6
i
to
w:
se
w
e:
G
tl
t<
G
a
tj
T)
ti
d
I
g
t:
\
C
I
c
t
r
\
Sophomores Throw Vote to the Winds ...
A LTHOUGH A&M’s system of student
government has its many fallacies and
undefined duties for various, divisions, there
should be no reason for condemning the abil
ity of students to gather and do such a sim
ple thing as scratch ballots for class officers.
But actions undertaken by members of
the Sophomore Class during their run-off
election for officers warrants some discus
sion along these lines. Not only did the
’53 members conduct themselves and their
balloting in a most disorderly fashion, but
they also placed their class among those
which are deemed to get only limited re
sults in any undertaking.
After voting with little confusion and
misunderstanding in the primary election
held in the Assembly Hall November 1, those
same sophomores came back and almost ob-
Borroiv if you want to, but just
remember you will have to pay the
money back, whether you do it in
your oivn name, that of your busi
ness or your government.
We Want More,
And More, And More
T HE RUSSIANS have submitted a new
plan for the unification of Germany.
While this plan will undoubtedly be rejected
by the United States, Britain, and France, it
represents a study in the objectives of Sov
iet “power politics”.
The plan consists of these four points:
• The big four should guarantee that Ger
many “will not be dragged into any ag
gressive plans”, and that the Potsdam
agreement will be re-affirmed.
• All “hindrances” to the development of
a peaceful German economy” will be re
moved, and all German war potential
. eliminated.
• A peace treaty with Germany would be
concluded without delay and all occupy
ing troops evacuated one year after its
signature.
• An all-German constitutional council
should be created with Eastern Germany
and Western Germany represented on a
“balanced” basis.
Roughly translated, this proposal is just
a Russian assertion that “we want Germany
on our side of the geo-political fence.” If
the plan is* carried to completion, 68,000,000
more people will go behind the iron curtain
to be exploited and militarized to oppose
“capitalistic aggression.”
Secretary of Defense Marshall has long
held the view that Western Europe is the
critical spot in the “balance of power,” and
that the Russians would eventually make a
bid in this direction. We can only hope that
the Atlantic Pact will define the siuation in
such a manner as to prevent another “police
action.”
We do not mind being classed as
favorable to labor, organized and
unorganized, but we are old-fash
ioned enough to think that a pay-
check is entitled to respect, express
ed in ivork.
literated the run-off count because there
were those who couldn’t wait long enough
for allj the 400 voters to receive ballots be
fore leaving.
According to reports from the class elec
tion committee chairman, students were seen
crawling out of windows and forcing their
way through the entrance where ballots were
still being issued. When election committee
members refused to take the ballots before
all voters had received their tally sheet,
many students merely dropped the ballots
on the floor or placed them on chairs, caus
ing the ballots to scatter all over the room.
When order was finally brought about
and only a handful of voters left in the room,
election officials made their way about the
room and picked up the discarded ballots.
The election has been ruled official and
results will stand as announced. But how
many members of that class will be proud
to look back on those proceedings if any
future class election, conducted in a similar
manner.
Possibly a little more respect for rules
set about for the voting procedure would be
in order for the sophomores. They have
much to lose if they continue as they have
in the past.
Women spend 80% of all the ?noney
spent for food; 75% of all the mon
ey spent for clothing; 67% of all
the money spent for consumer
goods; oivn 40% of the United
States homes; own nearly half of
the stock in U. S. railroads and own
tivo-thirds of the nation’s private
wealth. Now, Mister, you know
why you haven’t got much.
Strategic China Bombing
Needed Now
S EVERAL weeks ago the North Koreans
were knocking on the gates of Pusan, and
we pointed out at the time that our troops
were fighting and dying with one hand fig
uratively tied behind their backs. The sup
plies and men that we are now facing in
North Korea could have been substantially
reduced if strategic bombing had been initia
ted at the beginning of the war.
Two groups of B-29’s have been ordered
back to the United States because there were
no more worthwhile targets in their restric
ted sphere of operations. Chinese Commun
ist troops and material destroyed at the
front will be promptly replaced by reserves
behind the strategic bomber’s restricted
zone.
We are glad to see that Gen. MacArthur
has been given sufficient reason by virtue of
open Chinese intervention to petition the
U. N. for permission to hit Chinese airfields
and supply depots. Without the full utiliza
tion of all our forces, we cannot hope to hold
the 50 odd divisions of Red China in check.
This is not “preventive war,” but a
clarification of status that is long overdue.
