—
GANTNER
SWEATERS
You can live without
one—but you’ll enjoy life
with one! Gantner styles
their sweaters for active
sports, for all types of
outdoor men who want
the best in wear and
comfort. Coats, Jackets,
slip-on with sleeves, or
sleeveless. Combinations
of leather and wool or all
wool.
$1.00 - $2.00
to $7.50
Ti T
V/IMBERLEY STONE DANSBV
W-N-J. jlz
CXOCKIERS
COLLEGE and BRYAN
Why not be comfortable for your foot
ball games and cold, wet weather.
WE ARE FULLY EQUIPPED TO FULFILL
YOUR EVERY NEED
Woolen Socks
Jackets
Shoes
Sweaters
Trench Coats
Mufflers
THE EXCHANGE STORE
AN AGGIE INSTITUTION
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