Page Two - THE BATTALION, College Station (Aggieland), Texas, Saturday, April 26, 1947:
The Shultz Letter...
Since the storm in Austin over the Shultz letter, many
people have asked the Batt, “What is the Shultz letter?”
That letter, which was circulated early in February and print
ed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, was similar in many re
spects to the prepared statement read by Dr. Walton at the
investigation recently.
The letter was sent to a number of newspapers in the
state, but was considered libelous by most of them, (as it
unquestionably was, under Texas or other state laws). The
Star-Telegram, however, did print it. At the top of the let
ter, as read at the investigation last week, were the words,
“verified and supported by the senior class” and at the bot
tom “written by Delbert V. Shultz, ’46.”
On the witness stand in Austin last week, Shultz testi
fied that he wrote the letter after an interview with Dr. Wal
ton, who gave him the information on which three of the
seven charges were, based. The letter was read to the sen
ior class at a meeting before being mailed to the newspapers,
according to Shultz, who was no longer a student but was on
the campus at the time. (This was during the period when
the cadet officers were holding out.)
Apparently, this letter was not circulated on the cam
pus. Later, during the fuss over Brandt and Nelson, another
letter was drawn up and published in the name of the senior
class, similar only in one point to the Shultz letter.
Charges of suppression of news were made against some
of the newspapers for not printing the letter, by students
who apparently do not understand libel laws.
Charges of a criminal nature, or that tend to defame,
are not publishable in a newspaper unless the charges are
made in court or before an investigating committee, legis
lative body or church court. The fact that a letter or state
ment is signed by someone else does not relieve the news
paper of libel.
Sometimes newspapers take a chance, but it is a dan
gerous proceeding. The paper can be sued, the editor and
publisher can be arrested. On the Battalion, for instance,
Allen Self and Vick Lindley can be held personally respon
sible in court of law for any libel printed, whether attributed
to someone else or not. If the person quoted denies that he
was quoted correctly, the editors are left holding the bag.
Which is one reason why editors get wrinkled so young.
‘Something Galled Fission’.
In August, 1945, the press suddenly became very in
terested, indeed, in the atom. But it cannot be said that its
interest has contributed very much to general enlightenment.
With few exceptions, newspapers fumbled the atom badly.
They were unprepared, for the most part, to satisfy the im
mense public curiosity aroused by the Bomb. A measure
of the newspapers’ failure is the fact that all over the coun
try, clubs and groups of people, failing to find adequate ex
planations in the papers, besought scientists and even pseudo
experts to come and explain to them the elementary facts
about atoms and the Bomb.
Nor can it be said that newspapers have been helpful in
guidance on what to do about the Bomb. Most people clung
to blind belief that the scientists would somehow find a de
fense against it, in spite of the scientists’ attempts (ill-sup
ported by the press) to assure them to the contrary. The
press nudged false hope along by printing silly little stories,
like the one that Bing Crosby’s brother had discovered a way
to stop the Bomb. And newspapers, particularly Hearst’s,
have done much to foster the illusion of safety in secrecy—
“We must not give away the secret!” The press could have
rendered the American people a great service by killing this
idiotic notion, which has obsessed and be-deviled Congress’
entire approach to the problem. It has been clear to scien
tists all along, and they said it again and again, that the
Bomb could not long remain a secret; U.S. insistence on re
taining exclusive possession of the secret (and continued
manufacture of the bombs) could have only one result: to
stimulate other countries to arm themselves with atomic
■weapons of their own.
Of matters scientific, the American people are appal
lingly ignorant. The press is not entirely to blame for this
(incredible as it may seem, in view of all the press and radio
attention to the Bikini bomb tests, a 1946 poll showed that
20% of the people had never heard of the events at Bikini).
If the Bikini bomb tests were intended to contribute to
public enlightenment, the press certainly muffed the ball.
