The Battalion
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER
OF THE CITY OF
COLLEGE STATION
DIAL 4-5444
ROOM 5 ADMINISTRATION BLDG. - VOLUME 42 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, SATURDAY MORNING, NOV. 21, 1942
2275
NUMBER 71
1+
Two Balls Held At Once
Utilizing Both Mess Halls
Noble Sissle Plays for Composite-Signal
Regiment; Herb Miller for Engineer Corps
Infantry Contract
Applications Due
By Next Wednesday
All Other Branches Also
Due Then; ERC Enlistment
Not Needed Until You Sign
Recruiting
Officers To
Be Here Mon
Templeton Thrills
Audience in Third
Town Hall Program
Pianist Displays Genius
Changing Readily From
Classics to Modern Jazz
Showtime Features
Aggieland, Cadets,
And Trudy Woods
Tune Tumblers, Movie Stars
Also Features of Sunday
Afternoon Guion Hall Show
*
Sunday afternoon from 3:30 un
til 4, Interstate Theatres will pre
sent from the stage of Guion Hall,
its weekly “Showtime” broadcast
over the Texas Quality Network.
Featured on the program will be
the Aggieland orchestra, led by
Curley Brient. Also in the spotlight
will be the Singing Cadets, under
the direction of Richard Jenkins.
From Dallas, Writer-Producer
Conrad Brady is bringing the Tune
Tumblers, three men and a girl;
Trudy Wood, female vocalist for
merly featured with such name
bands as Everett Hogeland, George
Hamilton, Jimmie Greer, and Fred
Astaire on the Packard Hour.
Richard Quine and Noah Beery,
Jr., stars of the movie now in pro
duction here, will be interviewed
during the course of the presenta
tion, and a brief history of Ag-
gieland’s war effort will be told
in the form of a narration with
the Singing Cadets filling the
background.
Harfield Weedin will be master
of ceremonies, and Orville Ander
son, both of the WFAA staff, will
do the announcing.
Two high Interstate officials,
Raymond Willie and Frank Starz,
will be on hand to hear the show,
and cadets are asked to be in their
seats by 3 o’clock instead of 3:15
as printed on their tickets.
Tickets may be obtained from
the first sergeants.
Aggie-Ex In China
Given Silver Star
This story is reprinted from the
* Last night from 9 until 1, Sbisa
and Duncan halls rang with the
revelry of the Engineers and Com
posite-Signal regiments as men of
those regiments and their dates
made merry at their annual regi
mental balls.
Sbisa rocked to the music of
Herb Miller and his orchestra. Mil
ler, who is the famous Glenn’s
younger brother, has a smooth
swingy style that easily caught the
fancy of the frolicking Engineers.
Decorations for the Engineers
were along patriotic lines. Half
of the floor was partitioned off and
the bandstand placed in the center.
Red, white; and blue backdrops with
a large silver castle on a blue back
ground, completed the decorations.
Invitations were small replicas
of the Engineer castle with print
ing in the traditional red and white
of the Engineer corps. Small leath
er programs of unique design were
presented at the door by Jack
Yardley, chairman of the program
committee.
In Duncan hall, which was open
ed for dancing for the first time
last night, members of the Com
posite and Signal regiments danced
to the music of Noble Sissle and
his nationally-famous negro or
chestra.
Decorations were along the same
patriotic theme as the Engineers,
but were touched off by neon
Chemical Warfare and Signal Corps
insignia at each end of the hall.
The ceiling was covered by a solid
canopy of red and white crepe pa
per strung the entire length of the
hall. f'
Tonight, the Hillel club will take
over Duncan with the Aggieland
orchestra dishing out the jive, and
in Sbisa Herb Miller will provide
the rhythm for the Victory Corps
dance.
All sophomores who have been
making out applications for con
tracts in the Infantry regiment
should submit these blanks to the
Infantry office competely filled out
and in correct order by Wednesday,
November 25, stated Lt. Col. L.
W. Marshall, senior instructor of
the Infantry, yesterday.
Any other students who are
eligible for contracts at this time
should fill out applications for
contracts by next Wednesday. This
group includes all those who were
not here during the summer semes
ter, those students who did not
classify for a junior standing when
they should have, and any others
who may now be eligible, and for
some reason have not yet signed
a contract.
