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.