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Che Battalion
Volume 61
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1966
Number 286
grab Comic Makes
bag Chemistry Fun
By Glenn Dromgoole
Mr. Larry Jerden
Associate Editor
The Battalion
Dear Larry,
It’s come that time of the year
again when you will start re
ceiving letters addressed to me
from people campaigning for var
ious “positions of leadership” on
campus.
You will discover, I am sure,
that most of them will say the
same things: Class officer cand
idates will advocate a “greater,
stronger, united class” and Stu
dent Senate office-seekers will
urge “better government and
Corps-civilian unity.” Very few
student candidates in fact, al
most none — will advocate any
concrete proposals for strengthen
ing or bettering or uniting their
class or the student body and its
government.
Therefore, I am issuing a new
policy concerning our Sound-Off
column. This space is reserved
for student opinion, and I do not
propose in the least to interfere
with this philosophy. I don’t
think, however, that Sound-Off
was or is intended as a medium
for propagating popularity con
tests, which as you know is about
all our campus elections amount
to.
As of now, and until another
Battalion editor issues a contra
dictory policy, campaign letters
will not be printed in Sound-Off
unless they advocate positive pro
grams. No more generalities, no
more tear-jerkin appeals to end
student apathy, no more solutions
to Corps-civilian rivalry, no more
banner-waving or motherhood
praising, no more appeals for
“better, stronger” student govern
ment.
Sound-Off will be a voice of stu
dent opinion, and I sincerely hope
this policy will assist in main
taining such a medium for
thought and exchange of ideas.
You will receive an enormous
amount of criticism for this policy
as you turn away candidate after
candidate for their failure to
meet our standards. You have
my wholehearted support on your
decisions, and the choice will be
yours whether a letter is accept
able or not. I realize this will
be discriminatory, but some dis
crimination is needed if we are to
separate the Who’s Who-seekers
from the dedicated students who
can offer something to our stu
dent body.
Let’s raise our standards, and
let the candidates meet them.
Glenn Dromgoole,
Editor, The Battalion
By DANI PRESSWOOD
Battlion News Editor
Princeton University’s Dr. Hu
bert N. Alyea may have displayed
remarkable skill in the field of
chemistry Monday night.
But his scientific abilities were
outshined by his superb showman
ship as he left a Chemistry Lec
ture Room capacity crowd rolling
in the aisles with his demonstra
tion of “How To Make Chemistry
Fun.”
Actually, his subject was titled
‘Lucky Accidents, Great Discov
eries and the Prepared Mind,” but
it was presented in such a way
as to make diehard English
majors want to switch to chem
istry.
“I’m going to show you the
principle of rapid burning,” he
said at one point.
He then commenced to light a
candle at both ends. With this
he added a tidbit of knowledge
Bowman Presents
Marriage Forum
On Marital Sex
Dr. Henry Bowman will return
Tuesday night to give the fourth
of five Marriage Forums.
His talk on “Sex in Human Re-
lations-Marital” will be presented
in the YMCA at 7:30 p.m.
Bowman spoke to a predomi
nantly male and overflow crowd
last week when he spoke about
premarital relations.
Bowman utilized audience par
ticipation and created a stir when
he came out unequivocally
against premarital intercourse.
A University of Texas sociolo
gist, Bowman is a nationally fa
mous authority on marriage and
family life.
He has served on the National
Council on Family Relations and
is an educator and author of such
books as “Marriage for Moderns.”
Bowman will discuss:
—How important is sexual
compatibility in the total mar
riage relationship ?
—Sexual relations in marriage
as factors affecting marital ad
justments.
—Complex causes of sex ad
justment or maladjustment.
—Planned parenthood.
—What does religion say about
sex?
—What the sexes need to un
derstand about each other.
Bowman has visited Australia
and New Zealand to lecture for
the U.S. State Department and
is^ listed in Who’s Who in Amer
ica.
undoubtedly gained from many
years of experimentation and re
search.
“If you burn your candle at
both ends you live only half as
long,” he informed. “But it’s
more than twice the fun.”
Singing the Princeton alma
mater as he conducted one ex
periment, Alyea made a jar of
liquid turn from blue to orange
to black, his school colors, at
appropriate places in the song.
Alyea kept the audience en
thralled with his eye-raising ex
periments using previously-pre
pared chemicals.
At times becoming the typical
“mad scientist,” the ranting,
rambling professor demonstrated
with foaming jars, violet smoke
and weird flame-throwing mix
tures.
If there was ever to be a dull
moment, Alyea kept it well hid
den with such antics as spraying
the audience with harmless smoke
from a fire extinguisher and har
assing a frustrated photographer.
While using his various at
tention-getters, Alyea’s basic
theme was the exposition of how
great discoveries have come about
through lucky mishaps.
“A fantastic number of acci
dents changed the role of sci
ence,” he explained.
“And when the lucky accident
occurred there was always a pre
pared mind.”
