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, THURSDAY MORNING, DEC. 5, 1940
Z725
NO. 32
Gallagher
Is Elected
R V King
Kercheville, Fitch
And Jordan Receive
Junior Nominations
James Gallagher, D Battery
Coast Artillery, has been elected
by the Ross Volunteer Company to
reign as their king during the fes
tivities of the R. V. holidays in
the spring. Gallagher was selected
by the company at the initiation
banquet held to welcome new mem
bers into the organization. The ban
quet held to welcome new members
into the organization. The banquet
was held in Sbisa Hall November
24.
As king of the company Gallag
her will be guest of honor at the
annual King’s Ball 'which will be
held April 10, 1941. His escortee
will sit beside him on an elaborate
throne and serve as queen.
At the initiation banquet the
R. V.’s also elected Louis Kerche
ville, I Battery Field Artillery, to
be first-sergeant of the organiza
tion for the present year. Max Jor
dan, D Company Infantry, and Da
vid Fitch, C Battery Field Artil
lery, were elected to be line ser
geants.
Joe Slicker, captain of the R. V.
Company, presided at the initiation .
banquet. Lt. Col. James A. Watson,
commandant of the college, spoke
to the members commending them
on their purpose, ideals, and prin
ciples. He congratulated the new
members on joining the honor mil
itary organization and expressed
the desire that the company work
in cooperation with the military de
partment for the mutual benefit
of the company and bringing honor
to the school. The senior instructors
in each of the branches of the
service represented on the campus
made congratulatory talks and
spoke on matters of interest to the
company.
The Ross Volunteer company is
composed of honor military stu
dents who are enrolled in the ad
vance course of military science.
The company, which is the oldest,
organization of any kind on the
campus, grew out of the first honor
military organization on the cam
pus, which was first formed in
1887. The plan at that time was
to change the name of the com
pany to the name of each succeed
ing president of the college. This
practice was discontinued in 1891
when the name was permanently
fixed as the Ross Volunteers in
honor of Lawrence Sullivan Ross,
former governor of Texas who be
came president of the college at
that time. Each year the company
puts on a spectacular drill on Moth
er’s Day and has other military
functions during the year.
General Reading
Fund Appropriation
Buys 26 More Books
The second list of books bought
through the General Reading Fund
has been received by the library
and are now available for requests,
Mrs. W. D. Thomas, loan librarian,
announced today.
The books, which were the re
quests of students, are as follows:
Aikman — The All - American
Front
Arnold—Bottle-necks of Business
Bardeche—History of Motion
Pictures
Beard—A Foreign Policy for
America
Bronte—Wuthering Heights
Cain—Eternal City
Carrel—Man, The Unknown
Cohn—God Shakes Creation
Cooper—The Pioneers
Cooper—The Prairie
Copland—What to Listen for in
Music
Dennison—Toward Full Employ
ment
Dinsmore—“Hoss” Doctor
Farrell—Gas-house McGinty
Hecht—A Book of Miracles
Jones—Guatemala, Past and
Present
Kasner—Mathematics and The
Imagination
Kent—This is My Own
Manly—Aviation From the
Ground Up
(Continued on Page 4)
They Know Their Crops
Shown above is the Crops Judging team which journeyed to Chicago for the Intercollegiate
Crops Contest in which they placed fourth in the nation. Reading from left to right they are: team
sponsor R. C. Potts; Monty Mitchell, high point man; James Scott; Roger Thysell; and E. R. Butler.
Mitchell Paces Agronomists to Fourth Place Win
In Intercollegiate Crops Contest Held in Chicago
Warner Is Elected
National Vice-President
Monty Mitchell, senior from
Quail, won high individual honors
and was a member of the Agron
omy team that placed fourth in the
Intercollegiate Crop Contest held in
Chicago last Friday and Saturday.
Howard M. Warner, junior of
College Station, was elected na
tional vice-president of the student
section of the American Society of
Agronomy. This is the second suc
cessful installation of a national
officer from A. & M. since the
election of Jeff Horn as national
president of the student section
in 1936.
Mitchell was first among all the
individual contestants at Chicago
with a score of 1366 out of a pos
sible 1467. He had number 13 in
the contest, the same number which
R. C. Potts, team coach, had in
1934 when he won high point hon
ors.
The 1940 crops judging team was
composed of E. B. Butler, Graham,
Monty Mitchell, Quail; Roger
Thysell, Mandan, North Dakota;
•and James Scott, Childress. The-
team was selected on a competi
tive basis after a series of judging
examinations were given to agron
omy majors.
Mitchell was awarded a triang
ular gold medal, set with a dia
mond, for winning top honors. The
medal, which is awarded by the
American Agronomy Association
each year, has the words “Inter
collegiate Crops Contest” in raised
letters on the face. On the back, the
words “Monty Mitchell, 1940, 1st
Place,” arc engraved.