The front line troops have no illusions as to
what is going on. A “police action” bullet
is just as fatal as the “regular warfare” var
iety. We believe that if Americans are re
quired to fight they should be given every
possible diplomatic and material support.
THERE OUGHT TO BE AN INVENTION
%% "--A //
This Year’s Campaigns
Subtle And Intellectual
From the City Desk . . .
Coffers Grow
As Bryan Waits
By Joel Austin
The Battalion
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions
’’Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman”
Page 2
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1950
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, is published
five times a week during the regular school year. During the summer terms, The Battalion is published
four times a week, and during examination and vacation periods, twice a week. Days of publication are
Monday through Friday for the regular school year, Tuesday through Friday during the summer terms,
and Tuesday and Thursday during vacation and examination periods. Subscription rates $6.00 per year
or $.50 per month. Advertising rates furnished on 'request.
The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all news dispatches cred
ited to it or not othenvise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein.
Rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved.
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.
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.
DAVE COSLETT, CLAYTON L. SELPH.
John Whitmore, L. O. 'rtedt
Sid Abernathy, Jerry Zuber
Frank N. Manitzas
Joel Austin
Co-Editors
Managing Editors
Campus News Editors
Sports Editor
City News Editor
We have received several inquiries from College Hills
residents concerning the proposition for reduced electric rates
for this lone area which is not enjoying the new rates estab
lished by the city council this month for the rest of College
Station.
In its efforts to secure power lines in College Hills now
operated by the Bryan-REA, the city council has received
bids from several companies in this area which are capable
of supplying College Station with a sufficient amount of
power.
The Brazos Valley Transmission Co-operative was low
bidder in the deal, but no contract was signed by either party
because the Bryan-REA made an offer at the last minute
which caused the city council to hold up their plans.
REA Agrees to Sell Lines
Rather than have the city of College Station parallel
their lines in College Hills, the REA representatives and the
Bryan City Commission agreed to sell the lines to this city.
Also included in the deal was a price quotation for sup
plying water to College Station residents from Bryan reser
voirs.
But when asked to give a price for their electricity serv
ice investment in the east side addition of College Station, the
Bryan people hesitated to answer.
According to Mayor Ernest Langford, the Bryan City
Commission and the College Station City Council can do
nothing now until the Bryan group hears from the Washing
ton REA office concerning approval of the sale.
Many people have asked just why such approval is
necessary, and although Bryan city dads say the national
headquarters must pass on a sale of; this sort, it’s hard to
see how and why it would take this long.
City Council Convenes Monday
Of course if the property is mortgaged without authori
ty to sell, there is reason for delay. But neverthless, when
the College Station City Council convenes for its regular ses
sion Monday night, the group will have little to go on con
cerning the electricity question, unless the Bryan offer is
presented.
Of course the longer the Bryan commission waits to
make its offer for the lines, the more money they receive
for their own coffers.
According to information we have been able to obtain,
this isn’t the first time the question of electricity has come
up with the Bryan group. In fact the same problem has ex
isted for quite a number of years. Bryan originally served
this area when it (College Station) was nothing more than
a group of newly developed sub-divisions.
Times have changed now and College Station is an up-
to-date incorporated city which shouldn’t have to look to
other towns for power at a figure much higher than it is cap
able of supplying iself.
Fire Committee to Meet
L. P. Gabbard, chairman of the citizens committee ap
pointed last summer by Mayor Langford to study methods of
improving fire protection in College Station, says they will
meet this week.
And the meeting will come not a bit too soon. With the
alarms which the college fire department had to answer to
extinguish grass fires yesterday, it looks as though an old
problem has been re-hashed.
The question which the committee has been asked to
study deals, with methods of fire protection. Of course the
people fuss and ask for better service, but to put it in the
vords of Fire Chief Cled Warren,' “The people have a lot to
say and do little about fires when they break out.”
He was refering to the large group of people which had
gathered at a fire in the extreme South'portion of the city
near Lincoln High School. And then the people say “fight
our fires; get there in a minute or two so we may be assured
of as little loss as possible.”
Trash Burning Is Prohibited
But we made a personal invest!-
gation of both fires yesterday af
ternoon and they could be traced to
trash cans and garbage piles for
their origin.
By JAMES MARLOW
Washington, Nov. 8—(A 3 )—The
political campaign which closed
yesterday was distinguished for its
very high, but very subtle, intellec
tual tone.
For instance, the phrase—“he’s
a bum”—appeared more than once,
giving a staccato effect to sen
tences which otherwise seemed pon
derous.
