Page Two — THE BATTALION, College Station (Aggieland), Texas, Saturday, May 10, 1947:
Welcome, Parents ...
Aggies always get excited with the prospect of someone
they know and love visiting the A. & M. campus. Parents
will see their children at their best this weekend, fiercely
proud of Aggieland and its traditions. Their sons will point
out famous old buildings on the campus, where students
have come in quest of knowledge since 1876. They will re
cite inscriptions on buildings like Guion Hall, and the chem
istry building, and will tell the brief story of Lawrence Sul
livan “Sully” Ross, our first president, “soldier, statesman,
and knightly gentleman.”
But while here, dear parents, observe more than just the
buildings, the fine displays set up for AE Day. Come to the
Sports Day events, and watch how Aggies stand behind their
athletic teams. Try to hold back the shivers up and down
your spine as the Cadet Corps marches in review. Try to
catch some of the “Spirit of Aggieland”. That spirit is one
of the major things this school has to offer, and Aggies re
alize it after they’ve been here only short weeks. We want
you, parents, to attend to catch a part of the spirit in two
short days.
Place for Educator? ...
Four men compose the “top brass” at A. & M. College
under the present administrative set-up. They are the pres
ident, the executive vice-president, the vice-president for en
gineering, and the vice-president for agriculture.
Usually the president of A. & M. is either an engineer
or agriculturist himself. Would it not be better, rather than
having two engineers or two agriculturists among our top
executives, to have an educator in that group?
After all, an educator is a “Brain engineer,” a profes
sional man trained in the field of teaching just as rigorously
as the engineer or agricultural specialist is trained in his
field. Such training, such abilities, are badly needed at
A. & M. right now.
Gibb Gilchrist, now president of A. & M., is an engineer.
The post of vice-president of engineering is vacant due to
the death of J. T. L. McNew. We believe that instead of
filling that vacancy, we should. ask the legislature for per
mission to employ a vice-president in charge of educational
processes.
Under such an arrangement, whenever the president of
this college is an engineer, we would have vice-presidents
for agriculture and education; when the president is an ag
riculturist, we would have vice-presidents for engineering
and education; when (if ever) the president of this college
should be a professional educator, we should have vice-pres
idents for engineering and agriculture, as a president.
Such a disposition of top college posts would produce
a much better balance of talent than we now have.
It is important, however, that our vice-presidential edu
cator be no namby-pamby; not a man who has a long line
of degrees, but lacks discretion or tact. This post should
go to a man with “public personality”—the ability to speak
effectively to groups of thousands. Yet he must be able
to confer with a single student in an office equally well.
This same ability to deal with people is essential in deal
ing with the faculty. Rather than the executive vice-presi
dent being head of the faculty, as it now stands, our vice-
presidental educator should be responsible for leadership
among the faculty. There will be some die-hards who op
pose new teaching methods and philosophies, and if the “dead
wood” faction is not keeping abreast of the times, the ex
ecutive educator should have the power to remove them.
Another important qualification is the ability to under
stand what seems important to young people. The way Dr.
W. H. Alexander does, for instance. Some people are born
with an instinct to do just that; those without the instinct
can seldom acquire it.
A. & M. now faces the greatest challenge of its seventy
year history. We have an ugly episode to live down. Yet it
is possible that in the next few years, A. & M. may be great
er college, in all ways, than it ever has been before. To help
achieve this goal, we believe that A. & M. needs a vice-pres
ident for education.
Writers Have Their Say...
Newspaper comment on A. & M. troubles has been var
ied. Characteristically, the columnists have been better
reading than the anonymous “letter” writers who took time
out from the Greece question to pontificate on the woes of
our college.
Walter Doney, publisher of the Bryan News, in his
“Dog House” column has condemned two practices which
he disapproves: closed meetings of the Board of Directors,
and commercialism in college operations. Doney, an Aggie-
ex who left the campus in ’17 for WW I, feels that all ses
sions of the Board of Directors should be open to the public,
who after all are the “owners” of Texas A. & M. This is
a good idea, and the Battalion approves, but we know that
the directors would then have to hold closed committee meet
ings, or other private sessions, in order to talk turkey.
