VMI Cadet. January 9, 1940

              ! ti/
Highlights
A resume of the outstanding events
of the year 1939 Is published on
page two.
John
The sports editor of the Richmond
News Leader writes guest column
for this Issue.
OLUME XXXIII
Glee Club
Will Sing
In Capital
Club to Appear
In Earle Theatre
On March 1-3
The Glee club, under the direc-tion
of Mrs. M. G. Ramey, will be-gin
Its spring concert trips shortly
after the mid-term examination pe-riod,
with a three-day engagement
on March 1-3 at the Earle theatre in
Washington, D. C.
Permission was granted the or-ganization
last fall to appear on the
stage in theaters or for other per-formances
for profit, but the club's
appearance at the Earle theater is
its first commercial performance.
The Earle is the outstanding the-ater
in the Capital city and its pro-grams
are always of the highest
class. Each year they bring at least
one college glee club to its stage.
This year the selection of the VMI
organization brings much attention
to the cadets. The club will give
four 20-minute performances a day
for three days and will be the out-standing
feature of the stage per-formances.
It is highly probable that the Glee
club will stop at Leesburg and give
another concert as it has done in the
last two years. This concert, under
the auspices of the Northern Vir-ginia
Alumni club, has been a fea-ture
of the social calendar of the
Northern Virginia city for the past
two years and has always drawn a
large audience.
Two other concerts will be given
during the spring period in addition
to a concert for the corps and fac-ulty.
It is highly probable that these
will be in Charlotte, N. C., and Rich-mond,
Va. Organizations in both
cities are trying to get the Institute
singers to appear in th^ir respective
cities and it is probable that both
trips will be taken.
The club will practice during the
present week and will then cease
activity until after the examination
period, at which time they will re-sume
extensive practice for the com-ing
performance at Washington's
number one theater.
Burress' Location
After May 15
Still Indefinite
At an interview with a member
of the staff of The Cadet, Col. With-ers
A. Burress stated that he wished
to correct an error in the statement
of this paper on Dec. 19 concerning
his coming transfer to the general
staff of the United States Army. The
Cadet reported Colonel Burress as
saying that he would submit a per-mit
to army headquarters in Wash-ington
to be allowed to stay at VMI
through finals of 1940.
Colonel Burress said, however,
that he did not state this officially
to The Cadet, since permits are not
submitted in the army. The Com-mandant
further said that he would
leave the Institute at the designated
date, which is May IS, 1940, unless
Washington decided it best for him
to remain here through the Finals
exercises.
The Commandant said that the
exact date of publishing Make-overs
had not been decided yet, but that
it should be some time during the
early weeks of February. If pos-sible,
these new appointments and
promotions in the newly organized
regiment of cadets will be printed in
The Cadet.
LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, JANUARY 9, 1940 NUMBER 15
Collegiate Digest Will Feature
Pictures About VMI Next Week
Gompf
In a telegram received Sunday
from Fred J. Noer, editor of Col-legiate
Digest, The Cadet was in-formed
that the Digest of next week
will carry a full page picture dis-play
of VMI's
celebration of the
centennial anni-versary.
The Digest, a
weekly rotograv-ure
section car-rying
pictures of
college activities
throughout the
country, is dis-tributed
with
The Cadet in barracks each week.
The staff is negotiating to get
enough copies of next week's issue
to be sent to outside subscribers
Eight pictures taken by Charles
Gompf, stall photographer to The
Turn-Out, were selected by the Di-gest
from the 12 submitted. These
pictures are of: General Kilbourne;
Jackson's statue; the regimental
colors passing in review as the state
flag is dipped to the Governor; the
girls passing under the arch of
sabres during the Centennial Ball;
the second platoon of Company E,
commanded by Pat Harris, execut-ing
"Eyes Right" as they pass the
reviewing stand; the Cavalry troop
and D Company battery trotting in
review; and section No. 1 of the
Firing Battery firing one round of
the 21-gun salute welcoming the
new century.