Hundreds of reporters covered the event, but most of them
seemed to have no idea of what happened, except that there
was a big, beautiful explosion. The failure of their stories
to agree, or to present an informative account, is understan
dable, since many of the reporters, to make sure of meeting
deadlines, wrote their stories before the explosions actually
took place. After the big flash, newspapers quickly lost
interest; few bothered to follow up to find out what, if any,
scientific findings developed from the test.
Like atomic energy, radar dazzled, mystified and then
soon wearied the press. After the first dramatic descriptions
of radar’s accomplishments as a military weapon, the papers
dropped it, and radar’s application to improving the safety
of commercial aviation, due to lack of public drive, was de
layed.
Science, in the social as well as the physical realm, is
important to a modern democracy, for democracy rests, at
bottom, on scientific method. It functions best in a climate
of public respect for facts and for expertness. Moreover,
science is a universal, unifying language; like music, it makes
the whole world kin. Its most momentous achievement, the
atomic bomb, was the joint product of Austrian, German,
Italian, Danish, British, French and American scientists.
The -world-wide fraternity of science gives us an internation
al bond which the press is bound to develop and safeguard.
Freedom of science and freedom of the press are two sides
of the same coin.
—The Nieman Reports.
The Battalion
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas and the City of College Station, is published tri-weekly and circulated on
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons.
Member
PHsocioted Gr>lle6iate Press
Entered as second-class matter at Post Office at College Station, (Aggieland),
Texas, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1870.
Subscription rate 4.00 per school year. Advertising rates on request.
Represented nationally by National Advertising Service, Inc., at New York City
Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Allen Self
Vick Lindley
Charles E. Murray
J. K. B. Nelson
David M. Seligman
Paul Martin
Corps Editor
— Veteran Editor
Tuesday Associate Editor
Thursday Associate Editor
Saturday Associate Editor
. .— .......—.... ... Sports Editor
Larry Goodwyn, Andy Matula, Jack Goodloe, Dick Baker, Earl Grant Sports Writers
Wendell McClure Advertising Manager
D. W. Springer Circulation Manager
Ferd B. English, Franklin Cleland, William Miller, Doyle Duncan,
Ben Schrader, Wm. K. Colville, Walter Lowe, Jr., Lester
B. Gray, Jr., Carl C. Krueger, Jr., Mack T. Nolen Reporters
In the Pacific . . .
U S Looks To
623 Former Jap
Mandatedlsles
By A. D. Bruce, Jr.
Saipan, Tinian, Kwajalein, and
Truk, on which many A.&M. vet
erans fought, plus hundreds of
other islands of wartime interest,
constitute an inheritance of former
Japanese-mandated areas which
gives the U.S. a Pacific “enpire”.
The Marshalls, the Carolines and
Marianas, which Japan had held un
der mandate of the League of Nat
ions, comprise 623 islands and
thousands of islets, and cover near
ly 3,000,000 square miles of water
just north of the equator, an area
about as large as the continental
U.S. itself. But their total land
area is only 829 square miles, twice
the size of Los Angeles. Their
population of 85,000 is less than
half that of Miami, Fla.
The island inheritance, however,
is important for other reasons.
PEOPLE added to U.S. responsi
bilities are largely a race of brown
skinned, friendly folk, who are skill
ed at wood carving and fishing, but
little else. They need aid to im
prove their economic and health
conditions. Teachers, doctors, and
administrators should be sent to
help rehabilitate the natives from
effects of the war and prolonged
Japanese rule.
RESOURCES of the islands are
minor. They are limited largely to
phosphorous ores in the form of
guano, to cocanuts and copra. Fish
are plentiful and a fish-drying in
dustry was developed there by the
Japanese before the war, but offici
als doubt that it will be revived.
Actually, in most of the island
groups food is plentiful and the in
centive for work is missing. More
over, the soil on most of the is
lands is unsuited for anything ex
cept cocoanut palms and a few
shrubs.
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE of
of the islands is limited now and the
Navy’s plan to invest $1,000,000,
000 in a network of bases there has
been abandoned. Prospects are that
Tinian, Saipan, and Kwajalein will
be made into permanent bases, the
first two as auxiliaries to a major
naval base at Guam, and with
Kwajalein primarily as an air base.
