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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1975)
'S ll g sum up ol in bed t'l’s dead." Jlr^IOO yeamj THE BATTALION Page 5 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1975 amount of mon-sense g six cuts 11mm from t>all trasl, v er lining, •his album mper has t’s not the id. it does and Dick 1 Prakasi it ion Vin- ■ecitation, '0 played i the tour Hock and ind Steve hind that to “Sweet t was the igon Side iicland for reviewed be funded next year, t that will profits for le of the national Students rely on li ly it has ■ar to the d by the :>ard. ingofstu- me roof,’ First Board of Directors meet By DON MIDDLETON Staff Writer As Texas A&M approaches its cen tennial, we begin to look to the fu ture and the promise of continued growth and expansion in all fields. But to ignore the long and colorful history of the University as we near this monumental occasion would be tragic. This column will be devoted to exploring the past century from the inception of the college to the present. On July 2. 1862 President Abra ham Lincoln signed into law a bill entitled “An act donating public lands to the Several States and Ter ritories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,” better known as the Morrill Land Grant College Act. The bill granted eacli state 30,000 acres of land for each Senator and Representative representing that state in the United States Congress, up to one million acres. The land was then to be sold at public auction at a maximum of $1.25 per acre and. the proceeds invested in stocks or bonds yielding a minimum of 5% yearly interest. The act further stated that reve nue from the stocks would be used to establish and support at least one college where the main studies would be agriculture and the me chanic arts, with military tactics to be included in the course of study. The original provisions of the bill gave the states two years to take ad vantage of the act, and set five years as the limit for completing the first college once a state approved the bill. But at that time the country was in the midst of civil war and an other clause of the bill prevented any state in condition of secession or rebellion from taking advantage of the hill. The hill was amended on July 23, 1866 to extend the acceptance dead line until July 23, 1869. It was then that the Texas Legislature approved a resolution accepting the provisions of the act. The resolution was made law on November 1, 1866 by the signature of Governor James W. Throckmorton. The state was given 186,000 acres of land, 30,000 each for its two senators and four representatives in Congress. The land was sold in 1871 at 87 cents an acre and the proceeds from the sale, $156,000, invested in 7% gold frontier defense bonds. In accordance with the provisions of the Morrill Act, on April 17, 1871 Governor Edmund J. Davis signed an act of the Texas Legislature which created The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. A subsequent act authorized funds to he appropriated from the State school fund for the construction of buildings for the college since the Morrill Act prohibited use of the in terest received from the sale of lands for that purpose. Davis later approved the establish ment of a hoard of commissioners, consisting of three legislators, whose job is was to locate a suitable loca tion for the college. The men chosen were Senator J. G. Bell and Repre sentatives M, D. Torrance and F. E. Grothaus. Torrance later died and was replacetl by George B. Slaughter. After considering sites in Grimes County, Austin, San Marcos, Waco, and Tehuacana the commission set tled on spot in Brazos County six miles from the town of Bryan. The Legislature appropriated $40,000 in April, 1874 to begin con struction on the campus buildings, and subsequently appropriated a to tal $112,000 on three different dates to complete the campus. With the location chosen and con struction under way, the legislature created a Board of Directors to be gin the administration of college bus iness. The board was to be made up of the Governor, Lieutenant Gov ernor, Speaker of the House of Rep resentatives, and six directors, one from each congressional district elect ed by joint ballot of both legislative branches. Each director was paid $5 per diem for each day of Board meetings up to $100 a year. In addition, each was allowed $5 per 25 miles travel led from his place of residence to the meeting. The first meeting of the Board was convened on June 1, 1875 in Bryan. In attendance were Governor Richard Coke, Lt. Governor R. B, Hubbard, Speaker of the House Guy M. Bryan, and Directors B. H. Da vis and C. S. West. :,The business o£ the meeting con sisted of establishment of a com- mitte to set up a curriculum, the de cision to create a faculty consisting of a president and five professors, and the nomination of Jefferson Da- ..yis as President of the College. When the Board met again on July 15, 1876, Speaker Bryan had been replaced by T. R. Bonner and the four directors who had failed to attend the first meeting were again absent. The curriculum committee sub mitted a list of faculty positions which included a President and professor of Moral and Mental Phil osophy; Professor of Pure Mathe matics; Professor of Ancient Lan guages, Belles Letres, History and English Literature; Professor of Modern Languages; Professor of Chemistry, Practical Agriculture and Natural Sciences; and Professor of Applied Mathematics, Civil Engineer ing and Military Tactics. The Board approved the positions and fixed the instructors’ salaries at $2,250 per year with the president’s salary set at $3,000. After being informed by Governor Coke of Davis’ refusal of the presi dency, the board reviewed a list of applicants for instructors and decided on Thomas S. Gathright to fill the post. Chosen for the faculty were Alexander Hogg, John T. Hand, W. A. Banks, C. P. B. Martin, and R. P. W. Morris. Other officers appointed were Wil liam Falconer as college secretary; H. P. Bee, Steward and superinten dent of the farm; and Dr. De Port ©1975, Kalt# Systemet, Inc. Style 180 This is the Earth shoe.' Anne Kals0 invented it. Everyone is trying to imitate it. But just because a shoe looks like the Earth brand shoe doesn’t mean it works like the Earth shoe. Available at: KALS0 EARTH SHOE 4222 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas, Texas 75219 MAIL FOR FREE BROCHURE