These application blanks may be
made out in the Infantry office,
announced Col. Marshall, but all
applications for contracts must be
in by Wednesday, November 25.
Herb Miller Plays
For Corps Dance
At Nine Tonight
Tonight at 9 in Sbisa hall, Herb
Miller and his orchestra will play
for the Victory Corps dance, and
will hold forth until midnight.
Decorations for the Engineers
ball held last night will still be up
;for the corps tonight and the
same band will supply the swing.
Miller is the younger brother of
Glenn Miller, until recently the
number-one bandman in the coun
try.
Uniform for the dance will be
number one with khaki shirts and
black ties, and the scrip will be
the usual 1.10.
Navy, Navy Air, and
Marine Candidates To
Be Given Full Tests
All students interested in joining
the Navy, Naval Air Corps, or
the Marine Corps should report ^
the Assembly hall between 9 a.m.
and 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23,
with all necessary application
blanks and papers properly filled
out and verified.
Joint Recruiting Party Number
Three will arrive at 9 a.m. next
Monday and will stay here as
long as is necessary for the com
pletion of papers of all students
which appear before examining
boards of either the Navy, the
Naval Air Corps, or the Marine
Corps. The purpose of the recruit
ing party is to enlist students
in the deferred programs that are
offered by the respective branches
of the armed service.
Applictetion blanks are avail
able in Dean Bolton’s office; these
should be obtained and properly
filled out before appearing before
the respective examining board.
The recruiting party will not
only handle the actual enlistment,
but also the mental and physical
examinations.
On Wednesday, November 25, a
mobile recruiting unit will be at
the Assembly hall to enlist men
in the Army Air Corps. This unit
will be here only that day, so it
is necessary to repoi’t between 9
a.m. and 6 p.m. of that day.
Men appearing before the Avia
tion Cadet Examining Board should
have all the necessary papers fill
ed out, and in proper order. This
means that the applicant should
have the application blank cor
rectly filled out, signed by his par
ents if under 21, three letters of
recommendation, birth certificate
and consent affidavits in prop
er order.
Alec Templeton held his Town
Hall audience in a trance last night
as he presented a varied program
of swing and the classics in Guion
hall from seven until almost nine.
Featured on the program were
his own original impressions and
improvisions, along with original in
terpretations of the way one^ com
poser’s music might sound if writ
ten by another.
Templeton displayed his genius
by readily turning from the clas
sics, which usually “stiffen” the
corps, to swing and what he calls
“modern jazz.”
The thirty-two year old blind
pianist and composer continually
delighted his audience by his witty
explanations and impersonations.
He was born in South Wales in
the British Isles but reached the
extreme popularity which makes
him a radio favorite in the United
States.
Templeton opened the program
with several classical selections
from Schumann, Bach, Roberts,
and Beethoven. The second part of
the program was very informal,
and it was in this portion that the
audience saw Alec Templeton, the
musical wit.
Gertie Is Having
Her Face Lifted,
Or Is It the Heat
Gertrude, the Administration
building, is having her face lifted!
Yessir, everyday now for the past
week, workers have been chipping
old make-up off of Gertie’s mug.
’Course, their removing it doesn’t
make Gertrude looK as bad as it
does most girls, but then Gertie is
the glamor girl of the campus.
Seriously, they are repairing the
roof and chalking the mortar be
tween the building stones. They
say it leaks.
Christmas Bundles
Must Be In Mail
By December First
Movie Films on Russia Depict
War-Marred Lives of Mongols
Shreveport Times.
“Lieut. John Tyson of Timpson,
Texas, member of one of Brig.
Gen. Claire L. Chennault’s bomber
crews in China, has been awarded
the silver star for gallantry in
action, according to an Associated
Press dispatch received from Amer
ican forces in China.
Lieutenant Tyson, 23-year-old
son of Mr. and Mrs. Austin Tyson
of Timpson, was a member of a
bomber crew that attacked Jap
anese concessions in Hankow on
July 16. He is one of 36 officers
and men decorated for heroism and
and galantry in action by General
Chennault, commander of Ameri
can air forces in China.
“Tyson was born in Timpson,
was graduated from Timpson high
school, attended the College of
Marshall and Texas A.&M. College
for two and one-half years. He
enlisted while a student there and
entered the service Aug. 9, 1941.
