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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1959)
Weather Today Continued cloudy with rain Tuesday. Warmer with some clearing Wednesday. THE BATTALION Published Daily on the Texas A&M College Campus Number 64: Volume 58 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1959 Price Five Cents $35 0,000 Grant Ensures Expectation Of Nuclear Center Nuclear Center to be in Operation by Summer, 1960 This architectural drawing is one of the initial steps in summer of 1960. Tentative plans call for three to five the construction of A&M’s Nuclear Science Center which million dollars worth of construction, aimed at prbvid- will be located at Easterwood Airport. If everything goes ing Texas and the Southwest with one of the nation’s well, officials expect the center to be in operation by the largest reactor facilities for research and teaching. Bonds Could Raise Taxes One - Third, CS Mayor Says By GAYLE McNUTT Executive News Editor If the ad valorem (land) bond street improvement plan is passed by College Station voters Feb. 17, lach property owner’s tax will be raised by approximately one-third, Mayor Ernest Langford told mem bers of the College Station Lions Club yesterday. Langford used in his approxi mation an assumed property value of $3,000. If the bond election passes, the valuation would be doubled, making the figure $6,000. He used $1 as his example tax rate, pointing out that the barest minimum for paying the bond debt and existing indebtedness would be SSVz cents. With the needed funds for operating expenses, the rate could hardly be less than $1, he said. Setting up his example, Langford Baid the present valuation of $3,000 at the present tax rate of $1.90, would mean the property 4 owner paid $45 annually in ad valorem taxes. The $6,000 valuation at the $1 rate would be $60 in taxes, a raise of $15 or 33 Va per cent of the present tax. Petition Asks Election The College Station City Coun cil called the Feb. 17 election in response to a petition asking for such a vote and signed by 265 citi zens. Previously the Council had adopted a “pay-as-you-go” plan which was ready for instigation at the time the petition was pre sented. Langford told the Lions the Council was still 1()0 per cent be hind its previous plan, but they felt that all citizens should be per mitted to make their choice in an open election. He said the Council studied the needs and alternatives of the street improvement pro gram for a year-and-a-half before making the decision and stood con vinced that it was “the plan the people want.” Two Voting Requirements Only owners of real property which is on the tax rolls of the city of College Station and those who have a 1958 poll tax; receipt are eligible to vote in the election. Deadline for paying the 1958 poll tax was Jan. 31. (Poll taxes, like income taxes, are paid after the end of each year; therefore to vote in 1959 the voter must possess a 1958 tax receipt.) The ad valorem bonds to be voted on are for an amount of $350,000 which would have a 20- year life and be made available to all streets in the city. “If the bond election fails, we are ready to begin immediately on the previous plan the council en dorsed in October,” Langford said. “All property owners on Lee Ave nue (at South Gate from the 1100 block to Jersey Street southeast to the city limits) have already signed a petition to have their street paved with curbs and gut ters—all we need to begin is fair weather and property owners to lay down their money.” Plan Outlined The mayor outlined the pay-as- you-go plan as it would concern each property owner living on a residential street as follows: “If you want the street in front of your house paved, you would simply pay the one-third in front of your house and get the man across the street to pay his one- third. The city would then pay the middle third and the paving would begin.” “If you want curbs and gutters, the rate would be $3 per foot and without curbs and gutters the rate would be 75 cents per running foot. Thus the paving is costing a total of $9 per foot with curbs and gut ters or $2.25 per foot without.” Langford said the city has funds now available ($45,000) with which to pay the city’s share of the im provements. In response to questions from Lions Club members, Langford said he could not say which of the plans would “get the job done fastest.” “That would depend entirely on the citizens,” he said. “In the pay-as-you-go plan, we can build just as fast as they (the pitizens) want to.” He said the ad valorem bonds would have little effect on future needs such as a fire station and elevated water tank, since revenue bonds and, not property bonds would be used to finance such needs. Langford concluded his talk by asking all Lions to vote in the Feb. 17 election. “Vote for whichever plan pleases you most—but most of all, vote,” he urged. ‘Antigone’ on Tab Tonite in Ballroom A&M’s Fine Arts Festival, in its initial year, will continue to night at 8 with the Aggie Players’ presentation of Sophocles’ fam-‘ ous Greek tragedy “Antigone” in the Ballroom of the Memorial Stu dent Center. The production will be a recital reading of the tragedy in a new translation by Theodore Howard Virginia Welcomes Racial Integration RICHMOND, Va. <A>>—Virginia glumly gave way to racial integra tion yesterday and hesitantly took 21 Negro children into seven white schools. The Negro pupils came and went unmolested at schools in Norfolk and Arlington County. In each community a few white children refused to attend school with them, picked up their books and left. Special police details turned out to maintain order. But they didn’t have to work at it. There were no commotions, serious incidents or even any cat-calls—only the usual loud chatter of bubbling teen-agfers. White House press secretary James C. Hagerty said in Wash ington that President Eisenhower had been following the integration process in Virginia quite closely and “thinks it is a fine thing that it has been orderly.” Banks, professor of English and Greek scholar at Weslyan Univer sity in Middletown, Conn. Responsible for the presentation are three A&M English professors, Vic Weining, C. K. Esten and Al len Schrader. Alline Wallace Wiening plays Antigone; Laura Lynch, Ismene and Em-ydice; Ed Herider, Creon; Thaddeus Gates Whitley, guard; Frank Lee Myers, Haemon; Don Reynolds^ Tiresias; W.’ D. Nowlin Jr., messenger. The chorus con sists of James A. Provard, Howard M. Hayes Jr., Lee Falco, Bill Routt, Dorothy Ashworth, Mary Frances Coslett, Sophia Boettcher and Ja net Routt. Jim Pitts, John Marino and Ho ward Hayes are the stage crew. Lighting will be handled by Don Reynolds and Toby Mattox. Jim Best, Marcial Knapp and Manuel Rodriquez compose the house crew. In chai’ge of music reproduction is Fred Golding. The Aggie Players’ will present “Antigone” again Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. A&M’s Fine Arts Festival ac tivities for the rest of this week will include the MSC Creative Arts Committee’s presentation of Amy Freeman Lee, artist and lecturer, Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Ball-^ room; the piano concert by Phil ippe Entremont, sponsored by the Recital Series on Thursday and the music of the Holly String quartet on Friday, both at 8 p.m. in the MSC Ballroom. Students Must Register Cars To Avoid Tickets Students who have not regis tered their cars for the spring semester should do so immedi ately to avoid getting tickets, Fred Hickman, chief of Campus Security, said yesterday. All cars must be registered within 48 hours after arriving on the campus or Campus Secur ity officers will tag them with tickets, he added. Library Receives Paper Which Tells Of Lincoln’s Death A copy of an April 15, 1865, edition of the New York Herald, announcing the assissination of Abraham Lincoln, has been pre sented to the A&M Library, Bob Houze, director, said today. Mrs. R. P. Marsteller, 500 Cres cent, College Station, presented the paper which carries a full ac count of the assassination. With Lincoln’s birthday coming up Feb. 12, the library will have a display of the Lincoln material. “We think the public would like to see this material,” Houze said. Economic Air Texas By LEWIS REDDELL Battalion News Editor “How Much is Texas Agricul ture Worth to Texas Business and Industry?” This was the topic for a panel discussion by six A&M economic specalists, presented at a meeting of the Alpha Zeta frater nity, in the lecture room of the Animal Industries building last night. Chairman of the panel was Dr. A. B. Wooten, agricultural exten sion economist. Other members included C. H. Bates, extension farm management specialist; Dr. V. A. Edmondson, assistant pro fessor of agricultural economics; F. O. Sargent, assistant professor of agricultural economics and so ciology; and Robert G. Cherry, agricultural extension economist. Wooten said the agricultural in dustry is divided into three sec tions: farms and ranching; sup pliers of agricultural equipment; and agricultural processors and distributors. Oil is the only raw material in Texas that exceeds farming and ranching in the value of its pro ducts, Bates told the group. “The total value of production of raw materials is approximately $2 billion, with 53 per cent of the value coming from crop produc tion, 43 per cent from livestock and 4 per cent from products used in the home, he said. Main Part May Be Finished In Late I960, Officials Say With receipt of a $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, A&M has now accumulated enough money to begin construction of one of the nation’s largest j nuclear reactor centers. President M. T. Harrington announced receipt of the grant Friday and said it would be added to $675,000 allocated by the Board of Directors in February of last year toward initial construction of the center. Harrington expects the first phase of construction to be completed by the summer of 1960. The center, which will be located near Easterwood Airport, is designed to. serve research and educational needs of colleges, universities, medi- ♦cal schools and research in stitutions throughout Texas and the ‘Southwest. Covers Many Fields The center will be a versatile operation in such fields as agri culture, veterinary medicine, oil exploration, nuclear chemistry and physics and a number of other life and physical sciences. The president has written pres idents of other educational insti tutions in Texas and the South west as well as heads of other interested groups, inviting them to visit the campus for consultation with members of the nuclear cen ter staff. ' In the letters he pointed out that “facilities should be made available to scientists in all in stitutions and agencies in the Southwest to provide needed re search tools. “The Nuclear Science Center will include, in addition to a multi megawatt research reactor of the swimming pool type, a controlled irradiation cell, a hot cell, a rad iochemical laboratory and an au tomatic activation analysis facil ity. “The wide variation in require ments among the groups compos ing the System has caused us to design the Nuclear Science Cen ter to permit it to serve essential ly all braches of the physical and life sciences equally well. We be lieve this versatility will also make it useful to many education al groups and other