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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1940)
DIAL 4-5444 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF COLLEGE STATION The Battalion DIAL 4-5444 STUDENT TRI WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE VOL. 40 122 ADMINISTRATION BLDG. COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 26, 1940 Z725 NO. 31 Aggies Ready To Invade Austin For Turkey Day Classic Bonfire And Dance Will Climax Season’s Festivities Did Someone Say Jinx? (An Editorial Expression) FROM OVER AUSTIN WAY we hear something about there being a jinx of some sort hovering over Memorial Stadium. That’s just great. Aggies have a jinx on jinxes. In the past two years the Aggie football team has broken more jinxes than exist in the books. Jinxes are our meat. The “tea sippers” claim that no matter the difference in the teams Texas U. will win because of a jinx. Any other year or any other team might be scared stiff, but not this bunch of fighting Aggies. All year they have met teams that were in spired and playing above their heads. They have met every team in the conference during home coming. What difference has it made ? None that we can see. And it will not make any difference Thursday. Perfecting a professional style of taking the breaks as they come and just playing steady level-headed football, the Aggie machine has been through the “valley” so to speak and has come out on the top of the heap. No mere jinx is going to stop them. Psychology beat the Aggie team of ’38. They beat them selves by trying too hard. Over anxious, tense and nervous, that team went to pieces. But this year’s team has seen the worst that football can offer. Texas University has no football team. Their only chance to win is to try the psychology angle. Well, it won’t work this year. They’re up against a ball club that is different from any yet to face them on Memorial Stadium. The Aggie team is not a collection of individuals. It is a well-oiled machine in which each part has its function and per forms it well and regularly. That is the secret of its success. Eleven men make up the team—eleven men determined to end this season like it was started. If the team from T. U. can be inspired over winning on Memorial Stadium and a jinx, think how inspired the Aggie team can get over repeating in the Southwest Conference as champions, beating Texas on their home field, scoring the first touchdown on Memorial Stadium, completing their second season undefeated and untied. Sports writers and commentators have said before that A. & M. was due to lose some game or another. A fortune teller even made adverse predictions on the outcome of the S. M. U. game, but nothing of the sort has fazed the Aggies. A. & M. has everything to gain Thursday—we refuse to consider losing, and we never heard of a jinx. Ross Volunteers Welcome New Members With Banquet In Mess Hall Yell Practice Will Be Held On Y Steps Before Fire Tonight the cadet corps will wit ness the climax of the season’s football festivities. Six thousand students will gather before the “Y” steps for a short yell practice led by Buster Keeton and Foots Bland while junior yell leaders Bill Beck and Skeen Staley light the largest bonfire that has yet been erected. After the blaze has been started the corps will move in mass to the drill field where Coach Norton and his staff will present the senior football players. Then it will be that other southwest conference teams will start sighing with rel ief for they will know that soon such names as Kimbrough, Rob- nett, Pugh, and Vaughn will be stricken from the roster as their opponents. This assembly will symbolize the last pre-football game yell prac tice for many students whose names have figured in prominent places in the reputation that the school has gained in the past two years. After this the head yell leaders will relinquish their posit ions to their junior assistants who will head the corps next season. The greater part of the letter- men will be making preparations for the last grid-iron battle of a glory and victory filled two-year campaign. Despite the fact that the fresh men have been apprehended by several days of constant rain the bonfire has grown into the largest ever to have been made. Following this illuminated yell practice will be the annual Bon fire dance which precedes the Thanksgiving game between A. & M. and its leading adversary Tex as University. Reconditioned Sbisa Hall will furnish the setting and Ed Minnock’s Aggieland Orchestra will furnish the music for the occas ion. This dance, which will be held from 10 ’til 1, is the last dance be fore the Christmas holidays and the one dance of the first semester which freshmen may attend with out dates. Script will be the usual price of $1.10. Wednesday will see the greater part of the corps leaving for Austin by the usual variety of methods. Special trains will be run Wednesday evening and Thursday morning in order to insure that all cadets will be there in time for the first parade of the year. First Stakes Have Been Driven To Start Dorm Construction The first stakes used to lay out the six new dormitories to be con strue - 1 west of the hospital have been . 