Gompf employed trick photog-raphy
to get a really superb picture
of the fire and smoke shooting from
the muzzle of the gun. First he took
a flash bulb picture of the gun and
gun crew during one of the intervals
between rounds. Then just before
the gun was to fire he opened the
shutter again, and, when the piece
fired, he had the fire and smoke on
the same film as the flash-bulb pic-ture.
The write-up accompanying the
pictures says: '.The Virginia Mili-tary
Institute, full of years of honor
and glory, has turned its face to-ward
another century of service to
the State of Virginia and the Nation.
Beginning its second century this
year, the 'West Point of the South'
has pledged itself to continue its
great traditions—traditions that have
made it respected educationally and
militaristically. Educationally VMI
is no 'prep' school, but gives BS and
BA degrees in engineering, liberal
arts, and sciences. Proof of the ef-fectiveness
of its instruction is the
fact that last year's (and all pre-ceding)
class is 100 per cent em-ployed.
On the military side of its
giant credit ledger of accomplish-ments,
VMI graduates are given re-serve
ratings, with many receiving
appointments in the army and the
marines."
This picture display in next week's
Digest is the result of the staff's ef-forts
to have more pictures of VMI
activities appear in the rotogravure
section. When editorial appeals to
the corps to send in pictures to the
Digest failed, The Cadet staff under-took
the task itself.
It will not be known until this
Friday or Saturday whether the ex-tra
copies can be got for distribution
to outside subscribers.
Greyhound Magazine
To Reprint Editorial
W. W. Geoghan, Division mana-ger
of the Atlantic Greyhound Bus
company, who has his headquarters
in Roanoke, has sought and received
permission to reprint in a future
edition of the Atlantic Courier, an
editorial from The Cadet and a
poll conducted by the column "Con-sensus"
advocating the use of bus-ses
on corps trips.
Last fall an editorial was writ-ten
deploring the service and in-convenience
of the special trains
used by the corps for trips. A sug-gestion
was made that a fleet of
fast, more comfortable buses be
used in the future. The following
week the column "Consensus" made
a canvass of barracks to ascertain
the opinion of cadets on the sug-gestions,
finding that an over-whelming
majority favored the
change.
Col. Couper
Attends Game
In Rose Bowl
Representing VMI and the South-ern
Conference at the annual meet-ing
of the National Collegiate Ath-letic
association, Colcftiel William
Couper, Business Executive Officer,
left on December 23 for California
where he attended the Tennessee-
Southern California Rose Bowl
game on Jan. 1.
The meeting was held at the Bal-timore
hotel in Los Angeles and
consisted chiefly of a discussion of
professionalism in amateur athletics.
The principal accomplishment was
the insertion of several clauses in
the collegiate agreement governing
amateur athletics. Colonel Couper
said that he believed these wer only
prliminary steps, and that they were
by no means final. "Nothing was
accomplished as drastically as at
conferences," he said.
"The visit to California was not
entirely of a business nature," he
said. There was an elaborate din-ner
held in honor of the founder
of football coaching, Alonzo Stagg,
who was the first football coach in
the United States. Mr. Stagg, who
was present at the dinner is now
a very old man, but he is still coach-ing.
He was at the University of
Chicago when he developed coach-ing,
but he is now with the Col-lege
of the Pacific.
While in San Francisco, Colonel
Couper said that he searched for
and found the grave of the first
VMI graduate, William D. Fair, '42.
It was located in the Laurel Hill
cemetery, which was formerly the
Lone Mountain cemetery, the oldest
in San Francisco. The grave, how-ever,
will be moved within three
years with approximately 46,000
others to make way for a W. P. A.
Housing project.
In Los Angeles Colonel Couper
said he visited the Warner Broth-ers'
studio, and on New Year's Eve
saw the world premiere of the
motion picture, "Brother Rat and
the Baby." The first two scenes,
he said, "showed views of the Wash-ington
statue and corps marching
to breakfast, but after that there
were only references to VMI." The
entire picture was another farce in
the same manner as "Brother Rat,"
with the same characters, and was
written by the same authors. He
said he was unimpressed by the
Rose Bowl game in spite of the
great publicity. He said that it re-sembled
any other football game
with nothing outstanding.