institutions outside of the system.” Unique Features Unique features of the center, pointed out Dr. Aaron Rose, di rector of the System’s Texas En gineering Experiment Station, are based upon the flexibility of de sign which allows the center to be used for research in widely scattered fields or for a number of purely educational functions. Rose calls the center an “inter mediate” step between the small nuclear training reactors now fairly common on college campus es (A&M received its nuclear train ing reactor over a year ago) and the large plants like Oak Ridge or Los Alamos. The. proposed center at A&M will be the only facility of its type available between Mich igan on the north, Califoimia on the west, and Georgia on the east. First Grant Work on the center has been proceeding through the planning and design stage for approximate- (See A&M Page 4) President Says U. S. Can Gain In Space Study WASHINGTON UPL-President Eisenhower said yesterday the United States clearly has “the knowledge, the skill and the will to move ahead swiftly and surely” in space research. The President sent to Congress a 12,000-woi'd report on civil and military space programs, the first of its kind. The National Aero nautics and Space Act of 1958 re quires such reports annually. Eisenhower said the study pro vided “an impressive accumulation of evidence” on the scope and im petus of space and aeronautical programs. “The report sets forth a record of solid achievement in a most in tricate and exacting enterprise. In this record the nation can take great pride.” The report renewed the creation of the two major space agencies— the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the De fense Department’s Advanced Re search Projects Agency. It recounted the satellite and space-probe launching failures and successes of the last yeax’, and gave a look at the projects to come. Specialists Agriculture The different resources supplied by industry and commerce amount to $1,362,000,000 annually, of the $2 billion worth of agricultural goods produced annually, Edmond son told the assembly. The average farm and ranch uses twice as much capital to produce as a non-agricultural business, he said. Sargent told the group that agi*i- cultural and other industries are engaged in the production of econo mic value, which may be divided into four types: form, place, time and possession values. According to Nelson, fann popu lation in Texas has declined from 2% million persons in 1930 to 1,- 450,000 in 1958. One of the reasons for the decline is the fact that many operations formerly per formed by farmers are now being produced in business, he said. Growth in cities depends on net migration from farms and ranches, Nelson continued, “Two out of five baby boys born on farms this year and three out of five baby girls will migrate to the city, he con cluded. Cherry told the group that “po litical power is not prb rata to population. “Both the federal and Texas Constitutions have provisions which add to political power of some groups and detx-act from that of others,” he said. Campus Chest Donates $109 To Dimes Drive The Student Senate-sponsored Campus Chest donated $109 to the March of Dimes drive yesterday. In a program set up by the Sen ate, contidbutions to local di’ives and organizations are given from the Campus Chest instead of each individual A&M student contribut ing to various and sundry things, Don Rummel, chairman jsf the chest committee, said. During the beginning of the fall semester this year, the Senate collected donations from the stu dent body amounting to $2,180. Of this amount 40 per cent was set aside for drives and oi’ganiza- tions, while 60 per cent was to be used to help Aggie students who need assistance, Rummel contin ued. All but 10 per cent of the 40 per cent lot has already been do nated. The World University Ser vice received 10 per cent, five per cent was contributed to the Brazos Tubei’culosis Association, $218 was donated to the College Sta tion Community Chest and five per cent went to the M.arch of Dimes, Rummell explained. As of yet none of the 60 per cent account has been touched, he continued, “but in case something does come up we have the money and it will be used to the best ad vantage.” Huntsville Hosts Aggie ‘Y’ Members Thirteen Aggies attended a YMCA retreat this past weekend at Huntsville. This retreat differed from other retreats of the year in that there was no set program. The stu dents met in a gx-oup and discuss ed topics that were of interest to the group. Saturday night the group listened to a tape recording made at the national convention by Mordeau Johnson, president of Howard Univex-sity, Washington, D. C., on leadex-ship and education. Sunday afternoon the students dis cussed “God and Christian Faith” and “What is a Chxdstian?” Later that afternoon they listened to some more tapes from the conven tion on “What is a Christian Act?” Highlighting the weekend was a party early Sunday morning with a group of Huntsville girls who were also at the retreat. Students attending were: Rob Coffman, Bill Shenkir, David Wal lace, Billy Phillips, Jim Crouch, Tony Maya, Doix Fletcher, Bill Pry, John Betts, Lorin McDowell, Don Brenner and George Staples. CaxI P. Zietlow, associate secx-etary of the YMCA, attended as a counse- ler. Zietlow said that other retx-eats such as this one ax-e planned for the spring semester. J2V.-V- V'" . ^ j : ’ ; - V m bssrSL j,.,— “" ! Jr ♦ ' Main Reactor Building Above is a line drawing of the maii^ reactor building of A&M’s Nuclear Science Center. The section housing the “hot” cell is at the left. The center is expected to be com pleted by the summer of 1960 at Easterwood Airport.