You can see the advantage in the
repetition of a phrase like that
day after day, used by a politician
to sum up a rival.
Forms Link
It forms an instant link between
the speaker and the voters because
there hardly breathes a man who at
some time or other:
® Hasn’t known a bum or two
and formed opinions of them; or
® Has himself called some ri
val—-in love, dice or business—a
bum; or
® Hasn’t been called a bum by
some rival.
So the beautifully simple phrase
—“he’s a bum”—penetrated imme
diately to the emotions and imagi
nations and recollections of the
voters.
Save Wear and Tear
Such a phrase has an added util
ity: It saves an amazing amount
of literary wear and tear on the
speech writers whenever they can
find a place for it.
But, having flexed their mental
muscles with such one-syllable col
or pieces as “he’s a bum,” the
speakers were then able to display
their command over much more
complicated words that ran up to
as many as four syllables, words
like:
“Thief, liar, crook, faker, trick
ster, barbarian, nefarious conspi
rator, little Stalin, and hypocrite.’
Since this country has assumed
world leadership, it may have been
a little disquieting for any for
eigner who heard the speeches to
think that one of the people so de
scribed might get elected to high
office.
Politicians Are Conservative
There was no need for them to
be disturbed. In spite of any no
tions to the contrary, American
politicians, by and large, are an
extremely conservative group, as
you can see from what follows:
They could have reached out for
some new-fangled ideas not tested
by politicians in previous years.
But politicians know from experi
ence that the new is always dan
gerous. Such a step by itself would
have been proof of radical ten
dencies.
So whole herds of this year’s po
liticians, modestly and conserva
tively, stuck to the old political
stand-bys, giving a kind of fami
liar touch to all they said.
One Thing and Another
So this one was “tarred with iso
lationism,” that one was “leading
the nation down the road to social
ism,” this one was “handpicked by
Wall Street” and that one was a
“rubber stamp for the administra
tion.’ . ‘1
And, geographically, this year’s
politicians displayed an astonish
ing range and versatility, giving-
individual interpretations of what
happened at Yalta, laying the
blame for Korea, and disclosing in
no uncertain way the strategic
importance of Formosa, or lack
of it.
While' such themes as “Com
munism” and “witch-hunting” are
no longer exactly new, they were
by no means overlooked by the
politicians who, being human, are
sentimental enough not to want to
discard old things because they’re
old.
All Was Free
All of this was free, and some
times was accompanied by a barbe
cue without charge. But not con
tent with the wide variety of
themes, the politicians even provide
ed variety in techniques.
Some descended in helicopters,
fully equipped to begin talking on
landing. This may have had a
symbolic effect on voters: a man
coming from the general direction
of heaven, uttering prophecies.
Some had pretty girls hand out
comic books at their rallies so that
the voters, in the pauses between
speeches, could bone up a bit on
this latest American art form.
An although it may have been a
little difficult for some of the dull-
minded voters to see what it had
to do with fitness for office, one
69-year-old candidates for governor
challenged his rival to a foot race.^;
First Volume of Boswell Papers
‘Boswell’s London Journal
Takes Frank Look at Life
By W. G. ROGERS
New York, Nov. 8—(A’l—Even
the most thrilling story about pi
rates’ buried treasure is hardly
a match for the fantastic history
underlying the publication of “Bos
well’s London Journal 1762-1763.”
Copyright by Yale, published by
McGraw-Hill, edited by Frederick
A. Pottle and with a preface by
Christopher Morley, it is the first
volume of the recently unearthed
Boswell papers which Joseph "Wood
Krutch has described ,as “periiaps
the greatest literary find ever
made.”
“Your Strange Journals . . .
A Register of Your Follies,” was
the disapproving comment of
Boswell who unscrupulously stole
a peek at them. Strange is
right, and so is Follies, but there
is also a lot more wisdom than
most young men of 22, Boswell’s
age when he wrote, can lay
claim to.
Nearly 200 years have passed
since the father, eighth Lord Au-
chinleck, sneaked a. look at them,
and few other people have had a
chance for even a glance, because
they have been both hidden and
lost. The family was a little red-
faced about James Boswell and his
gay, dissolute career in London;
the papers were the skeleton in
the closet.
Boswell named three friends
his executors; they saved hut
did not publish his papers. | In
the 1840s an Englishman, a ma
jor, found Boswell letters being
used as wrapping paper by a
frugal French shopkeeper. That
was the tip-off. In the 1920s
Yale’s Prof. Chauncey B. Tinker
got on the track of a great treas
ure of manuscript near Dublin,
in Malahide Castle occupied by
a Boswell descendant. They
Silsbee to Celebrate
Silsbee High School of Silsbee,
Texas will hold its annual home
coming Nov. 10.