Doney also deplores the fact that the A. & M. Creamery
supplies Gate stores with milk, in competition with private
dairies.
Lynn Landrum of the Dallas Morning News was the
“pet peeve” of cadets on the campus as long as he harped on
hazing, giving a picture of sadistic youngsters using the pad
dle 24 hours a day. But the final article in Landrum’s se
ries was the most profound challenge to A. & M. students yet
issued. Landrum pointed out the need for engineers and
agriculturists, trained sufficiently in military matters to be
able to cooperate intelligently with military forces, who
might go throughout the world as representatives of Amer
ican “know-how,” bringing up to scratch the agricultural
and mechanical culture of those parts of the globe which we
are having to take under our wing. Landrum states that of
all American colleges, Texas A. & M. is best equipped to
turn out such men, who might well mold the future of the
world.
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
Plssoaoted Gr>Ue&»ate Press
Entered as second-class matter at Post Office at College Station, (Aggieland),
Texas, under the Act of Congress of March S, 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
Corps Editor
Veteran Editor
—Tuesday Associate Editor
-Thursday Associate Editor
..Saturday Associate Editor
Sports Editor
David M. Seligman
Paul Martin ______ „
Larry Goodwyn, Andy Matula, Jack Goodloe, Bill Halcomb, Earl Grant .Sports Writers
Wendell McClure Advertising Manager
Bill Brown, Maurice Howell Advertising Assistants
D. W. Springer ^Circulation Manager
Elden W. Golden Assistant Circulation Manager
William Miller, Ben Schrader, Wm. K. Colville, Walter Lowe, Jr.,
Lester B. Gray, Jr., Carl C. Krueger, Jr., Mack T. Nolen,
Robert P. Ingram, Claude Buntyn, Bruce Hartel, Richard
Alterman
..Reporters
Spread of Labor . . .
Management
Feeling For
Upper Hand
by H. W. Spencer
With the advent of the National
Labor Relations Act of 1935 labor
attained the upper hand over man
agement. Unhesitatingly, labor
has used that power to tne best
advantage for the past twelve
years. Now the pendulum swings
in the opoposite direction, with
management once again feeling for
the handle of the big stick.
This is evidenced by the fact that
in 13 states there are new laws
which seek to bar or regulate
closed shops. In a closed shop, no
worker other than a union member
can be employed. These and oth
er states strive to restrict picket
ing, to outlaw secondary boycotts
and jurisdictional strikes, to pro
hibit public-utility and municipal
employee strikes, to require union
financial reports, to forbid check
off of union dues from worker’s
pay envelopes and to sue for dam
ages for violation of contracts. Al
together, 29 states now have en
acted laws that curb union powers
to some degree.
★
Legislatures in over half of the
states have acted in such a way
to oppose union leaders, not to
mention the controversial House-
approved Hartley Bill and the less
harsh Senate bill in Congress at
present.
The closed-shop ban, as it re
lates to employment practices of
employers, is the most important
of all the labor-control measures
now being enacted by the various
states. This ban, to date, centers
mainly in Southern and Central
States, while unions are free to
negotiate closed shop agreements
in most industrial states.
In order to realize the import
ance of the anti-closed-shop cam
paign it should be noted that over
11 million workers are subject to
some form of compulsory unionism.
This includes union-shop contracts
and maintenance - of - membership
contracts. The union-shop, pecu
liar to the coal industry, under
which a worker must join a union
after he is hired, is one step below
the closed shop. The maintenance-
of-membership form, operative in
the steel industry, is a system
which requires workers to remain
members of a union for the life of
a contract if they do not resign
within a specified time.
★
For employers operating i n
states banning the closed-shop such
powers, following, may be afford
ed: they can hire anyone they
please, union or nonunion; they can
shift men from one department to
another without the unions permis
sion; promotions of employees will
come when the employer feels such
is justified, the specified period of
apprenticeship can be scrapped;
and union black lists which deny
jobs to workers who have incurred
union disfavor irrespective of the
worker’s value to the employer may
be ignored.
