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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 1941)
* ,* i ♦ DIAL 4-5444 STUDENT TRI WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE The Battalion DIAL 4-5444 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF COLLEGE STATION VOL. 40 122 ADMINISTRATION BLDG. COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, THURSDAY MORNING, JAN. 16, 1941 Z725 NO. 41 A & M Will Soon Offer Civilian Defense Training Film Club Shows First Movie Ionite Presentation Is “Strange Life”, A British Production “Strange Life”, a British pro duction, is to be shown at the Cam pus Theater tonight as the first foreign film presented by the Cam pus Film Club. The regular movie now shovying at the theater will end its last showing at 8:30. The house will then be cleared and the British film will be given one showing. This is the first of six movies made in various foreign countries which will be shown here during the next ten weeks under the sponsor ship of the club. The object of the Campus Film Club is to present selected pic tures from other countries which are of interest to the members either as foreign films or for the language spoken. It is an organ ization of faculty members and lo cal citizens and last year only the members will be allowed to attend the showings. This year the club has decided to allow students to attend the showings since some of them will be helpful to them in con nection with their courses such as modern languages and architec ture. It is thought that the pro ductions would also be of interest to the students as v representative (Continued on Page 4) On Editing The Battalion Texan Editors Sinclair, Dolph Publish The Battalion Hospitalization Plan for Faculty Nears Completion The Group Hospitalization and Surgical Benefit Plan which is be ing organized for the members of the college staff will become ef fective Saturday noon, January 18, provided 85 per cent of those who have completed application cards have paid their first semi-annual premiums. Under this plan a member will be paid hospitalization at the rate of $5 per day for a maximum of 70 days should he be confined in a hospital for any sickness or ac cident. Special hospital services, which may include operation room, anesthetic, laboratory fees and oth er incidentals up to $25, will be al lowed for any one accident or sickness. The plan also provides for an operation fee for any surgi cal operation, according to a sched ule, up to $150. Members of the staff who have not yet applied may still enter the group without evidence of physical condition and medical history by turning in application cards before noon Saturday. J. M. Minton of the Occidental Life Insurance Company will re main on the campus until that date to give information and otherwise assist in completing cards. He may be reached at the office of J. Wheeler Barger, room 400, agri cultural building. Boyd Says He’d " Rather Publish Batt Than His Daily Texan By Boyd Sinclair Editor, The Daily Texan I had two times rather edit The Battalion as The Daily Texan. I had rather do it because it is only half as hard. I would only have to work half as much were I editing The Battalion. The Battion is pub lished three times a week, while The Daily Texan is published six times a week. Thus, my reasons are those of a lazy man, as you can plainly see. But there are other reasons why I would like to be editor of The Battalion. One of the biggest of these is that I could write open letters to Billy Sansing, my sports editor, and tell him what a bum he is. Everybody else does. But I can’t. He might quit. And then I would have to do his work. If I were editor of The Battalion, maybe this Draft (nobody had better edit this to Selective Service) wouldn’t be so hot on my trail and blowing cold on me. I have thought of becoming an eleventh-hour bride groom, as Brigadier-General J. Watt Page would call it, but my girl friend’s old man is for the Aggies, and he won’t give her hand in marriage. If I were editor of The Battalion, I could have a pair of boots. I.have always wanted a pair so shiny {Jiat the girls could see how to powder their nose in them. Jack Crain won’t sell me any of his on credit. If I were editor of The Battalion, I could learn how to shoot a gun. j As it is, the bull is the only thing I have at my command. I creep onto the campus of Tex as A. & M. College with fear and trembling, and my copy pencil is grasped in shaking fingers, and the mark which it makes is not steady indeed. I do not care for a guard of honor. All I want here is a darn good guard. The only reason I like to edit The Daily Texan above The Bat talion is that around the Texan there are such fair and charming ladies, but after Bob Nisbet and George Fuermann come over to edit the Texan in February, I ex pect them to pay no more attention to me whatsoever. You know how these women are about uniforms. Perhaps I shall have to borrow one from the boys at the filling station in order to keep these dam sels on the campus after Bob and George come over and do their stuff. Miss Jeanne Douglas, of my editorial staff, brought us over to Aggieland. I wonder if we can get -her to come back. If any of you boys over here want to fight, I hope you’ll do it Italian style. Daily Texan Editors ' Long-horn Beauty Section Deadline Nears; Is Jan 20 All pictures to go into the Vanity Fair and Senior Favorites section of the 1941 Longhorn must be turned in to Joe Jones, room 205, dorm 1 by Monday, January 20. All staff members, organization commanders, seconds in command and first sergeants should have their pictures made immediately for the Longhorn. First sergeants are required to hand in the company roster as soon as possible and not later than next Monday. All camp pictures and campus snapshots should be turned in as soon as possible to Cecil Grissom, room 201, dorm 9. lii 111 ■ * /• | ?