Page 2
THE BATTALION
-TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1941
'The Battalion
STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Texas and the City of College Station,
fa published three times weekly from September to June, is
sued Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings; and is pub
lished weekly from June through August.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at College
Station, Texas, under the Act of Congress of March 8, 1879.
Subscription rate, $8 a school year. Advertising rates
upon request.
Represented nationally by National Advertising Service,
Inc., at New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and
San Francisco.
Office, Room 122, Administration Building. Telephone
4-5444.
Don Gabriel Editor
E. M. Rosenthal Associate Editor
Ralph Criswell Advertising Manager
Sports Staff
Mike Haikin Sports Editor
W. F. Oxford Assistant Sports Editor
Mike Mann.. Senior Sports Assistant
Jerry Gleason, D. B. Gofer Junior Sports Editors
Circulation Staff
E. D. Wilmeth Circulation Manager
Photography Staff
Jack Jones..., Staff Photographer
jEveuyu ocgubcu /-vttsiatfcuii/ x °
Tuesday’s Staff
D. C. Thurman Managing Editor
W. A. Goforth Assistant Advertising Manager
Tom Vannoy Junior Editor
Mike Speer Junior Editor
Clyde C. Franklin Junior Editor
Jack Decker Junior Editor
Reportorial Staff
Tom Leland, W. J. Hamilton, Calvin Brumley, Charles
McKnight, C. G. Scruggs, John May, Douglass Lancaster.
The U S and World War II
The movement of this country toward great
er economic and military participation in the
present European conflict is unmistakable.
“Business as Usual” seems to be a slo
gan of the past as the United States con
tinues to shift a greater part of her home
economy to the basis of a war economy.
America has taken a definite stand. From
all appearances that stand is to give all
possible aid to the opponents of Hitlerism.
The attitude of this government in pur
suing this policy toward the ultimate victory
of the Allied cause is having a definite effect.
If this is to be the stand of the United States,
then the war effort must be complete, A
half-hearted program of aid will only tend
to confuse and delay the final outcome of
the war.
Present indications are that this coun
try will take a definite stand. The President
has given an order to the navy to shoot if
necessary to preserve American property.
The United States is making a certain move
back toward the traditional policy of “free
dom of the seas.”
“President Roosevelt made this fact
clear when he stated in a recent challenging
speech, “We have sought no shooting war
with Hitler. We do not seek it now. But
neither do we want peace so much that we
are willing to pay for it by permitting him
to attack our naval and merchant ships while
they are on legitimate business.
“In the waters which we deem necessary
for our defense, American naval vessels and
American planes will no longer wait until
Axis submarines lurking under the water,
or Axis raiders on the surface of the sea,
strike their deadly blow—first ... It is no
act of war on our part when we decide to
protect the seas that are vital to American
defense. The aggression is not ours. Ours
is solely defense.”
There can be no doubt as to the mean
ing of these statements. Positive action will
replace mere words in the future if German
acts of aggression are continued. Likewise,
if this country is to adopt such a dynamic
stand, then it must also be ready to see
drastic changes occur at home.
The American people must face the fact
that this means a vital change in our present
peace-time economy. With a goal of $30,000,-
000,000 as an annual expenditure for nation
al defense. This indicates more planning and
more shifts of industry from civilian to de
fense work.
Since apparently, this country has set
its course of action toward greater involve
ment in World War II, then the American
public will be called upon to accept the re
sponsibilities and hardships that come to
a nation when it directs its energies toward
the task of giving all assistance possible to
England and Russia.
Whether or not this country becomes
actively and openly involved in military con
flict, the nation will have sacrificed much in
its effort to maintain a decent world.
Near this spot are deposited the remains
of one who possessed beauty without
vanity, strength without insolence, cour
age without ferocity, and all the virtues
of man, without his vices. This praise,
which ivould be unmeaning flattery if
inscribed over human ashes, is but a
just tribute to the memory of Boatswain,
a dog. —Lord Byron
Quotable Quotes
“Public opinion polls on the attitude of Amer
ican citizens toward the war represent one
of the privileges of a free country. In view
of the opportunity and privilege inherent in
a public opinion poll, it is extremely import
ant to maintain the spontaneity, representa
tiveness, and truth of these polls. The polls
conducted by Gallup and Fortune Magazine
are regarded by competent experts as polls
conducted with great integrity and with
scientific procedures. Congressman Stephen
A. Day recently sent to me, among others,
the following ballot: ‘The United States
should enter the war ; Stay out
of war
This post card request for an opinion on
the war situation is of the same category as
the following: “Have you stopped beating
your wife? Answer yes or no.’ In other words,
the way the question was worded loaded the
dice of reply. Either the question was
phrased as printed because of ignorance of
the principle that answers can be predeterm
ined by the way the question is formulated or
the question was phrased in order to get
the kind of reply desired. This amateurish
effort to collect evidences of public opinion
illustrates the danger of attempts to conduct
a poll by inexperienced people. As stated
the question will get only a reply, ‘Stay out
of war,’ because that is the only answer a
reasonable person could make to the question
as phrased. The returns from the type ballot
sent out will be completely unreliable and
unrepresentative of opinion.” F. Stuart Chap
in, chairman of the University of Minnesota
department of sociology, warns against snap
judgments based on so-called opinion polls.
