VMI Cadet. April 28, 1941

              Plans For Indoor
Drill and Riding
Hall Completed t t l l M a k ck Team Wins
vTr Richmond
Page 5
VOLUME XXXIV—Z-778 LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, APRIL 28, 1941 NUMBER
Let's Wake Up!
AN EDITORIAL
A very stupid and most unnecessary custom at VMI, which
has grown by leaps and bounds for t h e past several years, has
today surpassed mere custom and developed iifto a manda-t
o r y procedure from which no cadet can hope to escape. The
practice of buying corsages for e v e r y date at every dance is,
w h e n considered impartially, a destructive influence and a
blemish on our good judgment.
VMI prides itself on its superior entertainment of young
l a d i e s during dances. Furthermore, cadets almost always
l e a v e no stone unturned in order to make certain that these
y o u n g ladies are cared for in a manner that any gentleman
c o u l d not help taut praise. There is, nevertheless, a limit to
e v e r y t h i n g and we believe that cadets, through commercial
influences, have been forced to go beyond the bounds of
courtesy and propriety.
Under the present set-up, any cadet having a girl to a
dance must expend a ridiculous sum for the purchase of
flowers, w h i c h seems to be looked upon as one of the barest
"necessities." If a cadet f e e l s that his budget cannot stand this
purchase, there are t w o courses l e f t to him. Either he escorts
t h e girl to the dances without benefit of flowers, thus making
her f e e l v e r y conspicuous or he g i v e s the whole thing up and
dosen't have a date. Sad as it may seem, the last procdure is
t h e more frequent consequence. If however, the cadet decides
t o i n v i t e the girl, he usually runs into debt and has a pretty
t o u g h time getting out.
As a result of such occurrences, The Cadet desires to go
o n record recommending to a broad-minded Corps of Cadets
t h e immediate and absolute abolition of corsages for all girls
at all dances.
We realize that w e are sticking our necks out, but w e feel
p r e t t y ashamed that somebody hasn't beaten us to it. There
are going to be some cadets, and among t h em the Finance
Committee element, who disagree. We shall try to show,
however, that such a step, if taken properly, would not hurt
t h e Finance Committees, but would help t h em tremendously
i n the end.
In the first place, flowers are no necessity. Many of the
nation's large colleges and universities have awakened to
t h i s fact and have promptly abolished them. These schools
h a v e realized the heavy financial burden that such a s y s t em
places upon students along .with" t h e fact that corsages are by
no means essential to the success of a set of dances. At VMI,
most corsages after half an evening's wear s h ow very definite
signs of w i l t i n g and by the time the dance is over, they are
u s u a l l y "shot." Besides, when every girl at a VMI hop (the
number ranges f r om 200 to 600) blossoms out w i t h flowers on
her dress, what difference does it make? She has something
that t h e rest have. So what? Exactly what difference does it
make to her? We can see none. What pleases the average
girl is the possession of something that the other girls do not
have. When all the girls have corsages, who notices them?
We say again: What difference do flowers make?
In the second place, flowers for dances here constitute
about one-third of the dance budget. If this third were
suddenly taken away, think how much better off the average
cadet would be financially. At Saturday's dance, there were
500 or more girls present and nearly every single one sported
a corsage. This means something like $1200—$1700 was ex-tracted
from VMI for a f e w tokens that meant little, that ac-complished
nothing, and that were so common that t h e y were
noticed by nobody except possibly the girls that wore them.
Approximately the same amount of money was spent for
the Friday hop. All this indicates that about $2500 may have
been spent for corsages this past week-end. If this money were
thrown into one pot, Kay Kyser or Glenn Miller could have
been playing in the smoking room while Tommy Dorsey
went to town on the dance floor.
In the third place, w e don't believe that the Finance Com-i
t t e e gets such a great benefit out of the sale of flowers even
w i t h liberal commissions given it by the flower merchants.
