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■THURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 5, 1942
e 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,
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
K. 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. Wllmeth Circulation Manager
Photography Staff
Jack Jones Staff Phohographer
Bob Crane, Ralph Stenzel Assistant Photographer
Thursday’s Staff
Ken Bresnen...'. Junior Managing Editor
Charles Babcock Junior Editor
Clyde C. Franklin Junior Editor
Jack Lamberson Assistant Advertising Manager
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. Serugss, John May,
Douglass Lancaster.
Will You Be a Mess Officer?
Many young officers are assigned the duty
of mess officer soon after they enter the
service. In most cases these officers know
little or anything about these duties, and
consequently leave the work entirely up to
the mess sergeants. Nevertheless, their lack
of knowledge is a handicap.
But this handicap can be remedied as
far as future A. & M. officers are concerned.
A course in mess management and training
has already been considered and planned. If
the students act immediately they can have
such a course this semester.
A. & M. has the facilities and the pro
fessors to teach this course in a most effec
tive way. Some of the men on our campus
are among the nation’s leaders in the fields
of nutrition, kitchen management, and mess
hall problems, both military and civilian.
Last semester a course for athletic offi
cers was instituted, and it has proved highly
successful. Students with commissions real
ized the need for it. Now, other students
realize the need for the proposed mess man
agement course.
Since Saturday is the deadline for add
ing courses those students who desire such
a subject, which in all probability would be
a one hour class at five o’clock in the after
noon, should write The Battalion immediate
ly so that arrangements can be made.
College Radicalism
Students do not “turn radical” in the average
American college or university, observes
Morton Mintz in the Michigan Daily. Re
sults of an exhaustive four-year survey,
combined with similar research of other psy
chologists conducted over a 15-year period
in approximately 50 colleges, have convinced
Professor Theodore M. Newcomb of Michi
gan’s sociology department that there is
“only a slight increase in liberalism” between
entrance and graduation among the great
majority of students.
(Professor Newcomb said liberalism is
defined in the survey as favoring the kinds
of changes introduced by the New Deal).
Professor Newcomb’s conclusions, which
will be published in book form this spring
under the title “Personality and Attitude
Development,” stated that “in college stu
dents, family background is a less important
factor in attitude change than the conserva
tism or liberalism prevailing in the college
atmosphere.”
His survey was conducted chiefly at
Bennington college in Vermont, where he
taught social psychology from 1934-41. The
survey was made from 1935-39. At this
college of 250 girls he found that the great
majority of students—who were nearly all
from wealthy homes—lost their entrenched
conservatism and became much more liberal
than any other college group. Some million
aire’s daughters became confirmed radicals.
Citing this as proof of his theory that family
background is of secondary importance, he
said the liberal environment of Bennington
college proved more potent than parental
advice and beliefs.
Professor Newcomb stressed, however,
certain factors which differentiated Ben
nington from other schools. He pointed out
that the school was new and based on a
radically different system of individualized
education. The president of the college was
himself a liberal and a social scientist. In
addition the faculty, in contrast to those of
the University of Chicago and St. Johns
college, which emphasize the classics was
almost obsessed with the importance of ac
quainting students with the contemporary
world.
Dr. Newcomb declared that it is because
of the conservative attitude prevalent in
most American colleges that students are on
the whole conservative.
He maintained that those who changed
least, or not at all, in an atmosphere such as
that a Bennington, were those absorbed in
their own personal concerns, and bitter or
antagonistic toward community activities.
Asked how many students who are liberal
when they enter college adopt conservatism
during school, he said there are very few,
and in these cases there is usually a psy-
THE BATTALION
chological reaction against liberal but dom
ineering, dogmatic parents.
Pointing to such schools near Benning
ton as Williams college and Skidmore, where
comparable students enter conservative and
leave only slightly liberal, Professor New
comb said that at such typically American
schools the most prominent campus leaders
were more likely to be the most conservative
students, while at Bennington the most pop
ular were the most radical.