After leaving Los Angeles, Col-onel
Couper visited the New Mex-ico
Military Institute whose super-intendent
is Col. D. C. Pearson, '04,
This school has nearly always been
run by VMI men. It is a junior
college consisting entirely of a cav-alry
ROTC unit.
Eleven Cadets
Are Accepted
By Air Corps
Col. George A. Derbyshire, the
military executive officer of the Vir-ginia
Military Institute, announced
yesterday that 11 VMI cadets have
been accepted by the United States
Army Air Corps for flying cadet
training at Randolph Field, Texas.
Although 16 cadets passed the phys-ical
examination given by the Air
Corps examining board in Decem-ber,
only 11 were accepted for train-ing.
Those accepted are: C. R. Floyd
J. A. Sosbee, G. W. Walker, A. R. K
Keesee, R. C. Eastham (class of 1937
3 years), E. W. Mitchell, D. H. Hat-field,
T. E. Snyder, C. S. Towles, M
B. MacKinnon, R. G. Pollard, and
D. H. Wills.
These men, though already ac-cepted,
will not be called to service
until a future date. All but one of
them being first classmen, they will
probably have time to complete
their work required for graduation.
The requirements for this course
are that the applicant must have had
at least two years of certified col-lege
work or take an examination
which is the equivalent, must not be
married, must be less than 27 years
of age, and must be of good physical
and moral condition. The percentage
of men to pass these examinations
from the Virginia Military Institute
is known to be higher than that
from a great many schools.
Grant Named
To Succeed
Vose Febi. 1
Walter S. Grant
Returns To Institute
As Sub-Professor
Returning to VMI to fill the va-cancy
on the faculty caused by the
resignation of Capt. Fred C. Vose,
math instructor, Capt. Walter S.
Grant, Jr., has notified the Superin-tendent
of his acceptance of the ap-pointment
as instructor of mathe-matics,
effective Feb. 1, 1940. At that
time, Captain Vose will leave the
Institute to take a position with the
General Electric company.
Captain Grant was graduated from
the Virginia Military Institute in
the class of 1933. Choosing the civil
engineering curriculum, he was
cited as a distinguished graduate at
the end of the four-eyar course. He
served as a corporal and sergeant
in his third and second class years,
respectively, and was appointed to
the position of regimental plans and
training officer with the rank of
cadet captain in his first class year.
Coming back to the Institute in
September, 1937, Captain Grant was
appointed a captain of Virginia Vol-unteers
and instructor in civil en-gineering
and tactics. He served in
this capacity for two sessions, re-signing
his position last June when
he was married to Miss Gladys
Leech of Lexington. Captain and
Mrs. Grant then went to West Vir-ginia,
where he was engaged in min-ing
engineering.
Captain Grant entered VMI in the
fall of 1929 from Brooklyn, N. Y. He
is the son of Maj. Gen. Walter S.
Grant, commanding general of the
United States forces in the Philip-pines.
Captain Vose's resignation was an-nounced
in the Ip^t. issue of The
Cadet, having been accepted by the
Superintendent on Dec. IS, 1939. His
successor had not, however, been
named at that time.
Meyer Resigns Post
On Cadet Staff
Eric M. Meyer, who was select-ed
as an associate editor of The
Cadet last September, resigned
his position upon his return from
Christmas furlough. "I haven't
enough time to do my job thor-oughly,"
he commented, adding
that he would still serve as staff
assistant.
Myer has been very active in
extra-curricular activities, serving
in addition to his capacity as as-sociate
editor on The Cadet, as
the advertising manager of The
Turn-Out. A sergeant in Company
E, he has earned his academic
stars in the chemistry course.