Union leaders are not taking
what the opposition offers sitting
down. Already in some states they
are endeavoring to force the issue
in the courts. Here, union leaders
seek to invalidate these laws on
grounds of interference with right
of contract and that they are in
conflict with the Wagner Act. The
union view is that an employer has
certain employment rights but the
worker has a right to decide the
terms under which he sells his la
bor.
PENNY’S
SERENADE
W. L. Penberthy
Sunday is Mother’s Day — one
of the days in each year when we
pay special tribute to the grandest
person in the world.
Of the many blessings we enjoy
in life, I am
afraid that some
times we do not
fully realize and
appreciate just
what our mothers
mean to us. I
personally do not
think that men
are capable of
fully realizing the
part played by
their mothers in
shaping their
lives and futures
until they are
married and are
fathers and can
observe the b e-
havior of their wives toward their
children.
I have seen a lot of good people
come from a home where the fath
er was not up to standard, but I
have seen few from homes where
the mother was below par.
During the war I heard a psy
chologist state that surveys made
by the Army showed that our best
soldiers came from happy families.
Who could have more to do with
the happiness of a family than
“Mama.”
I think it is fine that we have a
day on which special tribute is
paid to our mothers, but I think
it would be finer if we could do
some little thing each and every
day so that to her Mother’s Day
would not be a day of special trib
ute.
Penny
Operation Crossroads . . .
Reports of A-Bomb Cloud
Circling World ‘Foolish’
X-Ray Photos
May Assist In
Fossil Finding
By Science Service
WASHINGTON, May 9 —- Washington scientists who
were at Bikini take no stock in reports that a cloud of
radioactive materials is still circling around the world,
making high-altitude airplane flights unsafe. They have
the support of other scientists who have made lifetime
studies of the atmosphere and its ways.
All observers who watched the A-day burst at Bikini
recall how the glowing, peach-colored pillar of cloud climbed
up to the clouds and above them in a few minutes, but was
torn into fragments by cross winds and rendered unrecog
nizable in less than an hour. It4
is hard to imagine that the pro
cess of disinteg-ration, that set in
so rapidly, could have slowed
down enough to permit the sur
vival of any cohering pieces of
the cloud now.
Col. Benjamin Holzman, Army
officer who served as senior aei'o-
logist throughout Operation
Crossroads, stated that he had
calculated the probable course of
the diffusing cloud, based on the
known prevailing air currents
over the Pacific. In six or seven
days, according to his figures,
what was left of the cloud must
have reached the Gulf of Alaska.
From there, harried by the stormy
westerly winds, it would probably
have been scattered over the
northwestern part of North
Amelrica, unrecognizably diluted
with the general atmosphere.
This probable course of the
cloud in the first few days of its
existence rendered improbable
the claims of a few scientists in
California and Texas that they
recognized its remnants, by high
er recordings on their sensitive in
struments, as early as July 4 and
5. Other scientists, one pair as
far away as New York, were un
able to find traces of the supposed
cloud over the United States, when
according to Col. Holzman’s data
it was due at the north end of the
Pacific.
Ordinary tendency of any body
of gas to spread and diffuse it
self into neighboring gases must
have spread the radioactive rem
nants of the Bikini bursts evenly
throughout the vast ocean of air
that surrounds the whole earth,
declared Dr. W. J. Humphreys, air
physicist who has been connected
with the U. S. Weather Bureau
—JUNIORS—
(Continued from Page 1)
portation Agency, and a Veterin
ary Corps. Coloney Meloy also
stated that the minimum strength
of the basic units would not be
under seventy-five men, with about
30 freshmen to the outfit. This
will mean there will be' approxi
mately thirty-six “outfits” on the
campus next fall.
Plans also include the reorgan
ization of the Ross Volunteers,
originally initiated as a crack
military unit to serve as an hon
or guard, according to Meloy.
Juniors were reminded that the
Federal Inspection will be held
here May 21-23.
BERKELEY, Calif.—X-ray pho
tography may be used to unearth
fossils of primitive man by the
University of California South
Africa Expedition.
Experiments are now being con
ducted at Berkeley with samples of
limestone from South African
caves in which specimens of fos
sil man are believed to be imbed
ded. Radium is also being tested
for the same purpose.