He received basic training at Cim
arron Field, Okla., and advanced
training at Randolph and Elling
ton fields. He was commissioned
a second lieutenant in February,
1942, and sailed over seas last
May 5. He has two sisters, Mrs.
Lovis Harrison of Timpson and
Miss Eugenia Tyson of Houston.
He received his commission as
First Lieutenant October 24, 1942.
Chennault Warning
“In presenting the decorations
General Chennault congratulated
the assembled fighter and bomb
er squadrons for their brilliant
combat records but warned, “We’ve
got to hit harder. The Jap hasn’t
yet been driven out of China and
we’ve got to do it.”
“Distinguished Flying Crosses
went to Major Charles W. Sawyer,
of Emmett, Idaho, and Capt Bert
M. Carleton, Proctor, Texas.
In Russia there is an old peasant
adage: “Russia is not a country.
It is a world.” This “world”, whose
land comprises one-sixth of the
land surface of the earth, which is,
roughly, about the size of the
moon, has come, in a sense, to the
College Library for two weeks.
Through the American Council on
Soviet Relations sixty-one photo
graphs on cooperative farming in
the Soviet Republic are on display
in the lobby of the first floor.
They are not ordinary photo
graphs in any sense. They depict
through the medium of excellent
photography a Russian people
whose intense devotion to the Rus
sian land has throughout history
proved to be stronger than Napol
eon, the Tzarist regime, or Hitler
and his Nazi hordes. It becomes
easier to realize this love of the
land when we see how close the
people live to it, how it is, in fact,
their life. In every photograph
the expression on the faces of the
people reflects devotion: it is seen
in the face of the camel herder on
a collective camel farm in the Stal
ingrad region; in the strong, light
ed features of the senior sheep-
herder on a farm in North Caucas
us, in the faces of the children car
ing for the lambs or eating honey,
and in the proud bearing of every
member of the Chuckchee family
in Northern Siberia.
These are not merely devoted
farmers, they are scientific farm
ers, as is evident in the scenes of
agronomists collecting specimens
for laboratories, girl students
studying botany, and attentive
groups in the Ukraine listening to
harvest instructions. Prize cattle
in lands now occupied and plunder
ed by the Nazis were kept in light
ed, clean stalls where they were
given shower baths and had their
faces mopped with their own towel?
after feeding.
There are many scenes of women
working in the fields, driving trac
tors, and caring for dairies, while
the babies are kept in portable nur
series close to the scene of their
mothers’ work. Young and lovely
white Russian girls in peasant
costumes harvesting apples make
charming photographs. Equally
charming, but quite different, is
the photograph of the Mongolian
mother with her plump, slant-eyed
baby on her hip.
It is these people we see har
vesting their crops who are now
fighting in a shell of a city after
89 days of relentless siege for
their land and the life it gives
them. It is evident that they have
no intention of giving over one
inch of it permanently to the Ger
mans.
The movie program in the libra
ry tonight at 7:15 and 8:45 will be
devoted entirely to more about
Russia. Probably the most inter
esting of the films to be shown
in the Red Army. This is no stereo
typed military review, but such a
stirring insight into the activit
ies of the famous army that it
conveys the illusion that every
scene is one of actual warfare.
The Cossacks mounted on mag
nificent black horses thunder
across the ground slashing with
their sabres in true historic man
ner. Ski troops in camouflage run
through glistening, deep winter
snow and fall suddenly to the
ground to fire their guns. There
are grand shots of Russian planes
flying in formation and of para
troops taking off from them witfi
clocklike accuracy. The speed of
tank troops is demonstrated in
several breathtaking scenes.
The film ends with scenes of the
Central Red Army House in Mos
cow and thousands of Russian
soldiers marching in Red Square.
The commentator concludes: “The
Russian people love their army.”
For Honoring and Country shows
something of the superhuman Rus
sian civilian defense. There is a
splendid shot in this film of hun
dreds of civilians, as far as the
eye can see, all working in con
certed effort at digging a tank
trap.
The Soviet Arctic is a film show
ing a four-motored plane carrying
mail to different outposts in the
Soviet Arctic region.
