Page 2
THE BATTALION
-TUESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 3, 1942
The Battalion
' n
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,
is 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 3, 1870.
Subscription rate $3 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, ■
1941 Member 1942
Associated Go!le6iate Press
E. M. Rosenthal Acting Editor
Ralph Criswell Advertising Manager
Sports Staff
Mike Haikin Sports Editor
W. F. Oxford Assistant Sports Editor
Mike Mann Senior Sports Assistant
Chick Hurst Junior Sports Assistant
Circulation Staff
E. D. Wilmeth Circulation Manager
Photography Staff
Jack Jones Staff Phohographer
Bob Crane, Ralph Stenzel Assistant Photographer
Tuesday’s Staff
Lee Rogers r Managing Editor
W. A. Goforth Assistant Advertising Manager
Tom Vannoy Junior Editor
Ken Bresnen Junior Editor
Charles Babcock - Junior Editor
. Reportorial Staff
Calvin Brumley, Kenneth C. Bresnen, Arthur L. Cox, W. J.
Hamilton, Jr., N. W. Karbach, Jack Keith, Tom B. Journeay,
Tom Leland, Charles P. McKnight, C. G. Scrugss, John May,
Douglass Lancaster.
We've Accepted Military Duty;
Now, Let's Receive Armg Privilege
By Monday night, ‘ December 8, what had
been a murmur the afternoon before had
turned into an impassioned cry. A. & M.
should make all of its facilities available for
the government’s use and offer all possible
service for the nation’s defense. And so it.
was.
The school officials wired the message
to President Roosevelt; the cadet corps fol
lowed suit.
Soon after the initial step, a new move
for the good of national defense was sug
gested and acted upon. Military training was
to be intensified and in some instances al
most doubled. And so it was.
By far the majority of A. & M. students
are taking training that leads to commis
sions in the army. Many others are ear
marked as future officers by the air corps,
navy, and marines. Still others are taking
national defense courses or courses which
are essential to the vital war industries of
the nation. Those few Aggies who don’t fall
into one of these classifications are in the
majority of cases planning to enter the mili
tary service in a short time.
But what do we get for all of this mili
tary preparation other than a smile and a
pat on the back from the public? No, not
that we are looking for any great demonstra
tions of appreciation because we are not. We
as Aggies and true Americans are willing
to do this because we feel it our duty and
want to. Yet there are some privileges which
we should be entitled to.
Uncle Sam and the U. S. 0. are spending
millions of dollars for entertainment in the
army camps. Talent from Broadway to Holly
wood is assembled in shows which just make
tours over the entire nation for the benefit
of the men in uniform, men who are prepar
ing just as the Aggies are preparing.
The itinerary of these entertainment
groups include the many military posts in
the state of Texas both north and south,
east and west of College Station but not the
home of the Texas Aggie. Why? Aren’t we
helping prepare the nation as much as the
selectees ? Why shouldn’t we get some of the
sweets of military life, when these sweets
can be given for almost nothing extra. The
routes of these traveling units cross at Ag-
gieland. In the future they should stop here.
The World Turns On
Open Forum
PRIVATE BUCK .-. By Clyde Lewis
By Dr. J. H. Quisenberry
The Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas is now fully embarked upon a stream
lined program intended to turn out in a min
imum of time a maximum number of stu
dents trained, not only in the science of war
and military strategy, but in professions
that will enable them to produce needed war
materials and to find a worthwhile place in
establishing and maintaining peace when the
present conflict ends. The success of this new
endeavor depends upon the cooperation of
both students and faculty.
To crowd 18 weeks of academic work
into 16 weeks without lowering of standards
is no mean task. No sincere Aggie wants his
degree from this institution to represent less
effort and achievement than those in years
past. The number of stars in the distin
guished service flag in the rotunda of our
Academic Building is a forecast of the grave
responsibilities that are to be the lot of Ex-
Aggies in the next few years. No A. & M.
Cadet can afford to meet those responsibili
ties inadequately prepared. The faculty can
not afford to give him a false feeling of se
curity by lowering standards.