The Finance Committee is merely a step in the direction of
formng a Hop Committee. Consequently, the profit that such
a group seek6 to earn is to be used, in the end, s o l e l y for the
promotion of hops here atVMI. Then, why not promote these
hops in a manner that will be more beneficial to cadets? If
flowers at dances were to be abolished today, the Finance
Committee's profits would be cut to a great extent. We admit
that, for flowers are its chief source of revenue. But, when
the finance committeemen become hop committeemen, it
would be a different story. Since cadets would automatically
have their dance budget cut by one-third of the former total,
more cadets would be able to have girls up. With more girls
up to dances, more cadets, even if they were stags, would be
attracted to the dances. With such a large influx of business,
the Hop Committee could promote the best bands and the
best season that VMI ever had. Since the Hop Committee is a
non-profit organization, it should end up with no profits and
no deficits at the end of the year. What difference does it make
where or h ow it gets its money anyway, whether as a Finance
Committe or as a Hop Committee? The only difference is that
cadets would be benefitted by the latter. And, since every or-ganization
at VMI is for the ultimate benefit of cadets, why
shouldn't the latter course be followed?
Before the exponents of the cause of the great loss to the
Finance Committees start hopping down the editor's neck,
we humbly request that they answer this question.
This editorial is not an attack on the company that holds
the contract for flowers with the Finance Committee. This
company is one of the finest we have ever seen and furnshes
cadets with the best flowers at the lowest prices that w e have
experienced. The company has been over-generous in the
decoration flowers for the gymnasium and it grieves us indeed,
that it would suffer under such a plan after having shown the
school such kindness and consideration. Nevertheless, it is the
principle, not the firm, to which we object.
But, the practice of giving corsages at dances is little more
(Continued on Page 2)
Washington Rector
Selected to Deliver
Graduates' Sermon
'41 Finals
Schedule
Released
The Reverend C. Leslie Glenn,
D. D., rector of St. John's Church,
Washington, D. C., has been named
by the Superintendent, Maj. Gen.
Charles E. Kilbourne, to deliver
the baccalaureate sermon to the
members of the graduating class on
Sunday morning, June 8, 1941, at
the annual services in the Jackson
Memorial Hall.
Dr. Glenn is one of Washington's
most noted clergyman and is known
throughout the state of Virginia for
his excellent discussions. The selec-tion
of Dr. Glenn calls to mind that
another Washington man spoke at
the Baccalaureate exercises last
Finals, the Reverend Peter Mar-shall.
Dr. Marshall was received en-thusiastically
by all who heard him
and Dr. Glenn is expected to be
equally popular.
Col. George A. Derbyshire, mili-tary
executive officer of the Insti-tute,
released today the schedule for
the 1941 Finals, which will last
from June 7 through June 11. The
schedule is as follows:
Saturday, June 7
9:00 a. m.—Close order drill, the
corps.
10 a. m.—Cavalry exhibition.
11:00 a. m.—Field artillery exhi-bition.
2:00 p. m.—Guard Mounting.
5:30 p. m.—Regimental Review for
the Board of Visitors including the
presentation of prizes:
1. Garnett Andrews Cup.
2. Company Rifle Cup.
3. Company Intramural Cup.
4. Individual Rifle Cup.
5. ROTC Medals.
6. Other Military Trophies.
Parade.
9:00 p. m.—Monogram Hop.
Sunday, June 8
9:15 a. m.—Sunday morning in-spection
of quarters.
10:00 a. m.—Escort of the Color.
11:00 a. m.—Baccalaureate Sermon
—Jackson Memorial Hall, by the
Rev. C. Leslie Glenn, St. John's
church, Washington, D. C.
12:00 Noon—Unveiling of tablets
and memorials, Memorial Garden.
2:00 p. m.—Guard Mounting.
2:30 p. m.—Polo Game.
8:30 p. m.—Alumni Reception in
Preston Library.
10:00 p. m.—Glee Club Concert,
Memorial Garden.
Monday, June 9
9:00 a. m.—Academic Exhibit.
9:30 a. m.—Garrison Review.
11:30 a. m.—Rifle Exercises, the
Corps.
12:00 Noon—Presentation of Car-son
Collection—Preston Library..
2:00 p. m.—Guard Mounting.
2:15 p. m.—Annual Meeting, Gen-eral
Alumni Association, Jackson
Memorial Hall.
2:30 p. m—Horse Show, VMI Ath-letic
Field.
5:00 p. m.—Alumni Review.
10:00 p. m.—Final German.
Tuesday, June 10
10:00 a. m.—Garrison Review.
10:40 a. m.—Cavalry Exhibition.
11:20 a. m.—Field Artillery Exhi-bition.
2:00 p. m.—Guard Mounting.
