A. & M. Philosophy Degree
New Answer to Old Problem
By Wick van Kouenhoven
A. & M. is trying “something
different” in setting up the new
“Looking at America” graduate
series, in order to provide its en
gineering graduates with a better
background in cultural and social
aspects of life today. A survey
of other engineering schools shows
that the necessity of broadening
the background of engineers is
recognized by leading institutions
and many different solutions are
now in use.
The A. & M. requirements are
for most engineering courses, five
semesters of English (one of
which is in public speaking), one
semester of government, and one
of economics. Non-technical elec
tives often result in adding one
semester each of government and
economics.
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology, generally considered to be
America’s top engineering school,
has about the same amount of
cultural and sociological subjects
as A. & M. At M.I.T. the required
curriculum includes two semes
ters of English, two semesters of
Government, and two semesters
of Economics.
However, M.I.T. in an effort to
turn out technologists with a bet
ter awareness of the world and
how it got in this mess, encour
ages its future students to enroll
in a liberal arts college and spend
three years there before entering
the great Cambridge institute.
Tech has made cooperative ar
rangements with about a dozen
such colleges—all of them with
strong science and mathematics
departments — whereby students
take three years of liberal arts
there, two years of engineering
at M.I.T., and receive two degrees
in five years—B. A. from the lib
eral arts college, the appropriate
B. S. from the Institute.
Cal Tech
California Institute of Tech
nology, now regarded as our No.
1 science school and a top-drawer
engineering institute, has made
Hughes Honored
By County Supers;
Taught 49 Years
William L. Hughes, for 49 years
a teacher and for 29 years head
of the Texas A. & M. College De
partment of Education, was hon
ored recently with a cash gift
and the admonition “Take a vaca
tion or buy a new suit—if you can
find one” by the Association of
Texas County Superintendents and
Supervisors, an organization he
founded in 1924.
Born in Williamson County,
Texas, March 1, 1877, Hughes was
educated in Howard Payne Col
lege, the University of Texas, and
Texas A. & M. College, receiving
his B. A. from Howard Payne in
1920, a B. S. from A. & M. in
1921, and his Master of Science
William L. Hughes
degree from Texas A. & M. in
1922.
He began his teaching career
in the public schools of William
son County at the age of 20 and
in 1920 came to College Station
to organize and head the A. & M.
Consolidated School. Two years
later he joined the College Staff
as head of the newly created De
partment of Education.
Seeing a need for a permanent
organization among the county of
ficials of Texas’ public schools, he
organized that group in its first
annual meeting in 1924. Since
that time, this group has met at
Texas A. & M. College each year,
missing only 1942-43 because of
the war.
In 1928, he was elected presi
dent of the Texas State Teachers
Association, in which he holds a
life-time membership. In Sep
tember, 1945, he retired from ac
tive leadership of the Department
of Education, but continues to
teach in that department.
the inclusion of certain broad
humanities electives a definite
part of their policy. The insti
tute states in its catalogue that a
few technical courses had to be
sacrificed in order to do this,
although most other engineering
schools “accord little more than
a gesture of recognition to the lib
eral arts.”
During the first year at Cal
Tech, there are full classes in
both English and History. However,
the class in history may be tak
en during the sophomore year
instead. In any event, a com
prehensive examination in both
subjects must be passed at the
end of the/ sophomore year.
More English
Additional English is carried
through the junior year, and dur
ing the senior year humanities
electives must be selected from
Philosophy, Ethics, or Literature;
and social science electives from
Current History, U. S. Constitu
tion, Economics and Business Law.
(Incidentally, Cal Tech uses the
grade-point system.)
Another institution checked by
the Batt’s researcher is the Uni
versity of Michigan, whose engin
eering school was the first in the
middle west. There a double dose
of English is taken the first year,
and economics throughout the sec
ond year. A single semester of
English is taken • in either the
third or fourth year, and a num
ber of non-technical electives are
required, some of them being in
the field of humanities.
Purdue, which is the Indiana
land-grant school and might as
easily have been named Indiana
A. & M., requires English through
the first year, but exempts from
freshmen English those who are
in the upper third on the orien
tation exam. An English speech
class and an economics class take
one semester apiece in the sopho
more year. During the junior
year, a non-technical elective is
carried each semester, from Eng
lish, Psychology, Government, His
tory or Economics.