Alyea cited the prime examples
of Alfred Nobel’s accidental dis
covery of dynamite and Alex
ander Fleming’s perchance en
counter of penicillin.
He described the unusual cir
cumstances surrounding the de
velopment of atomic energy and
the ping pong ball, the mouse
trap conception of the atomic
bomb.
Turning to the subject of “Why
Instructors Demonstrate,” Alyea
aimed his discourse at the chemis
try teachers in the audience.
He said demonstration is 15
per cent to arouse curiosity, 15
per cent observation, 15 per cent
illustration and 55 per cent mak
ing students think.
“If you’re really going to train
the mind to make discoveries, you
must have quality learning and
quality living,” he declared.
Alyea also advised instructors
to maintain their research while
teaching. He exemplified this
with the demonstration of his
home made, self-invented projec
tor which enlarges images of ex
periments on a screen while they
are carried on.
Alyea has lectured in 40 foreign
countries including six months
each at the World’s Fair in Brus
sels and Seattle.
mmm
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■■S'X
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.. —
This
“TIME OF YOUR LIFE” OPENS RUN
iius scene is taken from “Time of Your bar in the low-rent district. Actors shown
Life” which began its six-night run Monday include, from left to right, Kirk Stewart,
evening. Setting for the play, written by Tim Lane, Roger Williams, Don Carter,
William Saroyan in 1939, is a San Francisco Allan Pierce, Willie Cook and Bud Franks.
350 Expected
For Saturday
Drill Contest
COMIC CHEMIST CONVULSES CROWD
. . . Alyea sprays audience with harmless smoke.
By MIKE BERRY
Battalion Staff Writer
Thirteen top college drill teams
will participate in the second an
nual Texas Invitational Drill
Meet Saturday on the main drill
field.
Visiting teams from Louisiana,
Oklahoma and Texas will com
pete for $400 worth of trophies.
Approximately 350 ROTC cad
ets and cadre officers will begin
arriving on campus Friday after
noon. At 6 a.m. Saturday they
will breakfast in Duncan Dining
Hall and, after a welcome by Col.
D. L. Baker, will have a com
mander’s conference.
Following an assembly and a
short welcome address by Dean
of Student James P. Hannigan,
they will undergo the inspection
and basic drill phase of the meet.
In the afternoon, the drill teams
A&M, Tech, UT Establish
Water Research Program
Texas A&M is one of three
state institutions of higher edu
cation joined in a cooperative
program of water resources re
search in Texas.
Through an agreement with
the University of Texas and
Texas Technological College,
A&M will work in planning long-
range research and academic pro
grams to meet the Lone Star
Literary Festival
Activities Open
With Replacement
The 3rd annual Literary Fes
tival opened Monday but minus
its first scheduled speaker, Dr.
Stewart S. Morgan.
Morgan suffered a heart at
tack Saturday night and is con
valescing at St. Joseph’s Hos
pital in Bryan.
On short notice Dr. Fred Ek-
felt, substituted and presented a
talk entitled “Tom Jones — The
Novel and the Movie.”
Ekfelt first reviewed the story
plot with Fielding’s characters,
Tom, Sophie, Squire Western,
Molly and others.
He praised the vitality of the
movie and the excellent recon
struction of 18th century scenes
such as the taverns, the fox hunt,
rural England, the classic dinner
scene and the vice and drunken
ness.
Ekfelt said critics especially
praised the characterizations of
the heroic and sexual Tom and
the .crude but humorous Squire
Western.
He said the movie could be
termed burlesque, earthy and
funny, but actually possesses a
serious theme underneath.
Wednesday’s speaker will be
Dr. Harry P. Kroiter of the De
partment of English, who will
present “Noble Savagery in The
Last Civilized Age” at 4 p.m. in
room 3B-C of the Memorial Stu
dent Center.
State’s water resources needs.
The agreement calls for A&M’s
Water resources Research In
stitute to be the agency through
which state-supported universi
ties will present proposals to the
U. S. Department of Interior’s
Office of Water Resources Re
search and the Texas Legislature
for funds to support research.
Dr. Ernest T. Smerdon, direc
tor of the Water Resources Insti
tute, said the first group of re
search proposals for matching
grant supports at the three in
stitutions will be submitted to the
OWRR, Department of the In
terior, on April 1.
“We look forward to develop
ment of greater strength and co
operative efforts among the uni
versities for research in water
resources . . . research extremely
important to Texas,” Smerdon
commented.
“The program has been in
operation less than a year,” he
noted. “Research projects thus
far have involved people from
U.S. To Hear
Rudder on TV
Texas A&M President Earl
Rudder will discuss his trip to
South Vietnam at 7:30 a.m. Wed
nesday on the NBC television
program “TODAY.”
The show can be seen in the
Bryan-College Station area on
KCEN-TV, Temple-Waco (Chan
nel 6) and KPRC-TV Houston
(Channel 2).
