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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1941)
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, JAN. 9, 1941 Z725 NO. 38 JqjUqj* Chsm Eti^iyiggts Ditig In Ngw Orlscins Judgers Win First Place Astor, Fennell, Hutchings, Roming Are Team Members The four-member junior dairy judging team of Texas A. & M. won first place in an All-American contest recently sponsored by the Holstein-Fresian Association of America, A. L. Dornell, dairy jud ging team coach announced. D. L. Astor, Lipan; W. S. Fennell, Gil mer; G. S. Hutchings, Barker; and James A. Roming, Eddy, formd the team which scored 120 points out of a possible 160 in the selection of the best Holstein-Fresian cows in America for 1940. All the mem bers of the team are juniors at the college majoring in dairy husband ry. The contest was to select the three best Holstein-Fresian cows in America, the selections to be con firmed by a committee of profes sional judges. In all cases the Ag gie team placed the No. 1 animal in that spot but lost some points by rating the second and third animals in their reversed positions, al though they had selected all three of the top three. The contest was made still more difficult because they had to work from pictures of the animals on the entry list instead of examining the actual animals. The ultimate winning cows were selected by a committee of re nowned dairy show judges and the selections were compared to those made by the students of 29 colleges in America. Each of the four Aggie judges scored 30 out of a possible 40 points and were the only team where all members picked the three best cows as selected by pro fessional judges. New Mexico placed second in the contest with a total of 111 points and Kansas State placed third with 108. Sailing Of Mercy Ship Set For January 15 The sailing of the second Amer ican Red Cross “Mercy Ship” to Greece has been set for January 16 by Norman H. Davis, chairman of the Greek relief committee of the American Red Cross. The ves sel will be the “S. S. Kassandra Louloudis,” a 7500 ton freighter provided by the Greek government but to be loaded with supplies gath ered and furnished by the Red Cross. It will sail from New York down around Africa and to Athens through the Suez Canal. This long journey is necessary to keep the ship out of possible Italian inter ference if it sailed through the Mediterranean. Simultaneously Chairman Davis announced that the Greek War Re lief Association was purchasing five complete field hospitals which will be shipped early in February. The five units are being purchased at a cost of $226,000. Each is equipped with 250 beds and a mo- (Continued on Page 4) Cotton Specialist To Speak Thursday Dr. R. L. Hunt, professor of agri cultural economics, who is a cotton specialist, will speak to the “His tory of the Southwest” class Thurs day morning at 11:00 o’clock in room 207 of the Agriculture build ing. Dr. Hunt will speak on the introduction and spread of cotton to the Southwest. This is a com paratively new area for the grow ing of cotton. When cotton was first grown in the United States it was confined mostly to the deep South. But later cotton moved into central Texas and during recent years it has spread to the Pan handle and on west to California. Cotton is now being grown on land that was once thought to be good only for the raising of cattle. Mr. Denhardt, the instructor of the “History of the South West” class welcomes all visitors who are interested in cotton. Eleven members of the local unit of the A.I.Ch.E. attended the banquet (above) and annual business meeting of the national association held during the Christmas holidays in New Orleans. A. & M. students attending are as follows: J. H. Cain, E. E. Byrd, J. L. Carson, George Bentinck, C. L. Korth, Ed Ivey, J. B. DuBose, E. R. Pace, R. F. Thompson, J. A. Heath, and R. G. Hill. CAA Ready For New Flight Applicants Requirement List Is Available In Aero Engineering Building The Civil Aeronautics Adminis tration has asked that all who are interested and can meet either the primary or secondary course requirements to talk to H. W. Bar- low, head of the Aeronautical En gineering Department about the flight training that will be offer ed next semester. The physical requirements are not rigid except that the trainees must be of aver age height and must be able to pass a 20/20 eye test without glasses. The total cost of the train ing will be approximately $33 for a primary student and $42 for the secondary student. A list of the requirements es tablished by the Civil Aeronautics may be secured from Barlow in his office in the Aeronautical Engin eering Building. The primary course will con sist of 90 hours ground course given at the college, and 35 to 45 hours flight course given by the flight instruction contractor. The ground course covers 24 hours of instruction and 18 hours of ground instruction on the subject of air craft operation. Three elective cred its will be allowed for the succes sful completion of the ground school course. The secondary course will con sist of 126 hours ground course given at the College, and 40 to 50 hours of flight instruction giv en