Concrete Effort
In establishing a definite pro
gram of postgraduate work in the
humanities for engineers, A. &
M. is making a concrete effort to
solve one of the gravest problems
confronting technical schools.
Whether or not the plan is suc
cessful depends on the number of
graduates who are willing and
able to carry on that plan of
study, after leaving the campus
and starting to dig for a toe
hold in the industrial world.
A parting note: the problem
of how to give a complete edu
cation in four years is not limit
ed to technical institutes. Many
liberal arts schools find that the
amount of work in such a field as
social science is so vast that their
students come out with only a
vague smattering of the physical
sciences. It is hard indeed to
turn out a fully educated grad
uate today!
Texas AaM
The B
alion
VOLUME 45
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, THURSDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 27, 1946
NUMBER 70
Additions to Teaching Staff Vets Plan Big
Announced by Departments
Names of seven new additions
to the teaching staff of A. & M.
College were announced this week.
Dr. Paul J. Woods, of Cham
paign, Illinois has been added to
the staff of the Department of
History as an assistant professor,
according to Dr. S. R. Gammon,
head of the department.
Dr. Wood received his Ph. D.
from the University of Illinois in
1941, and until recently was serv
ing as a major in the 3rd Ar
mored Division in the European
Theater of Operations.
Dr. John H. Hill of Marshall,
Texas, has been added to the staff
of the Department of History as
an assistant professor.
Dr. Hill received his Ph. D.
from the University of Texas this
year, and has been an instructor
there while doing his advanced
work. He is an ex-serviceman
and is specializing in European
history.
Philip Goode, former Dallas
attorney and insurance execu
tive, has been added to the staff
of the Department of Economics,
according to D. F. B. Clark, head
of the department.
Goode is a native of Fisher
County, Texas, and is a graduate
of both the S. M. U. Law School
and the S. M. U. School of Com
merce. He will teach economics
and business law.
Stillman A. Sims, formerly of
Marble Falls, Texas, has been ad
ded to the staff of the Mathe
matics Department, Dr. W. L.
Porter, head of the Department,
announced.
Sims received his Master of Arts
degree from Texas A. & M. Col
lege in 1940, and was an acting
instructor in mathematics during
the war. He formerly taught in
public schools at Marble Falls,
Mexia, and Kennedy.
Dr. John A. Daum, formerly of
5840 N. 29th St., Omaha, Nebras
ka, has been added to the staff of
'the Mathematics Department.
Dr. Dean received his Ph.
D. from the University of Nebras
ka in 1940, acting as an assistant
instructor while doing his grad
uate work. He served in the
armed forces for over three years.
Derwood Timmons, of McKin
ney, Texas, former Air Force Ma
jor and holder of the Silver Star;
and James Mangrum, formerly of
University of Oklahoma and an
ex-malaria control officer in Ja
pan and the Pacific, have recently
been added to the staff of the
Department of Biology at Texas
A. & M. College, Dr. C. C. Doak,
head of the department, an
nounced.
Mangrum, graduate of Duke
University, from Gatlinburg,
Tenn., recently returned from
service with the Army, during
which time he attained the rank
of Captain. His field is parasit
ology, and he was formerly as
sociated with the Fisheries Insti
tute. His wife is a former as
sistant professor of physical edu
cation at O. U. and is an expert
dog fancier, being considered an
authority on cocker spaniels.
Timmons, who took his M. A.
at Texas A. & M. College in 1942,
is a former bombardier with the
15th Air Force in Sicily and
Italy. Specializing in plant
ecology, he taught in the public
school in Quero before leaving for
the Army. His wife is presently
a senior at TSCW and his baby
daughter is “practice” baby in the
TSCW home economics cottage,
where home ec students learn by
doing. Timmons holds the Silver
Star, the Air Medal, and Presi
dential Citation.
COMMUNITY CHEST
MEETS FRIDAY
The College Community Chest
Committee will hold an open
meeting in the YMCA assembly
room at 3 o’clock Friday, June
28. A report of the committee
for the school year 1945-46 will
be made at this meeting. All
persons wishing to offer sug
gestions, or discuss the program
with the committee, are invited
to attend this meeting.
After Taps
Midnight Mailman Hurries
Late Letters On Their Way
That man who goes slipping
from dormitory to dormitory after
taps is not a second-story worker,
out to steal what few valuables A.
& M. students possess. It’s Bill
Huddleston of the Midnight Mail.