Rudder was one of two Texans
appointed by President Johnson
to extend the battle against hun
ger, ignorance and disease in the
war-torn Southeast Asian coun
try. He returned to Washington,
D. C., Monday after the inspec
tion visit to Vietnam.
The TV special will be broad
cast live from Washington over
the full NBC network. Rudder
plans to return home Wednesday.
civu engineering, meteorology,
agricultural economics, business
administration, biology, wildlife
science, and the South Plains
Research and Extension Center
at Lubbock, as well as the Water
Resources Institute.
“Naturally,” he continued, “we
hope to involve more departments
as research progresses.”
Batt Staffers Win
Writing Awards
The Battalion took four awards
for writing and general excellence
at the 36th annual Southwestern
Journalism Congress at the Uni
versity of Arkansas over the
weekend.
Editor Glenn Dromgoole won
first place in news writing with
his story on A&M’s acquisition of
the James Connally Technical In
stitute last year. Managing Edi
tor Tommy DeFrank placed third
in news competition with an ac
count of a Senate committee hear
ing on Sen. Andy Rogers’ bill to
keep A&M an all-male institution.
Lani Presswood, Battalion sum
mer editor, took third in column
writing for a column on the
Fourth of July.
The Battalion won second in the
best single issue competition for
its Nov. 5, 1965 issue.
DeFrank was elected parlia
mentarian of the SWJC Student
Press Club for the 1966 congress,
scheduled next March at East
Texas State University.
will compete in precision drill.
Marching Saturday will be the
A&M Fish Drill Team, the Bucca
neer Drill Team from the Uni
versity of Texas, the Lowman
Rifles from Sam Houston State
College, the Kings Rifles from
Texas A&I College, the Cougar
Rifles from the University of
Houston, Company L-17 (the
Pershing Rifles) from Hardin-
Simmons University, the Minute-
men and the Pershing Rifles from
Oklahoma State University, the
Marion Guard from St. Mary’s
University in San Antonio, the
ROTC Drill Team from Arkan
sas Polytechnic College, the
Keathley Rifles from Cameron
State College of Oklahoma, the
Pershing-Ware Rifles from Mc-
Neese State College of Louisiana,
and the Sam Houston Rifles from
West Texas State University.
Performances will be graded
on a scale of 1,000 points. The
inspection phase will count for
150 points, the basic drill for 150
points, and precision drill for 500
points. The precision portion of
the contest will be graded on in
tricacy, precision, and originality
of movement.
The master trophy is awarded
to the best overall unit. It is a
rotating trophy that is presented
to the winner for one year, but if
one unit wins it three consecutive
years, it will be awarded per
manently to that unit.
Warren Matthews, president of
the Association of Former Fish
Drill Team Members, expects “an
interesting afternoon, with real
varied performances ... no two
teams alike.”
“There will be a high level of
performance,” he continued. “All
the others (except the Fish Drill
Team) are four-year teams and
several hope to go to the Cherry
Blossom Festival in Washington,
D.C., the top drill meet in the
nation.”
The Fish Drill Team, last
year’s winner, comes from vic
tories in the Gulf Coast Invita
tional Drill Meet in Houston and
the Purdue University Invitation
al Drill Meet in Indiana.
Deadline Extended
On Civilian Tickets
Deadline for picking up tickets
for Civilian Weekend activities
beginning Saturday has been ex
tended until noon Wednesday.
Tickets may be picked up from
all dorm counselors.
Weekend festivities include a
barbecue, invitational drill meet.
Town Hall performance by Bren
da Lee, baseball game with the
University of Texas, presenta
tion of “The Time of Your Life”
by the Aggie Players and a
civilian dance.
Freeloading Sparrow
Foils Hayride Ushers
The country and western sounds of the Louisiana Hayride
filled G. Rollie White Coliseum Saturday night but the Bird was
the word for a few minutes before showtime.
Seems that a sparrow had somehow gotten inside the build
ing and was hopping around somewhat confusedly between the
floor-level seats. Early arrivals called it to the attention of a
volunteer usher from the Department of Journalism, who briefly
chased the bird and then relayed the information to Sigma Delta
Chi president, Glenn Dromgoole, quipping “There’s somebody here
who got in without a ticket and I can’t get him to leave.”
After further attempts at removing the feathered freeloader
failed, the journalists adopted a “watchful waiting” policy, hoping
the bird would find an exit or at least behave itself. Someone
voiced concern that Hayride star Little Jimmy Dickens’ famous
curse “May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose” might produce
a violent reaction under the circumstances.
But such fears proved to be groundless as the sparrow was
not noticed again during or after the performance. Apparently it
decided that, contrary to some opinions, country and western music
isn’t really — ouch — for the birds.
A MOST UNHAPPY FELLA ^
An unhappy youngster finds a cow not to his liking and
moves to safer ground during the Youth Livestock Show
at the Texas A&M Pavilion. The tenth annual affair, spon
sored by the College Station-Bryan Chamber of Commerce,
ends tonight with a 7:30 p. m. auction.