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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1952)
College Station’s Official Newspaper; Circulated Daily To 90% of Local Residents The Battalion PUBLISHED DAILY IN THE INTEREST OF A GREATER A&M COLLEGE Published By Students of Texas A&M For 74 Years Number 85: Volume 52 COLLEGE STATION (Aggieland), TEXAS, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1952 Price Five Cents Same Song, Different Verse SiilYJ Lmmmsmp This has all happened before, but it is still confusing: says Fresh man R. M. Webb, Plainview, as he gets his registration card from Walter Elred, registrar’s office employee. He was just one of the 5,000 who went through the same ritual of signing up for classes, paying fees, getting athletic cards, buying magazines, and the thousand and one other things connected with registration. On the right Fish Webb signs a "must” in his curricula—English. He is registered in the class by R. G. Pickett of the English department. Unofficial Figures Released; 5,432 Students Enrolled An estimated 5,432 have registered so far for the second term, H. L. Heaton, registrar said yesterday afternoon. The office of the registrar was working all day Sunday to process the cards of the students who had gone through the line by the end of registration Saturday. Of this number 119 are new students to the college and 5,313 are old returning students. An official count will not be available, Heaton said, until all of the cards have been processed and machine counted. He estimated there would be another 200 to 300 students register late. Government Finds Big Grain Shortage From the English table he went to the Ah- Science registration section, left. Capt. J. N. Hoffman, center, signs Fish Webb’s regis tration card. Before he can leave, picture on the right, Fish Webb must have the approval of the Basic Division. He is getting this from John P. Oliver, acting for the dean of the Basic Division. Aggie Cagers Lose To TU Steers 40-51 Finally it is all over. All of the classes are signed and all of the cards filled out, so hungry, thirsty and tired, Fish Webb hands his assignment card over to Mrs. H. Brownlee of 1 the Registrar’s office. Giant Duster Rips Across Entire State Great clouds of reddish dust roll ed across Texas Sunday in what a soil expert said could be the fore runner in some areas of the dis astrous dusters of the early 1930’s. “About two million acres south and west of Lubbock are in suffi ciently critical condition that such dust storms may continue,” Louis Merrill said at Fort Worth. He is regional director' of the U. S. Soil Conservation Service. North and northwest winds of 30 to 40 miles an hour, with gusts up Deadline Feb. 5 For 5 Year Men Men who have not signed the new draft agreement and have completed their Military Science training requirements, but not their academic qualifications must sign the agreements before Feb. 5, announced SFC Thomas Heller of the Selective Service office of the Military depart ment. Sgt. Heller’s office is in the second floor of Ross Hall. to 50, drove the dust from the El Paso-Panhandle area to Houston and the Rio Grande Valley. At mid-afternoon visibility was cut -to three or four miles with some east Texas towns, reporting it as low as three quarters of a mile. Planes Grounded Private light planes were grounded. Airlines flew on instru ments. El Paso, which had its duster Saturday night, reported clear skies. The storm hit Houston late Sunday, reducing visibility to 1% miles at 5:30 p. m. an hour later it rose to eight miles. Meredith said approximately 3,500,000 acres of crop and range land were without sufficient cover. These include the two million acres ^•hich are in critical condition. “In the other million and a half scattered acres there is sufficient moisture that emergency tillage operations are being used to pro duce cloddy or roughened sur faces,” he said. Pulverized Dirt “This can be done until the roughened surface is worn down by (See DROUTH, Page 2) The Texas Longhorns pushed to a tie for,the Southwest Conference basketball lead in Austin Saturday night as a Jim Dowies-led quintet defeated A&M 51-40 in Gregory Gym. The Aggies went behind in the first period and never regained the lead, although they closed the gap to 22-20 at halftime. By virtue of TCU’s loss to Ar kansas in Little Rock Saturday night, the Longhorns moved into a tie with the Horned Frogs for first place, while the Aggies and SMU are tied for second with two conference losses. Davis High Scorer Center Walt Davis of the Aggies was high scorer of the evening as he racked up half the Cadets points —20. Dowies was second to the 6 foot 9 inch pivot man with 19 markers. Scaling made 13 points for Texas, while Miksch accounted for 7 for the Ags. Entering the game with only one conference defeat, both teams had met earlier this year in the Cotton Bowl tournament. A&M won the pre-season contest by one point. Dowies was top man for Texas all the way as he hit the basket from practically any vintage point. Aggie Rally Early in the fourth quarter the Aggies got hot and narrowed the score margin to 7 points, but the rally fell short as Don Binford, the boy who sparked the comeback, left the game with five fouls. The last minutes of the contest proved to be very humiliating to the Aggies as Texas tucked the ball under their own freeze play with four minutes left. The Cadets went all over the court after the ball trying vainly to gain posses sion from the Longhorns who were leading at this point 43-36. Approximately 7,000 spectators (See AGGIES BOW, Page 2) Washington, Feb. 4 —OP)— A House subcommittee reported to day that in Texas alone it has found shortages of $3,820,000 in the government’s grain storage program. An appropriations subcommittee headed by Rep. Whitten (D-Miss) had its staff investigate the pro gram last fall. Then in January it summoned Secretary of Agriculture Brannan and other officials to closed .hearings to go over the re port. A report to the house, together with the transcript of the hearing, was made public today. y Investigation The Senate Agriculture Commit tee has also undertaken an investi gation, and Whitten said he would turn over to it all the information his group gathered. Brannan has told senators private firms were to blame for the shortages, and that no government employees bene fited. The House subcommittee crit icized the Commodity Credit Cor poration, the Agriculture depart ment’s agency which handles grain storage, for what it called failure to inspect storage facilities before and during the time they are used to store government grain. The grain is bought as part of the farm price support program. During the hearings Brannan dismissed as “pipe-dreaming” re ports that CCC losses would ran up to 100 million dollars or more. Asked by Rep. Andersen (R- Minn) whether he anticipated that more than five millions is involved in all of these shortages, Brannan replied. 5-7 Million many states no law violations are involved. The subcommittee noted that the CCC since its inception “has hand led loans and purchase transac tions totaling over 14% billion dollars with less than one billion in losses.” It said nothing had been found “which reflects upon the price-sup port program in any way.” The re port continued: “However, the members of the subcommittee do believe that the information developed indicates that the organization and the op erating policies of the corporation leave much to be desired. Prisoner Swap Decision Near In Peace Talks Munsan, Korea, Feb. 4—(H 5 )—The United Nations and Communists today moved near agreement on plans for ex changing war prisoners as truce negotiators scheduled a full dress session Wednesday to start work on the final section of a Korean Armistice. * “I think we can get together and write the rest of the agreement” on prisoner exchange, said Rear Adm. R. E. Libby. “For the first time, I think we are in a position to settle the nuts and bolts of the situation.” Staff officers drafting truce supervision plans made no measurable headway. They still must iron out differences over troop rotation, neutral inspection and definitions of coastal waters. U. N. spokesmen have described the differ ences as minor. The staff officers are not debating the key ~ ^ truce supervision issue — whether the Reds have the right to build British Malaya Policy Designed To Beat Reds “We say five to seven million, Mr. Andersen. Again I say that if we lose much more than a half mil lion dollars out of the grain cases I will be very much surprised.” Brannan and his aides said that while the shortages are violations of contracts between the govera- ment and the grain elevators, in Florist to Have Short Course Here Commercial Florist Short Coursfs opened here Sunday in the MSG. The short course will be held through 5 p.m. today. Sponsored by the Floriculture and Landscape Architecture de partment, with A. F. DeWerth as chairman, the annual short course will be held in the Ballroom of the MSG. Singapore, Feb. 4—(H 5 )— Britain took a bold gamble to day in a “new broom” policy for beating Red terrorism in Malaya. She appointed a new British administrator with no pre vious Malayan experience in hopes he will “bring a fresh line to bear on the many complexities” in