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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1941)
Pag* 2- THE BATTALION -THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1941 The Battalion Something To Read STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE The Battalion, official newspaper of the Asrrienltnral and By DR. T. F. MAYO Mechanical College of Texas and the city of College Station, is ,, , published three times weekly from September to June, issued The Modern Note in the Modem Novel Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings; also it is published IF ONE HAD TO SPECIFY One quality as most weekly from June through August. ^ . . , „ . , ., , characteristic of the American novel of today, it Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at College wou ld have to be, I think, Social consciousness. It Btation, Texas, under the Act of Congress of March 8, 1879. ’ ’ —— — would be hard to find a good new novel nowadays reaufst^ 1011 ^ $3 a 8Ch001 year ‘ Advertiainsr ^ npon that does not show: (1) a realization that people’s —— 1 — — characters are largely moulded by the sort of eco- Represented nationally by National Advertising Service, Inc., , /n v , At New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San nomiC system under which they live, (2) a deep rrancisco. concern for the hardships and injustices and frus- Office, Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone trations that our own economic system is repre- 4 ' 8<44- sented as imposing upon people. 194ft M fw 1Q41 ex P ec * this emphasis upon social forces in r *„i “Proletarian” novelists. Albert Halper (in The RSSOaated GoIle^'CllG Press Foundry and The Chute) and John Steinbeck (in In — Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes George Fuermann Associate Editor of Wrath), are, for example, quite frank with their Keith Hubbard Advertising Manager m orals and their preachments. They are both radi- Pete Tumlinson , Staff Artist cals or left-wing liberals; that is, they believe that J. B. Pierce, Phil Levme^»~...^™.~.~-.™ — Proof Readers a g rea ^ mass 0 f preventable evils are imposed upon Hub Johnson ........... Sports Editor modern Americans by the fact that the means of Mike^aTkinT"Jack"HcdUmon* Assistant Sports Editor production ( mac hinery, mines, and land) are private- W. F. Oxford Junior Sports Editors \y owned and run for profit. By implication, they Circulation Department , , ,, , Tommy Henderson Circulation Manager also believe that some sort of COyectlVlstlC economic ^““Ker, E D. Wilmeth „ AssiStant Circulation Managers system Would remove these evils. W, D. Asbury, E. S. Henard Circulation Assistants J Photography Department But this element of social consciousness is not j“ef^rp n enUUYob'cV"anU'ja'cr^es“: Photo?raphlc confined nowadays to the “Proletarians”. Thomas Jack siegai Assistant Photographers Wolfe in his last three novels (Look Homeward, THURSDAY’S EDITORIAL STAFF . , r . e al . , ,, „ r , , ,, George Fuermann Acting Managing Editor An ^ el ’ 0f Tlme and the RlVer ’ and The Web and the George Woodman Assistant Advertising Manager Rock) Seemed interested in people wholly as people Tom Gill is D. ^C.” Thurman' 8 . V. A. Yentzen and not as SOcial Products. But in You Can’t Go Reportorial staff Home Again, published after his death, he turns def- gan.^H ?e a nn“;n J °M"kf Ipeer, Jam^F^WrtghL D ‘ initely in the co ^ ludin g section toward an emphasis .. . "" = on social forces. Ernest Hemingway certainly used to « J be individualistic enough (in The Sun Also Rises, All {JpCTl LiQtt&T A Farewell to Arms, and most of his short stories). Yet, since his Spanish adventure he too has be- Youth Committee Against War come more and more concerned about social jus- 22 17th Street tice. The Fifth Column, his one dramatic venture, New York, New York and Of Whom the Bell Tolls, his latest and biggest Dear Sirs- book, both glorify the defense of Democracy, espe- „ r . , ,, , ■ • i. * * cially economic and social Democracy, against Fasc- We have been the unhappy recipient of some of . gm your communist propaganda—too much. ~ , , ,. ,, A new Texas novelist, George Sessions Perry Can t you misguided intellectuals realize what lf „ , , , . , . , .... , . TT , _ . .... •U B L , „ . . (from Rockdale) has just published, in Hold Autumn Wl1 ha f' n ^ ,,ur co “ ntry “ <!V “ t of “ Ax,s i.. Your Hand, a fine story about tenant farmers. It v,ctory? Can t you realise what benefits would come is a