The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 08, 1949, Image 2

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    Battalion
EDITORIALS
Page 2 TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1949
"Soldier, Statesman, 'Knightly Gentleman"
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions
The English Manners Course . . .
Like underclassmen at A&M, the young
diplomats in the British diplomatic corps
are being instructed in the strict and for
mal social etiquette of their profession.
But unlike the Senior Class, the British
Foreign Service has gone to the trouble
of having one of their most expert diplo
matic dandies, Marcus Cheke, to draw up
a little manual of polite procedure.
This manual contains several items of
proper social advice that the senior could
tell the underclassman. Whenever being
visited by important officials (for exam
ple, people like professors) Cheke advises
the diplomatic freshmen to understand
that these officials “would resent being
received by a young man wearing ... a
bright green pullover.” Whenever the new
comer to polished diplomatic circles is
called by his first name, he must contain
himself and “after a day or two ... he
may return this vulgar compliment” by
addressing the offender with his first
name. Never should the diplomat (and
underclass Aggie) be a bore.' And toward
bores he should “be affable.”
Control of temper is a quality all good
diplomats have mastered. Cheke cites the
time Lord Halifax was speaking in De
troit and several eggs were thrown at him.
“How lucky you are to have eggs to throw”
coolly remarked Halifax. However, we
hardly expect the underclassman to col
lectedly tell his senior overlord, “How
lucky you are to have details (and so
forth).”
Whether Cheke’s advice on going to
public funerals could apply to Aggie fish,
sophs, and juniors is a question the Senior
might decide. Observes Cheke, “In some
countries (public funerals) are unrivaled
as occasions in which to cultivate acquain
tances. How many an interesting political
connection was first conceived by a cer
tain foreign head of a mission in a con
vulsive handshake in a funeral cortege
and cemented by giving him a lift home
in his car from the ceremony.”
Enterprising Aggies (of all classes)
could (and probably have) used public
funerals as places to meet pretty girls.
What puzzles us is, do we have a Mar
cus Cheke who could codify Aggie man
ners?
A New Political Approach . . .
During the last quarter century, the
governorship of Texas has lost a lot of
prestige. After having been mishandled on
occasions by a string of flour salesmen
and special interest representatives, the
chief executive position of our fair state
no longer has its once enfiable reputation.
But it remained for the State Super
intendent of Public Instruction to add the
final thrust. Superintendent Woods is us
ing the governorship as a threat to retain
his-job.
Said Woods, upon hearing that his of
fice will be made appointive by an elected
state school board under the Gilmer-Aik-
en plan, “I am not making any promises
but if my office is abolished I may be a
candidate for governor next year. I think
I would make a good governor, at least
as good as some we have had recently.”
Superintendent, we can well see how
you could make as good a governor as
some of our past examples, but please,
make a more definite statement.
When a perennial office holder in a
position concealed from the public view,
objects so strenuously to his office being
made appointive by a group of experts in
his field, we tend to be suspicious of his
interests.
We don’t grow unduly offended when
the state superintendent uses the old tax
bogey to mislead our rural citizens on
their educational position.
We don’t really get irked when he
works a dozen other angles to protect a
position in which he feels himself firmly
entrenched.
But it is riling to have a man threaten
to run for governor if the . legislature
doesn’t bend to his will. The whole busi
ness sounds like a small boy threatening
to jump out the window if his parents
take away a prized bauble.
If you have such an aversion for ap
pointive offices and such a love for elec
tive offices, Superintendent, then consid
er this angle. Why not direct your talents
toward a campaign for dog catcher in
Austin?
Another Scandal in Russia . . .
We think science is going too far.
It was all right when they were fool
ing around with calories and vitamins.
And we had no objection to their vaccina
tion work. We even believe that some of
this atomic business is acceptable. But
when they go besmirching the fair names
of people they never met, they go too far.
We refer to the discoveries and as
sumptions of Russian scientist (wouldn’t
you know it?) S. Rudenko. He found a
couple of tattooed mummies in a sub-zero
burial mound and proceeded to declare
that they had been interred there without
benefit of clergy. He called the female
mummy a “concubine.”
Two thousand years would cloud any
one’s memory. Those mummies just don’t
remember. They can’t defend themselves.
And because they have misplaced their
wedding certificate, all this calumny is
heaped on them. Shame, science, shame!
Imagine in future ages when our own
sepulchres are opened by prying archeo
logists that they will accuse us of immoral
acts with the corpse on the right, no mat
ter who it may have been.