Man, Your Manners
: By I. Sherwood —
John called Mary on the telephone and said
“What are you doing tonight?” Mary was so
mad she nearly passed out; she wanted John
to ask her outright for a date and give her
the privilege of either refusing or accepting,
but John wanted to keep from getting a re
fusal, and to do a little checking up on Mary.
Our sympathy is more for John, than Mary,
but if John wants to be proper, he should ask
Mary for a definite date and leave the de
tecting out of it (etiquette is on Mary’s side) ;
if John will think it through, he will see that
it is much more of a compliment to him for
the girl to accept if she has the chance to
refuse him than if he gives her no choice.
The term “date” covers most any kind
of entertainment from a ride to Bryan, to
a formal dinner or dance. The young man
should state the type of date he has in mind
when he calls the young lady, then she will
know the kind of clothes she should wear;
the old saying, “Clothes make the man,”
should be changed to “Clothes make the
man,” if the woman has a chance to wear
her “best,” too; no woman wants to be wear
ing sport clothes if it is a “dinner date”—so
be sure to let her know what sort of date she
is accepting.
“Blind dates” are considered socially ac
ceptable in general, but they may be a great
disappointment to the individual. As a rule
blind dates should not be accepted unless
they are arranged by an acquaintance of both
parties concerned.
In all ordinary situations the girl has the
responsibility for suggesting the time to go
home. And the young man should realize
that she is suggesting going home because
she feels she should, and not because she is
bored.
A man’s conduct on first “dates” usually
determines whether there will be future ones.
(The same holds true for the girl.)
The man who is anybody and who does
anything is surely going to be criticized,
vilified, and misunderstood. This is a
part of the penalty for greatness, and
every great man understands it; and
understands, too, that it is vio proof of
greatness. The final proof of greatness
lies in being able to endure contumely
without resentment. —Elbert Hubbard
The World Turns On
By Dr. J. H. Quisenberry —
Of all the devices used by Hitler to unite the
German people into a solid front against the
major portion of the rest of the world the
race argument has been the most absurd.
Purification of the so-called “Ayran race”
was a subterfuge to justify in the eyes of
the common people of Germany the attack
on the Jews. It was justified in the eyes
of many others because of the personal profit
that resulted from a confiscation of the eco
nomic assets of the Jews in Germany. Hitler
himself has acquired tremendous personal
wealth in this manner.
Ashley Montague in a recent lecture de
livered before the American Association of
Physical Anthropologists stated that “the
concept of race is nothing but a whited sep
ulchre, a conception which in the light of
modern experimental genetics is utterly er
roneous and meaningless, and that it should
therefore be dropped from the vocabulary of
the anthropologist, for it has done an indef
inite amount of harm and no good at all.”
All geographical groups of people have
the same chromosome number and are com
pletely inter-fertile. Their bloods may be
transfused without any harmful effects. A
bottle of “canned blood” of the appropriate
type from an Englishman would save a
wounded German soldier’s life as readily as
a transfusion from the veins of his fellow
slaughterers.
The geneticist would admit that large
geographical groups may differ statistically
in a few minor superficial characters like
color of hair, eyes, and skin. However, there
is so much hetrogeneity in any one of these
groups that they overlap all the others to a
certain extent at the borderlines.
Herr Hitler has recenty read out of the
Ayran fold the Norwegian group. As Dr.
Cook, editor of the Journal of Heredity, puts
it, “the color of Norwegian hair and eyes
has not changed.” But, “Rugged Norse in
dividualism has made it impossible for the
most Nordic group in the world to accept
the Procrustean savagery of the new order.”
“If the world is ever to be united in universal
peace it must come as a result of our basic
similarities under the skin and the courag
eous use of our differences for particular
specializiations.
COVERING
canipos disMONs
WITH
'TOM VANNOY (£&
“It’s not fair. Major. If I’m to be punished, I want to be sent
to the guard-house like anyone else!”
BY
Charlie Babcock
“Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster
We Once Heard a Story ... a comparison of the lives of
two men. Both were common laborers.