by the flight contractor. No in formation has been received as to the license which will be awarded for the successful completion of the course, but the college will ■^student who completes the secon-'f" allow five credits of elective work. Several alternatives await the dary course. The Army Air Corps has been accepting these students directly into the basic (second) stage of army flight training and a similar arrangement has been set with the Navy. United Airlines recently established an airline pilot training course. The CAA is also arranging further advanced courses for graduates of the secondary program. Those include an appren tice instructor’s course for those who desire to go into commercial operations as instructors and an airline pilot training course for those who wish to become airline pilots. Grandfather Of All Pecan Trees Located in El Paso Strange to be so old—how old no one knows—that the United States declared its independence in its old age. South of El Paso, Texas, there is a massive old pecan tree that has been growing in Allende Valley and has home two hundred successive crops of nuts! The tree, which has a limb spread of 150 feet and an altitude o£ 160 feet, bears an annual yield of one ton. So large is this pecan tree that rdinary pecan trees appear as mere saplings. At four feet above the ground the diameter is 10% feet, and the circumference at the ground is 41 feet. Sehor Gaspar Corral, the owner, has named it the “Nogal de la Musica” and considers it the goliath of all pecan trees. Annual Bryan and Brazos County C of C Banquet To Be Held Tonight membership banquet-fship and good citizenship The annual of the Bryan and Brazos county Chamber of Commerce will jbe held tonight in the banquet room of Sbisa Hall at 6:45, H. E. Burgess, chairman of the entertainment committee, announced. E. E. Yea ger of Bryan, the retiring presi dent of the organization, will open the program for the banquet and then turn the office over to the incoming officers headed by the new president, D. W. Williams, head of the College Animal Hus bandry Department. About 500 citizens of Bryan and College Station who are mem bers of the Chamber of Commerce are expected to be present, as well as civil officers of the neighboring cities and counties. Approximately 125 students of the college have also been invited as guests of the organization. The students selected were those seniors who hold official positions in military and campus organiz ations and who have shown leader- in carry ing on the activities of the com munity which centers around the college. The principal speaker of the evening will be Dr. Tom Taylor, president of Howard Payne Col lege at Browmwood. Before his address there will be some group singing led by M. M. Erskine of the Bryan First National Bank. The music will be furnished by Consolidated High School. Col. R. J. Dunn, director of the Aggie Band, will direct the orchestra for this occasion. Vocal selections will be sung by a duet composed of Mrs. Dan Russel and Euell Porter and the Bryan High School Choir will sing. District Judge W. S. Barron wrill be toastmaster for the banquet. The only business conducted at the banquet will be the committee reports by the chairmen of the various committees. Each will outline the program for his group during the year. Fellowship Luncheon Has Unique Program A dash of Spanish, or a nickel fine if two members of the same department sit together are among the proposed plans to be discussed at the weekly Thursday meeting of the Fellowship Luncheon club to make the program for the com ing year more interesting. R. L. Donahue, professor in the Agron omy department, and Dr. Charles LaMotte, professor in the Biology department have formulated a well, rounded program for the coming year. It is proposed that a special table be designated “Spanish”, and that this table be reserved for those in attendance who desire an eat ing acquaintance with Spanish. Ford B. Rackley, assistant in the Department of Modern Language, (Continued on Page 4) Aggietone News Staff Promotions, Plans Announced At meetings of the entire Ag gietone News staff held Tuesday and Wednesday nights, producer- director George Fuermann outlined the organization’s plans for the new year and the coming semes ter. Staff changes were announced at the Tuesday meeting. Includ ed among those was the appoint ment of J. H. (Hymie) Focke, Mexia, as associate producer to cooperate with Ira F. Lewis, Min eral Wells, also an associate pro ducer. George Mueller, a former Aggietone News associate producer was made director of the newsreel. With these appointments came the announcement that Mayo Thompson, Fort Worth, had been made director of naration. Thomp son’s assistants include R. M. (Tex) Flynn, Long Island, New York; Don W. Corley, Dallas; J. J. Miller, San Antonio; and Charles A. Walker, Pecos. Highlight of the Wednesday night meeting was the announce ment that eight Aggietone News releases would be made early the second semester, one on each mil itary regiment and the A. & M. band. The staff met with regi mental commanders Jeff Montgom ery, Tom Hagood, Aubrey Hamil ton, Les Appelt, James Giles, and Eli Whitney who represented the