Battalion Editorials Page 2 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1953 Forming ‘Smooth * Corps Is Cadets' Responsibility President Morgan has given the cadet Corps a chance to solve its own problems and establish an organization that will run smoothly with the rest of the college. This is going to be a big job. A year sel dom goes by without trouble between corps factions or cadets and the administration. Already trouble has broken out between seniors who have spent three years here and transfer students concerning who should wear senior boots. And the school year has just started. The burden will rest with the cadet of ficers. They must evaluate the corps organi zation, retain what is constructive and throw out everything harmful to the school. Before the task is completed, the cadets will find that several of their long standing traditions must be eliminated for the corps and school to keep up with modern times. In many instances, this will be hard to do. Many students feel strongly about these traditions and have a sincere love for them. But some of these practices border on or advocate hazing. Others discriminate against transfer students. These acts tend to drive away students from this college. A school the size of A&jM must have an adequate enrollment for appropriations to keep up its standards. The number of stu dents here dropped this year. Although the corps check-up is only one part of the entire A&M System self-evalua tion, there is a note of finality in the presi dent’s request for improvement. We hope that the cadet officers will place the future of the cadet corps and A&M col lege above tradition. At Other Colleges Tech Girls Have 1th000 Sweaters By ED HOLDER Battalion Co-Editor This might be an added inducement for Aggies to make the trip to the Texas Tech game in Lubbock this weekend: There are approximately 13,000 sweaters on the Tech cam pus. These sweaters are being worn by 1,480 coeds to classes, FOOTBALL GAMES, movies and on dates, reports The Tor eador, Tech’s school paper. Two-thirds of the women at Tech own an average of seven sweaters each. On the other hand the Lubbock school also has some troubles. Amon G. Carter of Ft. Worth presented a statue of Will Rogers and his horse “Soapsuds” some years ago. One morning last week, an “empty jug” was seen “protruding be side the saddle horn.” But this little caper couldn’t compare with the time Will’s horse was painted a “fire-truck red.” * * # A&M has its hazing problems, but the Texas Wesleyan .college in Fort Worth doesn’t. If you don’t believe it, just ask some of the students up there. One reason there isn’t any “hazing” is the upperclass men simply declare “open season” on all the freshmen and have at it. Some of the items listed under the “General Rules” for the three day activity of initiation are: , 1. Call all sophomores Mr., Miss, or Mrs. 2. Fish are not allowed on the sidewalks at any time. 3. Do all chores requested of sophomores within reason. For Boys: >. 4. Carry all books on coat hangers. 5. Carry a tooth brush on a string around the neck. 6. All freshmen activities are confined to TWC campus. This is just part of the list of rules. Special occasions call for special dress and activities. Take for instance October -7, “Indian Reservation.” Boys must: 1. Wear short pants above the knees. 2. Along with the fish cap wear a band around their heads with two feathers in it. 3. Carry a pipe in their mouths and also a package of garden seed. (The rule was rather unclear whether the gar den seeds were to be carried somewhere on the person or in the person’s mouth.) 4. Shave their legs in five strips around the leg from the ankle to the knee. * * * Syraclse university has adopted an accident insurance program for all male students participating in intramural sports. For $.50 per semester or $1.00 per year students can receive up to $500 per accident over and above that which the student service pro vides, says the Syracuse Daily Or ange. This policy will go into effect only if 50 per cent of those student participating sign up for the pro gram. Last year’s editor of the South ern California Daily Trojan return ed to the campus this year to fin ish some of his studying, the school paper i-eports. It seems he took a job as a cub reporter as his first out-of-school job and was told to cut his stories to the bare facts. The next day he wrote: “John Smith looked up an eleva tor shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was. Age 45.” Orientation Flights Set By Air Force ' Arrangements have been completed to give orientation flights to AFROTC cadets who want to take a flight. The flights, which will last 30 minutes each, will be given first to seniors who have not flown in an air force airplane, then to jun iors, sophomores, and freshmen who have not flown. The flights will be made in eith er North American T-28 pre-jet trainers or Beechcraft C-45 6-place planes. Ten rated air science instructors will give the flights each after noon except Thursday and Satur day morning. Cadets will be given instruction