Allowance stop called political “Elimination of the depletion al lowance on large oil and gas pro ducers was politically motivated and will deprive producers of $1.7 bil lion of exploration funds per year, send gasoline prices up three cents per gallon, and hurt employment growth prospects in Texas,” says Dr. W. Philip Gramm, a TAMU econom ics professor. Dr. Gramm, speaking at a meeting of the Private Truck Council of America, earlier this month, called on the Congress “to explain why it eliminated the depletion allowance for large oil and gas producers, but did not alter the depletion allow ances given every other major min eral extraction industry in America.” “What reason except political re prisal can explain keeping the de pletion allowance on sand and gravel and eliminating it on oil and gas?” asked Dr. Gramm, who serves as a consultant on energy-related matters to both the U. S. and Canadian gov ernments. “It just does not make sense to take steps to stifle investment in the petroleum industry when we are be ing robbed by the O.P.E.C. nations.” Dr. Gramm charged that price ceilings on natural gas have stifled output, created foreign dependence, and increased consumer prices. THE MID-EAST DEBATE WILL PRESENT BENJAMIN VAR0N and JOSEPH HAYECK WEDNESDAY 8 P.M. APRIL 23,1975 RUDDER AUDITORIUM STUDENTS 25c NON STUDENTS $1.00 POLITICAL FORUM MIDWEST VIDEO HAS IT ALL! 24 CRYSTAL-CLEAR FM CHANNELS KPRC (NBC) - CHANNEL 2 ALL SPANISH PROGRAMMING FROM KWEX (SAN ANTONIO) Boxing, Wrestling, Game Shows, Soap Operas, Something for Everyone CHRISTIAN MOVIES FILM FESTIVAL TUESDAYS 8:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M. CALL 846-8876 FOR YOUR CONNECTION (FREE INSTALLATION) ONLY $ 4 00 PER MONTH MIDWEST VIDEO C0RP. 3609 Texas Avenue Ridgecrest Shopping Center 846-8876 the Cable TV Professionals Smyth, college physician. The business of the board meet ing on July 24, 1876 ranged from trivial to historical. The secretary of the Board was instructed to get a suitable book in which to record the proceedings of the Board. Per haps the directors wanted to insure that the decision they were about to make would be preserved for the fu ture, or perhaps the secretary was in the habit of taking notes on ta blecloths. Whatever the reason, the meeting continued and the minutes were recorded. The only other order of business was to set the date for the formal opening of the Agricultural and Me chanical College of Texas, the fourth day of October, 1876. A&M entries win in district film competition TAMU’s new movie, "Research Impact,” won first place in institu tional film competition sponsored by the Southwest District of the American College Public Relations Association. The university also placed third in annual reports. The entry was TAMU’s 1974 Sea Grant annual re port. The movie which won over en tries from colleges and universities throughout a four-state area em phasizes TAMU’s various research activities while presenting an over view of the university. ROBERT HALSELL TRAVEL SERVICE AIRLINE SCHEDULE INFORMATION FARES AND TICKETS DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL CALL 822-3737 1016 Texas Avenue — Bryan Our regular $1.89 Spaghetti Dinner with meatsauce, served in true Italian style with garden fresh salad and garlic toast. today. No. 2 Pizza Inn of Bryan Next to Bryan High 1803 Greenfield Plaza No. 1 Pizza Inn of College Station 413 Texas Ave. “In 1972 about half of the petro leum imports into the U. S. consisted of heavy oil which is used as a sub stitute for natural gas for heating homes and generating electricity,” Gramm noted. He said economists estimate that if natural gas price ceilings were eliminated, output would expand, natural gas would undersell heavy oil by one-half, anti imports would fall off as would fuel prices. “Having done so well regulating interstate gas sales, the federal gov ernment now wants the power to reg ulate intrastate sales,” Gramm said. He pointed out that intrastate reg ulatory legislation not only would give the federal government the pow er to set prices on sales within a state but to set up allocation priori ties as well. Under such regulation, the federal government could force the sale of natural gas produced in Texas to consumers in Massachusetts even if Texas consumers needed the gas and were willing to pay for it. “There are a lot of fancy words to use in describing such allocation mechanisms,” Gramm said, “but le galized theft is quite adequate.’” Gramm told the private truck oper ators that America has the petroleum needed to keep their trucks rolling and to keep the U. S. economy mov ing ahead, but government controls have hamstrung the oil and gas in dustry, produced foreign dependence and cost the American consumer higher prices and stortages. “The federal government forgets that the only place that consumption comes before production is in the dic tionary,” Gramm stated. “To con sume more, we must produce more and only private industry can do the job.” “We are in the midst of a great wave of exploration which, if al lowed to continue and expand, will give us fuel to turn the wheels of in dustry,” Dr. Gramm concluded. “While government can do much to help in basic research funding for the development of new fuels, it can best help in the development of fos- sel fuels by getting out of the way.” ' Many working people like you qualify for tax-sheltered savings fatC _ _ eB&l. Your deposits to an Individual Retirement Account will be 100% deductible from your 1975 income tax. If you are not now covered by a pension or retirement plan (even if you may someday qualify for such a com pany benefit) you can build a tax-sheltered savings ac count today with BB&L Every dollar you deposit this year — up to $1,500 (or 15% of your annual income, whichever is less) is deductible from your 1975 income tax. Earnings on your tax-sheltered account are also free from tax — until you retire. (And since earning power normally drops off after retirement, you may pay taxes on the earnings at a considerably lower rate than now). It only takes a few minutes to open an Individual Retire ment Account and there is no charge for establishing this special savings account. Find out if you can qualify for BB&L tax-sheltered sav ings. There’s no obligation—but you need to act now to get the maximum tax advantage for 1975. Call 823-7541 or see a savings officer for details. BB&L IWi? A Savings H Institution