PAGE 2
THE BATTALION
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, AUGUST 25, 1944
STUDENT TRI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College
?f Texas and the City of College Station is published three times weekly, and issued
Tuesday,, Thursday and Saturday mornings except during the summer semester when
it is published two times weekly and issued on Tuesday and Friday afternoon* and
is the official publication of the students of the A. & M. College of Texas and serves
unofficially in the interest of the enlisted personnel of the United States Army and
Navy stationed on the campus.
Entered as second class matter at the Post Office at College Station, Texas,
mder the Act of Congress of March 8, 1870.
Subscription rate $3 per 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 5, Administration Building. Telephone 4-1444.
Member
Fbsocided Cplle&ide Press
Calvin Brumley Editor
Dick Goad Managing Editor
Alfred Jefferson Managing Editor
S. L. Inzer Sports Editor
J. W. Bell Sports Writer
Renyard W. Canis Backwash Editor
Robert Gold : Reporter
Eli Barker Reporter
D. V. Hudson Reporter
B. J. Blankenship Reporter
Dick Osterholm Reporter
Jimmie Deraopulos Cartoonist
Preparation, Practice, Performance . ..
It is a long established precept that any person or group
of persons subject to human frailties will make mistakes but
it is also true that mistakes can be eliminated by thought
before action and by careful practice before action is taken.
Any organization or individual which expects to function
smoothly must put in long periods of practice.
There can be no expectation that a person completely
unfamiliar with a particular job can perform that task
without a period of preparation and introduction. It has
been the practice in the United States to devote approxi
mately the first twenty years of life to formal education and
the remainder to informal learning and the business of
making a living. >
Any group which represents A. & M. College should be
thoroughly trained because it is certain that an institution
with the excellent standing of A. & M. does not desire to
have its name associated with an individual or group of
individuals which cannot do their best because of scanty
preparation. These facts are certainly pertinent when con
sideration is given the right of the corps to practice in those
things which represent the student body.
For many seasons the “Twelfth Man” has been recog
nized as the most perfectly drilled and disciplined student
body in the Southwest Conference. The reputation for lusty
yelling at football games has largely been gained by the
precision timing which is employed. This timing requires
practice.
Aggie conduct at games is also praised. The gentlemanly
conduct is attributable to responsibility taken by yell lead
ers and cadet officers. Proper group conduct is best attain
ed by practice $f the group itself rather than practice in
dividually.
Yell practices are undoubtedly the only means of at
taining group precision and they are also perhaps the best
means of obtaining group discipline at football games.
A Job for the Twelfth Man ...
This fall an unusual situation confronts the corps in
that two of the football games are scheduled for the week
between the summer and fall semesters. The first game
against Bryan Field is scheduled for Saturday, September
23, one day after the summer semester ends and the second
game is scheduled for September 30, the Saturday before
registration opens on Monday, October 1.
The problem confronting the “Twelfth Man” is the
necessity of cutting short the weeks vacation between semes
ters in order that the corps may be in the stands at both
games. The problem is further complicated by the fact that
the second game will be in Alamo Stadium in San Antonio
against Texas Tech.
Any inconvenience that might arise if the corps at
tends both of these games is more than offset by the sup
port which they can give the team. The football team needs
the spirit of the corps at every game and especially do they
need the complete “Twelfth Man” at the first few games.
It is the corps job to be on hand at every game possible. The
corps is a part of the Fighting Aggie Team and no Aggie
would think for a minute about sending an incomplete team
on the field. The football team is not complete without the
“Twelfth Man.”
Every man of the student body who calls himself an
Aggie will be on Kyle Field September 23 and also in Alamo
Stadium on September 30. The first few games of the season
will, in a large measure, determine the possibilities of a vic
torious season. The “Twelfth Man” must function.
SOMETHING TO READ
Edna B. Woods
Ass’t Circulation Librarian
FAIR STOOD THE WIND
FOR FRANCE
by H. E. Bates
The attention of the world is
focused on France. The French
people anxiously await the moment
when they will be completely free
from the oppression and disgrace
of German domination. Practically
their only contributions to civiliza
tion in the past three years have
resulted from their efforts to
house and feed allied fighters and
secret service personnel, and to
smuggle them to channels of safe
ty. The actions of the French
Underground were limited by ne
cessity, bnt its members have work
ed none the less diligently.
Fair Stood the Wind for France,
an adventure novel, is the story of
French patriots who worked for
the survival of France. More litera
ry than most novels with similar
plots, Fair Stood the Wind for
France describes the French ter
rain and the inhabitants of the
southern provinces with accuracy
and understanding.
A broken airscrew forces a Well
ington bomber and its crew of 5
members into a crash-landing. The
catastrophe occurred in southern
France as the English crew was
returning from a bombing mission
over Italy. All members except the
pilot, whose arm was severely in
jured, landed safely. Immediately,
upon landing, members of the
crew, bound together by many com
mon experiences, begin a new ex
perience. This time, they must con
ceal themselves thoroughly, and at
the same time, they must seek as
sistance which will facilitate their
escape from occupied territory. To
reveal their identity erronneously
is to place themselves in a German
prison camp; to involve French
citizens is to endanger their lives.