this strategic tin and rubber producing country. London announced the appoint ment of Donald Charles MaeGilliv- ray, now colonial secretary to Ja maica, as the new deputy high com missioner for the Malayan federa tion. His job will be to direct civil affairs under the newly appointed high commissioner, Gen. Sir Ger ald Templer, strong-arm military man •who was named last month to lead the war against the Red guer rillas. Malay and Chinese political lead ers, who are seeking eventual in dependence for the British con trolled federation, doubtless will view the appointment of MacGil- livray with suspicion and disap pointment. They had been expect ing someone familiar with Mala ya’s complex political problems as deputy high commissioner. Government supporters voted down a proposal in the Federal Legislative Council at Kuala Lum pur that an Asian be named deputy high commissioner. Feeling ran high in the debate on the issue, and even many of those who voted to give London a free hand in clos ing its administration voiced the hope he would be an expert in Ma layan affairs. Aggie Debaters Drop Forensic Meet at Baylor Aggie debaters were edged out of the winning positions by Texas University in the Baylor University annual in vitational forensic tour n a- ment which was held in Waco' Fri day and Saturday. Three out of the four Aggie teams making the trip got as far as the ■ elimination rounds. Two teams went as far as the first eli mination round and the third went on to the second elimination where it lost to TU. Thirty schools from seven south ern and southwestern states have entered approximately 300 speak ers in the week-end meet, Harri son Heirth, Aggie debate coach said. During the debate, which was resolved: That the Federal Gov ernment Should Adopt a Perman ent Program of Wage and Price Control, 16 teams were entered in the junior senior elimination rounds. This was the first time the A&M, men had debated in competition on the question, Hierth said. Dance Class Meets Ballroom dancing instruction classes will begin next Monday, instead of tonight as scheduled, an nounces Miss Betty Bolander, MSC program co-ordinator. and repair North Korean military airfields. The full, five-man armistice dele gations will meet in Panmunjom at 10 a.m. Wednesday (8 p.m. EST Tuesday) to open negotiations on agenda item five — recommenda tions to governments. First in Two Months It will be the first plenary ses sion since Dec. 4. Subcommittees and staff officers have been in ses sion daily, however. Vice Adm. C. Turner Joy pro posed Jan. 31 negotiations on three sections of the truce be conducted simultaneously to speed agreement on an armistice. In accepting his suggestion the Reds agreed to provide a detailed working draft. They are expected to propose withdrawal of all for eign troops from Korea—a pet Communist project—and a high level political conference to settle the whole Korean question. U. N. headquarters in Tokyo said no recommendations will be mad* to governments involved in the Ko rean war unless the truce negotia< tors agree on what to recommend. The disclosure killed off specula tion that two separate sets of rec ommendations would be made. Staff officers working on trace supervision and the prisoner ex change subcommittee will meet as usual at 11 a.m. Tuesday (9 p.m. EST Monday). Optimistic Admiral Libby Monday gave newsmen the most optimistic re port of the prisoner exchange sub committee’s 53 meetings. “We may be ready to go to the staff officer level in a day or two, (See PEACE, Page 4) Ex Interior Boss, Harold Ickes, Dies Polish Officer Massacre Eye Witness to Report on Reds Washington, Feb. 4—(A 5 )—A man who says he saw Russians murder ing Polish army officers in Katyn Forest during World War II will testify before a Congressional com mittee trying to find out whether Nazis or Russians committed the massacre. Rep. Madden (D-Ind), chairman of a special House investigating committee, announced during the weekend that “this is the only eye witness—outside the men who did the murdering—who has ever been produced.” So far unidentified, the mysteiy witness will appear Wednesday, Madden said. The committee, however, will be gin its investigation today (1:30 p.m. EST) into the mass murder of 4,143 Polish army leaders in Katyn Forest near Smolensk in 1943. That many corpses were found in crade mass graves. An other 11,000 Polish prisoners are still missing. All were taken from Poland and held in three western Russian pris on camps. The Russians, despite this, say the Nazis are to blame for the massacre. The Germans blame the Russians. John Mitchell, committee counsel, says he has