We have heard much about the loss of
traditions in the past few weeks. Important
as the traditions of A. & M. are, they are not
as important as the lives of the students it
graduates and the men whom they shall di
rect in combat.
As an Ex-Aggie and a member of the
teaching staff I am wondering if the major
loss that the recent change in local tradi
tional behavior has brought about is not the
Theg Capitalized on the War
You won, but you’ll be sorry.
Every Aggie has lost faith in you as
leaders.
We know now that we have no alterna
tive but to accept your “kampf.”
Do you believe that your tactics were
democratic and exemplified leadership?
You, the powers that be, have co^nmer-
cialized on the war. You cannot justify your
action by implying that our school will be
more militaristic. You have called upon us
to make sacrifices that will in no way aid
in defeating the axis, you saw an opportun
ity to destroy that factor or element that
caused you unrest, namely, that of listen
ing to some boy’s excuse for busting out of
school, some boy’s excuse to his parents. You
aren’t Aggies because you shirked your
duty. Your part in the Aggie spirit was to
humor the parents of these boys—boys that
you knew were lying or hunting an excuse.
You think now that you can rest in peace,
but endure the thought that some 6,000 Ag
gies know that you are poor leaders and
will strike at anything to accomplish your
gain.
Surely you are familiar with the bene
fits derived from so-called “personal ser
vices.” As one of your members told us,
it’s a good thing, but has been abused. Why
“cut off an arm to cure an aching finger?”
You say that we have formulated our opin
ion because it has been instijled in us by our
attendance. You have taken away other
traditions, actions by you that we accepted
with less resentment because we knew that
we could maintain our Aggie—the old Ag
gie—spirit. Tell us where we are to build
the fellowship that existed between the fish
and the upperclassmen. What are we going
to substitute as a leveling process? What
element can we substitute that will make
country boy or city boy, rich boy or poor
boy one—everyone attending yell practice,
fish meeting each other?
We refer to your actions as undemocrat
ic. Was it gentlemanly to act when you did
and how you did? Did you have to use the
war as an excuse? We refer to you as fail
ures as leaders. Did you present your plan
and show us how fruitless our efforts would
be not to accept them? No sir, we had to find
out for ourselves.
Remember ROTC schools came into be
ing after the last war and served as a means
for the war department to maintain politi
cal influence. Is the future so bright when
the government must again school the grad
uates? Ask General Hershey.
What sort of excuse or lies will boys
dropping out of A. & M. from here on out
use? At Texas and other coed schools they
have no excuses, their parents know that
they were lazy' lacked initiative, or were
plain sorry. Do we lose so many more each
year than they do because of “personal
services ?”
You’ll be sorry. Sure we’ll keep on going
to your school and abiding by your rules—
we’ll go to your “Utopia,” but we’ll not carry
any torch for you when we leave this place.
You needn’t turn to us for free publicity or
seek our goodwill. We’ll never recommend
school to anyone, neither will we send our
children. Remember you’ll not always have
the demand for military as a drawing card.
You’ll get boys to enroll here, but how are
you going to keep them here? Winning foot
ball teams, I suppose.
We will grant you that under our new
semester set-up that personal services would
have to be adjusted. Would one hour a day
devoted- to personal services be too demand
ing of a freshman that has been loaded down
with rising 10 minutes earlier every morn
ing, devoting 10 minutes to calisthenics and
two more hours of drill.
In conclusion may we say that we have
lost faith in you as leaders and your demo
cratic or your American way of pursuing
action.
’Tis no wonder that we have Pearl Har
bor tragedies.
James C. Holekamp, ’42
same that Hitler will lose if he loses the war,
the right to dictate. Most A. & M. upper
classmen do not now use this means of ac
quiring respect. They are the true leaders
and no change in traditions will affect them.
It is only the small percentage who must use
dictatorial force to command respect from
upperclassmen who shall lose by the recent
changes in student government.
The one tradition which is vital to the
life of any college and one we cannot afford
to lose at A. & M. is the training and educa
tion that will “fit a man to perform justly,
skillfully and magnanimously, all the offices,
both private and public, of peace and war.”
