BRIEF PRESS CHIT-CHAT
H. J. Miller chats with Houston Post’s Maryann Shaver.
TEXAS
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J New Century 1
| Marks Change 1
iln Reputation!
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a series of six
articles which will discuss the development of Texas A&M
emd present facts that students interested in recruiting new
Aggies during the Christmas Holidays may find valuable.
We encourage Aggies to clip these factual articles for refer
ence in discussing A&M with high school seniors while at
home during the holidays. It is important for each of us
to do a selling job for A&M every chance we get.
By MIKE REYNOLDS
Battalion Staff Writer
At the turn of the century, the Agricultural and Mechan
ical College of Texas began to build an academic program
and physical plant whose reputation has become known
across the nation and is second to none in the land grant
college system.
Under the administration of President David Franklin
Houston, courses of study were enlarged to include four-year
courses in agriculture, mechanical engineering, civil engi
neering, electrical engineering, architectual engineering and
.chemical engineering.
Under the guidance of President Robert T. Milner the
Qurricula was again broadened. To relieve pressures on the
administration, the School of Agriculture and the School of
Engineering were created in 1907 and put under the super
vision of deans.
In 1916 the scope of college training was successively
broadened by the creation of the School of Veterinary Medi
cine, the Graduate School in 1924, and the School of Arts
and Sciences in 1925. These enlargements brought the college
into its full stature as an institution of higher learning in
the broadest sense.
Along with the excellent educational opportunities A&M
offered a complete training program in military science.
In his first official report to the Board of Directors
Col. Milner presented this picture of the young and growing
college.
“The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas pre
sents a condition unlike that of any other educational insti
tution in the world. The student body is the largest under
military discipline in the world. There are 600 more cadets
in this school than there are in West Point.”
A&M has continued to hold this distinction to this day
including approximately 4000 students in the Corps of Cadets.
The Reserve Officers Training Corps was inaugurated
at A&M in 1920. Since that time basic military training
and understanding has been given to more than 41,000 young
men. By Dec. 7, 1941, some 5,000 reserve officers, trained
at A&M were already on active duty. In addition to some
7,000 reserve officers, the college takes pride in another
7,000 officers of World War II. Twenty-nine students of
the college have reached the general’s rank, 10 of them as
major generals.
With the new Nuclear Research Center, Data Processing
Center, wind tunnel, oceanography ship and courses in marine
engineering and marine transportation offered by the Mari
time Academy, as well as the proposed cyclotron, A&M is
preparing to branch out into even wider fields, offering
broad opportunities for learning a profession and for develop
ing into men capable of thinking intelligently and reasonably.
Governor Richard Coke, first chairman of the Board of
Directors, expressed one of the basic reasons for A&M’s
appeal to the young men of Texas.
“It has been the constant aim of the board ... to bring
down to the lowest possible figure the cost of an education
which shall be at the same time thorough, liberal, and
practical . . .”
According to the current catalog listings, the total costs
of an education at A&M for one year runs from $950 to
$1,250 and is among the very cheapest in the state.
When the low cost and the many and broad opportunities
for an education are analyzed, what better buy for a young
man’s educational foliar can be found anywhere.
Che Battalion
Volume 60
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1963
Number 179
Miller Urges Individuals
To Act On Tax Matters
SCONA AUDIENCES VARIED
Earl Rudder, A&M President, and Dorsey McCrory, listen closely.
Novelist Defies Red Guards;
Crosses East Berlin Border
BERLIN (A*)—“Oh, nuts! If
they want to shoot at me, they
can,” said John Steinbeck, ignor
ing his wife’s warning Wednes
day and stepping across the
white line marking the border
with East Berlin. Red guards
stood nearby.
“I’ve been shot at before,” the
Nobel Prize-winning American
novelist said, and as if in defi
ance turned his beared face to
ward the guards who cradled
submachine guns in their arms.
Steinbeck stood at the U. S.
Army’s Checkpoint Charlie, a
crossing point through the Com
munist wall to East Berlin.