Two films deal with Russian cit
ies, one Heroic Sevastopol, was
made before the fall of Sevastopol
and is outstanding for a scene giv
ing a bayonet charge.
With a musical background fam
ous scenes of the Moscow-Volga
Canal, the Volga River, the Red
Square, and the Kremlin are shown
in Impressions of Moscow.
These fierce, fighting people have
carried out mobilization to the very
limit of their capacity; the entire
population from frail old men and
women making bombs in factories
to children doing sentry duty in
fields is working for war, but the
Russian artists are still creating
music. The movie program will
conclude with an unusual movie
of the Moscow Symphony Orches-
tra playing a composition of the
young Russian composer, Dmitri
Shostakovitch, who has found time
from his duties as a fire warden
to write his Seventh Smyphony. In
this movie tonight he plays the
piano while the Orchestra accom
panies him in “The Waltz” from
his score, Golden Mountains. The
music is excellently recorded; it is
alive with the vibrant emotions of
the Russian people and ends the
program on a hopeful note.
The bulk of Christmas mail must
be in the post offices by December
1 this year if deliveries on time
are to be assured, according to
Smith W. Purdum, Second Assist
ant Postmaster General. Purdum
is responsible to Postmaster Gener
al Frank C. Walker for smooth and
efficient air and railway mail
service.
Unpi'ecedented wartime demands
on the postal and transportation
systems, plus a prospective record
volume of Christmas mailings, were
cited by Purdum as necessitating
earlier mailings than ever before.
“It is physically impossible for the
railroads and air lines, burdened
with vitally important war mater
ials, to handle Christmas mailings
as rapidly as in normal times,”
Purdum said. “If the bulk of par
cels and greeting cards are held
back until the usual time—the per
iod of about December 15 to 23—
they simply cannot be distributed
in time, and thousands of gifts will
reach their destinations after
Christmas.”
In 1941, about 21,950 mail cars
were required between December
12 and 24 to deliver Christmas
mails—enough cars to make a train
270 miles long. This year, the ex
tra cars needed to move holiday
mails are largel ybeing used by
the armed services, and a severe
shortage is in prospect.
The postal service usually bor
rows about 2,500 trucks from the
Army and other Government agen
cies, and rents about 10,000 from
private owners, to handle the
Christmas mails. This year, it will
be extremely difficult to obtain
enough of these vehicles to meet
even a substantial part of the
need. The Army needs its own
trucks and private owners are re
luctant to let someone else use
their tires.
Essays Explain What Spirit of
Aggieland Is to Movie Producers
Over Twenty-Five Entries Were Turned In
To A&M Publicity Office for Consideration
Bob Gulley, E Battery Field, and John Stout, H Field,
are the first and second place winners, respectively, in the
Walter Wanger “Spirit of Aggieland” ^contest held by the
movie-makers to find out just what the spirit of Aggieland
is so that it may be embodied in the motion picture.
Gulley will be awarded a $50 war bond and Stout gets
a $25 bond. Each will be introduced to Miss Anne Gwynne,
female lead in the picture.
turned in to the publicity office,
and were sent to Hollywood where
they were studied by Universal of
ficials. Judges were G. Byron Win
stead, college publicity director;
E. N. Holmgreen, college business
manager; Jack Rawlins, director
of the movie; E. E. McQuillen, di
rector of the Former Students As
sociation; and Fred Franks, pro
duction manager.
Outstanding about Gulley’s entry
was the fact that it not only ex
plained the “spirit,” but was told
in such a form that it was possible
for the film makers to use much
of the material in the picture.
He told the story of his fish year
at A. & M. day by day, putting in
the little details that made fish
life so “thrilling” under the pre
war regime. According to G. Byron
Winstead, “Gulley told his story
in an interesting, informal, ten
derly sympathetic manner, and
some of the events were so human,
there was really no doubt about
which entry would win the contest
after all the entries were in.”
Stout’s entry was in the form of
a little booklet, with the cover and
illustrations cut from the Battalion
magazine and Longhorn of 1940.
It was dedicated to Gen. G. F.
Moore and contained humorous car
toons and other illustrations (in
cluding one Tumlinson Boy) be
sides the many pages of written
matter telling just what the Aggie
spirit is.
Prizes will be awarded after
Misses Gwynne and O’Driscoll ar
rive on the campus November 26.
