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18,440
READERS
THE
BATTALION
Vote AGAINST
Compulsory
Insurance
Number 226: Volume 55
Accused Killer
Faces Second
Trial for Life
Ronald Edward Menter, 22,
accused murderer of Aggie
Senior Jan David Broderick,
and the object of a three-day
search which finally ended in
New Jersey, faces the second trial
for his life as counselors go
through the pre-trial ordeal of
picking a jury in Polk County.
The case, clouded by both the
defense and prosecution asking
for a change of venue/ came to
court yesterday before Judge
Earnest Coker of the Ninth Dis
trict Court in Livingston.
Menter’s first trial ended in a
hung* jui-y after 34 hours of de
liberation last June 9.
Broderick was found, still
breathing, suffering from a bullet
wound in the temple, in a road
side ditch near Hempstead, Dec.
31, 1955. He died before help
could reach him and never re
gained consciousness.
A search immediately began for
an unknown person believed to be
driving Broderick’s car.
Sheriff’s officers and posses
combed thick woods of surround
ing counties but to no avail. Men
ter had slipped through the cor
don of officers and finally made
his way to the East Coast where
an alert State Police Officer ar
rested him while he was trying to
sell the radio out of Broderick’s
car.
Unable to answer questions
about the driver’s license which
he had taken from Broderick he
blurted out—“I killed that guy in
Texas.”
Yesterday lawyers had approved
only two members of this the
newest jury in the Menter trial.
The state has used up eight of
its challenges and the defense
three. A special venire of 200 men
and women has been called to
serve for the trial.
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1957
Price Five Cents
Truman Jones
Presents Talks
A simple method for the design
and control of the concrete batch
will be presented by Truman R.
Jones Jr., associate research engi
neer, Texas Transportation Insti
tute, A&M College, to the Ameri
can Institute in Dallas, Feb. 25-28.
His talk will deal with practical
solutions for the most common
problems encountered in concrete
work. Most frequent problems are
in batch design, handling, placing
and finishing of structural quality
concrete made with uncoated ex
panded shale and clay aggregates.
Senators Distribute
Insurance Pamphlets
EDITORIAL
Despite the smoke screen of respectability thrown
around the proposed compulsory insurance plan being pushed
by the Student Senate, several major shortcomings are ap
parent.
• The program is compulsory.
• Only about 60 per cent of the students will benefit
from it since only those paying the student medical fee can
join the program.
• The Student Senate has offered only a compulsory
plan which does not give the student body the privilege to
choose between compulsory and non-compulsory.
• The plan is only half of what we need since it covers
only accidents and has no provision for the many illnesses
that so often require treatment above that offered by the
College Hospital.
• Many students already hold insurance plans. They
should not be forced to buy another.
• The plan offers only nine months coverage.
• College officials have interfered and have allowed the
insurance salesman to help senators sell the idea.
• The college could operate the program which would
exist only as a service to students rather than reap profits
for an insurance agency.
Supporters of the compulsory plan say it is the only
way. Yet the salesman was heard telling the president of his
company they (the company) may need the figures for non-
compulsory insurance if the students did not accept the com
pulsory idea.
Naturally they want the plan compulsory. It means
more money for them.
But what we as students want is as complete a plan as
possible that does not exclude or limit its field of assistance,
not one that cannot stand on its own feet and has to be com
pulsory to exist.
Larry Piper, senate president, gave such a policy to The
Battalion. It is printed in today’s insurance story.
Saddle, Sirloin Club Weather Today
Flans Stock Entry
C. S. Spotters
Scan Area Skies
For Aircraft
College Station Ground Ob
servers came out in large
numbers Sunday to the patio
of the Memorial Student Cen
ter to search the skies for pos
sible enemy aidcraft, T/Sgt.
John L. George, commander, Sub
detachment 2, Ground Obseiwer
Coi’ps said yesterday.
“Approximately 60 planes were
spotted and reported to Houston
Air Defense Filter Center,” he
said. “None were enemy aircraft,
of course.”
George said Ken S. Hallaran,
post supervisor and owner of the
Radio Shop in Bryan, opened the
post at 10 a. m. He and his two
oldest boys began the watch, he
said.
Mrs. Homer Adams, chief ob
server; Mrs. Percy Goff and Mrs.
Dorthea Temple were on duty at
various times during the day
supervising the alert, the sergeant
said.
George says the local watch was
part of an alert which covers points
over the state.
“San Antonio and Corpus Christi
Air Defense Filter Centers are on
24-hour, 7-days-a-week alert in the
event enemy bombers using the
jet stream come across the North
Pole, aci’oss the Pacific and into
Mexico,” he says. “Then the planes
would turn north and into Texas.”
He explained that the jet stream
is a narrow path of air which moves
at varied altitudes at speeds of
from 175 to 225 miles per hour.
“An enemy plane could use this
air current to increase their speed
as well as their range,” he says.
George says the Ground Observer
Corps would be the only way an
alarm of enemy attack could be re
layed to Defense Bases if an at
tack would come from Mexico be
cause there is no radar system on
this border.