This fact will cause many of us to
think twice before dying.
Some of us won’t care.
The Battalion
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas and the
City of College Station, Texas, is published five times a week and circulated every Monday through
Friday afternoon, except during holidays and examination periods. During the summer The Bat
talion is published tri-weekly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.. Subscription rate $4.30 per school
year. Advertising rates furnished on request.
The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all news dispatches
credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin publish
ed herein. Rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved.
Entered as second-class matter at Post
Office at College Station, Texas, under
the Act of Congress of March 3, 1870.
Member of
The Associated Press
Represented nationally by National Ad
vertising Service Inc., at New York City,
Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
News contributions may be made by telephone (4-5444) or at the editorial office, Room 201,
Goodwin Hall. Classified ads may be placed by telephone (4-5324) or at the Student Activities
Office, Room 209, Goodwin Hall.
KENNETH BOND, TOM CARTER.
Louis Morgan Associate Editor
Bjll Billingsley Wire Editor
Harvey Cherry, Art Howard, Otto Kunze,
John Singletary Managing Editors
Chuck Cabaniss, Charles Kirkham,
Mack Nolen Editorial Assistants
Emil Bunjes, H. C. Gollob, R. C. Kolbye, Henry
Lacour, Carley Puckitt, Clayton Selph, Marvin
Brown Staff Reporters
Joe Trevino, Hardy Ross Photo Engravers
Clark Munroe Feature Editor
Carl Thrift Circulation Manager
.Co-Editors
Dave Coslett, Frank Cushing, George Charlton,
Buddy Luce, Chuck Maisel, H. C. Michalak,
Marvin Rice, Carroll Trail Feature Writers
Bob “Sack” Spoede, Bill Potts Sports Editors
Leon Somer, Frank Simmen, Andy Matula,
Scotty Swinney, Travis Brock, Ben
Lampkin, Frank Manitzas Sports Reporters
Mrs. Nancy Lytle Women’s Page Editor
Alfred Johnston Religious Editor
Andy Davis Movie Editor
Kenneth Marak, Sam Lanford, R. Morales,
Frank Welch, C. W. Jennings Staff Cartoonists
Amplification Department
By CARROLL TRAIL
Dear Sir:
I noticed in the fifth column on
the front page of last Friday’s
Batt this story:
“Bircham, England, March 4—
(£>)_ George Ward, 12-year-old
schoolboy, kicked for goal in a
school soccer football game.”
Also, the story was headed:
“Gift to Schoolboy Comes from
King”.
I don’t understand the story, and
besides, I can’t reconcile the head
with the story. Can you elucidate?
Sincerely,
N. S.
Answer: One must carefully
scrutinize the story to get its full
meaning, N. S., and you probably
just roughly scanned through, pick
ing out what you thought were the
important points.
In the first place, the story was
written in journalistic jargon. Us-
usually the managing editor blue-
pencils these stories and puts them
in English, according to Hoyle;
however, this one must have slip
ped through.
You see, the story is not a com
plete sentence. It merely says that
Ward was mistaken for the goal
in the game and some irate play
er, having undoubtedly missed the
point, blamed his error on the goal.
In an effort to get even, the player
kicked Ward, mistaking him for
the goal.
And who was the irate player?
The king, of course. In England,
everyone revers the king, and any
acknowledgment he makes of one
of the plebian, (whatever it may
be), is taken as a personal tribute
as a gift. Thus the reason for the
head of the story.
As a result of his kick, Ward
will, in all probability, become a
national hero, and people will
come from miles around to touch
the place the king kicked.
Of course, you realize that this
is just propaganda for the Marshal
Plan. The story attempts to show
the economic state of England. As
you know, the king is probably the
best-fed man in that country. By
showing that his eyesight is bad,
resulting from possible deficiency
of vitamin C, the story intimates
that England needs more vitamin
C-producing food, such as carrots
and citrus fruits.
And who owns most of the car
rots and fruit orchards of this
country? I’ll tell you who: the
Wall Street tycoons, the wheels of
NAM—the big businessmen of this
country who are trying to get a
stranglehold on the nation’s eco
nomy.
Possibly you think that the Batt
should never have printed the
story. However, we of the Batt like
to believe that we give equal news
coverage to all factions of the
country. However, I guess we let
our political beliefs influence us in
our make-up: we did, as you say,
put the story in the fifth column
of the front page.
Sneak Preview . . .