Cavalry commander Tom Richey. Band Commander E. L. Wehner also attended the meeting. Further details concerning the revamped Aggietone News will be announced in an early edition of the Battalion. Ground Duty Officers Course Offered Recently 31 Potential Honor Grads Seek Army Commissions The War Department is offer ing to eligible former flying ca dets and to certain civilians who meet the prescribed requirements a course of training to qualify as air corps ground duty officers in the field of engineering. This| course carries with it no pilot instruction. The status of the cadets under going this specialized training is the same as that of cadets receiv ing pilot training. Upon completion of their course they are eligible for commissions as second lieuten ants in the air reserve. Applicants for this course must meet the general requirements for appointment as flying cadet. They must be unmarried citizens of the United States between the ages of twenty and twenty-six inclus ive, of good character, sound phys ique, and in excellent health. Al though the physical requirements are less rigid than those required for pilot training, cadidates must meet the standards prescribed for appointment in the Officers Re serve Corps of the Army. Flying cadet pilot applicants educationally qualified for this training who do not meet the phys ical requirements 'for flying, but do meet the physical qualifica tions for ground duty, may apply for this training to qualify as a squadron engineering officer. This engineering training pro gram is designed to qualify as “Squadron Engineering Officers”. First priority candidates for this training will be college graduates with degrees in engineering. Candi dates with senior standing in eng ineering colleges will be eligible in second priority. The training program will in clude theoretical and practical en gineering training in both civil and army schools pertaining to the maintenance of aircraft. The course in civil schools will be of 12 weeks duration and consists of the following subjects: Fundamen tals of aerodynamics, airplane des- (Continued on Page 4) Reservations For Club Longhorn Photos Due Saturday, Jan. 14 Clubs which plan to have their picture included in the 1941 Long horn must have the reservation for their space by Saturday, January 14, according to an announce ment by Longhorn managing Ed itor Morton Robinson. The reser vations for the space must be ac companied by a deposit of at least five dollars. The rates for this club space in the annual is $25 for a full page and $15 for half a page, instead of the price quoted in Tuesday’s Battalion. Money and reservations for the pictures should be turned in to the Student Publications Office in the Administration Building, or to Or ville Allen or Boyd Rhea in room 423 Dorm No. 10. New Method Of Registration To Be Inaugurated A new method for registration made by the Registrar, E. J. Howell and Dean F. C. Bolton, has been officially accepted by the Executive Board and will be put into effect this mid-term registra tion week, February 3 to 8. This new plan was devised to give the student as many as five days to register instead of the usual one, and will save much time in lining up to pay fees and to' see the various deans. The plan is different from the one now used in two ways. One is that the various department heads will be located in their res pective offices instead of being spread in different buildings over the campus. The official schedule is as fol lows. Those students who were passing 10 hours or more on the November 16 report will begin to register as their cards are issued. The cards will be issued in the following order and as soon as a student gets his card he will have from that day until the following Saturday to register. The sched- (Continued on Page 4) Walton Named On Committee Of Higher Education President T. O. Walton has re cently been appointed by the Sec retary of State of the United Stat es to serve as a member on the committee on inter-American co operation in higher education. Notification of his appointment came to Dr. Walton in a letter from the Secretary of State, Cor dell Hull, which read: “In accord ance with the provisions of Sec. 2, of the act of August 9, 1939, ‘an act to authorize the President to render closer and more effective relationships between the Amer ican republics,’ the President has approved your designation as a member of the committee on inter- American cooperation in higher ed ucation.” The committee will work to en courage the exchange of students between United States colleges and those of other nations. Another purpose of the committee is to en courage schools of higher educa tion to include courses of study in all languages spoken on the Amer ican continents. It Is hoped that this can be accomplished both in the United States and foreign schools. The committee is part of the program of the present ad ministration to encourage cultural relationships between the peoples of the twenty-one republics of the American continents. Campus Museum Has Large Display of Pre-Historic Bones Found Near Campus By Y. A. Yentzen Bones, bones, and more bones. . . to the uninitiated, uninterested at first glance, but