Battalion
Editorials
THE BOY STOOD ON THE BURNING DECK DemOCVatS Pool Votes
Page 2
MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1951
Forgotten Battle?
DETTER THAN a year has passed since the conflict in
** Korea started. The conflict started with much ado and
the characteristic American optimism.
Now, better than a year later we are gradually drifting
back to business as usual. Most of us, perhaps with the ex
ception of those who have very close friends or loved ones
over there, are thinking less and less of the men over there
and more and more of our little everyday, petty problems.
If you have been watching the newspapers, you have
probably noticed that the Korean news has been getting less
and less coverage and more and more of the least favorable
spots in the paper.
As long as American men are fighting and dying we are
at war whether it is declared or not. All the reports coming
in from the battle areas state that the fighting is worse than
a great majority of that which was engaged in during World
War II.
Rather than a slacking of interest and effort, this should
be a time of redoubled efforts. There are countless ways that
we back here can make it a little better for those guys who
are finding out what Hell is really like.
The government is sponsoring more bond drives, the
Red Cross is asking for more blood donations, the Crusade
for Freedom is asking for funds to help man a Radio Free
Asia station, and last but far from least in this short list is
those ever important letters.
These are just a few ways we can renew faith with
those men who are giving every thing. *
Anti-Truman Fight Starts
(Editor’s note: Associated
Press writer Don Whitehead tra
veled through seven southern
states and talked to people from
all parts of the south to find
out what is brewing in next
year’s presidential campaign be
low the Mason-Dixon line. The
following story is one of a ser
ies of surveys by AP reporters
of the American political scene.)
By DON WHITEHEAD
Washington, Oct. 22 —(A 5 )— A
“beat Truman” movethent led by
powerful Dixie Democrats already
is gaining headway throughout the
southland even though President
Truman has given lio hint he Will
seek another term.
This political usrising can hard
ly be written off as just another
“Dixiecrat” rebellion with no more
steam behind it than the one which
cost Mr. Truman 39 electorial votes
in the 1948 election.
This time the fires of political
American, British Diplomats
Still Question Red Sincerity
By WILLIAM L. RYAN
AP Foreign Affairs Analyst
After all these years of broken
agreements and studied provoca
tions, it seems a little strange to
read that diplomats in Washington
or in London or in Paris are spec
ulating whether the Soviet Union
is “sincere in its latest utterance.”
But an elementary courge in
Stalinism would convince them
that “sincere” is an odd word to
apply to the present rulers of Mos
cow.
Want Conference
Washington dispatches quote the
diplomats as expressing hope that
the latest Moscow pronouncement
might mean a four-power confer
ence. Perhaps that is just what the
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Battalion’s Comments on Magazine
Article Questioned by History Prof
Editor, The Battalion:
For two days last week I held
my breath while waiting for your
editorial comments on William.
Huie’s recent attempt to discredit
the teachers and scholars in our
colleges and universities. Friday’s
half-hearted denunciation was nei-
their effective nor very satisfac
tory; it did a disservice to your
paper and a gross injustice to a
fearless editorial writer, H. L.
Mencken.
Your commentator seemed to ex
perience difficulty in distinguishing
between “good information” and
opinions which he has probably en
tertained since he first picked
them us at his fourth grade teach
er’s knee. There was precious lit
tle information in Huie’s article,
and even that was not to be found
in what Mr. Rountree labeled “the
brighter spots.”
Typical of Inquisitors
Rather Huie’s innuendoes, his
vague allusions, and not so subtle
implications are more typical of
our modern inquisitors who em
ploy unconstitutional means to pre
serve the Constitution, who resort
to lawless and disorderly defenses
of law and order, who serve demo
cracy by negating it, who, behind
the fig-leaf of Americanism and
individualism, would eliminate all
that is worthy of those terms.
That we need more honesty and
responsibility in our public offi
cials is not here denied; that it
will be brought about by Huie’s in
tellectual dishonesty and irrespon
sible journalism is. Besides, cor
ruption and incompetence are not
peculiar to government; they are
simply a reflection of the confused
state of our social values and an
inadequate preparation for adult
life in general.
In a business society, as Lincoln
Steffens told us year’s ago, politi
cians do not corrupt good business
men: the exact opposite is more
often the case. That college cam
puses have not been immune to
this contagion has been demon
strated by recent development in
the “business” of football, to say
nothing of basketball.
Your editorial reminded me of
the nearsighted man who threw
his glasses away because they
made his home and friends look
ugly. Let us hope that the editors
of The Battalion are not planning
to cure their intellectual myopia
and thereby remove the eyesores
of modern social and political
problems by discarding their jour
nalistic spectacles.