3:00 p. m.—Gymnastic Exhibition.
5:00 p. m.—Graduation Parade.
9:00 p. m.—Superintendent's Re-ception.
11:00 p. m.—Final Ball.
Wednesday, June 11
11:00 a. m.—Graduation Exercises,
Jackson Memorial Hall.
1. Invocation.
2. Announcement of Distinctions.
3. Valedictory Address by Cadet
L. D. Hill, III, of Texas.
4. Announcement of Honors:
(a) Award of Jackson-Hope Med-s.
(b) Award of Cincinnati Medal.
(c) Award of French Medal in
Mathematics.
(d) Award of Deering Medal in
English Literature.
(e) Award of Bothwell Graham
Medal.
(f) Award of Garnett Andrews
Prize.
(g) Award of ' Alfred H. Knowles
1933 Award."
(h) Award of Lemuel McKim-mie
Long Jarman Award.
5. Address to graduating class
jor General Walter S. Grant,
nding Third Corps Area.
(Continued on page 0)
Valedictorian
L. D. HILL, III
Citadel Cadets
Pay Week-end
Visit to VMI
In return for a week-end visit at
the Citadel by three members of
the first class, three cadets from the
Citadel were entertained by the In-stitute
during the past week-end.
The group consisted of Bob Nelson,
a first classman who holds the rank
of Lieut. Intelligence officer; Al
Chapman, a second classman who
holds the rank of First Sergeant, and
Herb Beckington, a member of the
third class and a corporal.
The purpose of the visit was to
obtain information concerning our
Centennial Celebration in view of
the approaching celebration of that
same event at the Citadel next
year. During their stay at the In-stitute
the three representatives of
the Citadel compared the VMI sys-tem
with that at the Citadel with
a view to improving their own sys-tem.
As guests of the Institute the three
Citadel - cadets were shown a com-plete
week-end which included at-tending
Easter Hops.
Hugh Gantt entertained Bob Nel-son.
Nelson's visit included every-thing
from sleeping in barracks
hays to attending W Hops. The
King twins entertained Al Chapman.
Gordon Smith was host to Herb
Beckington, who lived on the third
stoop during his stay.
ASCE Holds
State Meeting
At Lexington
VPI Invites Delegates
For Next Convention
The annual joint meeting of the
Virginia Student Chapters of the
American Society of Civil Engin-eers
was held at the Institute on
Saturday, April 28th. Besides sen-iors
and juniors of the host chap-ter,
which has a membership of
one hundred and sixty, thirty mem-bers
of the Virginia Poltechnic In-stitute
student chapter and fifteen
delegates from the University of
Virginia attended the convention.
The principal speaker was E. M.
Hastings, chief engineer of the Rich-mond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac
railroad. Mr. Hastings is an honor-ary
alumnus of VMI and the offi-cial
contact member of the VMI
student chapter for the American
Society of Civil Engineers. Mr.
Hastings discussed the duties and
opportunities of young engineers,
especially in connection with na-tional
defense. The theme of Mr.
Hastings' speech dealt with the out-look
of the world today and the
necessity of serious thought and deed
among the youth of America today.
Each of the student chapters was
represented by two speakers. W. H.
Lewis of Virginia Polytechnic In-stitute
discussed "Kellogg Health
Games," in which he told how de-ficiencies
in our public health sys-tem
were found in the war games
carried on by the experiments with
humans against bacteria. W. E.
Kline of VPI spoke on "City Man-agement"
and gave an outline of a
day's work of a city manager and
the different jobs required of him.
E. Boyd Livesay of the University
of Virginia spoke on the "Multiplex
Method of Mapping -from Aerial
Photographs" and David Schumak-er
discussed "Soil Stabilization by
Portland Cement." Both of these
speeches were of a technical nature
and the methods used were one of
the main points discussed. Defense
topics were selected by the Virginia
Military Institute student speakers.
Stanley Navas spoke on "Defense
of Our Caribbean Bases" and Alvin
Meyer spoke on "Emergency Clor-ination
of Bombed Water Supplies."
After the speeches were complet-ed,
W. E. Cline, of VPI, extended
an invitation to the group to meet
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
at the next meeting of the conven-tion.
The invitation was accepted
by the chapters and though no
specific date was set, the meeting
is almost sure to be held in the
spring.