Of all campus activities, the
Midnight Mail is probably the
least publicized. But it is a valu
able service to students whose fam
ilies live in Houston, Dallas, Fort
Worth or points beyond.
In every domitory there is a
special box—not a U. S. mail box
but a concessionaire’s—in which
mail may be deposited up to
10:30 at night, for a small fee.
This mail is collected by Huddles
ton every night except Saturday,
and turned over to postal officials
on the midnight train. The letters
are delivered unsorted, but postal
clerks on the train sift them out.
By the time the midnight special
has puffed up to Bremond, south
bound letters had been separated,
and are transferred to the Hous
ton-headed mail train.
Under this system, a boy may
write, a letter to his dad in Dallas
at 10 in the evening, and have the
letter get to home or Dad’s office
in the first morning mail, a few
hours after writing. As most let
ters are written in the evening, aft
er the post-offices are closed, this
means a saving of a whole day.
During regular sessions, with so
many cadets writing to Tessies at
TSCW, most of the “dating” is
done via the Midnight Mail. When
a big prom is coming up, Huddles
ton is the nearest thing to an Ag
gie Cupid. At such times, more
than half the total mail handled
by him is bound for Denton.
Bill Huddleston, the present
midnight mailer, is a Pet. Engi
neering major, and was originally
in the class of ’46. He joined the
Navy and was sent to Louisiana
Tech in the V-12 program, but
was released after being severely
injured in a car wreck.
Church Youth Group
Holds Conference
On Campus Here
“A. and M. never looked more
like a co-ed school.” Such was
the verdict of regular summer
students as almost 500 East Texas
young people poured onto the cam
pus Monday to attend the first
post-war meeting of the Metho
dist Youth Fellowship of the Tex
as Conference, which is being held
here all week. The young people,
of high school age, represent the
area from Texarkana to the Gulf
Coast, and are being housed in
college dormitories and are eat
ing in the college cafeterias.
On Friday Dr. Paul Quii-
ian, noted Houston preacher and
pastor of the First Methodist
Church there, will deliver a com
mencement address for the group.
All meetings are being held in
Sbisa Hall.
Rev. R. C. Terry, pastor of the
A. & M. Methodist Church, is
official host to the group.
Auditions for
“H.M.S. Pinafore”
Start Tonight
Tryouts for the Gilbert-Sullivan
operetta, H. M. S. Pinafore will be
held tonight in the old assembly
hall at 8 o’clock. It is hoped that
all parts may be cast tonight and
all students who are interested are
asked to come out.
The symphony orchestra of 26
pieces is in rehearsal already and
Bill Turner, leader of the group,
states that still more musicians can
be used.
The musical, sponsored by the
Aggie Players, Singing Cadets and
A. & M. Symphony orchestra, will
be presented toward the end of the
summer.
Harnden Named
All-American
Art Hamden, Texas A. & M.
track star, has been named on
the All-American Track Team
by the National Collegiate
Athletic Association.
Harnden has hung up a fine
record running the 400 meter
and the 440 yard events in
several intersectional meets
this year.
What’s Cooking
Thursday, June 27
7:30 p.m.: Students Rainey-for-
Govemor Club, YMCA chapel.
7:30 p.m.: Club Scouts, Pack
102 regular meeting at A. & M.
Consolidated School Gym, Parents
and friends invited.
8:00 p.m.: Tryouts for “H. M.
S. Pinafore” at Assembly Hall.
8:15 p.m.: Musical concert at
S. F. Austin High School in Bryan.
Tickets on sale at door.
7:00 p.m.: Meeting of Navy and
Marine corps air personnel in “Y”
chapel. Plans for a party will be
discussed.
Friday, June 28
3:00 p.m.: Open meeting of Col
lege Station Community Chest
Committee. Y. M. C. A. Everyone
invited.
7:30 p.m.: Ex-Servicemens Club
Meeting. Sbisa Hall.
Monday, July 1
7:00 p.m.: Try-outs for College
Station water polo team at Downs
Natatorium.
Tuesday, July 2
7:30 p.m.: Special meeting of
the Camera Club in basement of
Guion Hall to discuss plans for
a picnic.
Barbecue On
July 4 Holiday
Transportation to Be
Furnished; Event Free
To Active Members
Remember the days, long
ago, when you ran amuck at
Fourth of July picnics and
barbecues? The old folks
sat around the barrel while
you kids fell in the lake.