Dissension in the Ranks Causes
Riot in “Command Decision”
By ANDY DAVIS
Command Decision (MGM)
starring Clark Gable, Walter
Pidgeon, Van Johnson, and Brian
Donlevy. (Campus).
Command Decision generously
fulfills the promise of its impres
sive all male cast. Different from
most war dramas of the Army Air
Corps, there isn’t a single foot of
air combat film.
The film deals with the work of
the general officers who directed
aerial operations in the European
theater before VJ day. No punch
es are pulled in exposing some of
the mistakes made, and the polit
ical entanglements that had to be
coped with in such high echelon.
“Iron Butt’ General Dennis,
Clark Gable, sends his B-17 Group
on missions over Germany, days
in succession, suffering tremendous
losses of both nien and planes. By
accomplishing these missions
thousands of men’s lives will be
saved at a later date, when Ger
many’s air power is crippled. Wal
ter Pidgeon, his C.'O. is hard
pressed from all angles, but most
ly by political “Big Wigs,” who
finally force him to remove Gable
from his command.
With Gable’s theory proven cor
rect, he is given command of B-29
Group in the Pacific, and the
film is brought to a close. “Com
mand Decision” is unusually auth
entic as to technical details, and
has an excellent cast, that turn
in top performances.
Letters To The Editor
GULP!
Editor, The Battalion:
Sunday evening I went down to
Sbisa to enjoy a quiet meal, but
to my surprise they were playing
a lively boogie. Now that’s alright
with me; I like fast music, but it
was a lead as to what the evening
meal was to be like.
My second surprise came when
I poured my milk. It was curd-
free and aparently fresh. This was
most upsetting because during the
past weeks I have been cultivating
a taste for aged and curdled milk.
Some people actually develop a
taste for beverages that have been
Official Notice
OFFICIAL NOTICE
All students are invited to participate
in the All College Day Open House pro
gram to be put on by the Physics Depart
ment. Those interested kindly attend an
organizational meeting Tuesday, March
8, at 5 p.m. in Room 36 of the Physics
building.
J. G. Potter
Head, Physics Department
aged in the wood.
. Then as I was enjoying my de
licious “roast beef,” Sbisa style, I
dented a filling on something in
the meat. Was it a horse shoe
nail? No such luck, it was a clip
ping from a thumb nail.
Now there is not a thing in
the world that pleases me more
than a clean, well manicured
cook.
If the cooks put in such long
hours that they must manicure
their nails while cooking roast
beef, it is all right with me, but
next time how about turning them
over? If I must eat these nail
clippings, I would like mine well
done.
W. S. Dalby, ’48
CASADESUS TO APPEAR
ON ARTISTS SERIES
Jean Casadesus, pianist, will ap
pear on the Bryan Artists Series
in Stephen F. Austin High School
Auditorium at 8 p. m. Wednesday.
HEY AGGIES!!
The Cadet Cafeteria
OFFERS YOU GOOD FOOD
ANYTIME YOU WANT IT!
Formerly
NISBET’S CAFETERIA
NORTH GATE
HOW MUCH ONE AMERICAN EATS
400
300
200
100
Boyle’s Column . . .
Florida Threatens To
Become A Second L. A.
By HAL BOYLE
MIAMI, Fla. —GP)— America
might just as well start consider
ing now whether it should secede
from Florida.
If it doesn’t it may end up with
another Los Angeles in its bord
ers.
For that is what some natives
here fear—and I use the word ad
visedly—that South South Floridas
gold coast is turning into, yes, a
second Los Angeles.
The whole area is still riding
high in the saddle of the post
war boom. You have to know the
mayor to get a hotel room. The
beaches are so packed with bare
backed ladies seeking a tan that
the sand is becoming pale and
anemic. It isn’t getting enough
sunshine itself.
“The way things are going now
the whole 70-mile stretch from
Palm Beach to Miami will be one
continuous city,” complained one
resident. “In ten years the gold
coast will be another Los Angeles.”
Alarming as that possibility is
to them, it is of even more poten
tial concern to the rest of the
So the Magazine Said . . .
For Explosive Times We Need
Explosive Tempers, or Else
By MACK T. NOLEN
I’m going to be awfully hard to
live with now. I just read a maga
zine article which said that we
don’t get angry out loud enough
for our nervous systems. And the
repression causes our interminable
sinus troubles, stomach disorders,
and headaches.
So I’m turning over a new leaf.
Anyone who piques me henceforth
will have to suffer the withering
effects of a vocabulary I have
spent the better part of twenty
years accumulating.