Before attending the meeting in
the auditorium of the Preston Li-brary
from 11:00 a. m. to 1:00 p. m.
delegates witnessed a regimental
parade by VMI's Cadets.
Proposed Drill Hall
Will Be Constructed
Northeast of Stables
Flying Board
Here May 7-10
The traveling Army Air Corps
Cadet Board of Langely Field,
Va., today announced that Us
spring itinerary would include a
four-day stop at Lexington.
Capt. James S. Sutton, AC,
President, said that the Board
will be at the ROTC office at
VMI from May 7 through May 10.
At that time all Interested cadets
and Washington and Lee stud-ents
will be examined.
Second Class
Show Receives
Big Ovation
On Friday, April 25, playing to
a capacity crowd of officers of the
Institute, alumni, cadets and their
dates, the Second Class Show be-gan
the Hop week-end most succes-fully.
The crowd, estimated at be-tween
eight hundred and a thousand
began filing into JM Hall at 7:30
p. m. and at 8 o'clock the doors
were closed for the opening with
only standing room left in the bal-cony.
Beginning with a note of hilarity
and gaiety, the show continued in
this manner for almost the entire
time. Clark Goolsby and Billy Clark
provided a short black-face skit
and Billy Clark drew much ap-plause
from the audience with his
imitations of famous persons among
them being an excellent imitation
of President Roosevelt. Outstanding
Comedian of the show was Dave
Aston in the part of William B.
Bilgewater. Aston's dialogue and
actions brought such laughter from
the house that the show was inter-rupted
several times to wait for
comparative silence before it was
possible to continue.
For the serious side of the show
a short play entitled "The Valiant"
Was presented. Starred in this were
Miss Wini Jansen, Rollo Patton, and
Eddie Young. Miss Jansen, a senior
at Southern Seminary, has already
had previous roles on the stage and
her performance in "The Valiant"
was excellent.
From comments heard among the
various members of the audience in-terviewed
the plan of intermission
was most successful. No one was al-lowed
to leave his seat during in-
Continued On Page 6)
Institute
Gets Options
On Property
The site of the indoor drill hall,
to be constructed with the assist-ance
of WPA funds, has been de-cided
by securing options on the
property just northeast of the stable
area. The frontage on Main Street
(of Lexington) will be 303 feet. The
depth varies, but is nowhere less
than 185 feet. This will permit a
building 300 x 125 feet to be con-structed
as planned.
By cutting and filling, the ground
level of the hall can be brought
within a few feet of that of the
stable giving easy access to the
hall for the field artillery units.
The new structure will not only
be a valuable addition to VMI'S
means for instruction, but it will re-sult
in improving the appearance
of the approaches to the Institute
from the northeast.
The Superintendent, General Kil-bourne,
has been working for some-time
in an effort to provide VMI
with a drill hall that can be used
by the mounted units, especially
during the bad weather which is so
frequent during the winter months
which has suspended mounted ac-tivity
to a large degree during that
time.
As announced in an issue of The
Cadet several weeks ago, the au-thorities
here hope to begin work
on the building before the present
session is concluded. If this is ac-complished,
much work can be
done during the summer months,
but it has not yet been learned as
to what date Institute officials hope
to have the hall ready for use by
the military department.
Dorsey Thrills Week-end Audience;
Concert Is Overwhelming Success
by yajo
Comman
Tommy Dorsey, that "Sentimental
Gentleman of Swing," who has re-cently
changed his title to "That
Sentimental Gentleman," proved to
an enthusiastic audience in Cocke
Hall last week-end that his former
title is far the more appropriate.
Dorsey and his nationally famous
orchestra played before a group that
was said by many to be even great-er
than that attracted to the Easter
Dances of 1940 by Glenn Miller and
his orchestra. His scheduled appear-ances
were at the formal hops on
Friday and Saturday evenings and
at the swing concert and dansant on
Saturday afternoon.
The older of the two Dorsey bro-thers
was scheduled to put in an
appearance at VMI early Friday af-ternoon
and to engage a picked
cadet team in a Softball game against
his own "Swinging Softballer." Dor-sey
and his boys were, however,
held up by the bad weather that
hit Virginia early Friday and the
group did not arrive at the Insti-tute
until very late Friday evening;
the arrival was so late that the
"Sentimental Gentleman" and the
band were hardly able to make a
quick change into their working
clothes before the dance began.