Watch yourself this Fourth,
for you are the old folks now
and the Veteran’s club is
throwing the picnic.
Thursday, July the fourth,
there will be a picnic and barbe
cue for all active members of the
veterans club, their wives, and
their dates. Potato salad, barbe
cue, and refreshments will be
served. There will be soft drinks
for the children. Transportation
will be furnished. Two buses will
leave from behind Sbisa, one at
4:30, the other at 4:45 p. m. A
third bus will leave from the
county court house in Bryan at
4:45 p. m.
Admission is free, but is re
stricted to active members of the
Veteran’s club. Membership cards
will be on sale at the entrance to
the grounds.
The celebration will be held at
the American Legion Post Hall
and Park located on the Madi-
sonville Highway. Everything is
free.
J. Frank Dobie To Speak
In Guion Hall Next Week
J. Frank Dobie, most famous
living Texas writer, will speak on
his experiences at a meeting in
Guion Hall Saturday, July 6, at
7:30. The lecture is sponsored by
the Ex-Servicemen’s Association,
but is open to all who wish to
hear the foremost authority on
Southwestern history.
For many years a member of
the faculty at Texas U., Dobie
won the Pulitzer Prize with “Cor
onado’s Children,” the story of the
early Spanish explorers in Texas.
Many other books of his have
been on the best-seller list, es
pecially the most recent, describ
ing his experiences as a guest
lecturer at Cambridge University,
England. He was so popular in
England that Cambridge did not
want him to leave, but he returned
to Texas a short time ago. His
dispatches from England, de
scribing life in the “tight little
isle” during the war and after
ward, were widely printed in U.
S. newspapers.
Dobie was the first to point
out that Texas does not need to
go to ancient Greece for archi
tectural designs to ornament
buildings. That idea has been
carried out in the newer A. & M.
college buildings, such as the
Animal Industries building with
its grill-work of old ranch-brands,
and the similar grill in the main
reading-room of the library here.
Dobie also has a national repu
tation on as a philosopher and a
thinker on educational problems.
He has been described as “more
like Will Rogers than a tradi
tional university don.”
Vaughn Named
City Manager;
Starts July 1st
Former Instructor in
Engineering Dept, of
College; Was Marine Capt,
Effective July 1, 1946, Francis
Vaughn, former researcher for
the A. & M. College Engineering
Experiment Station, will become
city manager of College Station,
Lloyd D. Smith has resigned to go
into the furniture and hardware
business here.
Vaughn, who was an instructor
in Civil Engineering at A&M from
1940 to 1943, is a native of Hart
ford, Kansas and a gradaute of
Hartford High School. He received
his B.S. Degree in Engineering
from Kansas State College in 1935.
Prior to joining the faculty at A.
& M., he served in the Construction
and Planning Division of the Kan
sas Highway Commission.
From October, 1943 till January,
1946 he served as a captain in the
Marine Corps in the Pacific theater
of operations. Upon being assigned
to inactive duty, he returned to A.
& M. and was engaged in research
on column design at the Engineer
ing Experiment Station. He and
his wife and three boys live at
300 Bolton Drive, College Hills.
Electron Meeting
Draws Students
From Far Places
EE-Physic Departments
Open Graduate Seminar;
Will Run Three Weeks
“Physicists’ physics” is a good
description of the conference on
electron and iron ballistics now
in session on the A. & M. campus.
Researchers are present from as
far away as Delaware for the
three-week seminar on operation
of electron microscopes and mass
spectrometers. The course is one
of the most advanced science clas
ses ever to be given at A. & M.,
and the two lecturers are among
the nation’s leading authorities
on their subjects.
Dr. Ladislaw Marton of the div
ision of electron optics, Stanford
University, and formerly with
RCA, is lecturing two hours daily
during the first two weeks of the
course, discussing the electron
microscope. During the second
week, Dr. John A. Hippie of West-
inghouse Research Laboratories,
will begin a daily discussion of the
mass spectrometer developed by
Westinghouse (one of which is in
regular operation at A. & M.) Dr.
Hippie’s lectures will last through
the third week.
The conference is sponsored joint
ly by the Electrical Engineering
and Physics departments, and is
supervised by the heads of those
departments, M. C. Hughes and
J. G. Potter.
NAVY-MARINE CLUB
There will be a meeting of all
Navy and Marine corp air person
nel in the “Y” chapel Thursday,
June 27, at 7:00 p.m. Plans for a
party will be made at this meet
ing.