when properly identified, a source of interest, es pecially when they are of animals that roamed over the campus and the state of Texas a million years ago. The museum has a collection of fossil bones on display which was collected within twenty miles of the campus at the Pittsbridge lo cality, which is one mile below the old bridge where the old Bryan- Caldwell road formerly crossed the Brazos River. Here the river is cutting away banks of gravel and sand. These old gravel bars con tain bones and teeth of Pleistocene animals. Sudden falls of earth from the talus slopes are common and the whole slope is in very unstable condition. Since 1899, specimens have been collected here. The beds are still productive and the museum contains several tons of this frag mentary material; but unfortunate- ly, good specimens are seldom found. . Possibly the most unusual find to date in the locale is the incom plete skull of a rare fossil muskox which is on display. Only three other specimens are known, one from Kentucky, one from Nebraska and one from Alaska. It is most closely related to the living muskox which lives only in Greenland and Arctic America. This would sug gest that the fossil form was prob ably brought south ahead of the Pleistocene continental glaciers. Three forms of ground sloths have been found. These forms, which are now extinct, were large herbiverous animals with coats of long coarse hair. In one form the skin was full of small uits of bone, evidently the remains of a bony skin armor. The remains of fossil elephants are common at Pittsbridge. At least three skulls have been found there in the last three years. The largest of the three was found by Louis Paholek and Steve Gowsky in the bottom of a gully, down stream from Pittsbridge. It was (Continued on Page 4) Army Board To Make Selection Of These In Spring Thirty-one seniors, designated as honor graduates in the class of June, 1941, applied for commis sions in the regular army of the United States during the Christ mas holidays, it was disclosed Monday. President T. O. Walton and Col. James Watson selected 50 of the top ranking seniors in military science and academic work, and these 50 were sent the application blanks. Of the 50 selected, 31 re turned the applications filled out. To be eligible for application at this time the student has to be at least 21 years of age, graduate in June and have at least a 2.25 grade point average. In the spring a board of regular army officers will select from the applicants those they think to be mentally and physically fit for the position. Those selected by the board will receive commissions as second lieutenants in the regular army upon their graduation. Those who applied are as fol lows: William J. Montgomery, Tom D. Harris Jr., Ernest L. Weh ner, Robert A. Lynch, Joe W. Mc Crary, Keith W. Dahl, William Becker, Thomas D. Hill, Gabe D. Anderson Jr., Robert S. Hoff, Jam es P. Giles Jr., Paul G. Haines, Tommy C. Davies, John L. Zerr, Johnnie M. Dixon, James R. Puck ett, George C. Taylor, Hubert W. Gillespie Jr., Aubrey V. Hamilton, Frank A. Loving, George P. Town send, Lynn H. Grasshoff, Howard W. Shea, Ralph B. Hartgraves, Will A. Ransom Jr., Andrew S. Downs, David S. Angell, Harold L. Hausmann, James H. Shelton, Er nest Schott, and Edwin H. Ivey Jr. Student Aid By Civil Service Exams Announced The United States Civil Service Commission has announced an ex amination under the title of “Stu dent Aid” for positions in the Fed eral Government. Usually employ ment in these positions is for work during the school-vacation periods. Upon the close of the work season, appointees may be furloughed to return to their college studies, and reemployed in succeeding seasons. Upon completion of their academic training, they may be recalled as Government Student Aids with op portunities for advancement to the professional service. Applicants must have completed at least 3 years of college study, and must have formally indicated at the college or university their intention of majoring in the option al subject chosen in the Student Aid examination. Junior students now in attendance at institutions of recognized standing may be ad mitted to examination, subject to their furnishing during the exist ence of the eligible register proof of the successful completion of their junior college year prior to July 1, 1941. Applicants may not (Continued on Page 4) Major Burnett Presented Gifts By Cavalry Regiment The entire Cavalry Regiment turned out around the bugle stand Monday afternoon at 5:50 p. m. to present Major E. M. Burnett with a pair of traveling bags to show their appreciation for his services and their sorrow of his departure. Major Burnett was transferred to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he will be given a responsible posi tion and promotion in the army. He left College Station early Tues day morning. After the presentation Major Burnett made a short speech thank ing the cadets for the present and telling them how much he had en joyed working with them. He also spoke very highly of those whom he has taught and expressed his desire to have them as officers to serve under him in the event that they were needed in the Army.