■ iiMii Above, left, is Boyd Sinclair, editor of The Daily Texan. A native of Sherman, he is a member of The Texan’s editorial council; a member of the board of directors of Texas Student Publications, Inc.; treas urer of Sigma Delta Chi, national honorary journalistic fraternity; and is listed in 1941’s Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities. Above, right, is Jack Dolph, associate editor of The Texan. A journalism senior from Dallas, he is vice-president of the Southwest Journalism Congress; a past treasurer of Sigma Delta Chi, national honorary journalistic fraternity; and a member of the University Press Club. Drum And Bugle Corps Being Organized To Furnish Music For Cadet Corps at Breakfast and Noon Formations Two drum and bugle corps play for breakfast and noon for mations are the plans of the mili tary department soon to go into effect. Patterned after the custom at West Point, the two units will play, one at each mess hall, the bugle calls for the formation and also a special march for the cadet corps to march in by in entering the mess hall. The plan, originated and fos tered by Lt. Col. Watson, has been to.fapproved by President Walton and^. will go into effect as soon as the Band can make arrangements for music and training. Organization for the units will consist of six buglers, six field drums, one bass drum, and one set of cymbals. With each group there will be two seniors to act as in structors and directors, one for the bugles and one for the drums. These drum and bugle corps will be stationed at the regular band stands while they are playing. Another item in the plans for music during meal formations is the announcement that the flood lights have been ordered from Houston and should arrive next week. These will enable the band to play for the evening meal each day, and with this addition the cadet corps within two weeks should have music for every meal formation. Appropriation has been passed to pay the members of the Drum and Bugle Corps regular bugler’s salary for meals they play. Money, Money, Money--- But Iranian Student Finds Americans Also Take Time for Cultural Enterprises By George Fuermann Mehdi Khan Sheybani. Pronounce it any old way you want to, it’s still the name of an A. & M. cadet. You and I would probably say he was from Persia, but he’ll stop you on that point every time. In almost perfect English he’ll ex plain that the real name of his fatherland is Iran. It seems that two or three centuries ago many of England’s citizenry became eco nomically interested in the nation. The area they settled in was called Parce (a unit of government par alleling our American county) and from that came the word “Per sia” which was gradually applied to the whole nation. Today, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. is still the largest vested interest in Iran and ranks fourth in world oil production. Specifically, Mehdi’s home is in •Teheran, capitol of Iran, where his father is a land owner and presi dent of the nation’s important tel ephone and telegraph corporation. More than that, his father is a former cabinet member, having been Minister of Communications for seven years while his political organization was the majority party. “He owns a thousand cam els, too,” Mehdi will proudly tell you. Mehdi’s earlier education was obtained in Iran in the regular Iranian manner. That is, six years in the “preliminary school” and six years in the “higher school.” From there he could have gone to any one of several good Iran ian universities, but he chose to go abroad for his college education and in 1934 he went to France to begin eight years of study that led him to England and, finally, to the United States. -f First he attended the Lycee-fed; and followed it a week later Orleans, about a hundred miles south of Paris, to learn French. After a year in Orleans he spent six months at the Ecole Politech- nique where he studied French history and political science. Then, in 1936, he went to Eng land to learn English and, like most foreigners, ran into more dif ficulty trying to tackle that task than any other he had known. Ox ford was next and there he re mained until the beginning of the war Sept. 1, 1939. That’s where the story gets warm. Mehdi had two choices; return on another ship. “We came on the S.S. Newfound land,” Mehdi said, “and that was certainly an exciting voyage. We had a convoy of 13 ships and at every signal for a blackout we ex pected to hear a torpedo rip through the boat.” While on board the Newfound land, Nehdi became acquainted with John Murray Anderson, one of Billy Rose’s top-notch directors. It was Anderson who gave the Iranian lad his first introduction to American girls, a troupe of American chorines returning from “Can’t Believe That This Is True,” Jack Tells Batt Editors By Jack Dolph Associate Editor, The Texan Somehow or other it doesn’t seem possible. I mean about editing The Battal ion. r As I sit here at my typewriter, it is raining slightly outdoors. I can see two girls on the steps of the Romance Languages Building. There is a pretty brunette typing at the desk next to mine. Girls dash from cars into the library in a quick scurry to keep their perma nents from being ruined. What will be the situation at A. & M. I ask myself. How will the soc sect ion of The Battalion be printed that day? How will the 6,000 ca dets know that Jimmie Jones out of Dallas and in the Chem depart ment know who poured at the Ross Volunteer tea dansant? If, I think sadly, there are no girls, how does the soc staff function. But alas, that is merely a minor problem anyway. What I am really i afraid of is that there may be stories on agriculture. Being a city boy, I am not sure whether a Duroc Jersey is a cow, a hog, or a baseball team. I can see the copy now. “Ag students elated at new methods of . . .” That is the word I am afraid. That “ ...” I keep seeing it in my dreams. A phrase I never saw before. Or something mechanical. I don’t think I understand mechanics