He said that at Bennington liberalism
was a vital issue while at most other schools
it was not considered important. —AGP
Man, Your Manners
Kollegiate Kaleidoscope
By I. Sherwood
Nowhere is greater dignity of manner re
quired of us, than in the church or a religious
ceremony. Since the purpose of the church
service is worship, the only fitting attitude
is one of reverence. Conversation, preceding
or during the service, is out of order.
Where to sit in church is usually solved
for you by an usher, who knows whether or
not certain seats are reserved for members
of the church. In most churches now, you
may sit where you please, and it is perfectly
proper for you to ask the usher to seat you
in the section that you prefer.
Most of us feel more “at home” in the
church that we are accustomed to worship
in, but we need not feel out of place and ill
at ease in churches in which the ritual is
different from our own. The air of formality
in some churches makes us particularly con
scious of our behavior. A visitor can give
no offense in a ritualistic church if he re
mains seated throughout the service. If, how
ever, he wishes to follow the service, he is
at liberty to do so. The general rules for pro
cedure are that the cangregation stands for
praise, sits for instruction, and kneels for
prayer.
Some churches have “open communion,”
which means that all Christians may partake
of the bread and wine. Other churches have
“closed communion”, which means that only
those of that faith may partake. Usually the
clergyman makes it clear whether visitors
may or may not partake.
If a young man accompanies a girl to
her church, the girl should make her own
contribution to the collection plate. He, too,
will probably contribute something.
Wheaton college Jill) bans
SMOKING, DANCING, DRAMATICS,
CARDS, DRINKING, AND THEATER
AND MOVIE ATTENDANCE,STILL
IT IS THE FASTEST GROWING
COLLEGE IN AMERICA TODAY/
\ ^ ' 11 cn Education )
w ^ , N THIJ >
The world has never had a good defini
tion of the word liberty, and the Amer
ican people, just now, are much in want
of one. —Abraham Lincoln, 1864
Something to Read
:By Dr. T. F. Mayo:
Leisure Reading for Engineers
(Recommended and annotated from their
own reading, by two Aggie engineering
seniors.)
Men and Machines by Stuart Chase
In answer to the charge that machines
—created by men, engineers—are enslaving
men, Mr. Chase conducts a rational investi
gation. As many of you know, Stuart Chase
is a master in the art of presenting a logical
argument simply and clearly—and painless
ly. Engineers should be interested in reading
this book and discovering that perhaps the
advent of the engineers’ baby, the modern
complex machine, was not an unmixed bless
ing.
The Engineer and the Price System by
Thorstein Veblen
Here’s a book that no one who seriously in
tends to pursue engineering as a profession
can afford to miss. Written in 1921 by the
daddy of all the technocrats, this little book
contains material which has later been adopt
ed by the contemporary popular economists.
To a good many of you, the ideas presented
here will seem radical in the extreme; how
ever, engineers, a group which prides itself
on its ability to think logically will be hard
put to it to find fault in his argument. Veb
len sets out to show that the business man,
long considered the patron of the engineer,
is now in fact his jailor and that engineers,
as a group, have more of an identity of in
terest with the laboring group than with the
business man. This is to many a novel view
—whether you can agree with Veblen or not,
you will certainly come across some inter
esting ideas, which, as an engineer, you
should be familiar with.
Engines of Democracy by Roger Bur
lingame
A recent well organized book presenting the
social implimations of various engines and
gadgets. The author raises the question of
inventing a new society, just as an inventor
would invent a new machine, if notions about
the machine and society stand in the way
of progress.
March of the Iron Men by Roger Bur
lingame
This book is an excellent summary of the
work of American inventors between 1765
and 1865. The author gives, as the main in
vention-promoting forces in America, the
necessity for conquering distances and the
necessity of meeting labor shortages. Bur
lingame also brings out how inventions had
inevitably determined the outcome of the
Civil War before a shot was fired. Why?
Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a biography
by John Winthrop Hammond.
This biography presents an inspiring story
of a man whose name most people know, but
about whom they know little. It is definitely
adventurous to discover that the electrical
genius was a German student socialist who
was hounded by the police of the Iran Chan
cellor of Germany, Bismarck, until he came
to America. The reader discovers Steinmetz
as an idealist; a world-builder, and as some
times misunderstood.
BACKWASH
BY
Charlie Babcock
“Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster
To the Point . . . Campus theater
continues its benefit shows today
with Rio Grande Valley club, the
sponsors . . . Advent of second
semester at Texas university finds
the Austin males
worried about the
draft and military
service. Evidence
of a new interest
f , along military
p lines is indicated
by the plebe class
of about 50 reg
istering for the
spring term
Babcock course of the T.
U. Naval R.O.T.C. . . George
“Monoplane” Blackburn has left
Sbisa for the new area mess hall,
becoming No. 1 man under Bill
Butler . . . Arkansas university,
70 years old last month, first open
ed its doors to a total enrollment
of seven students, with men out
numbering the women, 6 to 1 . . .
The Battalion is attempting to se
cure free admission for Aggies to
the Southwestern Exposition and
Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth in
March. Only form of tariff will be
the customary government tax . . .
“Lefty” Bumpers, ace pitcher of
the 1941 Aggie baseball team,
signed with the naval air corps
in Dallas Tuesday. Bumpers was
to report to the Detroit Tigers for
spring training in Florida in a few
weeks .... Field Artillery seniors
are warned to get in the habit
early of removing the keys from
an automobile when they remove
themselves. Word comes from
former Aggies at Fort Sill, Okla
homa, training center for reserve
field artillery officers, that penalty
for leaving keys in automobiles is
confiscation of said vehicle for 48
hours.
• • •
Remember?
Weldon Hart, Texas U. gradutae
of ’33, former sports editor of the
Austin Statesman and now staff
man for the Fort Worth Star-
Telegram, authored an entertain
ing article in the December issue
of The Alcalde, unversity alumni
magazine.
Text of Hart’s story concerned
the success and failure of the 1941
Longhorn footballers. Beginning
with the Texas-Colorado battle.
DR. T. 0. WALTON, JR.
Announces Opening*
College Medical
Center
Phone 4-1198
Dr. T. T. Walton
(Office Hours)
A.M. P.M.
7:30-9:00 7:30-9:00
(Except Wed.)
Dr. L. O. Wilkerson
(Office Hours)
1:00-2:00 P.M.
(Except Thursday)
COVERING
caps diSTfflCMS
WITH
TOM VANNOY
the former Austin scribbler car
ried his account down through the
Oregon slaughter.
Pausing momentarily for discus
sion of the Baylor tie and T. C. U.
defeat, Hart had the following to
say about the Aggie game on
Thanksgiving Day:
“These two games cost Tex
as the conference champion
ship and the mythical national
championship—granting, of
course, that the team could
have defeated A. & M. on Kyle
Field WITHOUT the spur of
scathing public and self-criti
cism that followed the T. C. U.
defeat.
“Let us venture the purely
personal conjecture that Texas
would NOT have won the
Thanksgiving game if it had
not been for what happened
just previously. We firmly
believe that it took those
catastrophic occurrences to get
the Longhorns ready for that
supreme effort on Kyle Field,
That, we repeat, is merely one
man’s opinion.”
If you are craving some right
fine diversion from the worries of
the world, take time out to see
“SWING IT, SOLDIER” at the
Campus today. The Rio Grande
Valley A. & M. club is sponsoring
the show, and tickets may be ob
tained from any member of the
club. Some of the names that you
have been hearing over the radio
for quite some time are the star
ring actors in the show.
Ken Murray plays the role of a
draftee who has just returned to
civilian life after an enlistment in
the army. As twin sisters, one of
them married to Lewis Howard,
and the other eligible for a hus
band, there is Frances Langford.