Potts accompanied the team. Af
ter leaving College Station, the
team had a workout in the agrono
my laboratory at Oklahoma A. &
M. From Stillwater, the team went
to Kansas City where they enter
ed the contest sponsored by the
Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Following the contest the team
journeyed to Chicago for the In
tercollegiate contest.
The team is sponsored each year
by the Agronomy Society who have
been financing the tour with mon
ey earned from various concessions.
Texas Municipal Engineers End
First Annual Conference Here Today
Prowlers Smash
Trophy Case; Remove
Owl and Scatter Rice
The stuffed white owl, which has
graced the trophy case in the Aca
demic building for many years, was
stolen Wednesday morning at 1:50,
and a pile of rice was left in its
place.
The shattering of the panel of
glass attracted the attention of a
cadet in the building, and he im
mediately called the Guard Room
as soon as he discovered that the
trophy case had been broken open.
When the officer of the day was
called, a hasty examination showed
that the owl was the only thing
taken.
Two freshmen were assigned to
guard duty for the remainder of
the night.
Poultry Team
Places Fourth
In National Meet
Municipal Engineers from all"
parts of Texas will get together
at Texas A. & M. college Decem
ber 4-5 for their first annual con
ference, according to the program
announced by Gibb Gilchrest, dean
of the School of Engineering at
the college. The Texas League of
Municipalities and the department
of municipal and sanitary engineer
ing will cooperate in holding the
conference which will cover several
phase's of municipal activities.
Airports and airport construct
ion and management will be dis
cussed at the open meeting Wed
nesday morning, Dec. 4, with How
ard W. Barlow, head of the college
aeronautical engineering depart
ment. The afternoon session under
the leadership of E. W. Steel, head
of the college department of muni
cipal and sanitary engineering and
will cover the problems of sewers.
Streets and their construction
and maintenance will be the sub
ject up for discussion at the Thurs
day morning meeting with J. T. L.
Dickenson Concert
Well Received Here
Jean Dickenson, glamorous star
of stage and radio was presented as
the third artist on the current
Town Hall series in Guion Hall
last night.
The auditorium was packed with
students and many civilian guests
as Miss Dickenson sang classical
and semi-classical numbers in her
fine soprano voice. Several encores
were demanded by the audience. A
complete review of the program
will appear in Saturday’s Battalion.
McNew, head of the college civil
engineering department, leading
the discussion. The afternoon ses
sion will close the conference with a
discussion on city planning with
Marvin Nichols, chairman. City
Planning Commission, Fort Worth.
Noted engineers in their respect
ive fields will be the speakers and
they will endeaver to answer all
questions asked them by the other
engineers who attend the round
table discussions at the end of
each session.
6th Dairymen’s
Short Course Held
Here December 2 to 4
Dairymen went back to school
Dec. 2-4 when the Sixth Annual
Dairymen’s short course was held
at Texas A. & M. college.
Several phases of the dairy in
dustry were discussed during the
three-day meeting with leaders in
all fields connected with dairying
serving as faculty for the course.
Veterinarians, agronomists, dairy
herdsmen, dairy husbandry special
ists, landscape architects, pasture
specialists, research laboratory
scientists and rural electrification
expex*ts appeared on the program to
give the dairymen a consensus of
their ideas on how to operate a
dairy profitably.
The course was sponsored by the
Texas A. & M. College department
of dairy husbandry, of which Prof.
Charles N. Shepardson is the head.
In addition to classroom work,
the visitors attended one of the
afternoon sessions.
The A. & M. poultry judging
team placed fourth in competition
with fourteen other college poultry
teams at the Intercollegiate Poultry
Judging Contest held in Chicago
November 30.
The team, composed of Melvin
A. Ellis of Snyder, Jim W. Wilker-
son of Azel, Fred Price of Cle
burne and Donald D. Demke of
Stephenville, placed third in judg
ing poultry for production, sixth
in market poultry, and eighth in
exhibition poultry judging. Price
was eighth high point man of the
entire contest and Demke was ninth
high point man. Price was also
third in the judging of production
classes.
Enroute to the contest the team,
which is coached by E. D. Parnell
of the poultry husbandry depart
ment, did practice judging at Okla
homa A. & M., Kansas State Uni
versity, Nebraska State and Iowa
State.
New Course In
Soil Survey To Be
Introduced At A & M
The need for trained soil survey
men, as evidenced by the fact
that A. & M. has placed close to
fifty men in this type of work in
the last four years, is being met
by a new and fuller course which
will be added to the curriculum of
the college next semester.