Samples of the limestone were
brought here by Wendell Phillips,
leader of the expedition, who re
cently returned from Africa after
completing preliminary arrange
ments for the expedition’s arrival
there this summer.
The well-equipped expedition
will attempt to recover complete
specimens of “man-apes” found
recently in three locations near
Johannesburg. Skulls and frag
ments of the man-ape have been
recovered in mining operations in
the caves.
It is believed the “man-ape” may
bridge the gap between modem
man and his predecessors, which
may be as much as three million
years old.
SALESMAN WANTED!
A good opportunity for college men. Open
ing for neat and aggressive men to sell Vita-
Craft Aluminum Utensils in their own dis
trict through leads in spare time, as well as
full time. Never sold in stores. Sales ex
perience unnecessary. We’ll teach you.
Good income for the right man.
Contact the A. & M. Placement Office
If Interested.
THE VITA-CRAFT COMPANY
OF TEXAS
336 West Davis, Dallas 8, Texas
for more than 40 years. The great
er part of the Bikini cloud that
spread itself through the lower
atmosphere has by now been
washed down into the soil or
the sea by rain and snow. In the
unlikely event that some of the
cloud got up into the stratosphere
it may still be there, but certainly
not “all in one piece.”
Dr. G. R. Wait of the Car
negie Institution of Washington,
student of radioactive and elec
trically charged particles in the
air, characterized the new alarm
ist report as “completely fool
ish.” He also could not see h(«y
a mass of gas forming a cloud
could keep from practical world
wide diffusion in the course of
nearly a year.
There is one other factor that
could be expected to render the
once radioactively “hot” cloud at
once harmless and unrecognizable.
That is the short life of most
radioactive elements. While some,
like radium, remain radioactive
for millions of years, most radio
active atoms break up or change
into non-radioactive forms in a
few days, or even a few hours or
minutes. While part of the new
elements created by the Bikini
bursts is undoubtly still “hot”,
probably a larger part is already
“dead”.
Doggett Appointed to ED
Staff for September Term
HONOR MOTHER ON
MOTHER’S DAY
BY ATTENDING YOUR CHURCH
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
College Station
SPECIAL SERVICE—11 O’CLOCK
A Mother’s Day Gift to the oldest and youngest
mother present.
B. C. Doggett, Shreveport, has
been appointed an instructor of
engineering drawing starting Sep
tember 1. Doggett will receive his
degree in industrial education this
month.
Opens 1:00 p.m. Ph. 4-1181
Air Conditioned
SATURDAY LAST DAY!
JOHN WAYNE
— In —
“Flame of
Barbary Coast”
PREVIEW TONIGHT
(11:00 P. M.)
— Also —
SUN., THRU THURS.
Humphrey Bogart
Lisbeth Scott
Starred in
“DEAD
RECKONING”
A First Run Feature
Mother’s Day
FLOWERS
THE LOVELIEST MOTHER’S DAY '
GIFT is a bouquet of our exquisite flow
ers. Phone your order in or come in
and make your selection.
AGGIELAND FLOWER SHOP
College—Phone 4-1212
“Our Flowers Say It For You”
Fossil Display On
Exhibit in Museum
A fossil palm display, collected
by the geology classes has been
placed in the front vestibule of
the college museum, H. B. Parks,
curator, has announced. This dis
play will be open to the public
through May 30.
This exhibit contains a large por
tion of a palm leaf, like the pal-
meto, which grows as a native in
the lower places of Brazos County
and counties eastward. Other items
making up the display are petrified
parts of palm stumps and logs.
Most of the wood has changed into
silicon quartz.
“Some of these are beautiful in
color and are being used at present
by jewelry manufacturers as sets
for rings and as stage jewelry”,
Parks said.
PAL HOLLOW GROUND BLADES ARE MADE IN U.S.A.,
CANADA, BRITAIN AND SO. AMERICA.SOLD THE WORLD OVER
FRIDAY - SATURDAY
FREE! FREE!!
Saturday 10 a.m. Matinee
The Screen Classic
“YOUNG TOM
EDISON”
Starring
MICKEY ROONEY
SUNDAY - MONDAY
ERROL FLYNN
ELEANOR PARKER
“NEVER SAY
GOODBYE”