Truk is likely to be kept solely as
a service recreational center. From
a military viewpoint the importan
ce of U.S. possession of these is
lands is largely in keeping other
nations from gaining a foothold
within the Hawaii-Guam-Alaska
defense triangle.
AIR-LINE SIGNIFICANCE of
Texas City Rates Next to 1865
Blast in Major US Blow-Ups
is great. Here, U.S. possession
means that a network of commer
cial airfields can cover the broad
est expanse of ocean between this
country and Asia. It means that
the U.S. will be linked closely in
peacetime with the Philippines,
with China and Japan, and with
Australia and the East Indies. This
is likely to bring more trade and
closer economic ties with those
areas.
VACATION LANDS also are
subject to development in the tropi
cal island groups. However, it will
take considerable time to convince
many Pacific veterans that any of
these islands might make a suit
able resort spot.
ADMINISTRATION presents a
big question. The Navy is govern
ing all the islands at present. The
Interior Department, which runs
Alaska, believes that it can do a
more efficient job. A new agency
to run all U.S. territory in the
Pacific from headquarters in
Hawaii has been suggested to Con
gress.
★
Island by island, the major real
estate now coming under perman
ent U.S. control through this Pacif
ic inheritance presents the follow
ing picture:
TRUK is a circular atoll that
could safely berth all the world’s
navies at one time. It has a native
population of 9,000 and now is be
ing cleaned up by former Japanese
soldiers who outnumber the 2,000
U. S. Marines stationed there.
There are potentially good, though
now bombed-out, airfields on three
islands in the atoll, an excellent
harbor, a few Quonset huts and
large numbers of thatched-roof
houses among the palm trees, and
extensive fortifications on all the
islands in the Truk group.
SAIPAN is a single island 13
miles long and 5 miles wide. It
has a vast airfield, once used for
B-29 attacks on Tokyo, a good
harbor, and a population of 20,000
mostly Japanese. Sugar and fish
ing industries had been developed
here before the war, but now are
virtually stopped. Most of the nat
ives have become either farmers
or fishermen,
TINIAN, separated from Saipan
by only three miles of water, is a
slightly larger island and retains a
small garrison of U. S. troops and a
few bombers still used for training.
YAP, in the western Carolines, was
important as a cable station before
the war and may return to that
status. It is a group of four is
lands connected by bridges, the
islands are covered with dense
jungles and a network of paved
roads. An American camp oper
ates around an ancient Spanish
citadel on the largest island.
KWAJALEIN, now a full-
fledged U.S. air base, has no nat
ive population and its vegetation
consists mostly of four imported
palm trees. It is only six feet
above sea level at its highest
point. But its position makes it
invaluable as a military and com-
Why ammonium nitrate explodes
violently as it did in the Texas
City ship, yet won’t explode when
hammered or penetrated with
high-powered’rifle bullets, still re
mains a chemical mystery, un
solved after decades of investiga
tion.
‘Good Will Week’
Between Us-Canada
“Friendship of the United Stat
es and Canada serves to strength
en the hope that all nations every
where may come to enjoy the
benefits of a similar understand
ing with one another”, said Trygve
Lie, secretary general of the
United Nations, in connection
with the U.S.—Canada Good Will
Week sponsored annually by Ki-
wanis International and scheduled
this year for April 27-May 3.
Close and cordial understand
ing between neighbors can lead
to development of similar feel
ing around the globe, Lie said.
The fact that the governments and
the peoples of the two nations
have found it possible and mutual
ly advantageous to live side by
side in harmony over a period of
many generations, serves to
strengthen the hope that all nat
ions, everywhere, may come to
enjoy the benefits of a similar
understanding of each other, he
added.
Kiwanis International, which
embraces 2,600 clubs and more
than 174,000 members in the U.S.,
Alaska and Canada, long has pro
claimed the friendship of this
country and its neighbor to the
north as an outstanding example
of international good will, accord
ing to Joe Sorrells, president of
the College Station Kiwanis Club.