In as much as Texas A. & M.
has become one of the leading
schools in the nation in prepara
tion of men for soil survey work
(Continued on Page 4)
Aggies Vote to Play in Cotton
Bowl If Conference Offers Invitation
Houston Post Tells Miracles of
Aggies’ Million Dollar Spending
By GEORGE FUERMANN .
Post Staff Correspondent
Six hundred and forty-five bar
rels of oil—hair oil! That’s how
much it took to slick down the
6000 head of the Texas Aggies last
long session.
A survey of the Aggies’ buying
habits shows that corps spent
$15,097 for hair oil alone between
Sept. 15, 1939, and June 4, 1940.
The next time you hear some
one crying about the super-gob
of money women spend to keep
beautiful, tell him about the
$78,554 the cadets of the world’s
largest college spent for beauty
treatment last year. College Sta
tion’s barber shops got $44,-
195 of that amount, $10,617 went
for razor blades (which means
that the razor blade manufac
turers sold more than half a
million blades to the cadets last
year), shaving cream cost the
corps $8,644, and then there’s
the little item of the hair oil
mentioned above.
21 Miles of Ties
Stretched end to end, the ties
bought by the corps during that
period would reach almost 21 miles
of the distance between Houston
and A. & M.
Military ties cost the corps $8,-
373, and civilian neckwear, strange
ly enough, more than doubled that
figure when the Aggies spent
$18,591 for the “non-reg” items.
Logically enough, the No. 1 item
on the list is the $212,066 spent
for uniforms. Right on its heels
are civilian suits, for which Aggies
spent $202,866.
Cigarets and pipe tobaccos, No.
3 on the list, run less than might
be supposed. The $114,894 spent
for smoking last year represents
an average of only seven cents a
day per cadet.
Sweethearts Second
Footwear runs a little high—
$98,117 for the nine-month period.
Two-thirds of that amount was
spent for military shoes. Cadets
spent $82,736 for shirts, $39,777
going the way of military shirts
and $42,959 being spent for civ
ilian shirts. The Aggies’ nine-
month bill for socks amounted to
$23,105 and underwear cost the
corps $27,125.
Whether last year’s crop of
Aggies were less able as ladies’
men than most collegians, or
more than usually loyal to the
homje fires is debatable), but
sweethearts took a back seat to
parents where gift purchases
were concerned. Gifts to parents
totaled $71,308; to sweethearts,
$53,401. Brothers and sisters
were next as their gift purchas
es totaled $25,407; relatives were
fourth at $21,068; and boy
friends rode the skids at $10,183.
Humor Sweet Tooths
If you worried about your in
come tax and want an easy way to
cut it down (together with being
a philanthropist), send a check for
$1,541,846 to the A. & M. Cadet
Corps. That’s the amount which
would have paid the corps’ bill last
year—that is, aside from matricu
lation fees, maintenance, and medi-
FSA Banquet Will
Hear Singing Cadets
The Singing Cadets will provide
the program for an informal ban
quet of the Farm Security Admin
istration in the old mess hall Dec
ember 6. The Cadets were invited
to sing on this occasion because of
the favorable reception given the
group when they sang for the Sheep
and Goat Raisers Association and
for the Texas and Southwestern
Cattle Association. Many members
of the Farm Security Administra
tion heard them at these perform
ances.
The singing program of the ca
dets will include Christmas car
ols and some numbers used at the
previous banquets. Much of the
time of the cadets lately has been
spent in learning Christmas carols
which will be sung to the corps
a few days before Christmas when
the group tours the campus on a
truck endeavoring to impart to the
corps the spirit of Christmas.
•cal fees. At least, that’s the amount
which would have paid for the 34
items included in the survey dis
cussed here.
Film Club Will
Present First
Picture Next Week
The first picture to be presented
by the A. & M. Film Club is to be
shown next week announcements of
the executive committee of the
club stated today. Those students
and faculty members contemplat
ing becoming members of the club
are urged to send in their choice of
pictures in order that final ar
rangements may be made.
Subscription will be $1 for a ser
ies of five major programs. This
amount will cover all expenses.
Dates of the shows will be announc
ed in the future. The club has ob
tained the services of the Campus
Theatre for the showing of the 35
mm. films in order to obtain the
best possible conditions. The thea
ter can be made available on
Thursday evening at 7:30 or 9:00.
The members are to decide which
time would be most convenient.
Those who wish to attend the
first picture may buy their tickets
at the window the executive com
mittee stated. Advance tickets may
be purchased from J. P. Abbot,
English department, S. O. Brown,
biology department, C. B. Camp
bell, modern languages department
or S. B. Zisman, architecture de
partment. Only season tickets will
be sold.