'en into the ground and actual construction and excava tion work awaits only the removal of a strip of railroad track and several houses. The six new dorm itories, to be of similar construct ion to those in the new area, are scheduled to be completed by next fall at the cost of approximately nine hundred thousand dollars. Because of recent heavy rains over nearly all the state, the re moval of the railroad siding run ning through the area in which the buildings are to be erected will be delayed until a railroad crew all of whom are now busy repairing damage done by the heavy rains, can come to remove it. The college is attending to the removal of the four or five houses that are in the way, and after these details are attended to, the actual con struction work will be begun. After the completion of the new dormitories, the capacity of all the dormitories on the campus will be six thousand one hundred stu dents, and even then it wll probably be necessary for a few students to stay in private homes if the en rollment keeps on increasing at its present rate. The construction is under the di rection of Alfred C. Finn, Hous ton architect, and the W. S. Bel lows Company of Houston. A banquet sponsored by the old+ members of the Ross Volunteers, a military and social organization of A. & M., comprised of only juniors and seniors taking advan ced military science, was held last Sunday night in the banquet room of Sbisa Hall for the purpose of welcoming the new members into the organization. An election was held for first sergeant and two line sergeants. Lewis Kercheville of the field ar tillery was elected first sergeant. David Fitch of C field artillery and Max Gordon of A infantry were elected line sei’geants. Col. Watson attended the ban quet and made a speech commend ing the organization for its ideals standards, and principles. He called attention to the similarity of the Ross Volunteers to an organization of which he was a member during his college career. He expressed a desire for the two groups in the future to work and cooperate with each other so as to create a mu tual interest between them. The senior officers of the seven military units of A. & M. also made talks on varied subjects, all concerning matters of importance to the Ross Volunteers. During Sunday the old members officially initiated the new mem bers into the R. V.’s in the trad itional manner and in any new manner that they could devise. The Ross Volunteers, originally called the Scott Volunteers, were organized in 1887, and adopted as the name of their organization the name of the existing president. In 1891, however, the present name was adopted in favor of Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross who became President of A. & M. at that time. It is an honorary organization com prised of Juniors and Seniors only. Ex-Students Booth To Be At Memorial Field A committee of Ex-Aggies liv ing in Austin, headed by J. Wayne Stark, ’38, are making plans to erect a booth within the stadium grounds at Austin Thursday for the purpose of making a suitable meet ing place for friends. “The Batta lion” will be available there and the booth will open at one o’clock. Official List Of Club Officers Released Recently According to club regulations, an organization, to have an offic ial status, must have a constitu tion approved by the Student Ac tivities Committee and must file with the committee each year a list of its officers. The following list of clubs has complied with these requirements and therefore constitute a partial official list of the clubs at A. & M. for the year 1940-41. The rest of the list will be found in the next issue of ths paper. ACCOUNTING SOCIETY . . . President, George Taylor; V-Pres- ident, E. L. Wehner; Sec-Treas., R. L. Rominger. AERONAUTICAL SCIENCES. . . Chairman, W. W. Sullivan; V- Chairman, B. S. Hutchins; Secre tary, D. M. Early; Sr. Rep., W. Collins; Jr. Rep., A. Evans; Soph. Rep., D. Van Orden. AGRONOMY SOCIETY. . . Pres ident, J. T. Anderson; V-Presi- dent, J. H. Robinson; Secretary, H. C. Warner; Parliamentarian, J. D. Pinson; Reporter, Jay Dudley, Sgt. at Arms, W. R. Clark. (A- I- Ch. E. . . . President, A. V. Hamilton; V-President, F. A. Smitham; Sec-Treas., E. E. Byrd; Reporter, R. L. Powell. A. I. E. E. . . . President, T. E. Duce; V-President, Jimmie Cupples, Reporter, Earle A. Shields, Jr. A. I. M. E. .. .President, Jeff Mont gomery; V-President, R. P. Dunk- erly; Secretary, Gerald King; Treas., John A. Waddell. AMERICAN MILITARY ENGI NEERS. . . President, C. F. DeVil- biss; 1st Vice President, L. L. Ap- pelt; 2nd V-President, to be elect ed; Treasurer, P. C. Wright, Jr., Secretary, Jas. F. Stephenson. A. S. A. E. . . .President, R. M. Ma gee; V-President, W. L. Mayfield; Sec-Treas., J. C. Bloodworth; Scribe J. C. Cook. Traffic Study Committee Holds Second Meeting The second meeting of the student-faculty Traffic Study Com mittee was held Sunday night in the Civil Engineering building. At