in the use of the para chute and how to make a pre-flight check. During the flight the student will have a chance to observe the opera tion of flight controls, instruments, aircraft instruments and accessor ies. Aerobatics will not be done on the flights, and no flights will be made at night or under instrument flying conditions. Last year more than 300 air sci ence students were given flights. More are expected to take the flights this year, acocrding to Maj. Luther Westbrook, AF public in formation officer. Schedules of flights will be post ed on classroom bulletin boards and student schedules will be checked so as not to interfere with classes. Local Bicycle Club Changed by Grades The Bicycle Safety club was re organized in grades one through five at A&M Consolidated schools recently. The club is directed by Curtis Bullock, College Station policeman. Bullock told the students in each home room about safety. He stres sed such rules as riding with the traffic, walking on the left side facing traffic, using the correct hand signals, riding in single file and not riding double. Membership cards were given to all owners of bicycles. Certificates will be given to all members of the club who do not have more than three violations at the end of the school. Last year 496 certificates were issued. According to Bullock, there were no bicycle accidents in Col lege Station last year. G. I. Nash, owner and manager of the Aggieland Pharmacy, has donated reflector tape to be put on all bicycles at school. T. L. Stovall Wins Bronze Star Medal Capt. Thomas L. Stovall, grad uate of A&M and Texas Tech nological college, recently received the Bronze Star medal for valor in action. He distinguished himself while serving in Koi’ea on July 8 as a uiember of the 7th infantry pivision’s 71st chemical smoke crenerating company during the j a st battle for “Pork Chop Hill”. He moved his men through heavy enemy small-arms and mortar fire, formed a smoke screen across the -alley and helped collect the pounded and return them to safety- Capt. Stovajl is the son of Mr. .uid Mrs. John T. Stovall of Mesilla park. N. M. Capt Stovall’s wife jives in Amarillo. The Battalion Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions “Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman” The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechan ical College of Texas, is published by students four times a week, during the regular school year. During the summer terms, and examination 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 vacation 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, Texas under the Act of Con gress 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 Fran cisco. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republi cation of all news dispatches credited 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. JERRY BENNETT, ED HOLDER. Co-Editors Chuck Neighbors f Managing Editor Harri Baker Campus Editor Bob Boriskie Sports Editor Jon Kinslow City Editor Jerry Estes - Basic Division Editor Bob Hendry - Feature Editor Barbara Rubin Society Editor Bill Turner - - Advertising Manager LETTERS TO THE EDITOR W tiy Worry About Enrollment? Size Won't Make A&M Great Editors, The Battalion: Why do we have to worry about enrollment at A&M ? And why do we have to worry about the “boys” who don’t come back each year? It is because it costs too much to keep the school running? If so, why not get rid of some of the high priced people around here who do nothing but talk about what good they are doing for A&M ? Just because everybody doesn’t want to come to A&M isn’t a sign that it is not a wonderful place. A certain type of people like the life they find at A&M. Others don’t so they go elsewhere. Do the other SWC schools try to run the coeds off, haze the fish and go military just because a large number of the boys come down here each year? I don’t think we should lower the standards of the school just to in crease the enrollment. West Point and Citadel don’t have large en rollments and they have a school to be proud of. I won’t try to compare A&M to them because the majority of their cadets are career men and A&M’s are not; therefore, they can be more military. Be As .Strict But we can be just as strict in a different way. No one has been hazed to the extent that he is afraid to come back. College is the big thing now days and “Papa” is making a lot of unqualified boys go to college so he will be as good as the neighbor’s boy. I came to A&M because it pre sented a challenge. If I could get through my Fish year, and go on to be an upperclassmen and grad uate from A&M, I would feel that I was a man and would be a little better than the ones who went else where. Lately some people have been trying to stop the hazing of the “Fish” in various buildings on the campus. What is Hazing What do they call hazing? Well, Webster says it is to harass by ex tracting unnecessary or difficult work or with abusive and ri diculous tricks. Who has been working who or who tricked who in the MSC? This stopped with the classes of ’49 and ’50. Maybe they, whoever they are, would like to see the MSC, library, and hospital torn down by underclassmen because the juniors and seniors were unable to call down a misbehavior, or a vio lator of regulations. I am in favor of hazing as de fined by Webster as well as the re- premanding that we now have. A lot of fun came from “tricking” Fish and working them when they go wrong if it is not carried too far the wrong way. Control, Not Stop It If the administration and corps would spend some time controlling hazing and less time stopping it We’d have a bigger and better school. This brings about the point of educating the men at A&M so that they will be capable of running the corps when they are seniors. The majority of the seniors to day are not capable of running the corps. This I believe is no fault of theirs. Rather it is the fault of the Annex and Fish Area. During the last eight years the traditions, ways, laws, and spirit of A&M have been tossed about and changed to suit each man until to day there are none of these that are uniform throughout the corps. No One Tells Fish No one today tells the Fish what a wonderful place A&M is and how proud he should be to be a small part of it. Instead they tell him A&M has gone to the dogs and it’s all his fault. No one stops underclassmen on the side walk to correct them for violating a way of Aggieland. It is all brought out in company meet ings and 90 per cent of the time the guilty ones aren’t in that out fit. I was told that I had to do the many unpleasant tasks of a Fish because good habits would form from them that would make me a better man and help me to get along in later life. Now it seems that because a person gets to be a senior he doesn’t have to do all these things. How can we expect Fish to will ingly do things that we don’t do. Seniors don’t have to go to yell practice, wildcat in mess hall, yell at a game, meet people, stay off the grass, etc. . . Doesn’t Want Restrictions A senior doesn’t want any re strictions to be placed on him. I am as guilty, if not more so, than all the rest, but I think that after so long a time at A&M the seniors should have so much love apd spirit for A&M that they would do the best job of all. Sure I think there should be privileges for each class as far as work details, uniforms, seats, meetings, and such but not where the traditions and ways of a good Aggie are at stake. As it is today men live for the day they don’t have to do all the wonderful things we make them do. It seems that we have ' lost our welcome in so many places over the country because we fail to act like college men and don’t respect women as the Aggies before us did. A lot of time is spent correcting and teaching down here but not enough time is spent making Ag gies proud enough of A&M to try to uphold all that is good. It only takes a few drunks or wolves in the Aggie uniform to dis credit the whole school. It will be up to us to see that the underclassmen are properly edu cated not only along these lines but in every way, and then to make sure they abide by these teachings. As I said before, the only thing wrong' with A&M is the fact that the men here today missed some thing by gradual change through the past eight years. We do need fixing and it won’t be easy for those of us who have formed bad habits and practiced them for four or more years. Our new president suggests that we throw 77 years of traditions and spirit out the window and start in all over. When our grandfathers learned that plowing with square wheels was not the best, they didn’t throw them away and look for a new idea. No. They smoothed the rough corners off. If we had'a book that told all there is to know about the traditions and customs at A&M, and included the rights and wrongs of each class we could really have a fine place. Every one would know what to expect and if he wanted it he would come down here. If not he would go some place else. As it is now we have boys who don’t lilke the corps and won’t live in outfits. Why do they come here in the first place ? Should we change the school to make them happy? We could let all Fish run and do as they please, throw parties for them, give them maid service, etc . . . and then the enrollment would increase and the administration could put a feather in their cap. If that is the kind of school the administration wants, I am in favor of looking around for some new heads. If they want to develop it into a place that a man can be proud to say he is from then I am all in favor of going along with them. But let’s let the corps have a word or two about the way things should be changed and not just a select few as has happened so many times in the past. Conrad C. Webb,’52 ’54 07 <7 ALL AGGIES FREE PORTABLE TYPEWRITER $111.18 VALUE ’56 ’57 Sign up at no cost for a New Royal Portable or your choice of make. Drawing has been postponed to Oct. 23 so all Aggies have a chance to win. TYPE NAME & ADDRESS ON CARD — TAKE IT TO... Bryan Business Machine Co, 429 S. Main St., Brytn W. B. 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