As for the Mercury under Men
cken’s editorship, it was the com
plete antithesis of the current
American Mercury, in more ways
than one. Here I refer primarily
to the forceful and courageous
critical pieces by Mencken him
self. No innuendoes or allusions
for him. When he wanted to take a
crack at Woodrow Wilson, he made
no snide remarks about the Presi
dent’s second wife as so many did
in those days. No, Mencken tagged
Wilson himself for what he was:
“The self-bamboozled Presbyterian,
the right thinker, the great moral
statesman, the perfect model of
a Christian cad.”
The terms are a bit extreme
perhaps, but nevertheless a fair
appraisal of Wilson’s character.
Mencken was one of the few hon-
US Planes Unable
To Attack Target
A U. S. Rir Force Base in
Japan, Oct. 22—(A 5 )—Crews of nine
B-29 Superforts glumly returned
tonight without having reached a
“very special” target in North Ko
rea. They unloaded their bombs—
144, one-hundred pounders in each
plane—on hail facilities at often-
bombed Hamhung instead.
Lack of fighter cover was giv
en as the reason the bombers
turned back when 30 minutes from
the target. By radio it was learned
a runway accident at a fighter
strip in Korea delayed takeoffs
until it was too late to make the
rendezvous.
One fighter pilot was burned,
but not fatally, in a crackup that
halted use of the runway for
precious minutes, it was learned
after landing.
The Battalion
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions
"Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman”
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JOHN WHITMORE Editor
Joel Austin - Managing Editpr
Bill Streich News Editor
Frank Davis City Editor
Allen Pengelly Assistant News Editor
Bob Selleck Sports News Editor
William Dickens Feature Editor
Pat Morley Women’s Editor
T. H. Baker, E. R. Briggs, A1 Bruton, Norman Campbell,
Mickey Cannon, Monte Curry, Dan Dawson, Bob Fagley,
Benny Holub, Howard Hough, Jon Kinslow, Bryan Spencer,
Ide Trotter, John Robards, Carol Vance, Edgar Watkins,
Berthold Weller, Jerry Wizig, Raymond York News and Feature Writers
Bob Cullen, Jack Brandt Cartoonists
Frank Scott Quarterback Club Director
Jim Jenson Photographer
Pat LeBlanc. Hugh Phillips, F. T. Scott, Chuck Neighbors,
Gus Becker, Joe Blanchette, Ed Holder Sports News Writers
John Lancaster. Chief Photo Engraver
Russel Hagens • i ......: Advertising Manager
Robert Haynie ..Advertising Representative
“It would have been suicide to
have gone through with the mis
sion,” one officer commented en
route back to base. “You heard
one of our scouting planes report
that four flights of MIG-15s had
taken off from Antung. Without
fighter-bombers ahead of us to
knock out the Ack Ack around the
target, and Sabre jets and meteors
above us to keep off the MIGS,
we wouldn’t have stood much of a
chance.”
At the early morning briefing
before departure, officers of the
98th Bombardment Wing of the
Far East Air Forces emphasized
that “despite unfavorable weath
er conditions this mission is of
such importance we must have a
go at it.”
Because the target is still “very
special,” its location and nature
cannot be disclosed until it has
been eliminated.
Today’s flight was headed by Col.
Edwin F. Harding, of Franklin,
Ohio. The plane which flew on his
right wing was commanded by
Capt. George C. Kalebaugh of
3522 McKinley Ave., El Paso, Tex.,
and it carried one of several cor
respondents on the mission. It is
called “Tidy Widow.”
Formerly named Miss Tampas,
it is believed to hold the record
for missions by any B-29 operat
ing from this base—144, includ
ing today’s. Nearly half of its
successful raids were under the
leadership of Maj. W. G. Cook
of Deansboro, N. Y.
Capt. Kalebaugh and most of
his crew were making their “air
medal flight—their tenth. They ar
rived in Japan Sept. 16 from Ran
dolph Field and flew their first
Korea mission Sept. 22.
A minute after the takeoff fog
and overcast was so thick the out
side engines were invisible, but at
6,000 feet there was sunshine. The
top of Mount Fugi could be seen
through billowy white clouds.
Communications between
planes were kept as brief as
possible. After the non-appear
ance of the fighters and the trip
to Hamburg, the monotony of the
run was broken by “bombs
away!”
Besides Kalebaugh, those who
earned the air medal by today’s
flight included S/Sgt. Thomas W.
Luker, 1948 Gonzales. Rd., San An
tonio, Tex., flight engineer.
estly free men who dared criticize
the trite and the commonplace,
who resisted the overwhelming tide
of mass opinion, who defied the
censors and inquisistors of the
witch hunts of an earlier day, who
more than suspected that the
American people were growing
“more timouous, more sniveling,
more poltroonish, and more igno
minious every day.”