Examination
Schedule
Announced
Exams Begin
Jan. 22; New Term
Begins Feb. 5
At noon today the following ex-amination
schedule for the mid-term
exams was released from the
office of the Superintendent for
publication in The Cadet:
FIR Eft1 CLASS
Civil Engineering Section
Hydraulics, Monday, January 22,
N-E 2nd floor; structures, Wednes-day,
January 24, N-E 2nd floor; Eng-lish
and speaking, Friday, January
26, S-S 32, 34, 86; economics, Satur-day,
January 27, S-S 3rd floor; con-crete
design, Monday, January 29,
N-E 2nd floor; highway engineer-ing,
Thursday, February 1, N-E 2nd
floor.
Electrical Engineering Section
Electrical engineering, Monday,
January 22, N-E 202; thermodynam-ics,
Wednesday, January 24, N-E
202; mechanism, Friday, January 26,
N-E 202; economics, Saturday, Janu-ary
27, S-S 3rd floor; electrical lab-oratory,
Monday, January 29, N-E
202; applications of electric power,
Wednesday, January 31, N-E 202.
Chemical Section
Organic chemistry, Tuesday, Jan-uary
23, M1B 202; industrial chem-istry,
Thursday, January 25, M-B
202; economics, Saturday, January
27, S-S 3rd floor; mineralogy, Mon-day,
January 29, M-B 305; physical
chemistry, Thursday, February 1,
M-B 202.
Pre-Medical
Organic chemistry, Tuesday, Janu-ary
23, M-B 202; histology, Friday,
January 26, S-S sub-basement; eco-nomics,
Saturday, January 27, S-S
3rd floor; French, Monday, January
29, S-S 14, 18; German, Monday,
January 29, S-S 12, 15, 16; physical
chemistry, Wednesday, January 31,
M-B 7.
Liberal Arts Section
History, Monday, January 22, S-S
18; Shakespeare, Wednesday, Janu-ary
24, S-S 37; philosophy, Friday,
January 26, S-S 11, 15; economics,
Saturday, January 27, S-S 3rd floor;
French, Monday, January 29, S-S
14, 18; German, Monday, January
29, S-S 12, 15, 16; political science,
Wednesday, January 31, S-S 31.
SECOND CLASS
Civil Engineering Section
Physics, Monday, January 22, S-S
15, 16, 18; mechanics, Wednesday,
January 24, N-E 1st floor; electrical
engineering, Friday, January 26, N-E
second floor; mechanics, Monday,
January 29, N-E 1st floor; sanitary
engineering, Wednesday, January
31, N-E 1st floor.
Electrical Engineering Section
Physics, Monday, January 22, S-S
15, 16, 18; mechanics, Wednesday,
January 24, N-E 1st floor; mathe-
(Continued on page 6)
Second Battalion Routs First
During Furious Snow Battle
Cadets to Attend
ASCE Convention
Three first classmen and one sec-ond
classman will leave Lexington
at SRC, Jan. 16, bound for New
York city to attend the annual con-vention
of the American Society of
Civil Engineers.
The names of the men to go have
not yet been announced, but Col.
R. A. Marr said that they would be
picked sometime in the next two or
three days.
Each year the Institute has sent
men to the national convention, and
they have brought back to the local
student chapter of the ASCE the
news of the deliberations of the par-ent
body.
At the national meeting papers are
given by men high in the engineer-ing
profession on research and prac-tical
problems. Matters of policy are
decided at this time, also. Seminars
at which there is an interchange of
ideas by the members, are held at
this time.
Cadets attending will attend the
regular busines meetings and the
meeting of the junior section, and
will have a certain amount of free
time for sight-seeing or whatever
else they may desire to do.
The group will return on the
morning of the 19th.
In the opening engagement of the
winter campaign the Second Bat-talion,
employing strategy which
local military experts termed "su-perb,"
completely routed the disor-ganized
First Battalion army in a
furious snow battle on the parade
ground yesterday afternoon.
Using the strategy of "double en-velopment"
which General Stone-wall
Jackson used in routing Gen-eral
Banks in the Battle of Winches-ter,
the Second Battalion struck the
foe with a devastating frontal at-tack
led by Companies E and F,
while a platoon from Company D
went through Washington Arch and
out Jackson Arch and attacked the
enemy left flank in an effort to turn
it.