the first meeting, which was held November 18, the committee dis cussed the problem of local traffic control, agreed on the locations of the most congested areas and de cided to make individual studies of the various problems and report on the findings at the second meet ing. Although no committment was made by any committee member following the second meeting, chairman J. T. L. McNew declared that a preliminary report would be turned over to President T. O. Walton within a few days. The committee, which was ap pointed November 14 by Dr. Wal ton to consider the pedestrian and automotive traffic control on the campus, is composed of five stud ents and five faculty representa tives. A&M Architect Gets Real Taste Of Rainy Weather By Lee Rogers “Wat^rbound” would fittingly describe the position that Phillip Norton, assistant architect at A. & M., found himself confronted with Sunday morning. With draft- dodging in the United States and bomb-dodging in Europe, Norton was forced to start a new type of evading—flood-dodging. All was going well as he pro ceeded toward Bay City until he came to the lowlands of Grimes County where swirling flood wa ters from recent rains were blanketing the highways. The first hint of trouble came when the wa ters drowned his motor, but a kindly trucker condescended to push him on his way. This met with his approval and again he was faring well, but this time a swollen creek loomed ahead to present another problem. Norton was unable to signal the truck driver of the oncoming water so together they plunged ahead. The swift current immediately pushed the car off the road and eventually sent the truck rolling off behind it. This left Norton in an uncom fortable position as the waters showed no signs of receding, so, with the choice of spots for refuge limited to trees which were grow ing along the road he ascended the nearest one. And like the Ancient Mariner, with “Water, water everywhere—” he was forced to perch bird-like on this hastily chosen roost for some three hours until a rescue party from Navasota came and removed him with the aid of some rope and a truck. First Edition Of “Engineer” Off Press The first edition of the “Eng ineer”, official magazine of the school of engineering, was com pleted yesterday and is now ready for distribution. The magazine is the first of its kind at A. & M. and is to partially replace the former “Scientific Review”. It is edited by a staff of engineering students and will be issued four times a year. The magazine contains a great many articles which will be of great interest to all engineering students and also contains a great many remarkable photographs throughout the issue which illus trate each article. One of the articles in the maga zine is a story of diesel engines and their part in truck transpor tation. An article on petroleum and the progress made in that industry, will be featured in the magazine. Town Hall’s Next \~r ff\ Popular Radio And Concert Star Presented By Town Hall, December 4 Gracious Jean Dickenson, pop ular young radio and concert star, will be presented here on Wednes day, December 4, as the third .pro gram of Town Hall for the year, Paul Haines, Town Hall student manager, has announced. Jean Dickenson has been on the move since earliest childhood. Born in Montreal, she spent her babyhood in India, trotted along with her mining engineer father to South America, attended grammar school in New York, high school in San Francisco and college in Denver. Probably the highlight of her career was the invitation to be come the guest star on the Amer ican Album of Familiar Music. It was on a return trip to New York that she was met at the train by a representative of the NBC Artists Service with the news that she had been signed as the feature star on this Sunday night program. Her voice—on a record ing—was one of the 150 voices lis tened to by the sponsors. They signed her up without even seeing her. It is indeed seldom that one with so unusual a voice has the beauty and personality to accompany it as has Miss Dickenson. Her program has been selected especially for her appearance at A. & M. and in cludes a variety of popular songs as well as old favorites. Each year there comes to the campus of A. & M. one person whom the Aggies adopt as their own. This year, a prediction made by Paul Haines, Town Hall Man ager, is that the person whom the Aggies will adopt as the sweet heart of A. & M. will be the gamor- our Jean Dickenson. Rehearsals Of Symphony Orchestra To Begin Next Week The organization of a communi ty symphony orchestra to be di rected by Lt. Col. R. J. Dunn, di rector of the A. & M. band, is now well underway and rehearsals will be ready to start immediately after Thanksgving. The orchestra will be open to A. & M. students, res idents of Bryan College Station, A. & M. college faculty, and the area surrounding College Station. As the wind instruments of the orchestra will be taken from the A. & M. band, any person who is well advanced on a sti'ing instru ment such as viola, ’cello, violin, or bass viol, is urged to sign his name and the