“Himself a Better Citizen”
Yet he rightfully considered
himself a better citizen, more use
ful to the Republic, than the
“thousands who put the Hon. War
ren Gamaliel Harding beside Fried
rich Barbarossa and Charlemagne,
and hold the Supreme Court to be
directly inspired by the Holy
Spirit, and belong adrently to
every Rotary Club, Ku Klux Klan,
and Anto-Saloon League, and
choke with emotion when the band
plays the Star Spangled Banner,
and believe with the faith of little
children that one of Our Boys, tak
en at random, could dispose in a
fair fight of ten Englishmen,
twenty Germans, thirty Frogs,
Forty Wops, fifty Japs, or a hun
dred Bolsheviki.”
On those Americans who do not
try to censor or intimidate pub
lic opinion but merely resort to a
naive hope that eventually all
will turn out right, Mencken was
equally harsh: “The boobus Ameri-
canius is a bird that knows no
closed season—and if he won’t
come down to Texas oil stock, or
one-night cancer cures, or building
lots in Swamphurst, he will al
ways come down to Inspiration and
Optimism, whether political, the
ological, pedagogical, literary, or
economic.”
Outlook Not Youthful
Mencken pointed out in the
early 1920’s that the American out
look was no longer youthful: “All
the characteristics of senescence
are in it: a great distrust of ideas,
an habitual timorousness, a harsh
fidelity to a few .fixed beliefs, a
touch of mysticism.” I wonder
what thoughts are now passing
through the mind of this sucrri-
lous scold who still wants to be
known as a Christian and a pat
riot.
Somehow I fear your editorial
of last Friday would have con
firmed his worst suspicion that
“The normal American of the
‘pure-blooded majority goes to
rest every night with the uneasy
feeling that there is a burglar
under the bed, and he gets up
every morning with a sickening
fear that his underwear has been
stolen.”
George Rudisill, Jr.
History Department
P. S. The Mencken quotations
come from his essay “On being an
American” in his Prejudices: Third
Series (New York: Knoph; 1922);
and William Manchester, Disturb
er of the Peace: the life of H. L.
Mencken (New York: Harpers;
1951).
Moscow machanitions mean. But is
is nothing to express hope about.
Moscow, they say, may now
“agree” to a top-level meeting.
Therei will be no four-power meet
ing unless the Kremlin considers
that to its advantage. This will
not be “agreeing” to anything. It
will be a matter of tactics.
There are all sorts of reasons
for supposing that a four-power
meeting is right up Moscow’s al
ley. It would throw a monkey
wrench neatly into the rearmament
works, so far as Western Ger
many is concerned, for one thing.
Propaganda Sounding Board
Moreover, a four-power meeting
would be a ready-made sounding
board for Moscow’s propaganda.
The Russians have been intent
upon carrying out a program aimed
at cutting the United States off
from the rest of the world. If a
four-power meetiing will carry this
program a step further, they will
“agree” to it.
Our ambassador to Moscow says
the Russians will respect nothing
hut power: “We cannot negotiate
with the Soviets when we are
weak.” This does not mean we
should purr soft word and timidly
hope Moscow will “agree” to a
four-power meeting. From the ex
perience of the past, it would seem
that the only four-power meeting
with any chance of doing any good
would be the one that Moscow had
to plead for.
Moscow Will Wait
The way the situation stands
now, Moscow will wait for the
proper moment, condescend to have
a meeting, and once again foster
the hope among strife-weary peo
ples that “the co-existence of two
systems is possible.” But by the
very definition of Stalinist Com
munism, there can be no such
thing as peaceful co-existence.
Stalinism thrives on strife, and
with the shape the world is in to
day, Moscow surely must be chort
ling.
Notes From
Grad School
Candidates for graduation at
the close of the first semester
may clear their records for grad
uation now.
The Graduate School is now ac
cepting “notices of intention to
graduate”. Graduate students must
file such a notice with both the
dean of the Graduate School and
the registrar. Nov. 1 is the last
in February.
Every student now should know
whether he expects to complete
his degree requirements at the:
end of this fall semester. If he
does intend to complete them he
should file these notices soon per
mitting a thorough check of his
record to be sure that nothing has
been overlooked.
The forms for declai’ing a can
didate’s intentiion to graduate are
available in the office of the Dean
of the Graduate School and in the
office of the Registrar.
revolt ai’e being tended by men
who have not only great influence
through the south—but men whose
names are known across the na
tion. Whether it could achieve
greater results that the 138 State-
Righters is a question for the fu
ture.
Even though the Democratic Na
tional Convention is nine months
distant, the south’s anti-Truman
forces are groping toward a way
either to deny Mr. Truman the
party nomination, or—failing that
—to block him in winning another
term.