Later on in the afternoon, Col.
John M. Fray, head of the Field Ar-tillery
ROTC, in commenting on the
I battle said: "That's the stuff. You-i
all haven't been studying Stonewall
Jackson for nothing."
After a march around the parade
ground during the early part of the
drill period, the First Battalion took
' up its position on the road in front
j of the old library.(The Second Bat-talion
troops moved into position on
the road in front of the Engineer-
| ing building.
Ammunition was quickly brought
up as the two armies prepared for
the engagement. The commanding
officers of both armies had decided
to take the offensive and deliver a
frontal attack. The two charges be-gan
simultaneously as Rebel yells
echoed across the parade ground.
As soon as the charge began, the
platoon of Company D was detached
from the main Second Battalion
army and sent on its flanking move
through the courtyard and out Jack-son
Arch.
The two armies met in the middle
of the parade ground and a furious
battle at close quarters developed.
Hand-to-hand fighting was carried
on all along the battle line as the
two armies locked in deadly com-bat.
The left of the First Battalion line
was formed on the statue of Jack-son
when the platoon from Company
D rushed out of the arch and hurled
itself against the exposed flank. The
First Battalion was caught com-pletely
off guard. Slowly the flank
gave way as the platoon hammered
it with a heavy artillery barrage.
Hop Committee Signs
Gray Gordon's Band
For Mid-Winter Hops
Bomb to Use
Blue and Gold
Cover Design
Bates Gilliam, editor of the 1940
Bomb, said last week that work on
this year's annual was progressing
smoothly, and that several sections
have already been completed, with
regard to material, and were in the
hands of the printer.
"The proofs of border plates, made
by the engravers, are all finished
and approved," he said, "and the
opening section, which comprises
the foreword, dedication, and the
first 15 pages were completed during
the Christmas furlough." These have
not been engraved yet, but the nec-essary
material has been sent to the
engravers.
The first class section will be com-pleted
soon by finishing the informal
poses of the first classmen, and by
Tic Toe Rhythm
To Be Featured
Here Feb. 23-24
Gray Gordon and his orchestra,
featuring its famous Tic Toe
Rhythm, have been signed by the
Hop committee, through Consoli-dated
Radio Artists, Inc., for the
Mid-Winter hops in Cocke hall dur-ing
the week-end of Feb. 23-24. The
announcement was made today by
Gordon W. Walker, president of the
Hop committee.
This popular orchestra has for the
past summer been featured four
times weekly over NBC from the
exclusive Westchester Country club
in New York. Prior to this engage-ment
Gordon and his orchestra were
featured at the popular Green Room
of the Edison hotel, New York city,
with nightly broadcasts over NBC.
The band was also featured on the
radio commercial program "Nesco
Royal Cooks."
Played At Fair
Held In Chicago
Gray Gordon was brought to Chi-coga
to fulfill a limited engagement
at Chicago's unique and exclusive
Canadian club, Doodlebug Cafe, at
The Century of Progress. Visitors to
this great exposition soon began to
clamor for Gray and his distinctive
Tic Toe Rhythm. Because of this
tremendous popularity, the orches-tra
was held over for the entire sea-son.
Following the World's Fair en-gagement,
Gray and his band were
featured at such well known places
as the St. Anthony hotel, San An-tonio,
Tex.; Casa Madrid, Louisville,
Ky.; Lookout House, Covington, Ky.;
. . . completi ng t.h.e . ind,i. vidual, b, i.o gra- |' Ch,a se h, ot.e l, St. Louis,' Mo.;' Br.o ,w n ph, .i es wh, i.c h, have been practt icaliil y \' Palace hotel, Denver, Col.; Claridge
finally assembled. The first class his-tory
in pictures is being designed
and will be finished soon.
Other classes and views of the In- | Broadcast
stitute together with department
sections are to follow the first class.
All "glossies'' or temporary portraits
of every cadet in school are being
classified with regard to class sec-tions.