Another alert of this kind will
be held next month and in months
to follow, he says.
Talk by AIM Exec
For the first time since its
organization members of the Saddle
and Sirloin Club at A&M will have
a group of animals entered in the
Houston Fat Stock Show.
“There has been speculation
among members of the S&S Club
for some time, and among the
former students, as to just why
someone from A&M didn’t enter a
‘show string’ in the annual stock
Ag Singing Cadets
Visit SMU Friday
A&M’s Singing Cadets will flood
Southern Methodist University’s
McFarlin Memorial Auditorium
with song Friday night when they
present a concert sponsored by the
Dallas A&M Mothers’ Club.
Proceeds from the concert will
go to the Mother’s Club Scholar
ship Fund.
Leaving A&M at noon Friday,
the 60-voice group will follow-up
Friday night’s performance with
an appearance in Longview Satur
day night at 8. They will leave
Dallas for Longview that morning.
Officers of the club are Charles
Jenkins, president; Ed Burkhead,
vice-president, Bob Surovik, busi
ness manager; Jimmy Boyd, re
porter-historian; and Clem Sherek,
librarian. The group is under the
direction of Bill Turner and ac
companied by John Good.
shows over the state,” said Ralph
Terrill, chairman of the stock com
mittee. “Late last semester we
(club members) got these three
sheep and will enter them in the
Houston Show.”
Due to not getting plans ready in
time the Club will have only three
sheep to enter in the show. They
will be entered in the Medium
Wool Fat Lamb classes.
The boys in the club plan to use
these three animals as a start, and
next fall will have a complete
string of animals including cattle
and swine to enter in several of
the state shows, Terrill explained.
Working with Terrill on his
committee are J. C. Bullard, Hib-
bert Beck, Curtis Van Zant and
Jimmy Butler. Hudson Glimp,
freshman student from Burney,
will show the Club’s animals in
Houston.
Glimp showed the Grand Champ
ion Ram and Ewe at this year’s
Fort Worth Show and club mem
bers are depending on him to show
their animals with the same re
sult in the Houston show.
Glimp will be in charge of com-
pletirig the finishing work on the
animals after they reach Houston.
He will be competing against his
own family in the show as his
parents and sister have animals
entered in the same events.
The animals from A&M will be
judged Feb. 27 and 28 and will
go on sale Mar. 1.
Skies will be partly cloudy to
day. The temperature at 10:30
A. M. this morning was 63 de
grees yesterday’s high and low
readings were 80 and 56 degrees.
Jackson Martindell, president of
the American Institute of Manage
ment addressed a special open-to-
the public session of the Executive
Development course here this after
noon. His subject was “The Job
of the Personnel Administrator.”
tt*
M
SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB will enter this year’s Houston Fat Stock Show with the
above entries. (1. to r.) Martin Graham, Hudson Glimp, Joe Van Zandt and James
Taylor are members of the committee which is fitting the sheep for the show. Glimp
will show the A&M entries in the show. —(Photo by John West)
Non-compulsory
Policy Revealed
By LELAND BOYD
Campaign literature is due to be funneled to all dormi
tories this afternoon in a drive to “inform students all about
the Senate’s Compulsory Accidental Insurance,” senate lead
ers indicated yesterday.
Mimeographed pamphlets explaining what the senate
considers to be “the best plan we can get around here” were
to be circulated to as many students a senate delivery service
could muster.
From the beginning of talk about compulsory insurance
at A&M, senate leaders have moaned “nobody knows any
thing about it.”
It was for this reason they called off the first referen-
♦'dum scheduled to gauge Ag
gie sentiments.
But if everything runs
along smoothly this time, the
vote will come tomorrow.
Voting boxes will operate at
Sbisa Mess Hall from 8 .a. m. to
7:30 p. m., Duncan Mess Hall from
11:30 a. m. to 1:15 p. m. MSG
from 8 a. m. to 5' p. m. and Col
lege View Quonset Hut (where
rent is collected) from 8 a. m. to 5
p. m.
For unexplained reasons mention
of what could be done to get away
from a compulsory insurance law
was left off the senate’s pamphlet.
Senators say a non-compulsory
policy would cost about $15 a
school year. But a brochure ob
tained from Senate President
Larry Piper describes a policy
which would not be compulsory
and cost only $5 a semester.
The brochure says this $5 plan
was adopted at a university with
6,000 students. Even though the
policy was not mandatory, 92 per
cent of the student body partici
pated.
For $5 a semester the students
were insured against not only ac
cidents but also sickness and
surgery expense. The policy
would pay up to $200 for ap
pendicitis operations, $50 for
tonisilledomiesi ailji other ex
penses for the operations on the
policy schedule. A complete
schedule of payments was not
included in the brochure.
A provision could be included
in the policy to extend coverage to
summer school students.
No provision to cover summer
students is included in the com
pulsory plan offered by the senate.
Why about 1,200 day students are
excluded from the plan is another
phase not fully explained in the
senate’s publicity.