The homecoming program in
cludes an assembly scheduled at
1 p. m. in the high school audi
torium.
were not for sale, and another
American’s blanket offer of 50,-
000 pounds for the lot was not
even answered.
Enter a third American, another
military man, Lieut. Col. Ralph
Heyward Isham. For 20 1 years he
spent time and money assembling
the papers. A second find, includ
ing the manuscript of this book,
was made by chance at Fettercairn
House, near Aberdeen. They are
all now together at Yale.
The extraordinary fascinating-
story told in the London Journal
covers a nine-month period during
which the young man pulled all
sorts of strings to get a commis
sion in the guards; fought off his
father’s efforts to make him study
law; and wrote this day-by-day ac
count ... An account so excessive
ly frank that scholars of earlier
and more prudent generations
might have burned rather than
publish it.
Of Boswell himself, we learn
more of what we knew before, and
some fresh items, too: His silly
fear of ghosts, his inability to keep
his mouth shut, his fondness for a
foot bath, his growing thirst, his
insatiable appetite for women . . .
The story of Louisa is both shock
ing and delightful, and I dread to
think how many historical novels
will appear in how few years with
her or one of her fellow cx-eatures
as heroine and Boswell as hero.
London, too, comes wonderful-
.ly alive: Its “perfect and curious
characters,” the “immense crowd
and hurry and bustle of buisness
and diversion,” its cock fight
ing, taverns, breakfasts, teas,
theater, boat trips, and men such
as Garrick, Goldsmith, and of
course Samuel Johnson himself,
the great dictionary-maker and
author of “Rasselas” and “The
Idler.”
“The correspondence of distin
guished men is very much to be
valued,” says Boswell, and writes
brashly to everyone even up to the
level of Lord Bute. He claims he
is master of “a method’of making
people speak.” Thus he got to
gether his material. But he was
no hack, and he takes pains with
his prose: He will “rather give a
little neatly done than a good deal
slovenly.”
“Strange Journal” indeed, as the
irate father said. The least he
could have added was, that it’s a
masterpiece. It has been compared
to Pepys and Rousseau; it should
be compared to Casanova, too. . . .
Pepys was 17th Century but the
other three were contemporaries.’
Where The College Crowd Meets For
FOOD and FUN
Delicious barbecue and charcoal broiled steaks
HEAR THE HOTTEST PIANO PLAYER
IN DALLAS
CAIN’S HITCHIN’ POST
2504 W„ Davis (near Hampton
Conway & Co.
A good name to
remember for
REGULATION
UNIFORMS
Pink Elastique Slacks
(All Wool)
Green Elastique Slacks
(All Wool)
Reg. . . .
SHIRTS
SOX.
TIES and
INSIGNIA
BOSTONIAN
SHOES
Conway & Co-
103 N. Main
Bryan
LFL ABNER
Rat to Rat
By A1 Capp
Today’s Issue
L. O. Tiedt L Managing Editor
Jerry Zuber Campus News Editor
Frank N. Manitzas Sports News Editor
Joel Austin City News Editor
T. M. Fontaine, Carter Phillips Editoriai-ists
Bob Hughson, George Charlton, Tom Rountree, Leon
McClellan, Raymond Rushing, Wayne Davis, Robert
Venable, Herb O’Connell, Norman Blahuta, John
Hildebrand, Jerry Fontaine, Jack Fontaine
News and Feature Writers
Emmett Trant, Jerry Clement, Bob Hendry Cartoonists
Ray Williams, Roger Coslett Special Assignments
Sam Molinary Chief Photographer
Herman C. Gollob .....Amusements Editor
Ralph Gorman, Ray Holbrook, Harold Gann, Joe
Blanchette, Pat LeBlanc, Dale Dowell, Jimmy Curtis,
Chuck Neighbors, Fred Walker Sports Writers
Bob Hancock, John Hollingshead,
Tommy Fontaine, James Lancaster Photo Engravers
Remember! College Station ord
inances difinitely state that it is
unlawful to start a fire anywhere
in the city. This ordinance in
cludes garbage and rubbish which
the city will collect for a nomin
al fee.
Better methods of fire protestion
may be necessary, but they certain
ly won’t stop the number of fires
if some of the people who do the
fussing don’t abide by city fire
regulations.