I have gleaned words from Old
and Middle English, from French
Spanish, and German, from Tag-
alog and Visayan, from Polish
and Russian, and I have concoc
ted not a few out of whole
cloth.
I will be a verbal flame-thrower.
I will make sailors blush. I will
sear the countryside for miles a-
round. I need but slight provoca
tion.
I wondered what brought about
my migraines. I foolishly and un
scientifically thought it was late
Local FFA Chapt er
Has First Meeting
The A&M chapter of Future
farmers of America held the first
meeting of this semester last Mon
day.
Presided over by John Bradford,
newly elected president, the meet
ing re-organized the standing com
mittees, increasing the number
from 12 to 24. “Under the new sys
tem, more men will get training,”
said Bradford.
The meeting accepted the invi
tation of Murray Cox, farm direc
tor for radio station WFAA, Dal
las, for graduating Seniore to ap
pear on his program. They will be
on a program to be given later
this spring.
Plans were made for the selec
tion of a Duchess to represent the
chapter at the forthcoming C tton
Ball and Pageant.
hours, unbalanced diet, and over
work. Now I know, and the pro
fane remedy is forthcoming.
I do not advocate that every
Tom, Dick, and Harry let off
steam. Such a course would com
plicate things immeasurably. I
merely advocate top-blowing for
myself.
I must ask the kindly under
standing and gentle forebear-
ance of all who know me and
associate with me. Please realize
that my ire is nothing personal.
It’s a medical balm necessary to
my survival.
The most trivial opposition to
my will now elicits an arch to my
beetling brows, a sulfurdtis vapor
to my breath, and two inches to my
height from whence I shall look
down and consign to everlasting
hell all the brainless, stupid, dis-'
senting forces of mankind.
No letter in my mailbox, gum
on the sole of my shoe, a pop-
quiz, coffee too cold, no ink in
my fountain pen, or any dis
turbance whatever of my tran
quility will set me off in such a
railing invective as to curl hair.
Come to think of it, I will then
be jus.t like everyone else, won’t
I?
United States. Is any country
large enough for two Los Angeles
—both squeezing Texas like it was
an overripe grapefruit?
There are two seasons in Flori
da each year marked by high winds
and some excitement. One is the
hurricane season, which hits its
peak in September and October.
The other is the annual anti-gam
bling crusade season, which usual-
fy is launched just as the well-
pocketed tourists start to follow
the robins north.
When the new governor, Fuller
Warren, launched a state-wide an
ti-bookie campaign this year, one
man called up a bookie and said:
“Aren’t you worried?”
“Naw,” said the bookie, and he
quipped:
“They’re three days late in
starting this year.”
There are indications, however,
that the current crusade may hurt
more than usual. Gov. Warren or
dered the arrest of every bookie
in Florida, charging that the state
lost $8 in racing taxes on every
$100 bet with bookies. He also or
dered a crackdown on the numbers
racket, and slot machines have
been banned.
Today & Wednesday
EAGLE HON FILMS proenti
JOHN SYLVIA ANN ’
HOIK INEY RICHARDS
TODAY thru WEDNESDAY
TODAY thru WED.
FIRST RIJN
—Features Start—
1:25 - 3:35 - 5:45 - 7:55 - 10:00
The management of the Campus
Theatre urges you to see ‘COM
MAND DECISION;” This is the
second time in the history of the
Campus Theatre that the man
agement personally recommends
a motion picture. The first pic-
t u r e we recommended was
“Johnny Belinda” which is at
this time nominated for 12 Acad
emy Awards.
£ *
1 Sroad^s/s Smash Stage Tty j
| j$ nou/ on tha Screen • ^ |
! llflRK GABLE S
I WALTER PIDGEON !
r VAN JOHNSON
t BRIAN DONLEVY I
CHARLES BICKFORD
JOHN HODIAK
EDWARD ARNOLD
A SAM WOOD PRODUCTION
Produced by
In Association with
GOTTFRIED REINHARDT
THURS. — FRI.
ROARING DRAMA OF AIRMEN
...AND THEIR WOMEN!
TODAY thru WEDNESDAY
“JUNGLE JIM”
—with—
JOHNNY WEISMULLER
A COLUMBIA RE-RELEASE
Produced by B P. SCHLHBERG
Scrctn pity by Michael Blankfcrt • Directed by SIDNEY SAIR
A Re-release
PLUS CARTOON — NEWS