H. E. (Herbert Ernest Bates, the
author of Fair Stood the Wind for
France, is a R. A. F. Squadron lead-
der. He was one of the creative
writers admitted to the Air forces
to serve and to write. Mr. Bates,
a widely anthologized short story
writer, was not known or read by
the bulk of the American reading
public before the publication of this
novel. However, the tone of his
writing is largely American. His
story is. appealing, since all of us
are continously interested in the
fate of our airmen who are forced
down over enemy territory.
Fair Stood the Wind for France
isn’t spoiled by the melodrama that
has saturated other similar books.
Told simply in a straightforward
manner typical of the English, it
combines a moving love story with
the dangerous adventures of an
injured pilot and his crew.
Francoise, “the girl” as she is
called throughout the book, and her
family accept the responsibility of
helping the unfortunate crew, but
apparently they aren’t enthusiastic
about it. Their matter-of-fact at
titude makes the story more real
istic and its sequence more logical.
Francoise, according to Henry
Seidel Canby, may be intended to
symbolize France. Calmness, intel
ligence, sympathy, and idealism
combine themselves in her charac
ter. Her enduring faith fulfills not
only her own spiritual needs, but
(See LIBRARY, Page 4)
t BACrWA/H
By Renyard
W. Canis
Backwash: An agitation resulting from some action or occurrence.”—Webster.
P LANS ARE UNDERWAY, in
fact they are practically com
plete, for a big weekend for the
Aggies in San Antonio after the
Aggies win their second Alamo
Stadium victory over the Texas
Red Raiders on September 30.
Dick Smith, president of the San
Antonio A. & M. club, reports that
the Alamo City Aggies have com
pleted arangements for the use of
the Hotel Gunter Rose Room on
that night.
It will be a big weekend. To
start things off there will be the
customary yell practice in down
town San Antonio which will be
climaxed by a victorious sixty min
utes of football which will be topp
ed off by an unKnown amount of
dancing and merry, making. Some
few Aggies have expressed the fear
that there will not be enojUgh
Aggies in the Alamo City to have
a yell practice in view of the fact
that the game is on the Saturday
before school opens for the fall
semester. Someone has suggested
that the roll be called just before
yell practice.
Rumor HAS IT that the Ag-
gieland Orchestra will play for the
Aggie Gridiron Dance. Sounds
good. The Aggieland made a swell
initial showing at their first ap
pearance and since that time they
have received arrangements of
new pieces and have rehearsed
(See BACKWASH, Page 3)
Man, Your Manners
By I. Sherwood
If
Men are inclined to skip any in
formation on setting a table and
serving a meal and yet table ser
vice cannot be separated from ta
ble manners. A man who is a per
fect host is pretty apt to have
had a great deal of gracious living,
when a boy, that furnished him
with a background for his present
day living.
Nice table manners just don’t
happen; they come from proper
training when young, and con
tinued practice of proper table
technique throughout a lifetime;
they are very revealing, and if
yours are remiss you had better
go to work on them.
Just how valuable they are you
will never know but the following
story may serve as an illustration:
A young man of high academic
rating had been interviewed by
the president of a large manufac
turing company, in view of getting
a job, only to be turned down. The
owner of the company had taken
the young man out to lunch and he
gave as his excuse for turning him
down, that his company could not
have a representative, who could
not eat properly.
We indulge in the necessary pro
cess of eating on an average of
three meals a day throughout our
lives, and since we are so often
judged by the way we eat, we
should know how to do it correctly.
Such a knowledge will save us
embarrassment.
PENNY’S SERENADE
W. L. Penberthy —■
Earl Thomson of Dartmouth was
one of the best high hurdlers this
country has known. He was the
Olympic champion in 1920 and the
first man to of
ficially run the
■ event in 14 2/5
Hseconds. I once
|iheard a man
J speak who knew
1 Thomson and had
watched him
work out. He said
W&m that Thomson
£ ' " S;'
•§§|gwas so diligent in
his training that
he could place a
nickel on top of
Penb«rthy a hurdle and
knock it off without touching the
hurdle. To attain this degree of
performance, it surely must have
taken many hours of practice be
yond what would be considered as
sufficient to develop a good hurd
ler.
Our fall football practice start
ed on Monday and we have a fine
looking group of young men try
ing out for the team. These men
will practice long and hard and
out of the group will emerge those
who will represent the college in
our games this season. Most of
these boys will practice during the
regular practice periods but there
will be some who will arrive early
and remain after practice each day
to improve their kicking, passing
or some other skill in which they
desire to excell. They will work
out whenever they have the time.
These men will stand out on our
team and many spectators will re
mark about their unusual ability
not knowing that they paid the
price to develop themselves into
expert performers.
The successful men and women
I know have no set number of
hours to work. They put in the
amount of time necessary to do the
job right—they pay the price. Our
government is recognizing this in
the citations given with awards, for
bravery. These citations often
point out that the honored soldier
or sailor performed beyond the
call of duty.
If we have average ability, we
can usually get by with doing the
prescribed amount of work; but if
we want to be outstanding we have
to work overtime—we have to pay
the price.