Senators tell listeners that day
students can sign up for insurance
if they first pay $10 to the College
Hospital for the Medical Services
Fee. Then the day students, who
are just as susceptible to accidents
as other Aggies, could shell out
$1.55 and be allowed to have the
insurance, the senate salesmen/
argue. *
Senate leaders are hush-hush
about what non-compulsory
surance would cost for A&M.
They maintain that they did a
lot of study before settling on the
present plan, but know only that
“it will be too expensive” if the
plan is not compulsory.
Monday night, the insurance
salesman who sold the senate com
mittee on the plan called the Hous
ton Office. He asked the president
of Universal Security Life to start
figuring on costs for a non- com
pulsory plan.
“If this thing don’t go the right
way when the students vote on it,
we are going to need to know what
it would cost,” the salesman told
him.
Yesterday morning the salesman
phoned Paul D. Conner, legal ad
visor to the Texas Board of Insur
ance Commissioners in an effort to
clear up worries about whether one
policy would be void because of
another policy.
Senator Joe Ross quoted Conner
as saying:
“. . . An individual’s original
policy must pay off as long as you
(See INSURANCE, Page 2)
Bridge Players
Set Competition
In Tournament
Aggie bridge enthusiasts
match wits with students
from more than 100 U.S. col
leges in the 1957 Intercolle
giate Bridge Tournament next
week, according- to Mrs. Gladys
Black, local tourney sponsor.
Mrs. Black says a minimum of
16 students from each college
must compete for a school to quali
fy in the competition. Bridge
hands will be sent each participant
during the week of competition.
The hands will then be sent to
Geoffrey Mott-Smith, contract
bridge authority, for scoring.
‘As yet we haven’t picked the,
Aggies who will play the hands,”
Mrs. Black said. “They should be
chosen by next week.”
C. C. Nolen of the University
of Texas, Tournament Committee
chairman, says campus, regional
and national winners will be picked
by Mott-Smith. Two national
championships will be awarded.
One trophy will go to the col
lege of the pair scoring highest
on the East-West hands. Another
trophy will go to the college of
the North-South hand winners,
said Nolen.
Winning colleges will have cus
tody of the trophies for one year.
Each of the. four individual win
ners will receive a smaller cup of
his own, he said.
Last year Harvard and Dart
mouth walked away with national
honors. About 1,770 students from
87 colleges entered the competi
tion.
Crackdown On
MSC Thieves
Hits Snag
Attempts to halt what is
apparently a theft ring oper
ating in the Memorial Stu
dent Center hit a snag yester
day.
In the second day of cracking
down on the petty thieves who
are busily snatching articles left
on coat racks, officials questioned
a suspect caught in a trap much
like the one used in apprehending
a freshman civilian student Mon
day.
Yesterday, however, the suspect
denied the charges. Since no
evidence could be found, officials
deemed the suspect “not guilty”,
showing the traps are not fool
proof and can lead to embarrass
ment.
A freshman was nabbed Monday
when he lifted a marked ED tackle
box from a coat rack in the MSC.
He admitted having stolen several
other books recently and a bicycle
last semester. No action had been
taken against him yesterday.
Wayne Stark, director of the
MSC, said there was evidence of
a theft ring, although probably
not organized, at work. He added
that several other students were
possibly connected with such a
group.
Though many thefts of books
have been reported, Stark realises
in most of the cases missing books
are merely a result of misplace
ment. At the same time, he added,
thefts were often not reported.
In the future, students are re
quested to report missing articles
to Stark if the owner is reasonably
sure they were stolen. He empha
sized that goods missing for some
time should be sought at the main
desk, as they could easily have
been misplaced.
Stark urged students to put
their names on their belongings,
whether they be books or field
jackets, with indelible ink. “With
out this identification, stolen goods
are as good as lost,” he said.
W*
Betsill And Adair
Head Combat Ball
Plans got underway for this
years presentation of the Combat
Ball last night as Jerry Betsill and
Thomas Adair were named co-
chairmen for the event.
Scheduled to take place March
15, Betsill and Adair named heads
of the various committees to work
with them in setting up the Ball.
Other chairmen serving on the
committee are J. O. Koehl, guests;
Gilbert Stiele, programs; Dale
Elmore, finances; Jimmy Dellinger,
sweetheart; Gene Jameson, dance
and John Rinard, decorations.
College Teachers
Meet Tomorrow
Local chapter of the Texas As
sociation of College Teachers meets
tomorrow afternoon at 4 in room
107 of the Biological Sciences build
ing, according to Loyd Keel, presi
dent.
Stewart Jernigan will summarize
a preliminary report on the “Task
Force” on the Economics of College
Teaching. Keel said non-members
of the group were invited to attend
the meeting.
Aggieland Pictures
Juniors in A Chemical; A, B
Composite; A,B Athletes; Maroon
Band and White Band will have
their pictures made for Aggieland
’57 at Aggieland Studio Thursday
and Friday.
Pictures will be made from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. Class A winter uni
form must be worn with first ser
geants and all staff juniors wear
ing garrison caps.