ample evidence to prove that the Russian committeed the killings. First witness to appear before the special committee wil be Col. John H. Van Vliet, an American army officer who was flown from a German prison camp by the Nazis to see the stacked bodies of the dead Poles. The Nazis wanted the American to authenticate their graesome dis covery. Report Made Van Vliet, back from duty in Ja pan, is repeating the story for the third time officially. He made a report to the Pentagon after his release from captivity, and when this was reportedly lost, he made a second five years later from memory. The committee not only wants to hear him tell about what he saw in Katyn Forest, but also about the two imports he made to the Pentagon and what happened to the first one. Made in May 1945, it was classi fied “top secret” and never was released. Curious congressmen were told later the report and ac companying photographs had been “lost.” Committee officials indicated they would try to determine wheth er Washington officials tried to cover up the incident during the latter stages of World War II. Interested Congressmen The committee was authorized during the last congressional ses sion to investigate the massacre. Congressmen from Polish-Ameri- can districts are interested. Madden said the hearing will have more ramifications than just trying to investigate the Katyn affair. “Stalin and the Reds have been talking about Americans killing Communist prisoners in Korea,” he said. “This hearing will present evidence of the greatest mass geno cide in history, and will reveal the criminal mind behind the Com munist leaders.” In addition to Van Vliet and the mystery witness, the committee has announced it also has two Poles Avho escaped from some of the camps where the murdered officers previously were confined. They may appear masked, in or der to protect their identities so relatives still behind the iron cur tain wont be punished, Madden said. Madden said the hearings may be televised after the second or third day. Washington, Feb. 4—GP)—Har old L. Ickes, one of the most color ful figures of the Roosevelt New Deal, died to- night. Ickes 77 years old, died at 5:25 o’clock (CST) tonight in Em ergency Hospi tal, where he had been under treatment for complications of a former arthri tic condition. • Ickes Ickes was Sec retary of Interior in 1932-46 and head man of the Public Works Ad- minstration of the turbulent de pression years. A sharp-tongue phrasemaker, Ickes called himself “the old cur mudgeon” and in his time was just as rough on others. Ickes previously had been under hospital treatment but returned to his home at nearby Olney, Md., on Jan. 18, apparently much improved. He took a turn for the worse ten days later and went back to the hospital. Latter Years Quiet His last years were spent in comparative quiet, but there were few men of his day who could look back on such a vigorous—and often stormy career. His running fued with the late Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s close friend and head of the Works Progress Administration, made “New Deal” history. Ickes’ public life was controver- sal to the end. He resigned from President Truman’s cabinet in 1946 saying he could no longer stay in the cabinet and “retain my self respect.” His anger was stirred to this point by an argu ment with Truman over the Pres ident’s nomination of Edwin W. Pauley, an oil man, to be undersec retary of the Navy. Iches regard ed Pauley’s appointment—which was never confirmed by the Senate —as contrary to his concept of preserving the nation’s oil resour ces. Ickes, a native Pennsylvanian who practiced law in Chicago, came to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s atten tion at the outset of Roosevelt’s presidential career. Both men were interested in conservation and Roosevelt named him to be secre tary of the interior. He held that post longer than any other man. Sharp Tongue Ickes had a quick wit and a sharp tongue and he used them liberally. He had a talent for pin ning barbed labels on people the world over—including Harold Le- Clair Ickes. He called himself “the old cur mudgeon,” a word Webster defines as “an avaricious, grasping fel low; a miser; niggard; churl.” “I’ve known for a long time,” he once remarked, “that I’m not loved with the feiwor to which I’m entitled. If a man worked hard at it he couldn’t get a bigger list of enemies than I.” He once said Huey P. Long, late senator from Louisiana, had “hal itosis of the intellect.” Ickes once referred to Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican presidential candidate in 1944 and 1948 as “the candidate in sneakers.”