The club is presenting pictures,
some of which are still running
on Broadway and at the Interna
tional House in Chicago, at a small
fraction of what the cost would
ordinarily be. Some of the more
important pictures include:
“Harvest” (French: Story of a
man and woman who restore life
to their surroundings; the man
walking miles in search of seed for
his wheat, for a ploughshare and
for horses to pull it; the woman
building a home from barren stone
walls, sowing the seed and helping
towards the harvest. Their few
sacks of good wheat symbolize a
new growth and a new faith.
Darnell, Chestnut
Named to Dairy
Herd Committee
Coach Homer Norton is not the
only Texas A. & M. coach who has
a finger in selecting All-America
performers for notice received from
the Holstein-Friesian World, the
newspaper of that breed of dairy
cattle, announces the appointment
of A. L. Darnell, professor of
dairy husbandry at the college and
coach of the dairy judging team,
apd Frank M. Chestnut, dairy
herdsman of the college dairy herd,
as members of the 14-man com
mittee selected to pick the All-
American Holstein-Friesian dairy
herd with the top three animals
winning cash awards for their own
ers. Fifty prizes in all are offered
to the owners of the dairy cattle
selected by the All-America com
mittee.
All of the committee have served
as judges at nationally recogniz
ed fairs and are well known in
their field. Prof. Darnell judged
Holsteins-Friesians at the Missouri
State Fair and Mr. Chestnut at
the Texas State Fair.
Pictures and records of all the
eligibles are sent the judges and
from these they make their select
ion picking three animals in each
class and ranking them in the
order they consider them. In sev
eral cases the judges have seen the
animals at the fairs they have
judged and have a fairly complete
knowledge of their fine points.
The winners will be announced
shortly after the closing date of
Dec. 11.
Fordham Rams Would
Be Opponent; Also
Have Only One Defeat
Early Wednesday morning the
fighting Texas Aggies reached
their decision as to the bowl games
on New Year’s Day. Still No. 1.
team of the nation so far as the
A. & M. corps is concerned, the
team voted to decline outside in
vitations and await the possibility
of an invitation from the South
west Conference to play in the
Cotton Bowl.
Dean E. J. Kyle made the an
nouncement to the nation concern
ing the Aggies’ decision.
Saturday in Houston the South
ern Methodist Mustangs and the
Rice Owls will battle it out for the
co-champion honors to be shared
with the Aggies.
Dr. Henry Trantham, president
of the conference, stated that no
bid would be offered until after
the game.
Fordham University accepted the
bid to play as visitors in the Cot
ton Bowl classic after defeating
New York University 26 to 0 last
week.
Only once have the Rams been
defeated this year and that loss
was to a traditional opponent, St.
Mary’s of California. One South
west Conference team faced the
Rams this year, the Arkansas Ra-
zorbacks falling by the wayside in
their final game of the season on
the extra Thanksgiving holiday,
27 to 7.
Elsewhere in the holiday specials
will appear the remainder of the
nation’s top teams.
The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans
will offer the Tennessee Vols and
Boston College. Stanford will be
the host to the Nebraska Corn-
huskers, one time loosers to Min
nesota, in the Rose Bowl fray. Mis
sissippi State and Georgetown will
fill the bill in the Orange Bowl at
Miami, Florida. Arizona State of
Temps and Western Reserve are
slated for the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
Leroy Crouch,
Recent Graduate,
Dies December 3
Leroy Crouch, former student of
A. & M. and a brother of James
Crouch, who is now a student here,
died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in
Fort Worth at 10 o’clock Tuesday
morning, December 3. He was 26
years old.
Crouch, who was the son of Mr.
and Mrs. Charles Crouch of Fort
Worth, received a B. S. degree from
A. & M. in February, 1940, with a
major in dairy husbandry.
He was stricken with appendicitis
on November 26, but was unable
to recover from complications
which developed after an opera
tion. At the time of his death he
was employed by the Cornation
Company at Marysville, Ky., as a
field man for a milk plant.
While at A. & M. Crouch was
active in student affairs. He was
a member of the Kream and Kow
Klub and during his senior year
was president of the Denton County
Club. He also worked at the Col
lege Creamery.
Davis Named to
Editorial Board of
Mammalogy Journal
Following the death recently of
Arthur H. Howell of the Fish and
Wildlife Service, Washington, D.
C., the Board of Directors of thq
American Society of Mammalo-
gists has appointed Dr. William B.
Davis, professor and acting head
o- the department of instruction
m Fish and Game at the Agricul
tural and Mechanical College of
Texas, as chairman of the Editorial
Board of the Journal of Mam-
malogy. This Journal, the foremost
in the field in the world, is now in
its twenty-second year.
The American Society of Mam-
malogists was the first organiza
tion devoted exclusively to the
study of mammals in the world
and is still the most influential.
The Society is made up of nearly
(Continued on Page 4)