sort o£ Cral)es of Wralh wjth th( , WJ . ath miss from a British victory ? Can t you realise that the ing Yct h<| a , s0 shows that he has tho and fe]t President is doing all in h.s power to bring about deep , y ab()ut the paradox of the land , s be . n work such a victory without involving this country? Can t ed lov:ngly by one man a „ d owned by another In you realise that all your dissension is a wrench in fact| Hp , d Autumn Y our Hand constitutes in one the works of the country’s progress? sense a subtler criticism of the social system than Certainly no one wants to go to war—no Gallup the more violent books. This author is fair enough poll was needed to decide that fact. But in the case to represent his individual land owner and merchant this is necessary, he would be a poor citizen indeed as good fellows. His “meanest” character, moreover, who would deny the country his services in its time is a tenant farmer like his hero. Thus all the blame of need. Is your group merely ignorant or is it a in his book falls upon the social system itself in group of non-patriots working toward the country’s stead of upon individual villiany. destruction ? — Do you not realize that you are the most val- 1 ,1 1JI/ 71 HP liable men in the country—for Hitler? /\S lt\£ W OTLCl lllTTlS..' Henceforth all propaganda from your source, unless a personal answer to this letter, will be promptly filed—in the trash basket. COUNT V. K. SUGAREFF The Battalion THE BATTLE OF GREECE is nearing a crisis. The press reports convey the impression that the Greek defense line is fast shrinking behind NCithin 0 I Ct CtY “more favorable defense terrain.” It appears now that the Germans and the Italians have united their INDUSTRIAL CHANGES as well as economic and forces at the northwestern corner of the Greek de political changes are brought about by wars—par- fense line. The Germans have penetrated into Greece ticularly in modern warfare. Such a tendency is through the Phlorina sector and they have also ad- naturally hastened when a manufacturing nation vanced far into Greek territory south of Salonika. is suddenly plunged into so vast a program of war There has been no fighting on production as we are in now. ^ the southwestern front of Alban- We are immediately driven to find new mater- an ^ cen tr a l Macedonian ials for purposes of both war and peace to take J|||. • ^ front. If the Germans and the the place of those most needed for military uses— ||||p^| Italians keep advancing from their such as aluminum, rubber, tin and copper. So we gfe M** .Jf vantage points into Greek terri- are getting into an Age of Plastics which may sup- / t 01 'y> the Albanian and the Mace- plant to a large extent the Age of Metals. For donian fronts would be nullified as many purposes even iron and steel will give way to HL //&. jBb a md ’tary objective for the allies, substances produced from milk, soy beans, cellulose, jiijS ^he Greek battle line as it now resin and several other substances. These materials Jj|9 stands now is in the shape of a can be made as tough and strong as iron, in spite wishbone. The narrower it be- of their lightness, and applied to an apparently Sueareff comes at the top, the more effec- unlimited range of products and purposes. In many tively it can be defended. With the improved de- ’ways this change of Age will not be a hardship but fenses, and the aid from the seasoned English Af- a blessing as far as progress is concerned. rican troops, the Germans might not be able to ad- Thus we may have, before the war is over, VSW1Ce aS rapidly aS they have planned - The Ger - automobiles with plastic bodies and fenders, lighter ^ an commaad fs admit that the Greek soldiers are and perhaps safer than present cars. Not the least 6 est t ey have faced 80 far - of these benefits will be a considerable lessening u Propaganda informed the world that of crumpled bodies and fenders. Also less vibration, by Easter Sunday ’ Yu g 08lavia would not exist as a less rust, more visibility, more safety in accidents " atl0n : S ° fa ^° nly Cr ° atia has been severed from and better radio reception. Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavs have not surrendered ,, ,, - , . , , to the Germans. Even if the Yugoslav army is forced Many other good things will be an outgrowth t(> capituIatei a s p asmodic figh ti n g might c<)ntinuc of this war of destruction! • v „ , . in Yugoslavia throughout the summer. The Russo-Japanese neutrality treaty, which -i 1 A r\ was sig ned last Sunday, has stirred up a good deal JO/tDly Ls • of speculation. The treaty, barring any secret IT TQ niTTTir mriTwr „ clauses to it, merely confirms a status which both IT IS QUITE QUIET now, this early in the morn- powers have matatained in the t conflict , mg. A few brazen little birds are piping thinly. china is stiu ab]e to get sppplies from Eussia Those old brinks? Yes, they were Probably a Japan promiM8 to remain „ eutral u Russia is in . building once. University buildings? Most probably. volved in a war wilh a third r and Russia There s no one now who quite remembers . . . would maintain a similar attitude toward Japan ^ The quiet grey moss includes its way through such an event. Treaties of any sort, now-a-days, the mortar and plans gradually to engulf the area, have hardly any binding force. The significance of Nearby stands the shattered stump of an old fir this treaty is to be revealed in the light of fu- tree. The atmosphere is eating away its fibers. ture events. National interests often dictate the Were there lots of buildings then? Were there interpretation of a treaty. lawns and walks and roses in the sunshine? See, Moderation in regard to labor strikes is better here is a bit of an old cement pathway. It crumbles than coercion. Some hundred strikes have occured if you step on it. f rom j anuary i to April 4j 1 9 41> a ff ect j ng ser . iously our defense program. The press and the radio There is a certain softness about the day yet. bav e played important parts in arousing public The mists are lifting, the air is cooling to the opinion against strikes. This demand, sincere and cheek. But everywhere it is so quiet. patriotic, is based mainly on emotional impulses Were there many people here then? Didn’t they rather than on reason. Emotions are not a reliable laugh and talk to one another? Didn’t they care yardstick by which arguments can be settled. Con- about the lovely old buildings? gress can pass an anti-strike measure. Can such a The water in the mill stream chortles as you ! aw be enforced? Th e danger of giving the Pres- slap it with a little stone. It is muddy green and i,dent such P° wers is realized by the members of flows passively on its way. It is used to being ^ • R - ouse Military Affairs Committee and OPM. It left alone. There are not boats floating on its back * s ^ rue ^ ba ^ our b °y s f be army get only $21 per Why aren’t there any boats? What happened An ” r f. taary lab ° rer thi,lks that by «« to all the people and buildings ? Why did they simply , i^”, 1, h ', S haS b ° Ught tood leave? Didn’t they have any air raid shelters at all? and '!° thmg f ° r h,a family ' he does not haye * 21 ’ 00 . . _» , spending money. A bit of sober thinking on the The sun is coming out now. Listen, the little part of the public will go a long way in solving our birds are singing louder. , abor trouble3 . Cooperation is better than coercion P* in the Oiegon Daily Emerald—AGP at a time of national emergency in a democracy. BACKWASH Bu George fuermann “Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster The Way of Things . . . Watch for it up in a many-inning game which an announcement in an early edi- Phil Levant’s men won 10 to 6. tion of The Battalion concerning Phil’s men even carry their own a unique musical comedy to be baseball equipment with them as sponsored—believe it or not—by they travel around the land, the Student Engineering Council. Colonel Watson’s speech at the Prexy Ben Elliott, one of the lead- banquet wowed the audience. Quoth ers in the unpre- the commandant, “This is the first stage time in many a year that I have cedented show, is still non committal, but in dications are that regretted my age—these girls are beautiful.” Said Queen Esther Mae Colombo, “He’s the best dancer (meaning the production will Colonel Watson) in the place.” be tops in an en- Esther Mae, who was all-the- tertainment way way okeh as Jimmy Gallagher’s and will be staged escortee and queen of the three-day in Guion Hall dur- event, is 18 years old, studied danc ing the annual En- ing in New York City two years, Fuermann gineering Day Ac- hves in Galveston and, as she left tivities in May . . . An Aggie se- the campus Saturday noon, said, nior was standing outside of the “I’m ready to die now because Aggieland Inn Tuesday morning nothing this grand will ever hap- when a tall, distinguished looking pen to me again.” civilian walked out of the Inn, • • • turned to the cadet and said, “This