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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.
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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.