Two years ago U. S. and Sovi
et tanks faced each other at that
spot for 16 hours during a dis-
| pute over allied access to the
Adjutant General,
Staff Plan Program
For Cadets Soon
The State Adjutant General and
his staff Tuesday will present a
special orientation for A&M cadets
on the role of the Texas Army and
Air Guard.
Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Bishop of
Austin will bring a four-man brief
ing team from the guard head
quarters in Austin. They will
speak in Guion Hall at 7:30 p.m.
The briefing will be illustrated
with slides and a short film.
Gen. Bishop is a much-decorated
veteran of World War II during
which he participated in the Nor
mandy invasion and the Battle of
the Bulge. He was operations and
training officer of the 99th Infan
try Division.
With him will be four members
of his staff each of whom will
cover a different Guard activity.
Besides Gen. Bishop the team
will include Maj. Ed Balagia, Lt.
Col. A. T. McFadden, Maj. James
Rose, and Lt. Col. Prescott A.
Stark.
Similar Texas Army and Air
Guard briefings have been pre
sented to various groups through
out the state over the past two
years.
During the program Lt. Col.
Me Hadden will speak on National
Guard personnel, Lt. Col. Stark
will highlight Guard training and
missile air defense, Maj. Balagia
will explain Guard budget and fis
cal matters, and Maj. Rose will
cover Air Guard operations in
Texas.
Communist sector.
Steinbeck, 61, who also won a
Pulitzer Prize, arrived in West
Berlin on Tuesday night, the
last stop in a two-month Euro
pean tour.
He listened intently to the ex
planations of a guide at the wall.
Then he borrowed a pair of
binoculars from an American
military policeman to gaze into
East Berlin, watching especially
Fish Election Tabs
Show Light Voting
The weather was probably the
main factor that caused a light
turnout for the election of offi
cers of the Class of ’67 Wednes
day, said Shelly Veselka, Chair
man of the Ejection Commission.
359 freshmen cast their vote
in a close election that could
have gone either way with a
handful of votes. 679 freshmen
cast their votes at this time last
year.
Elected to the office of presi
dent was Louis K. Obdyke. Den
nis R. McElroy won the vice-
presidential office. Robert J.
Myers and Jack E. Nelson won
secretary-treasurer and social
secretary honors respectfully.
the border guards who had their
field glasses trained on Stein
beck.
“Incredible,” h e muttered.
“This is unusual.”
Steinbeck walked away, then
turned back to point his gnarled
cane at the wall.
“I’m amazed that anybody
would confess so completely that
he failed. That's what this
amounts to. A failure in compe
tition, a failure in everything.
It is like a little kid who takes
his football home when he can’t
play very well,” Steinbeck said.
“I don’t understand that abil
ity to confess failure. I can’t
see that this wall has any other
purpose.”
with less chance of damage or de
lay due to human error.
Shop, Mail Early
Pleads Post Office
Shop early, mail early, and help
the Postal Service beat the Christ
mas rush, Postmaster Ernest
Gregg early announced this week.
Local mail volume during the
holidays will probably exceed 1,-
300,000 pieces.
Local mailing also gives us time
to get gifts and cards in the hands
of addressees in good condition
Navy Recommends
Shipyard Closings
WASHINGTON <A>)_The Navy
has informed Congressmen from
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and
California that a survey board has
recommended immediate closing of
naval shipyards at Boston, Phila
delphia and San Francis© in an
economy move.
Rep. Thomas P. O’Neill, D-
Mass., said Asst, Secretary of the
Navy Kenneth E. Be Lieu told
him Tuesday the board had rec
ommended phasing out six yards
by October 1966 but later said the
board had asked for immediate ac
tion on the Boston, Philadelphia
and. San Francisco facilities.
O’NEILL SAID closing of the
Boston yards was not firm and
that House Speaker John McCor
mack, D-Mass., already had pro
tested to the White House any
plan affecting it.
He said < ithe Massachusetts
delegation was preparing a joint
formal protest which McCormack
also would give to President
Johnson.