Technicolor Tower Is Chief
Landmark of A. & M. Campus
by John Holman
The chief landmark of A. & M.
is not the dome of the Academic
Building, nor the quartz-crystal
tower of the Geology Building. It
is the technicolor water tower
that rears its flaming flanks be
tween the M. E. shops and the
Textile building.
The artistic efforts of hundreds
of Texas A. & M. College Cadet
Corps freshmen, who venture to
the top of the 140 foot steel tower
in the dead of night to smear in
varied color paint the name of
their ROTC company, have made
this water tower a rainbow-col
ored monument to the city water
works.
Over 80 legible inscriptions
grace the round-bottomed counte
nance of this portly, silver tank,
mostly names of Cadet Corps or
ganizations, but including some fe
male names painted by amorous
Aggies who thought the best way
to prove their love would be to
climb a 140 foot steel ladder, hang
at death’s edge with a bucket of
paint, and heroically write with
loving tenderness, “Louise.”
College Station’s water tower
was erected in 1920, and since
then, painting the name of one’s
military organization upon, re
gardless of college regulations to
the contrary, seems to be tradi
tional. The less-courageous mere
ly climb to the tank catwalk and
dabble timidly, but the bolder ca
dets seem to achieve a measure
of greatness by hanging on ropes
from the top of the tank and
stroking on their masterpiece in
the relatively hard-to-get-to up
per parts of the 152,000 gallon
cylinder.
Leading the field in number of
inscriptions is “H” Company In
fantry, which has four of various
sizes and colors. Second with 3
each are “C” Troop Cavalry. “F”
Company Infantry, “G” and “A”
Batteries Field Artillery. Larg
est inscription is the six-foot-high
“BAND,” followed closely by a
large “C” inclosing a pair of
smoking cross-cannons of the field
artillery. Somebody named Tom
evidently leaves somebody named
Lulu, because there it is—“TOM
PLUS LULU”—on the east side
emblazoned in 2 foot letters.
And what does the college think
of all this ? Some say it is an
eye-sore, regulations say “No,”
but B. D. Marburger, head of the
College’s building and utilities de
partment, says “We paint it about
every 6 years.”
Hot Debates on
Food, Shelter,
At Vets Meeting
The largest number of students
ever to turn out for an Ex-
Servicemeh’s Club meeting
threshed over the problems of food
and shelter last Friday. Hot and
vigorous debate featured the pre
sentation of both subjects.
(For a summation of ques
tions asked in regard to the
Sbisa and Duncan mess hall
cafeterias, see the editorial
“The Problem of Food . . in
this issue.)
The investigating committees
which reported to the meeting are
continuing their operations. Club
officials were authorized to ask
the Veteran’s Administration dis
trict office for assistance in solv
ing the problem of how to eat
within the limits of a subsistence
allowance. The club authorized a
committee to check over the books
of the mess-hall cafeterias. A
report was also given on the
three-in-room plan. Another meet
ing will be held tomorrow at 7:30
p.m.
“Woody” Varner
Back In Army
Durward B. Varner has relin
quished his position as assistant
dean of men to go back into the
Army on active duty with the
Quartermaster Corps. Varner left
the middle of this week for Chicago
where he will attend the Univer
sity of Chicago, and complete the
requirements for a Ph. D. degree.
As yet the Office of Dean of Men
has released no information con
cerning who will succeed Varner.
Night Classes in
Biology Labs Are
Campus Innovation
Night classes, something new in
the annals of Texas A. & M. Col
lege, have been inaugurated by
the College to relieve over-crowd
ed laboratory facilities during the
summer term.
Common on such campuses as
the University of Houston and
Southern Methodist University,
night classes have neVer before
been necessary at A. & M., so are
being watched with interest by
both students and members of
the teaching staff.
When asked whether this school-
by-night plan would carry into
the regular fall and winter terms,
Dr. C. C. Doak, head of the Biol
ogy department, said, “It may not
be feasible, considering the man
ner in which the Cadet Corps is
organized, but if the demand for
laboratory facilities is great
enough, I shall recommend night
classes to the Academic Council
as a solution to the classroom
problem.
“We need a new building for
our science classes, and I under
stand we are high on the program
when classroom building is done,
but it may not be wise to con
struct classroom facilities to match
a post-war peak,