T. HenderSOIl Reports is a wonderful college here ... A wonderful place . . . One of the Not being an R. V., Backwash finest institutions it has ever been was at a loss to know how to cover my pleasure to visit.” The amazed fhe dances where the Backwash or- Aggie was too surprised to reply chestra poll is concerned, to the stranger’s deeply sincere Tommy Henderson, genial Field comment; was even more surpris- Artilleryman and The Battalion’s ed when he later learned that the circulation manager, took over gentleman was a language profes- where the writer left off and here’s sor at Notre Dame. Edward H. his report. Gavin by name, his home is in The win, place and show spots Chicago and while on the campus on the Aggie Hit Parade went to he visited G. A. Carlsen, Cavalry- “Cecilia,” “There’ll Be Some man from Lima, Peru . . . Ele Bag- Changes Made” and “It All Comes gett, former Longhorn editor who Back to Me Now,” Tommy said, was seriously injured in a hunting Significant is the fact that “Star accident during the Christmas hoi- Dust” did not show for the first idays, has returned to the campus time this social season. “Cecilia” and expects to be here throughout is a newcomer and “It All Comes the remainder of the current se- Ba ck to Me Now” was No. 1 last mester . . . One of the comic side- week, lights of the recent junior class de- • • • bate concerning the wearing of T iPyDTlt", & Co. military boots next year went al most unnoticed. Meaning the cadet An 11-piece orchestra plus a who got up out of the audience, feminine vocalist, Phil’s band prob- walked up to the . stage and final- ably will share the same fate as ly made his way to the micro- la st year’s R. V. band—A1 Kavelin, phone—without his pants. Thusly ft’ 8 almost impossible for the R. attired in a shirt and shorts, he v - band to place high on the poll commented, “Well, Army, they’ve ratings because not enough of the taken everything else away from corps had an opportunity to hear the band. At last Saturday night’s Corps dance, for example, 16 coupl es and five stags were in attend ance. Every member of Phil’s band ing the ranks of the Canadian Roy- a Chicagoan with the exception of al Air Force. Back of this is the the vocalist, Lorraine Dailey from fact that admission to the R.C.A.F. San Antonio, the outfit made a is easier than to the U. S. Air tremendous hit with the R.V.’s just Corps—mainly because of lenient as did last year’s Kavelin organi- physical requirements, the spirit zation. of adventure and the reasonably Pbil and Boyd Raeburn—now me; now they’ve got my pants!” R. C. A. F. Ag*ain A. & M. cadets are rapidly swell- An old show but a good one is going to be at the Campus Friday and Saturday. “GUNGA DIN” has played here twice before and in all of our home towns, but it has been shown around so much only be cause it is pretty good. The old Indian native who plays the part of Gunga Din himself goes un honored as far as having his name on the cast, etc., goes but his diaper-clothed figure is one that won’t slip your mind too easily. And the way his face literally beams when he is given some mil itary importance shows good act ing. Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. make up a daredevil trio until Joan Fon taine almost hooks Doug. “ARISE MY LOVE” at the As sembly Hall today is just a pleas ant little comedy which plays against a background of the pres ent situation in Europe. The back ground reads like last year’s newspapers through a Spanish prison camp, the declaration of war, sinking the Athenia, the French armistice and some small incidents in between. Through it all Ray Milland and Claudette Col bert keep up a running romance and newspaper story with some gag lines thrown in. Everyone remembers the kind of light comedy that won Claudette the Academy Award in “It Hap pened One Night,” and this is more of the same. Milland isn’t so bad himself. They keep up a whirl wind romance through all the dis turbance and end returning to the United States to make another fa miliar plea for preparedness. Not on the campus but a pleas ant and different type of diver sion may be found at the carnival in Bryan the rest of this week. It is off to the left of the old high way as you approach Bryan and its sideshows and other attractions are something different from v the ordinary entertainment around here. Another show that is good but has actually played here before within the last 30 days is “SANTA FE TRAIL” at the Campus. For it Errol Flynn, Olivia