Battalion Editorials
Page 2 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1953
Freedom of Press Born
With John Zenger Case
YESTERDAY in the Federal Hall of New
York City the John Peter Zenger Me
morial room was opened and dedicated.
Zenger is important to every American
for he played one of the most important roles
in our history of independence with estab
lishing freedom of the press. His case es
tablished the freedoms we enjoy at this col
lege.
It is not true to say that Americans have
always enjoyed this principle of freedom,
for censorship was prevalent in the early
Colonial period. From Zenger’s case emerged
the doctrine that “truth is defense in libel.”
At that time, the law of England on libel
read:
“It is not material whether the libel be
true, or whether the party agaist whom it is
made be of good or ill fame; for in a settled
state of Government the party ought to com
plain for every injury done him in an ordi
nary court of law, and not by any means to
revenge himself, either by the odious course
of libeling or otherwise.”
The court insisted it should say what was
“scandalous and infamous and false,” and it
also said: “If people should not be called to
account for possessing the people with an ill
opinion of the government, no government
can subsist; for it is necessary for all gov
ernments that the people should have a good
opinion of it; and nothing ican be worse to
any government than the endeavor to pro
cure animosites.”
“It is right,” said Andrew Hamilton, Zen
ger’s lawyer, “which all freemen claim, and
are entitled to, to complain when they are
hurt; they have a right to publicly remon-
A /i Examination
/
For Intellectuals
TIOW EDUCATED are you?
Many seniors may think they have
reached that supreme point where no more
knowledge can be absorbed in their “highly
intellectual” minds.
To test this type of intelligence, a pro
fessor at a northwestern college has prepared
the following test. Answers of Yes to all
questions qualify an educated man.
Has your education given you sympathy
with all good causes and made you espouse
them ?
Have you learned how to make friends
and to keep them?
Do you know what it is to be a friend
yourself ?
Can you look an honest man or a pure
woman straight in the eye?
Will a lonely dog follow you down the
street ?
Can you be high minded and happy in
the meaner drudgeries of life?
Do you think washing dishes and hoeing
corn just as compatible with high thinking
as piano playing or golf?
Are you good for anything to yourself?
Can you be happy alone?
Can you look out on the world and see
anything but dollars and cents?
Can you look into the sky at night and
see beyond the stars:
Can your sould claim relationship with
the Creator?
strate against the abuses of power in the
strongest terms, to put their neighbors upon
their guard against the craft or open vio
lence of men in authority and to assert with
courage the sense they have of the blessings
of liberty, the value they put upon it, and
their resolution at all hazards to preserve it,
as one of the greatest blessings heaven can
bestow.”
But Hamilton, said the requirement of
truth is upon the critic. He said:
“I frankly agree that nothing ought to
excuse a man who raises a false charge or
accusation, even against a private person,
and that no manner of allowance ought to be
made to him who does so against a public
magistrate. Truth ought to govern the whole
affair. . .”
The liberty which Hamilton so stoutly de
fended was not merely that of one man. It
was the definite stand of a man who knew
that a citizen must have the liberty both of
exposing and opposing arbitrary power by
speaking and writing the truth.
And the results brought forth from the
Zenger case can be thus seen. Not only that
truth was defense in liable but that this case
was a fight not for the right to spread error,
but to speak truth; not freedom to mislead,
but to enlighten with reason and conscience.
Freedom is responsibility of thought and
action—the responsibility to present news
fully and fairly. Freedom involves a positive
responsibility to contribute to further free
dom with the truth. Without this freedom,
others would collapse. It is good to remem
ber John Peter Zenger.
•
Reds Continue
Hurting America
¥OHN J. McCLOY, speaking no longer as
High Commissioner to Germany but as
chairman of the board of America’s second
largest bank, recently paid high tribute to
the integrity, loyalty, and competency of the
career government official, who, he said, “is
getting rather knocked about these days.”
And he pointed up one way in which the
Communists have really hurt Americans:
The Communists . . have proven themselves
capable of disseminating a sort of corrosive,
divisive influence among . . . the people of
the United States. We have developed a ten
dency to lose faith and hope in ourselves . . .
to suspect too many of our government serv
ants—too many of our neighbors—and we are
inclined to follow some of the methods of the
totalitarians in doing so.
And he had a deserved word of rebuke to
liberals of ^he New Deal era. Had they pro
tested as vigorously as do their successors
now when business was being pilloried by
congressional investigations, the undemo
cratic weapons of innuendo, part truths, and
slanted hearings might never have gained
such currency.
Which, carried a step further, might
serve as a warning to good people who see
no danger in their use today so long as they
are used against anyone whose opinions they
don’t like: They may be willing witnesses
to the whetting of that fabled two-edged
sword which in other—or even the same—
hands could some day be turned against
themselves. —The Christian Science Monitor.
The Battalion
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions
“Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman”
The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, is published
by students four times a week, during the regular school year. During the summer terms, and examina
tion and vacation periods. The Battalion is published twice a week. Days of publications are Tuesday
through Friday for the regular school year, and Tuesday and Thursday during examination and va
cation periods and the summer terms. Subscription rates $6.00 per year or $.50 per month. Advertising
rates furnished on request.
Entered as second-class matter at
Post Office at College Station, Tex
as under the Act of Congress of
March 3, 1870.
Member of
The Associated Press
Represented nationally by National
Advertising Services, Inc., at New
York City, Chicago, Los Angeles,
and San Francisco.