One worked hard and made his money honestly. The
other was a “goldbrick”—dodging duties at every oppor
tunity. Both men advanced to higher positions at the same
time. The first man was a success, but the “goldbrick” fail-
ed in every respect.
That’s not an unusual story. We’ve
watched the same plot develop every day
here at A. & M.
To be specific, we have reference to those
freshmen living in corps headquarter dormi
tories. They have been given orders not to
carry out any of the customary freshmen du
ties—yet, they refuse to do so, stating that
they don’t want to handicap themselves for
three years by not going through a fish year.
Babcock “That’s a wonderful spirit ... a spirit
that should be whole-heartedly endorsed and absorbed by
every fish in the cadet corps.
You won’t realize the importance of your fish year until
you do tear off that white stripe. Then you’ll wish you had
the privilege of again meeting people and respecting the
rights of others.
....But even though all the privi-
lege sare gone, you will be glad that The School of Arts and Sciences
you are able to look back and com- was established in 1925.
pare yourself with the man who
worked hard and was recognized
as a success.
• • •
Boot Day
Something that has been needed
for a long time ... an official
boot day on the A. & M. campus.
... a day when seniors can proud
ly wear their boots as a group.
In fact, there will be two boot
days each week (Wednesday and
Sunday), according to Cadet Col
onel Tom Gillis.
All of which brings up the dis
cussion of whether or not boots
are popular with the majority of
seniors. To those of you who' are
accustomed to arguing the pro and
con merits of boot popularity,
please glance at the following
data:
About 90 per cent of the 1941-42
Senior Class of nearly eight hun
dred men are owners and wearers
of the customary military officer
boot.
That ‘90 per cent” spent approx
imately $25,000 at the rate of $41
per pair so that they might wear
the distinctive mark of a senior.
It is very unlikely that the boot
(See BACKWASH, Page 4)
Tonight marks another mile
stone in the books for the history
of Texas A. & M. Guion Hall is
opening up tonight with “LOVE
CRAZY” starring William Powell
and Myrna Loy.
This is really a good beginning
for as fine a theater as Guion Hall
promises to be. New drapes and
carpets have been installed. The
acoustics improved greatly, and all
in all, it will really be a first class
theater.
'“LOVE CRAZY” is a top-notch
comedy done in that manner that
Powell and Loy have made so fa
mous. This time Myrna tries to
divorce William when he strays
away from the marital fold and
falls for Gail Patrick. In order to
prevent this, Powell feigns insan
ity and is committed to an asy
lum. He dresses as his sister, and
returns to his wife’s bedroom. It
is a perfect scream from the be
ginning to the final frame.
Everyone in the cast, especially
William and Myrna, have done a
magnificent job in the show.
“ANGELS WITH BROKEN
WINGS” is showing at the Cam
pus today. More about divorces and
their consequences is the idea of
the plot. Binnie Barnes and Gil
bert Roland are the leading play
ers. It is a rather weak'story and
contributes nothing really lasting
to the history of motion pictures.
On the musical side, we offer
“DANCE HALL” with Cesar Ro
mero and Carole Landis, at the
Campus tomorrow. This story of
a honky -tonk couple has a number
of interesting twists in the plot
and some musical numbers to keep
the show in the true vein.
PALACE
Wed. - Thur. - Fri. - Sat.
Qampus
WHATS SHOWING
AT THE CAMPUS
Tuesday — “ANGELS
WITH BROKEN WINGS,”
with Binnie Barnes, Gilbert
Roland, and Billy Gilbert.
Wednesday, Thursday —
“DANCE HALL,” featuring
Cesar Romero and Carole
Landis.
AT GUION HALL
Tuesday, Wednesday —
“LOVE CRAZY,” starring
William Powell and Myrna
Loy.
Matinee 20^ Night 25^
(tax included)
TODAY ONLY
“Angels With Broken
Wings”
with
BINNIE BARNES
BILLY GILBERT
LEO GORCEY
Also
SPORTS REEL — CARTOON
PICTURE PEOPLE
Wednesday and Thursday
Cursed with the urge to kill!
■ ■l.■l■lll'^lnll^^^^rw^lnn vXv.flCv/' |
Assembly Hall
Show
Is No More
Starting Tuesday, October 7
THE SHOW WILL BE IN
GUION HALL
FOR SALE
JUSTIN
COWBOY
BOOTS
SIZE 8V2 — SEE THEM
at
LOUPOT’S
J. E. Loupot, Class ’32
SHOWING TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY
Oct. 7 and 8
7:00 P. M.
WILLIAM POWELL
and
MYRNA LOY
in
"Love Crazy
J