These are facts and conclusions
drawn froin a trip through seven
southern states and talks with
senators, governors, political lead
ers, editors, businessmen and oth
ers from all walks of life.
This “beat Truman*’ movement
has not yet developed a solid or
ganization. Neither is the strategy
clearly defined. But the direction
is clear and the effort already is
underway to pull the various state
parts into a whole.
Success Still Questioned
Whether it will ever suceed is
a point of dispute even ainong
southern leaders. So far, the pro-
Truman foi’Ces for the most part
ai’e sitting on the sidelines wait
ing to see what happens but de
termined to keep the south on the
side of the party nominee.
The “anti” leadership is coming
from Senator Harry Byrd of Vir
ginia and Gov. James F. Byrnes
of South Carolina, both bitter poli
tical foes of the Fresident. They
are in close touch with other lead
ers in the South who are looking
to them to call the signals.
Next month prominent southern
ers are being invited to Selma,
Ala., on Nov. 1, where Byrd is
scheduled to address an Alabama
farm group. This meeting has tak
en on growing importance, with
some signs it may be the kick-off
in the “beat Truman” drive.
The picture is likely to become
clearer, too, after the southern
governor’s conference in mid-No
vember at Hot Springs, Ark.
Lost Southern Votes
candidate and that Senator Taft
of Ohio will win the GOP nomin
ations:
Southern delegations to the na
tional convention would notify the
convention in advance of their op
position to Mr. Truman as a can
didate and their intention of op
posing him if nominated.
Then if Mr. Truman were nom
inated over the south’s objections
(and Dixie leaders concede they
couldn’t block it), the southerners
would 1 call a convention to nomin
ate a candidate of their own choice.
Russell Mentioned
The name most frequently men
tioned for this nomination is Sena
tor Richard B. Russell of Georgia,
who polled 263 convention votes
Three years ago, Mr. Truman
lost all the electorial votes of
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi
and South Carolina, plus one vote
from Tennessee. The voters went
to the State’s Rights presidential
candidate J. Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina.
The 1948 State’s Righters re
bellion lacked the support of the three years ago.
south’s top-ranking political lead- With electors instructed for
ers. But indications at this time Russell, some of these strategists
are that there will be no such figure the south might deny Mr.
lack next year—if Mr. Truman is Truman from 73 to 93 electoral
Democratic flag bearer. votes and throw the presidential
This is being made clear by election into the House of Repre
southern democratic leaders in sentatives for lack of a majority
Washington and others in Ala- by any of the candidates.
bama, Georgia, Louisiana, Miss
issippi, Texas, Tennessee and Flor
ida—most of whom expect Mr.
Truman to run again.
The new strategy of anti-Tru
man forces may be an effort to
capture control of the south’s na
tional convention delegations and
to step up machinery to carry out
the revolt within the framework
of the state democratic parties.
Possible Strategy Plan
Here is a plan of possible stra
tegy being discussed in Washing
ton and among political leaders
in other southern states, based on
the assumption that Mr. Truman
will be the democratic presidential
The states figuring in this spec
ulation, and their electoral votes,
are: Alabama (11), Arkansas (9),
Georgia (12), Louisiana (10),
Mississippi (9), South Carolina
(8), Texas (23), and Virginia (11).
A presidential election in the
House would give the south a
strong position because each state
has only one vote and Senator Rus
sell is a powerful and highly re
spected figure in Congress.
In a three-way contest between
Mr. Truman, Taft and Russell,
some southerners figure Russell
would win all the south’s votes
and pull enough votes from Taft
(See ANTI-TRUMAN, Page 4)
Say, Men
“ ‘The time has come,’ the walrus said, ‘to speak of many
things . . ” And so it has. But we have just one thing to
speak ot We want to remind you of a request we made a few
days ago. It’s about that job that all you students should do.
The Time Has Come
Yes, the time has come for you to invite your home town
friends who are high school seniors, to come to Aggieland for
a visit. And this weekend is a good time for them to come.
They can see the game between A&M and Baylor, they can
have chow with you in the mess hall, they can spend the night
in the dorm. It would be only a taste of Aggie life, but it
would give them an idea of what it means to be an Aggie.
So Invite Them Down
Ask your friends to come to Aggieland this weekend.
Show them around. Introduce them to your Aggie friends.
Then tell your friends to come to school here this January, or
June, when they graduate. If they do, you’ll benefit, and
A&M will benefit, and they will benefit.
LI’L ABNER
Just Before The Battle, Mother!!
By A1 Capp
Pliiletelic Society
To Meet Tuesday
The Brycol Philatilic Society
will meet Tuesday at 7 p. m. in
room 21 of the Civil Engineering
Building, announced S. R. Wright,
secretary.