Quotable Quotes
“I will not leave Japan even if worse comes to
worse in Japanese-American relations. In
time I have hopes of seeing America under
stand Japan’s intentions. Even if my Jap
anese friends should abandon me I will not
return to America, but will commit hara-Kiri
and die on Japanese sol. Paul Rusch of Louis
ville, Ky., instructor at Tokyo’s Rikkyo
(Episcopalian) university for the last 15
years and the man who introduced American
football to Japan, takes his stand in advance
of possible Japanese-American hostilities.
COVERING
cops distraciioNs
WITH
(H| TOM VANNOY ||)
“For your information, Private Buck, a SLEEVE target is
that long canvas thing BEHIND the plane!”
BACKWASH
BY
— Charlie Babcock
“Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster
Portrait of a Broken Spirit . . .
This is the ninth inning. We’re
going to bat for the last time.
It’s hard for any man to say
that he is whipped, even if it is
just momentarily. But we’ve been
convinced that the loyal cadet
corps has been
batting.its brains
out against a
stone wall. You
can’t buck the
board of direct
ors, the executive
committee, ma
jority of the for
mer students, ma
jority of the peo-
Babcock pie of the State
of Texas—especially in war time.
So, lets make this last turn at
the plate a survey of the princi
ples of the situation, not a rec
ommendation for defiance. It’s too
late for any of that.
Sincerely speaking, if we live
to be 100 years old, we will never
believe that what ‘the authorities
of this college did in January,
1942, was justifiable. We will al
ways be opposed to their totalitari
an acts. But the fact remains that
it has been done, and those au
thorities are ready to back up
their acts with action. There is
nothing that a handful of college
students can do to protect a few
cherished traditions when others
are sacrificing in blood for this
war.
Let’s put aside all surface argu
ments for the present and talk a-
bout the real basis for the Aggies’
plan of having freshmen render
personal service to upperclassmen.
We’ve analyzed the situation care
fully, and it is not a question of
an upperclassman hating to do his
own detail work. No, it’s a far
deeper element than that.
In our way of thinking, there are
five major reasons why fresh
man service is so essential and
necessary to the verjj existence of
A. & M. as follows:
(1). Promotes a greater fellow
ship and a greater esprit de corps
—Based on the old axiom that
when a person does a favor for
another, he naturally takes a great
er interest in that individual, and
In return, the upperclassman re
alizes a stronger comradeship for
this new, young fella who has done
some trivial little detail for the
older student.
(2) . Only boys who expect to
withstand' a bit of hardship and res
ponsibility would enter under the
old system. In turn, a better class
of men would be graduated, men
that would make real officers.
(3) . Teaches a youth how to take
orders before he can give them. In
structs the new student in the abil
ity of shouldering responsibility
and hardship, the primary desires
of the leaders of our army.
(4) . Promotes a democratic sys
tem—rich boy and poor boy, coun
try boy and city boy, all come to
A. & M. with equal opportunities.
Each new student has the equal
right for development. There is
no favoritism. The freshman must
stick, make a go of his difficulties
before he earns the right to be call
ed an Aggie.
(5) . Provides for the necessary
class distinction so indispensable
to a massive all-male, military
school.
So that’s our story. That’s what
we’ve been fighting for. And we
believe that there are others who
shared some of our views. There
was one, Durward B. Varner, ca
det colonel of the college in 1939-
40. Varner, during his four years
at A. & M. was a distinguished
student, held numerous campus
honors, captained the basketball
team, and as a reward for his ef
forts, both scholastically and so
cially, was chosen to deliver the
valedictory address of his class.
Following is an excerpt from Ca
det Colonel Varner’s speech:
“As freshmen we came here,
and regardless of whether we
came in an expensive, fash
ionable suit of clothes or in a
pair of overalls, we all donned
the government issued uni
forms and the white fish
stripes—we were all created
at A. & M. free and equal.
Every man’s future here was
dependent upon his own init
iative, industry, and intelli
gence—just as provided for
Americans in the American
Constitution. As freshmen we
had certain tasks to do, but
Do you like a really fascinat
ing mystery picture ? Then here
is one that will help to satisfy
that desire for a while. It is “THE
MALTESE FALCON” which will
be showing at Guion hall today and
tomorrow.