And she sings some really good
numbers to the accompaniment of
Skinnay Ennis’ orchestra. Don
Wilson of the Jack Benny show
and Brenda and Cobina are added
to make the show still more en
joyable.
It is all very well produced and
directed. You will enjoy seeing
“Swing It, Soldier” a lot.
Eleanor Powell returns to the
screen in “LADY BE GOOD” at
Guion Hall today and tomorrow.
Also included in the star-studded
cast are Ann Sothern and Robert
Young. The picture is a top-flight
musical that has not been equalled
for quite a while.
The story deals with the marital
difficulties Ann and Bob have as
a song-writing team after becom
ing a hit on Broadway. Success
usually breeds laziness and this is
no exception. Mixed in very suc
cessfully all the way through are
some lavish dancing scenes featur
ing the talented Miss Powell.
Hawaiian moonlight, girls, pine
apples, and music, that’s “MOON
LIGHT IN HAWAII.” Johnny
Downs and Jane Frazee are fea
tured actors in the story that will
be at the Campus tomorrow and
Saturday. It is entertainment, but
that is almost all that there is to
be said. The Merry Macs cannot
be overlooked, however, because
they add to the film considerably.
And the great Russian, Mischa
Auer, gets in a romantic lick or
two to top things off just right.
'A
ampuA
■’/ V •• Y*
Dial 4-1181
WHAT’S SHOWING
AT THE CAMPUS
Thursday — “SWING IT,
SOLDIER,” starring Ken
Murray, Frances Langford
and Don Wilson. Benefit Rio
Grande Valley A. & M. club.
Friday, Saturday—“MOON
LIGHT IN HAWAII”, with
Johnny Downs and Jane Fra
zee.
AT GUION HALL
Thursday, Friday—“LADY
BE GOOD,” featuring Elea
nor Powell, Ann Sothern and
Robert Young.
TODAY ONLY
“Swing It Soldier”
with
Frances Langford — Ken Murray
ALL DAY TODAY
BENEFIT SHOW
Rio Grande Valley A. & M. Club
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
ln mmli
A UNIVERSAL PICTURE JC
with
Johnny Downs -- Jane Frazee
SHORT
COMMUNITY SING
NEWS
Self Isolation Isn’t
Best Professional Plan
State College Pa. (AGP)—Re
gardless of your outlook on the
subject of international affairs,
don’t be an isolationist in your
profession.
That’s the advice of Dr. Emmett
A. Betts, director of the reading
clinic at Pennsylvania State col
lege.
“Human knowledge cannot he
isolated and classified in clean-
cut categories,” Dr. Betts says.
“Neither can a given profession
serve best by following a policy
of isolation. The debt of a pro
fession to society can be paid only
by co-operating with all the agen
cies for the promotion of human
welfare and happiness.”
The educator believes one of
the prime difficulties in the way
of such co-operation is failure to
understand the terms used in other
professions. An interchange of
mutual problems in professional
study groups, he declares, would
overcome that obstacle and enable
members of different professions
to “talk the same language.”
Get the Newest in Both Styles on
VICTOR and BIDFBIRD RECORDS I
VICTOR RECORDS 50e BLUEBIRD RECORDS 85«
“BLUES IN THE NIGHT” by Dinah Shore
“SERENADE FOR STRINGS” by Freddy Martin
“FOOLED” by GLENN MILLER
“’TIS AUTUMN” by King Sisters
“I GOT IT BAD” by Duke Ellington
“SOMEBODY ELSE IS TAKING MY PLACE”
by Sammy Kaye
HASWELL’S
inni=iu==*.
Movie
GUION HALL
Thursday and Friday
3:30 and 6:45
Eleanor Powell — Ann Sothern
Robert Young
“Lady Be Good”
NEWS --- COMEDY
Coming Saturday
“Down In San Diego”
Also
“MARCH OF TIME”