VMI Cadet. March 26, 1934

              The Official Organ of the |
Virginia Military Institute
Athletic Association The Cadet Published Weekly By
The Corps of Cadets Virginia Military Institute
Track And Baseball Season
To Open DuriiMr^T7r>
VOL. XXVII LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1934
Situation In Orient
Outlined To Corps
Japan and Russia Are Now
Principles Of C l a s h i ng
Views In The Far East
Railroad Strategic
Conditions Today Will Show
Diplomatic Views Taken
By These Two Nations
Anderson Has
Long Service
At Institution
Concluding his series of lectures
on the relations of the nations of
the world to one another today,
Colonel Magruder spoke on the pre-vailing
conditions in the far Eest
and the situation centering around
Japan, Russia, and China. The in-terest
of the lecture was greatly
increased by the fact that the speak-er
had spent a number of years in
China, as Military Attache, where
he was able to study the conditions
which are so vitally important in
regarding the situation as it stands
today.
To understand properly the situa-tion,
which the nations are facing,
we must know something of the
Served With the Engineers
In France A s Captain
During the World War
Back in 1920 the powers-that-be
decided that electrical engineering
was of enough inmportance to be
made a separate departmet. Here-tofore
it had been a branch of the
Physics department. The man
chosen to head this new course was
Col. Stewart Anderson. Under his
guidance Electrical Engeering at
VMI has grown and prospered
steadily.
Stewart W. Anderson was born
in 1886 in Portsmouth, Va. He at
tended the public schools and later
two prep schools. In 1904 he had
completed his pre-college educa-history
of these countries and how j t i o n> a n d a f t e r careful deliberation
the fortunes of each has undergone
a gradual rise or decline through
the ages. The physical outlay of
Asia is one from the pleasant
civilized country of one part to the
barren, desert-like stretches of the
Gobi. A notable geographic fea-ture
is the high inaccessible plateau
decided to enter the Institute. He
spent the usual four years here, in,
no doubt, the more or less usual
manner. He was a member of the
gym team for some time. Unfortu
nately .however, he one day fell and
broke his arm, which prevented any
farther participation. In his first
of Tihet, in the eastern portion o f ' c , a s s y e a r h e h e l d * position analo-which
rise five of the largest rivers
of Asia. The climate varies from
extremely hot to extremely cold of
the Siberian country to the north.
Ancient Race
Just how far back the Chinese
race goes is not definitely known,
gous to the present Chairman of the
Hop Committee. In 1908 Cadet An
derson was graduated with a B. S.
in the electrical branch of the Phy-sics
Department.
Commandant of Cadets
Durig the year following his grad-but
we do know that 200 years be- uation, col. Anderson continued in
fore Christ, when the Romans were t h e military life. He was Com
fighting the Germanic Barbarians, m s m d a n t o f Cadets and instructor of
the Chinese were a settled race. The
great wall of China was"built as a
protection against the inroads and
attacks of the terrible people of the
north, who we now know as the
Tartars. From these Tartars, the
Turks and Huns, who later over-ran
Eastern Europe and Asia,
originated. The great Mongol
leader Genghiz Kahn came from
these rough primitive people. In
eastern China the Mongol Dynasty
was established at Peking by Kubla
Khan. This dynasty continued for
about a hundred years and was
superceded by the Ming regime.
China remained for hundreds of
years a land of mystery and a closed
country to the rest of the world.
When the world of trade began to
open up in the eighteenth and nine-teenth
centuries, China was forced
to make concessions which opened
her doors to the world.
Japan Opened
As for Japan, it had remained
entirely closed to the world, taking
what civilizing qualities and what-ever
trade necessary from the
Chinese. In 1854 she was forced to
open her ports to the trade and
goods of the world about her. With
the opening of her country to the
trade of the foreigner, Japan began
to take on the aggressive spirit of
the western civilization and to wish
to spread her colonization and ideas
over Asia. Korea seemed a good
place to form a base for such move-ments,
but here she was faced with
something of a difficult and puzzli-ing
situation. Both China and
Russia were settling there in hope
of establishing themselves securely
in the peninsula. North of Korea,
the Russians had opened the port
of Vladivostok. The Chinese-Jap-aaese
War of 1894-95, in which the
Chinese were defeated gained for
Jqpan a more decided foothold on
ttoe peninsula. Naturally Japan
(Continued on page 7
science at the Charlotte Hall School
in Maryland. In 1909 he left Mary-land
and obtained a position as
electrical machinist with the U. S.
Navy at the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
This work offered a wide variety of
work, as it included repairing and
installing all the electrical devices
and machines used on the ships. Af-ter
six months Col. Anderson took
the civil service exams and was
made a permanent employee. He
transferred to land duty and was
concerned with the generation and
distribution of power.