Dorsey did arrive, however, in
time to add a feature attraction to
the Second Class Show. Coming into
Cocke Hall about 9:30 p. m., he
found the nine members of his band
who were in his own party, but
discovered that the ofher thirteen
men and the girl vocalists were still
on the road between here and
Washington on the special bus that
he had chartered for them. Despair-ing
for lack of time. Tommy began
to worry about whether the others
TOMMY DORSEY
were going to arrive in time for the
dance to begin as scheduled.
Turning to a member of the Hop
Committee on duty in the gymna-sium,
Dorsey asked if there was
any way in which the Second Class
Show, then making its premiere
and derniere showing in the Jack-son
Memorial Hall, could be length-ened
in order to insure that the rest
of his gang would get to VMI in
time to start playing when the crowd
arrived in the gym. The cadet on
duty advised Mr. Dorsey to go into
JM Hall and to make a speech to
the audience there. Mr. Dorsey
balked a bit replying that he was
no speech maker.
Soon, however, some of the talent
from the attraction presented by
the Second Class Show, came into
the gym and persuaded Mr. Tommy
Dorsey to accompany them to the
I JM Hall and to appear on the stage
with the show. Dorsey then consent-ed
with his every-ready and com-pletely
winning smile. He went on
with the boys, was greeted with
tumultous applause in the hall and
proceeded to give the boys and girls
an unheralded treat on the trom-bone
accompanied by the VMI Com-manders.
This was probably the first
time that Ed Hensley, director of
the orchestra here, had ever had
such a famous musical personnage
attached to his band. The Dorsey
ruse worked, nevertheless, and he
held the audience spellbound with
a piece as only he could play it.
In the meantime, the bus arrived
with the other members of the band
and the instruments and everything
was ready to start.
On Saturday afternoon, at a very
informal gathering in Cocke Hall,
Dorsey and his gang turned on their
charm for an hour's concert before
approximately 1300 spectators, one
of the largest crowds ever to be
assembled in that building. After
playing many encores, Dorsey fin-ally
ended the concert and dancing
continued the program until a few
minutes after six o'clock.
The Saturday evening appear-ance,
featuring more of the sweet
music than did the Friday hop, was
equally successful and thoroughly
enjoyable. Dorsey concluded the
dance with the entire Spirit, a feat
that is accomplished by few, since
most bands play only the chorus.
Dorsey, however, played the entire
piece and was properly rewarded
with a loud burst of applause.
One of the most striking effects
noted during the week-end was the
(Continued on page 6)
Time Limit
On Cadetships
Is Extended
Board Says VPF OK
For Reimbursement
The Board of Visitors of the Vir-ginia
Military Institute held its an-nual
Easter meeting in the old li-brary
building on Saturday, April
26, at 2 p. m.
The meeting was devoted largely
to financial matters and to policies
affecting former and present state
cadets.
Among those policies was one ex-tending
the time authorized for ful-filling
the state obligation for those
in the military service of the United
States during the present emergen-cy.
The extension granted is to be
for the period of such service.
Another policy adopted was that
those VMI men in the Virginia Pro-tective
Force shall be given the
same credit as is allowed for an en-listment
in the National Guard.
Heflin To Address
Presbyterian Club
Tuesday Evening
Col. S. M. Heflin will speak to
the Presbyterian Club this week at
a special meeting Tuesday night
immediately following supper in
Alumni Hall. This meeting will take
the place of the regular Wednesday
meeting.
The topic of Colonel Heflin's ad-dress
will be "The Place of Reli-gion
in the Science of Today,"
which was requested by the cadets,
and it is expected that Colonel Hef-lin
will give a fundamental forma-tion
to many beliefs.
Colonel Heflin is a graduate of
V. M. I., and is head of the depart-ment
of physics. He is an elder in
the Lexington Presbyterian church
and Superintendent of the Presby-terian
Sunday school.
After the regular discussion and
devotional at the meeting last Wed-nesday,
plans for a social picnic
were discussed and a tentative date
was suggested. Dr. Murray discuss-ed
the subject with the young peo-ple
of the church Thursday, and
announced that May 17 seems to be
the most suitable date for all con-cerned.
This question will be set-tled
at the next regular meeting.