Humphrey Bogart, who has won
so much acclaim for his similar
roles, plays the part of a private
detective who has been engaged
by Mary Astor to trail a certain
man. Things begin to take on a
peculiar aspect when both his part
ner and the man he was trailing
are killed. Then Bogart is offer
ed a large sum of money to find
a porcelain statuette in the form
of a falcon.
It develops that the men who
are after the falcon will go to no
end to recover it. As the story
progresses, the crossing and dou
ble-crossing gets more and more
involved.
For some top-notch entertain
ment in the scary line, this is a
chance that ought not to be miss
ed. The story is taken from the
novel, “The Thin Man,” by
Dashiel Hammett. The entire cast
really did a fine job of acting in
making this picture. It is a mas
terpiece of well-sustained, well-
thought-out entertainment.
“Keep ’em Flying” is the theme
of “FLYING CADETS” at the
Campus today and tomorrow. This
is the story of the civilian pilot
training schools that are doing
so much to help the country sur
vive during this critical period.
Edmund Lowe, William Gargan,
and Peggy Moran are the lead-
after all, regardless of where
we are or what we do, we
must comply with certain rules
of the game. Certainly no
man’s initiative was destroyed
because some went to the top,
others didn’t do so well, while
still others gave up the fight
all together.
“During our four years here
we have followed the same
democratic principle—it has
mattered not that a hoy be a
millionaire or one working
every penny of his way
through school, it mattered not
whether he lived in a rambling
shack or the best dormitory
—he was still an Aggie. Just
as America as a country has
created all men free and equal
and has given the opportunity
to rise to the top to those who
have the will and ability, so has
our training here at A. &M.
created all boys free and equal.
Whether he were Jew or Gen
tile, American or German or
Japanese—he was an Aggie,
loved and respected by his
classmates* and given the same
equal opportunity to push for
ward just as long as he didn’t
interfere with the rights of
others.
“Isn’t that the American
way?”
Yes, Woody, we believe that it
was. And Aggies and Aggieland
will always be recorded in the past
tense until we return to that “Am
erican way r> or devise some flaw
less substitute for it.
ing players. The film has been
done in such a way that it comes
out new and delightful. It has
nothing extraordinary about it, but
it won’t prove too trying either.
WHAT’S SHOWING
AT THE CAMPUS
Tuesday, Wednesday —
“FLYING CADETS,” with
Edmund Lowe and Peggy
Moran. Also “THE PER
FECT SNOB,” featuring
Lynn Bari and Charles Rug-
gles.
AT GUION HALL
Tuesday, Wednesday —
“THE MALTESE FALCON,”
starring Humphrey Bogart
and Mary Astor.
Trade At
LOUPOT’S
DALACE
■ PHON E 2 - 8879
Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday
BOB HOPE
VERA ZORINA
in
“Louisiana
Purchase ,,
Preview 11 P. M.
Saturday Night
BETTY GRABLE
in
“I Wake Up
Screaming”
★
Shown Sunday-Monday
Qiimp,
as
4-1181
TODAY AND TOMORROW
Double Feature
CHARLIE RUGGLES
CHARLOTTE GREENWOOD.
LYNN BARI • CORNEL WILDE
Shows at
1:00, 3:22, 5:44, 8:06, 10:28
“FLYING CADETS’
with
PEGGY EDMUND
MORAN LOWE
Shows at 2:18, 4:40, 7:02, 9:21
Also
DISNEY CARTOON
” Vi
Sophomores
Don’t wait any longer to place
your order for one of our
Perfect Fitting
TAILOR MADE UNIFORMS
Uniform Tailor Shop
MENDL & HORNAK
North Gate
Movie
GUION HALL
Tuesday and Wednesday
3:30 and 6:45
*
MARY ASTOR AND
HUMPHREY BOGART
in
“Maltese Falcon”
SELECTED SHORTS
COMING
Thursday and Friday
“Lady Be Good”