The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all news dispatches cred
ited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein.
Rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved.
FRANK N. MANITZAS, JOEL AUSTIN
Ed Holder, Jerry Bennett -
Harri Baker
Peggy Maddox
Co-Editors
.Managing Editors
Ed Holder
Frank N. Manitzas
Bob BoTiskie
Today 9 s Issue
Managing Editor
News Editor
Sports News Editors
Main Power FOR BETTER education—i
CanH Be ■Cut
During Taps
It would be impossible to
turn off all the lights on the
campus from a central point
during Silver Taps, said J. K.
Walker, head of Building and
College Utilities.
High School, Auditoiet
Included in School A 1
(First in the series of articles double sessions will
dealing with the building of a new in the first grade
The statement was made high school for College Station.)
in answer to a letter printed
in The Battalion asking
such a thing is possible.
The college furnishes power
to the surrounding area; it
would not be possible to turn
out the lights on the campus
By HARRI BAKER
Battalion City Editor
The question remains: what kind
of new school ?
. , , demand f
be necessary our school lanned
said awing; 3r
president,
A new school for College
Station is again in the hands
of the voters.
The A & M Consolidated
without turning off all power
to the adjacent area, Walker School Board of Trustees has
said. Another thing to be con- called an election May 2 to
sidered, he said, is that ma- decide whether or not the peo- gchooi and
chinas in various building pie will give the school board : u . re s ’immediately"\south of this , nri( . PTr
would be turned off and would the power to issue $385,000 site. torium ani:f n ™ t er
in bonds. • Construction of a new 14- By havinp petroleui
The need for a new school was classroom high school on the new a centralc; use of sa
m;
reservo
. e use, sail
our distnc: Geological
After a year of hard work and must plan;;, Thursda;
extensive research, the school m'aboutfw
board has presented a plan that never again: 16 ■ 1
they believe will adequately take gram needtt®? 106 011
c .v . , tion to th
care of the problem. b^ernn » he
I hey propose: Undertfcf researc
• Purchase of the 13-acre Do- school build eering am
brovolny-Holick tract across Holick the juniorhif be como
street to the east of the present building Vj red f ur
an option on seven upper elem? - s re ] al j
All studest
have to be re-set by hand.
WhaVs Cooking
Friday
7 p. m.—Du Pont Paint Com
pany Dinner, Room 2D, MSC.
8:30 p. m.—Plant Science Col
loquium, Room 2B, MSC.
Monday
7:30 p. m.—Wichita Falls Home
Town Club, Academic Bldg.
Rusk County Club, 307 Good
win Hall, Important.
Tuesday
7 p. m.—Election Commission,
Student Activities.
8 p. m.—Industrial Education
Wives, Mr. Pema, architect, will
talk on color scheme for home
bond election Jan. 20. The in
crease in students will be felt def
initely next September, when
established in the unsuccessful tract, to include a 600-seat audi- teachers w. recover}
torium, with band and choral ance costsviorgetsak
rooms. facilities (t-
.ermedy o
• Expansion of existing indus- mums) r j na . deT3a
trial education shops by using the
present band and music room.
• Construction of a general
purpose room at Lincoln School for
Negroes.
“These improvements will solve
A&Mto Grant
930 Degrees
This Year
work togettr of Ho
What this es of lh<
taxpayers a paper
week in
series.
At this year’s graduation ex-
cercises, 103 more degrees will be
given to A&M graduates than in
1952. Of the 5,431 students re
gistered at A&M about 930 will
fabrics, election of officers, South graduate May 29.
Solarium, YMCA, Bring guests.
Treasury Bonds
May Be Converted
The Treasury Department ,
minded today holders of Treasury 81 J 5 '
Series F and G bonds which mature
between May 1 and Dec. 31, 1953,
that they may convert those into
the new per cent fully market
able bonds if they desire.
Transfer must be made before
The 930 degrees include 87
Doctors degrees, and 47 graduates
of the School of Veterinary Medi
cine. Last year 829 degrees were
given.
The school of Engineering has
the largest number of graduating
students, with 334 scheduled to
The School of Arts and Sciences
follows with 258, most of whom are
business majors. The School of
Agriculture will graduate 209 per
sons.
Last year 59 veterinary medi-
May 1 to a Federal Reserve Bank ci ne degrees were granted along
or the Treasury.
This offer of transfer does not
apply to Series E saving bonds
which mature during the same
period, the department added.
with 20 other doctors degrees.
Forty-six master degrees were
given in 1952.
This year 57 master degrees arc
scheduled to be given.
Styled to help you
win perfumed letters
Best way fo vp your fe-mail call
is to slip on a handsome
Sure way to br^A
the dancing [;
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DRESS 'N' PLAY
Here’s ci-isp smartness in solid
spring colors or white. Looks
equally good with or without
a tie. Regular dress ’n’ play
or spread collar dress ’n’
play. See more Manhattan
most-for-your-money values
in shirts, sportshirts, neck
wear, pajamas, beachwcar
and handkerchiefs.
GLTTj. c0ailcbio|> &G>.
MENS CLOTWING- SINCE 189&
College Station Bryan
To be a guy with the dolls,
you’ve got to take the sub
ject of shirts seriously. Best
way is to study the smart
Manhattan styles — with
comfort and long wear built
in. Why not stop in your
Manhattan men’s shop to
day—see many more most-
for-your-money values in
distinctive Manhattan
menswear.
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P O G O JER