very well. All this stuff about fluid drive, free wheeling, and free park ing are seriously affecting my life. I feel as if I am gradually becom ing afflicted with arterio schlero- sis. No doubt the climax will come with a double-header on agricul tural mechanics. I know one thing about agri culture, however, and since we are on the subject, I guess you might as well benefit by it. That is on agricultural problems. I am a whiz at agricultural problems. We all know that there are problems. I took a course on the subject and it became a problem so I solved the problem by dropping it. My consolation is that the professor used to be a brain-truster with the New Deal and the New Deal has been a problem to more people than me. Of course, there is a nutrition problem too. I have wired the stores at College Station and writ ten three air-mail letters to the various cafes already about the tea supply. I have tea at four o’clock every day, of course, and couldn’t bear the thought of going without it. Simply couldn’t. Outside of these problems I am gleefully awaiting my chance to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to The Bat talion readers. My soul is alive with its responsibilities. At other times I think all of a sudden, what will I do in College Station? Why on earth did I say yes. Then my soul cringes. But I have bolstered my courage once again. Hell, it’ll be a cinch. Afraid? Not me. Not much. Oh, Bob, come here and tell ’em I’m not a spy. Hey, George .... hey. Oh. to Iran with his studies unfinish- j war-beseiged England and France, ed, or come to the United States j “These American girls are still a and complete his education. His | miracle to me,” Mehdi says with decision was almost his last. He l considerable admiration. Anderson, managed, with some difficulty, to incidentally, wamed Mehdi that; secure passage on the ill-fated | Texas was the finest place in the 1 Athenia; was forced to cancel this | nation to which he could come, because the vessel was over-crowd-! (Continued on Page 4) North Gate Fire Quickly Extinguished A small fire in the Aggieland Pharmacy drugstore at the North Gate, caused by a gas leak in a bread toaster, was repsonible for an early morning fire Wednesday. The toaster flamed up when it was lit this morning and efforts of the employees to check it were futile. After the fire trucks ar rived, the gas was shut off and the flames were extinguished. A cracked front window glass, slight damage to some canned goods, and a burned toaster were the results of the fire. Watson Says A&M Is Pushing Defense Cooperation Hard Plans are nearing completion at Texas A. & M. College for the training of civilian population in fields of national defense prepar ation, beginning Feb. 11, Gibb Gil christ, Dean of the School of En gineering announced today. R. A. Seaton, Dean of Engineer ing at Kansas State college and Di rector of Engineering Training for National Defense, notified Gil christ Monday morning that the federal government had approved training in five courses including aeronautical engineering, materials and inspection, camp sanitation, engineering drawing and aircraft inspection. At the same time Seaton re quested Gilchrist to notify him whether or not A. & M. could of fer six additional courses in water and sewer plant operation, produc tion engineering, production sup ervision, design or airplane struc tures, metalurgy and machine de sign. “We are prepared to offer training in these additional fields,” Gilchrist said, “and expect approv al of them within a short time.” The courses will last 12 weeks and will be financed by the fed eral government. “Anyone can take these courses,” Gilchrist pointed out, “who can meet the necessary qualifications.” The qualifications vary for the different courses and will be published within a few days. “Speaking in a national sense,” Seaton stated in a wire from Wash ington, “there is a salient need for men in these fields and it is our hope to place graduates from those courses in industry as soon as they have completed the training.” Gilchrist is one of 10 members of the Advisory Committee on Engineering Training for Nation- (Continued on Page 4) Sinclair, Dolph On WTAW at 11:45 Thursday Morning Boyd Sinclair, Sherman, editor of the The Daily Texan, student newspaper of the University of Texas, and Jack Dolph, associate editor of The Texan, will be inter viewed at 11:45 a. m. Thursdays from station WTAW by John O. Rosser, managing director. Following the broadcast the two editors of the Texan will attend a luncheon in Sbisa Hall at 12:15 o’clock. Members of the faculty and of The Battalion staff will be pres, ent. The Battalion initiated the ex change of Southwestern college edi torial chiefs yesterday, when the University of Texas journalists edited this copy of the Battalion. In exchange, editors Bob Nisbet and George Fuerman will go to Austin to guest-edit the Daily Tex an Feb. 3. Sinclair and Dolph arrived on the Aggie campus at 1:45 p. m. Wednesday and were met by The Battalion staff, who introduced them to campus and faculty of ficials. “I have been overwhelmed by the cordial hospitality,” Sinclair de clared. During the afternoon the two vis itors looked over the campus, wrote and edited copy for The Battalion, and later that night assisted with the make-up. The Campus theater was visited last night. Pictures of Aggietone News, which have excited attention in Austin, were shown. The broadcast over WTAW will be from 11:45 to 12:00 o’clock this morning. Rosser will quiz the Aus tin students on their opinions of this campus and its xulationships with the University at Austin. Guests at the luncheon will in clude Col. Ike Ashburn, executive assistant to the president; Lt. Col. James A. Watson, commandant; E. L. Angell, manager of student publications; G. B. Winstead, di rector of publicity; W. C. Stone, professor of journalism; J. C. Ho- tard, supervisor of subsistence; and Nisbet and Fuermann.