deHavilland and Raymond Massey go through the events leading up to the Civil War. It is moving and Massey’s portrayal of the old slavery-fight ing John Brown is the best of all. But the show was here so recently and its goodness is so polluted by being part of a double feature with “Ride Kelly Ride” that it may not be worth your time. An unusual accompanyment for a benefit show will be at the As sembly Hall Friday in the Uni versity of Texas Glee Club. They will present a program before the show, which is for the benefit of the Saddle and Sirloin Club. The show itself is “Convoy,” almost a documentary film of the work of the British Navy during this war. It has lots of action shots of the navy in the stormy North Atlantic on convoy duty being attacked by submarine and airplanes and such. For this reason parts of it appear similar to a newsreel but there is enough plot to keep it going. Since it looks like some of our American Navy may soon be on convoy duty, this picture will contain a good deal of interesting information along this line. Dial 4-1182 for QUICK DELIVERY BLACK’S PHARMACY East Gate College Courts Coffee Shop — substantial pay offered by the Ca nadians. Of Bob Groulx Backwash has already written considerable. Three others who started out at the same time are Bentley Clements, Jack Garner and Bill Tyler. Although the four stuck pretty close during the first three months of their Canadian sojourn, they have lately become widely separat ed. Bentley writes: “Jack has already become a fly ing instructor if things went as they should have. Bill was sent out as a pilot but ran out of gas over a restricted area and, because of the resulting crash-landing, has been ‘washed-out.’ However, he was later sent out as an air gunner and he should have his sergeant’s strip es and wings. By the time you re ceive this letter Jack will probably be in either England or Africa raising hell with Benie and Adolph.” • • • B. Clements Bentley is a sort of jack-of-all- trades where the R.C.A.F. is con cerned. As he put it, “a general flunkey who helps pilot bombers.” Officially, he’s an observer, nav igator, pilot, bombadier and gun ner—which is nice work if you can’t avoid it! Bentley expects to receive his wings and stripes by June 1 and hopes to join Bill overseas soon thereafter. Bob and Jack will re main on this side of the Atlantic as instructors. “Nearly 100 per cent of the men here from the States,” Ben writes, are anxious to be sent to England or Africa. You can’t possibly ima gine how anxious these men are to get into action without witnessing the thing yourself. None of them think that they will die, either, and their principal goal is to bring down their first German or Italian plane.” • • • The R. V. Dances Blessed with a lovely queen, an excellent orchestra and perfect weather, the Ross Volunteers and their escortees probably hit a new high this year where their annual spring dances are concerned. Saturday afternoon the orches tra members and nine R.V.’s mixed tied with Bernie Cummins for the (Continued on Page 6) #*» Towncraft* Leads the Shoe Parade with Men’s Two-Tone Brown SPORTS OXFORDS 3.98 Men with a desire for style but a determination to be comfortable—ATTENTION! These moccasin type sports oxfords are built for com plete foot freedom—^flexible leather soles, soft leather up pers, and roomy, comfort giving toes! Yet they’re designed for the smartest sportswear — two lustrous tones of antiqued tan, graceful lines and in teresting perforations see to that! *Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. rtsma# 9. 8 Aggie Economy Center Bryan, Texas Every operator in this telephone exchange must speak four languages! Ill m i m : .. • $11 ; -|?] Each operator in San Francisco’s Chinatown telephone ex change must speak English plus at least three of the five Chinese dialects — Som Yup, Soy Yup, Heong Sow, Gow Gong and Aw Duck—in order to handle calls. For the average Chinese understands no dialect but his own! Since there is no Chinese alphabet, the 36 page directory, listing 2200 subscribers, can’t be printed in the usual way. It is handwritten—then reproduced by engraving and print ing processes. Subscribers are listed by streets, instead of alphabetically. And operators must almost know the book by heart, for the Chinese seldom call by number—but by name and address. Here is a Bell System exchange that in many ways is unique. But it is just like thousands of others in giving good service to telephone users.