During the week, April 27-May 3,
many clubs in the two countries
will interchange speakers.
by Richard Alterman +
When the French freighter Grand Camp, loaded with a cargo of
ammonium nitrate exploded at Texas City last week, a series of blasts
that resounded throughout the nation was started. By the time the
explosions had ended and the fires put out, over 575 had been killed,
3,000 had been injured, and a property damage of about $50,000,000
had been recorded.
Never since August 24, 1865 had such a great loss of life in an ex
plosion occurred. When the ship Sultana, carrying exchanged Union
prisoners of war, was destroyed-*—— —
seven mHes north of Memphis, KiwanianS SnOUSOT
1,405 lives were lost. This explos- x
ion was the worst ever recorded
in the history of the United States.
Until the Texas City disaster,
the second worst explosion in this
country occurred at Port Chica
go, California on July 17, 1944.
A total of 322 lives were lost
when the navy munitions depot
there went up in smoke.
Following close behind this in
number of lives lost is another
Texas explosion—the New London
school blast—of which most of us
probably remember reading. When
a boiler in the school’s basement
blew up on March 18, 1937, 294
children were killed.
On May 8, 1918, more than 200
persons were killed in a blast at
the Aetna Chemical Company plant
near Pittsburg. An explosion and
fire on October 21, 1944, at the
East Ohio Gas Company in Cleve
land killed at least 135 persons.
Just this year on March 25, a
mine explosion at Centralia, Illi
nois took the lives of 111 miners.
And when the destroyer Turner
exploded in New York Bay on Jan
uary 3, 1944, more than 100 per
sons lost their lives. On May 15,
1929, 100 persons were killed in a
Cleveland hospital clinic when
X-ray film exploded, filling the
building with gas.
Lightning striking a naval am
munition depot at Lake Denmark,
New Jersey on July 10, 1926, killed
21 men and inflicted damage
amounting, to $50,000,000.
When a perclorate bath at an
electro-plating company in Los
Angeles blew up on February 20
of this year, 15 persons were killed
and $1,500,000 worth of damage
was done.
In the past 30 years, major ex
plosion disasters have killed more
than 2,100 persons. Of this num
ber more than 700 have been killed
in 1947.
PENNY’S
SERENADE
W. L. Penberthy
The chemical villain in the Texas
City disaster, a harmless-looking
die, a hundred million pounds are
manufactured each year for fertili
zer or explosives use.
Only infrequently does ammon
ium nitrate go off with great vi
olence, as it did at Texas City and
as it did at Oppau, Germany in
1926.
As a leading explosives expert
put it: “When ammonium nitrate
explodes, it is always mysterious.”
‘Wholesale’ Items
Bring Up to $500
The National Association of
Wholesalers has announced a
$1,500 prize contest for outstand
ing articles on wholesaling gener
ally, or any major aspects of
wholesaling. A first prize of $500
and twenty-three additional prizes
will be awarded after the closing
of the contest October 30.
Recently, President Kolodony,
president of the association, stated,
“We are especially interested in
attracting the students in our col
leges to the opportunities for a
successful career in the wholesale
trades. We hope many of them
will enter this competition and that
this study of distribution will de
velop a lasting interest in this
field.”
The contest is open to anyone
except members of the Association,
their families, and employees. Man
uscripts should be about 5,000
words in length. Rules of the con
test can be obtained from Ches
ter C. Kelsey, Executive Vice-Pres-
i d e n t, National Association of
Wholesalers, 200 Fifth Avenue,
New York 10, New York.
Ag* Grads Can Meet
Extension Service
Agent for Work
The Agronomy Society extends
an invitation for all seniors in the
field of agriculture to attend a
meeting in the Animal Industry
Lecture Room April 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Joe H. Matthews, extension per
sonnel supervisor, has arranged for
all of the district Extension Serv
ice agents to be present at this
meeting to meet graduating seniors
discuss' possibilities of employ
ment in their districts.
This meeting is to be informal
and refreshments will be served.
Openings in the Extension Service
will be discussed and students will
be given an opportunity to meet
men with whom they will be work
ing if they intend to go into this
type of work.