O’Neill said he did not know
the full list of yards recommend-
to be closed but understood it was
similar to proposals made about
two years ago and dropped.
BOTH PENNSYLVANIA sena
tors immediately protested the
proposed closing of the Philadel
phia Navy Yard.
Sen. Hugh' Scott, R-Pa., said:
“The defense Department told
me it feels that civilian yards can
do the work more cheaply.
“The department tells me that
a final decision will be made in
48 hours.”
'Earlier, the Seattle Wash.
Times had reported in a story
from Washington that Secretary
of Defense Robert S. McNamara
would recommend closing the three
navy shipyards.
Expenditures Must
Match Resources
By DAN LOUIS JR.
Battalion Editor
Herbert J. Miller, former executive director of the Tax
Foundation, told 180 delegates to A&M's ninth annual Student
Conference on National Affairs and visitors to the conference
that individuals have a responsibility in tax reform and tax
cuts that no one else can discharge for them.
Miller, who has devoted the last 43 years of his life to
studying the questions of tax reform and tax cut, told the
group that the nation must learn to take the unlimited de
sires of human beings and relate them to the available re
sources of federal income. Then, because there is a limited
income, there must be a rating of priority for various pro
jects, he said.
AT PRESENT the fiscal
processes by which tax re
forms are made are delin
quent, the veteran founder of
tax association said. He said
the reason for this delinquincy is
that Congress must approve each
appropriation bill separately, and
that this approval or disapproval
of Congress in given without any
real consideration being given to
the government's income — be
cause, this matter is handled by
another committee. “At the same
time,” Miller said, “there is back
door spending taking place with
out ever being presented to the
appropriation committee.”
Government needs to be chal
lenged or it will run away with
itself, Miller said. He explained
in a brief news conference prior
to his talk Wednesday night that
this was one of the purposes of the
tax associations he has helped
form across the nation. These
tax association study projects that
should be undertaken as public
works projects and recommend the
best way to spend the tax payers
money — their money.
MILLER WAS the second of
five keynote speakers which will
address the SCONA IX groups
during the four-day conference
which will continue through Sat
urday.
Tonight, at 8 p.m. in the Ball
room of the Memorial Student
Center, Phillip S. Hughes, assis
tant director for legislative refer
ence of the Bureau of the Budget,
will address the students which
represent education institutions
in the United States, Canada and
Mexico.
Today 9 s Thought
By being thankful, we find more
things for which to give thanks.
it hr +
Aggie Bonfire,
SCONA Bring
Foul Weather
A week of unfavorable weather
during the week of the Aggie Bon
fire construction has been so reg
ular in past years that it has al
most become a part of the tradi
tions of A&M University. How
ever, veteran workers and partici
pants of the school’s Student Con
ference on National Affairs are
beginning to feel that foul weather
is making itself a permanent part
of the program for SCONA.
The real onset of winter weather
in the Bryan-College Station area
can be predicted by the date select
ed by the annual conference—or at
least so it would seem by review
ing the past several conferences,
this year’s included. Once again
keynote speakers have found that
travel by air was impossible and
that they must resort to the high
ways.
Herbert J. Miller, former exec
utive director of the Tax Founda
tion, was forced Wednesday to
drive from Houston to College Sta
tion, after having arrived in Hous
ton by air from Washington, D.C.
The people who have been
caught short by the near freezing
weather are the out-of-state dele
gates who came prepared to dress
for the sunny weather of Texas.
This even includes some cadets
who packed their summer uniforms
for the “Texas brand weather.’*
However, it is apparent that 'the
weather has not cooled the enthusi
asm of the SCONA delegates at
all. The roundtable discussions are
as lively as they have ever been
in the past.
Meeting With Reporters
Edwin P. Neilan, president of the United States Chamber
of Commerce, answers question for. reporters during- the
first day of SCONA IX Wednesday. Neilan was the first
of five keynote speakers to address the four-day confer
ence. SCONA Publicity Chairman Ronnie Fann, behind
Neilan, studies questions.