Served In France
In 1911 Col. Anderson returned
to V. M. I. as instructor in physics
and electrical engineering. At the
end of two years he left the In-stitute
and became a graduate stu-dent
and instructor at the Univer-sity
of Wisconsin. In 1914 he re-ceived
the degree of M. S. and once
more joined the teaching staff of the
Institute. Then, to use a well-worn
(Continued On Page 8)
Golden Gate Bridge
Construction Shown
The VMI Chapter of the ASCE
held its bi-weekly meeting on
Friday morning of last week. The
subjects chosen for discussion
were well chosen and arranged
by the cadets giving them.
Finlayson, the first speaker on
the program, chose for his talk,
planning and development of the
Tennessee Valley. Such phases
as power lines, flood controls, and
provision for phosphate were
brought out in the speech.
Meador illustrated his talk on
the Air Wheel as landing gear for
planes by a picture show which
was very interesting and instruct-ive
to the members of the depart-ment.
Following Meador on the
(Continued On J>MW •)
Leader of Expedition Gen. Lejeune Sends
Message To Byrd
Keydets Visit
Cement Plant
On Civil Trip
i Unusual Activities Are
Recorded In Course Of
The Day's J o u r n ey
j Antarctic E x p e d i t i o n Is
Established On Ice Cap
At Little America Base
Member Class '08
Admiral Byrd At Present
Time Is Visiting Post 100
Miles Nearer the Pole
The Second Class Civil Engineer-ing
department last week enjoyed
an interesting and instructive trip
to the plant of the Lehigh Cement
company at Fordwich. Va. The trip
was made under the direction of
Colonel Marr on Wednesday, March
21. On the way to Fordwich a stop
was made to inspect an abandoned
blast furnace, which although not
in use for some years, had many
features of interest to the cadets.
In Fordwich the group visited first
the limestone quarries, where the
i work of extracting the rock was
explained. The Superintendent of
! the outfit evidently recognized the
| potential ability of Sherman, Vaden
: and Vanderslice, because they were
allowed to fearlessly stand in a
steel shack during blasting opera-tions
and watch the dynamite doing
its stuff on a cliff of limestone.
Upon coming out of the nerve rack-ing
experience such remarks as—
col:.jsal, stupendous—were heard to
emit from their lips. All attempts
to interview them were a failure,
although Sherman kindly condes-
_T _ __ „ . cended to give out the information
New System f o r the Hook Flames Quickly Put Out that this blasting game was nothing
To Be Used Next Year gy Keydet Fire Force new to him as he shot firecrackers
all his life, and that the dynamite
(By Pacific & Atlantic)
REAR-ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD
Bomb Pictures Of Fire In Barracks
'35 Taken In April During Last Week
it was recently announced by W. | A Scoop! The peaceful atmos-
C. Holt, editor of the '35 Bomb, that p h e r e of barracks Saturday was
many new and unusual and unique disturbed by a cry of fire. For
features are to be included in the t h e f i r s t t i m e at t h e I n s t i t u t e > m a n y
book. Plans which have been made c a d e t s s a w t h e f l r e f i g h t i n g ap_
forecast it to be one of the most p a r t u s i n a c t i o n . At ia s t t h e g u a rd
striking annuals put out in many succeeded, after many attempts, in
a year. Introducing a feature which unrol l i n g the hose. One of them
is both new and novel in its field, strolled into the O. D's. house and
the Bomb has planned to run an brought out a wrench to turn on
was only on a little larger scale.
Even under stress you will never
find a V. M. I. man who forgets its
'time to eat, so the whole motely
crew went into town, where they
gave a fit demonstration of how a
starving army of Armenians would
take over the village eate shoppe.
Some of the boys appeared as if this
was the first meal they had had in
individual picture of each man in, t h e w a t e r x h e f i r e w a s diSCOvered months from the quantity which
the Corps. The arrangement 011 t o b e down in Archie's hole, where they very dexterously consumed,
these pictures has been so planned q u i t e a n u m b e r of o i l y r a g s w e r e It i s rumored that Jordon only gave
as to form a decided contrast to the burning cheerfully, much to the
usual form of group pictures of the s m o k y disConfort of those who
classes. This will in no way sub-1 roomed above. Some excitement!
ordinate the First Class as they' x h e t r u c k s f r o m Lexington came
will occupy the same prominent, o u t a n d a f t e r m a n e u v e r i n g for
position that they have occupied in s o m e t i m e t o f j n d a w a y tQ b r j ng
the past. By this new system each t h e i r apparatus to play on the fire
man will have a definite place in f i n a l l y g a i n e d a p o i n t Qf v a n t a ge
the book, and those Brother Rats w h e r e t h e y p u t o u t w h a t a m Q u n t Qf
who have dropped before the grad- f i r e remained. The Cadet appara-uating
year may be recalled by (Continued On PaKC 8)
reference to the Bomb. 1 —
pi^ure^w^r constitute 'those ^Mhe ^ Weems And His Famous Band
have their pictures taken some- To Play Here For Easter Dances
time in the near vicinity of April —
6th. Mess jackets will be worn. The Gentlemen—The Hop Committee, Marsh will not be with the band
uniform to be worn by the under persents Ted Weems and his Or-1 this year; however a new feminine
up the ship, when he had expanded
so he couldn't reach the table.