instrument he plays at the desk of the Y. M. C. A. before leaving for the Thanksgiving holi days. All students who are interest ed should bring their instruments back with them on their return af ter the holidays. Col. Dunn has announced that a great number of stringed instru ments are especially needed. About thirty or forty violins in addition to a great number of other stringed instruments will be needed . Plans are now developing to se cure music and other equipment to start the orchestra after the Thanksgiving holidays. Student Spirit Mounts As Last Game Approaches Two Trains Will Leave For Austin; Wednesday, Thursday By Tom Gillis Aggie’s hearts are beginning to beat a little faster and the Aggie spirit is ‘mounting ever higher as the eventful Thanksgiving Day approaches. The official corps trip parade and the Texas A. & M.-Tex- as U. football game is on every Aggie tongue. For two weeks now the freshmen have been wearing the rouge and lipstick of a tea- sipper cq-ed to further taunt the fighting spirit of the Twelfth Man. Their greetings have contained, remarks such as “beat the hell out of Texas” and “that steer sure is going to need a veterinary Thurs day.” Entering the mess hall, their yells have been just a little louder as the day of the game for which we have waited all year approach es. The freshman banners have taken a new fierceness and force fulness in picking the Aggies to win this game with our traditional rivals. To top off all this stored up spirit, the bonfire will be held to night and the spirit of the Twelfth Man will soar to the highest point of the year. Undaunted by rains which have flooded parts of Texas, the corps will move to Austin for their first parade of the year. To be held Thursday morning, the parade will be the first full dress occasion for the corps. The colorful ceremony, twice prevented on other corps trips by rain and other circum stances, will show the full might of the Aggie corps. Special trains for the corps trip will leave College Station at 5:00 p. m. Wednesday, arriving in Aus tin at 7:45, and another will leave college at 6:30 Thursday morning to be in Austin at 9:15. Students who do not ride the train should be at their respective assembly area near the railroad station in Austin by 9 a. m. so that the parade may be promptly formed and baggage taken care of. Led by Cadet Colonel Bill Becker, the corps will march down Con gress Avenue from the station to the capitol grounds, where organi zations will be dismissed. The order of march for the parade will be corps staff, field artillery band, infantry regiment, field artillery regiment, composite regiment, in fantry band, cavalry regiment, en gineer regiment and coast artillery regiment. Number 1 uniform with white shirt will be the official uniform for the parade and football game. At the football game students may enter either gate No. 7 or 2. No one other than students will be admitted to the game on a student ticket. Aggies who wish to bring friends and dates into the Aggie section may do so by purchasing a student ticket for them, and upon payment of $1.40 additional at the stadium in Austin, exchange the ticket for a suitable non-student ticket. Cadets Gun for Texas U.’s Scalp In Nation’s Number 1 Game Thursday Wednesday Noon Deadline For Sale Turkey Day Tickets Student tickets for the Texas A. & M.-Texas U. football game will remain on sale at the old Y until noon Wednesday, it was announced by E. J. Hooker of the athletic department today. Approximately 4400 tickets to the game were sent here for the members of the corps. Only about 2200 of the tickets had been sold when the Y. M. C. A. desk closed Monday. Hooker also announced that after noon, Wednesday, if there are any tic kets left, they will be on sale for $2.50 till late that evening in the Y. M. C. A. Thousands of spectators will be* 1 in Austin Thursday to witness the annual grid-iron battle between the football teams of Texas A. & M. and the University of Texas. This year’s game promises to give the fans more than their money’s worth as the Longhorns will play super-inspired ball in an effort to stop the Southwest Con ference championship drive of the well-coordinated Aggie team. Even though a win by the Orange and Whites would give them no chance in the championship play, they always consider a season well played and successful if they can win over the cadets. Likewise, the Aggies prefer a Texas Uni versity scalp to any other on their schedule. Looking back twenty years, the two teams were tied for the con ference lead and the Turkey day game was played over “fox-ty- acres” way. At the closing gun the score board read University of Texas—7, Visitors—3. At present, both Matty Bell’s Mustangs and Jess Neeley’s Owls (Continued on Page 5) Next Order For Senior Rings Will Be Sent Friday Next order for senior rings will 'be sent at noon, Friday, E. J. Howell, Registrar, announced yes terday. This will be the last order that will be back in time for the Christmas holidays. Howell urged all seniors to place their order be fore leaving for the Thanksgiving holidays.