Department heads and club pres
idents in the School of Agriculture
are urged to contact graduating
seniors in their departments and
arrange for a representative group
to be present. The Extension Serv
ice is interested in all fields of
study and men interested are urged
to be present.
Penny
I got a kick out of “The Neighs
Have It” which appears in the cur
rent issue of the Reader’s Digest.
This is a sym-
posium on
“Horse Sense
— If Any”
which appear
ed in the Feb
ruary edition.
I did not read
“Horse, Sense
—If Any” but
it appears that
the author did
not give hor
ses credit for
having the a-
m o ufo t off
sense accredit
ed to them.
The “Neighs
Have It” is a collection of letters
that were written in upholding the
horse as an intelligent animal, and
many letters stated specific in
stances to prove this point.
The members of our family are
particularly fond of pets, and we
have quite a collection of pets
which include two different species
of ducks, a canary bird, any num
ber of squirrels, an Irish Setter
dog, and a horse. The horse is
the latest pet to be acquired, and
personally I have derived a differ
ent kind of pleasure from my as
sociation with him than with any
of the other pets, so I naturally
have a soft spot in my heart for
horses.
When I was a student in college
I remember one of my professors
in discussing human behavior made
it a point to emphasize the fact
that we should have one purpose
and that is to do the intelligent
thing. My own definition of in
telligent behavior would be to make
the correct reaction after all con
tributing factors in a situation had
been considered.
So many times we are guilty of
jumping to hasty conclusions and
acting before we have collected all
the facts. Recently, I heard a min
ister in preaching a sermon make
a very fine distinction between
common sense and horse sense. The
difference, he said, was that horse
sense was not common.
BOWLES-DAVIS
FLYING SERVICE
Plane Rental and Rides at
Reasonable Rates
Timberlake Airport
3/4 M. N. of North Gate
Records and Players, Paints,
Varnishes, Wall Paper.
CHAPMAN’S
Next to P. O. Bryan
A Limited Number
— OF —
TAILOR-MADE
SUITS
ARE NOW AVAILABLE
Check with
L O U P O T
for appointment for the
personal measuring of
BOB DALTON
15 Years Experience
Measuring Men’s Suits
in the Southwest
mercial airfield two hops west of
Hawaii.
GUAM, which has been an
American possession for 50 years,
is located nearly in the center of
these trusteeship islands and now
serves as their capital. As a
large, permanent naval base, it
is propably the cleanest and one
of the most beautiful of the
islands in this area.
The islands, taken during the
war at a cost of 6,267 U. S. lives,
are to broaden the U. S. empire
and complete the job of making
the Pacific a U. S. lake. Their
strategic value is limited, as is
shown by Russian willingness to
let the U.S. acquire them. But
their importance as U.S. way
stations in the Pacific, as future
vacation spots, and as a new U.S.
obligation abroad is to become
more and more apparent in the
period ahead.
GUION HALL THEATER
Opens 1:00 p. m. Daily
MICKEY’S
HOME...
and
in the arms
of a 8-4*
Giamazon
tHE SECRET THE WHOLE WORLD WANTED! SEE *THE BEGINNING OR THE END*
First Full Course
Under GI Bill To
Be Finished in June
First man to complete a normal
four-year course at A. & M. under
the GI Bill of Rights will be Bil
ly R. Blair of Fort Worth, who
will receive a bachelor’s degree in
industrial education in June, it
was announced today.
Blair, 22, entered school as a
freshman in September, 1944, after
receiving a disability discharge
from the U. S. Marine Corps and
by means of attendance at sum
mer sessions, is receiving his de
gree after two years and nine
months.
A large number of Aggies who
left for the war lacking only a few
semesters of graduation have re
turned and received their diplomas,
but Blair is the first to go all the
way under the GI Bill.
Opens 1:00 p.m. Ph. 4-1181
SATURDAY LAST DAY
in DYNAMITE TOGETHER
PREVIEW 11:00 p. m.
SUNDAY, MONDAY,
and TUESDAY