That afternoon the cement plant
was gone through, with the super-intendent
explaining the various
steps in the making of cement, the
rotary kilns, furnaces, crushers, etc.
The assistance of the various mem-bers
of the plant, in showing the
men how the different machinery
(Continued On Pave 8)
classes has not as yet been decided chestra playing for Easter Hops,
upon. At recent meetings of the which are to be held on the eve-
Third and Rat classes it was agreed ning of April 27 th and 28th. Weems
upon that they would stand the ex- needs no introduction to the Second
pense of the taking of these pic- a n d First Classmen as those mem-tures.
| orable strains of his music from
the Finals of '32 still linger on as a
Culver Officers Visit tribute accorded one of the most
Colonel Rossuw, commandant of popular orchestras to ever play at
cadets, and Colonel Chambers, ad- the Institute. Practically the same
ministrative officer together with a band will hold sway in Ninety-Four
group of the tactical staff paid a Hall once again. With the orches
visit to the Institute last week.
These officers are making an ex-tended
tour of various schools of
the country and alumni of the Cul-ver
academy. They were shown
about the post by General Lejeune,
who explained the military features
of the school. Incidently it is o f i n -
terest to note that the present su-perintendent
of Culver is a V. M. I.
man.
tra there is Parker Gibbs, baritone
vocalist; Red Ingle, sax and tenor
soloist; "Country " Washburn, bass;
Elmo Tanner, whistling soloist and
dialect specialist; Ormond Downes,
World's greatest drummer and ori-ginator
of the South American
guiro for rythm effects; Jack O'-
Brien, pianist; and Art Weems,
trumpet with Don Watt, clarinet.
The only regret is that Andrea
touch is to be added before the
dances at VMI. The entire orchestra
of fourteen pieces will be here to
give their idea of just how dance
rythms should be played.
Upon leaving the University of
Pennsylvania, Weems organized his
famous 'All American Band", which
has enjoyed unprescented success
from that time on. For two years
he played at the World's most beau-tiful
ballroom, the Trianon in Chi-cago.
Then to the Pennsylaviana
and Waldorf-Astoria in New York
and the Bismark in Chicago. He has
recently completed a long term con-tract
at Lincoln Travers. His music
has reached millions over the coast-to-
coast broadcasts. Weems with
various members of his orchestra
have contributed some of the coun-try'*
greatest song hits including
( C o n t i n u e * On Pace 8)
Hailed as the greatest scientific
achievement of the age. Byrd's
Antarctic Expedition pushes on
\ toward the South Pole. At his
base of operations. 200 miles from
the pole, he is each day combat-
' ing the forces of Nature which
have so often proved victor over
the puny attempts of the mere hu-man
being. Four specially con-structed
tractors are forcing their
way slowly toward the pole, over
the ice cap which lays between
them and their goal. The dangers
I in such a trip are shown by the
fact that this is the first time
what mechanized transport has been
used with any degree of success in
the polar regions. The giant cre-
1 vaces which, unseen, beset the ways
have been the graveyard of many
I similar attempts to reach the
' South Pole. In this land of ice
' and snow the temperature at most
times remains as low as 50 de-grees
below zero. This only is a
small portion of the hardships
which these men must face in ord-er
to be of benefit to the world of
science. In the two years which
the expedition expects to be in the
Antarctic, they will accumalate a
vast amount of data which will be
of untold value to the world.
Rear-Admiral Byrd. leader of
the expedition and famous son of
| the Virginia Military Institute,
Brother Rat of the Class of 1908,
has been directly responsible for
' most of America's greatest discover-j
ies in the areas surrounding both
the North and South Poles. He is
[ the only man who have ever been
I to both poles. No party prior to
/.his has attempted such an extend-ed
stay in Antarctic regions.
Through radio facilities the Byrd
Expedition is kept in touch with
the outside world. Saturday night
at the regular time for connect-ing
the correspondent at Little
America, Major-General Lejeune
sent the following message to Ad-miral
Byrd: "The Cadets of Vir-ginia
Military Institute assembled
in Jackson Hall, classmates of 1908,
and alumni send you their greet-ings
and hope for greatest success
to your expedition in the Antractic"
Signed,
Major-General .John A. Lejeune.
As the base of operations is so
near the South Pole, unusually
severe magnetic storms makes re-ception
impossible at times. The
first attempt at a hookup was
made through Buenos Aires, but
after this was drowned out another
attempt was made overland thru
South America by a 9,000 mile
trans-continental circuit. Later the
air cleared enough to enable the
Byrd correspondent to give latest
news of the Party's progress. Ad-miral
Byrd was at the time making
observations from an advance post
100 miles from the pole and was
therefore unable to acknowledge
the mesage to him. He is expected
to be back at the base within the
next day or so. All the world joins
in acclaiming him as the greatest
explorer of the modern age and V.
M. I. can be justly proud of hav-ing
within the ranks of its alumni
such a man as Admiral Richard E.
Byrd.