Press Club Picture
Scheduled for Monday
The Press Club including The En
gineer, The Agriculturist, The Bat
talion newspaper and magazine
staffs will have their pictures made
for the Longhorn Monday, Novem
ber 23 at 1:45 p. m. on the steps
of the east entrance to the Admin
istration building. Wool pants,
khaki shirts and khaki ties will be
worn. Seniors will wear boots.
Organist Presented
By Baptist Church
Elwin Myrick, concert organist,
will present a half hour of organ
selections Sunday night at 7:45 at
the College Station First Baptist
Church.
Myrick is enrolled in the Naval
Training school here on the cam
pus.
Sound Recordings
Made at Long Yell
Session Thursday
Film and Wax Records Made
In 2 Hour Practice; Corps
Tires As Retakes Necessary
Sound recordings were made of
the yells and songs of the corps
in a special session of yell practice
held on Kyle Field from 8 until
10 p.m. Thursday night.
About 3,000 cadets attended the
session and recordings were made
by the sound department of Uni
versal Pictures on both sound film
and wax records.
Members of the corps became
tired and restless after so many
rehearsals and re-takes, but in the
end satisfactory recordings were
made of the yells and songs.
Sound Director Bill Fox, assist
ed by Ken Darby, musical direct
or, and Head Yell Leader “Chuck”
Chambers, was in charge of tKe
work.
Many re-takes were made neces
sary by an airplane that repeated
ly flew over the field, by a dog
that semeed to bark at just the
wrong time, and by members of
the corps who broke in too soon
or coughed during supposedly quiet
spots in the yells.
Records of Farmers Fight, Ag
gies, Old Army, Wildcat, Twelfth
Man, Goodbye to Texas, and The
Spirit of Aggieland were made,
after which the Singing Cadets,
led by Richard Jenkins, made rec
ords of several songs and Christ
mas carols.
The Aggie band played for the
corps songs, and was under the
direction of Lt. Col. Richard J.
Dunn.
Maintenance Is Due
And Payable Until 7th
December fees are now payable
to the Fiscal department, it was
announced yesterday. Total amount
due is $36.45.
Fees can be paid anytime from
now until December 7. Anyone
failing to pay them by that time
will be dropped from the rolls of
the college. It is urged that stu
dents pay their fees as soon as
possible so as to prevent a rush
before the deadline.
This payment covers maintenance
through January 23, 1943, and
includes board $26.90, room rent
$6.85, and laundry $2.70.
Less Than 35 MPH Prescribed
For Some Old Collegiate Autos
By John Kieran
If the class will come to order,
the old Professor will explain the
virtues of the 35-mile-an-hour limit
for the speed of autos for the dura
tion, with special reference to its
application in collegiate circles.
Having seen many of the rattle
traps operated by undergraduate
chauffeurs, this past master me
chanic is of the opinion that it is
unsafe to operate most of them at
even normal glacier speed (1 mile
per week, Leap Years excepted)
under normal atmospheric pressure
and local traffic conditions. At any
thing above 15 m.p.h. they were
dangerous to the life and limb of
innocent bystanders or other occu
pants of the streets. They have a
tendency to come apart at the
seams with celerity and shed parts
in all directions.
Automotive experts have charts
and figures to prove that autos
are operated most economically at
a speed under 35 m.p.h. and it is
to be hoped than .undergraduates
(even those on probation) realize
that we are—or should be—alive to
the necessity of sticking relentless
ly to a war-time economy. It should
cause the ordinary undergraduate
to throw out his chest when he
realizes that he really has a chance
to be sensible and helpful by stay
ing inside the legal limit when he
goes tootling forth in his gasoline
chariot. He saves gas. He saves
rubber. He saves wear and tear on
the nerves of older citizens and
members of the faculty, though
maybe it was a mistake to bring
that up. This ancient alumnus of
the campus horse-and-buggy era
always- thought that undergradu
ates of later days whizzing along
in cars at 50 or 60 m.p.h. were
usually heading for trouble, any
way. Some of those ridefc came to
no good end. Maybe a fellow hurt
only himself in those days. Now
he hurts everybody—and no fool
ing!—by speeding. Stay under 35
miles per hour. That’s the limit—
the decent and patriotic limit.