The sketch of the cover has been
approved, and the die is being made
by the Kingscraft company of Kings-port,
Tenn. The color will be dark
blue trimmed with gold. This is the
first time dark blue has been used
for the cover of The Bomb since
any of the classes in school have
been here.
Several novel ideas are being in-troduced
this year, among which is
the Hop section, which replaces the
Social section occurring in previous
annuals. This part will consist of
views taken at the Institute during
hops and other social occasions, of
which there have been many this
year as a result of the Centennial.
This new idea is turning out to be
very successful.
The Military section will be com-pleted
after make-overs to allow for
changes in cadet officers and non-commissioned
officers, and the Sports
section under Tom Opie and Al Carr
is progressing satisfactorily, keeping
step with present and future ath-letic
contests.
The "Outrage," wit section, will
definitely not be combined with the
advertising and is under the direc-tion
of Clint Dominick. Work has
already begun, but it will be one of
last sections to be inserted.
Company B Wins
Competitive Drill
In the competitive drill held this
Casualties were so numerous that afternoon in the gymnasium the
many of the fighting units had to be
withdrawn from the field badly beat-en.
Gradually the First Battalion line
began to give way as the Second
Battalion ripped great gaps in it.
By the time that the Second Bat-talion
had driven the foe back to its
original position in front of the old
library, the men left fighting num-bered
less than one-third as many
as were in the battle at its begin-ning.
Military observers in these quar-ters
share the opinion that the rest
of the winter campaign will be car-ried
on by guerilla -bands in bar-racks
and that the two factions will
not engage in so costly and strenu-ous
an engagement again.
First Battalion redeemed itself for
its ignoble defeat in the snow battle
with the Second Battalion yester-day.
The results of the drill were as
follows:
Company B 92
Company A 83
Company D 82
Company C 78
Company F
Company E 76
hotel, Memphis, Tenn.; Euclid Beach,
Cleveland, Ohio, and the Merry
Garden Ballroom, Chicago, 111.
Over NBC
During his Chicago engagement,
Gray was featured over the NBC
network of 72 stations four nights a
week. The orchestra is immediately
recognized over the air by the dis-tinctive
tic-tocing of a clock, which
precedes each radio program.
Gray was born in Freeport, 111. He
is not married and is the only child
in his family.
He won letters in basketball, foot-ball,
baseball and track while at-tending
high school. He studied mu-sic
in the Bush Conservatory of Mu-sic,
Chicago. He also studied under
several outstanding independent
teachers.
Tic Toe Rhythm
On RCA Program
His Tic Toe Rhythm orchestra ap-peared
on the Magic Key of RCA
program, and was immediately
signed for Bluebird-Victor record-ings
as a result of the favorable
comment received following this
broadcast. He was recently promot-ed
to the Victor Label—the only
band ever to be so honored. It is
the only popular orchestra contract-ed
by the Victor Recording company
for a series of records, that has been
transferred by the Victor company
from their 35c Bluebird records to
the straight Victor records. Their
first release was "Chopsticks," an
immediate coast-to-coast best seller.
Gray plays the saxophone and su-pervises
the arrangement of the
band's music. Arrangements are
really a cooperative affair with mu-sicians
Bobby Blair, Bill North,
Floyd Lauck, Graham Prince and
Ray Mace all taking part.
Gordon's most recent Victor re-cordings
are "Cinderella," "You Are
My Dream," "Rumple-Stilts-Kin,"
"Last Trip on the Old Ship," "Song
of the Metronome," "Start the Day
Right," and "You're Right, I'm
Wrong."
Cadet Will Be Entered
When he announced the results of
the drill, Major W. A. Ellis, Infantry
ROTC instructor, said that there
was a marked improvement in the
giving of commands and in the
snappy execution of movements.
In Journalism Contest
Announcement was made today
| that The Cadet will enter the an-nual
Associated Collegiate Press
journalism contest for college news-paper.
This is the first time that
The Cadet has entered this nation-wide
contest.
All copies of The Cadet published
this year must be submitted by Jan.
27.