The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 13, 1950 Page: 1 of 4
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VOLUME THIRTY-SEVEN NUMBER FOURTEEN HtH HOUSTON, TEXAS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1950
Entered as second class mailing matter, October 17, 1916, at the Post Office, Houston, under the act of March 3, 1879.
1950 Review Preparations
Speeded Up As Show Date
Rapidly Approaches
Work on the Rice Institute Re-
view of Science and Arts, the de-
scendent of the old pre-war tra-
dition, the Rice Engineering Show,
is rapidly gaining momentum in the
new year. The outstanding event!
for Rice Institute in 1950 will be
the revival of Rice's bi-annual open
house. In 1940, the last year in
which the show was held, over
40,000 people from Houston and all
parts of the nation flooded over the
Rice campus to view the displays
•of Rice's scientific equipment and
work and to enjoy the technical
horseplay, such as the Alchemist's
den where medieval scientists per-
formed spectacular chemical mar-
vels.
This article introduces a weeicly
series in which the progress of the
development, of the Review will be
summarized for your information.
This week the plans of the chemis-
try department will be outlined. The
department manager for the chem-
istry department is J.S. Binford,
senior chemistry major. t
The chem department is to fol-
low custom in devoting the major
portion of its work to the portrayal
of the serious work of the depart-
(Continued on Page 2)
All-Conference
Squad Selected
This year, or rather last year,
the sports editors of the seven Con-
ference schools, under1* the leader-
ship and tabulating of Chuch" Ca-
baniss of the Texas A&M "Battal-
ion", picked an All-Conference
team. The balloting for nominations,
at least, was based on individual
game performances. Rice manageod
to get six spots on the first teams,
printed below. Sonny Wyatt made
the second offensive team, Carl j.
Schwarz and Gerald Weatherly got
honorable mention on offense, and
Schwarz, and S. J. Roberts made
honorable mention on defense. This
was the only All-Conference selec-
tion made after the season was
completed—on the basis of all the
games.
OFFENSIVE FIRST TEAM
E—James Williams, Rice; J. D.
Ison, Baylor.
T—Ralph Murphy, Rice; Ken Jack-
^ son, Texas.
G—Bud McFadin, Texas; Don Mou-
ser, Baylor.
C—Joe Watson, Rice.
B—Adrian Burk, Baylor; Kyle
Rote, SMP; Lindy Berry, TCU;
Doak Walker, SMU.
defensive first team
E—James Williams, Rice; Bill
Moorman, TCU.
T—Harold Kilman, TCU; Wesley
Roberts, Baylor.
G—Bud McFadin, Texas; Chuck
Stone, Baylor.
Line Backer—Joe Watson, Rice;
Gerald Weatherley, Rice.
B—Lindy Berry, TCU; Doak Wal-
ker, SMU; Bobby; Griffin, Bay-
lor.
Joe Watson and Adrian Burk each
hit 50 out of 51 possible points.
Froggie Williams polled 48 on of-
fense, 45 on defense. Kyle Rote
grabbed 48 selections.
First Mardi Gras
At Coliseum
Next Month
On February 17, 1950, Hous-
ton will have its first annual
Mardi Gras, to be held at the
Sam Houston Coliseum. There
will be a King—it is hoped that
Bob Hope will preside—and Queen,
surrounded by a Court selected from
Houston's loveliest co-eds at Rice
Institute, University of St. Thomas,
University of Houston and South
Texas College. The famous young
star from Hollywood, Ann Blyth,
will reign as Honorary Queen.
This will be a charity affair spon-
sored by the University of St.
Thomas to raise money for scholar-
ships for worthy and talented stu-
dents of all denominations, so that
many more may be fitted to pre-
serve the Christian ideals and the
American way of life.
There will be dancing to. the mu-
sic of Carman Cavallero and his
band; there will be a parade of
floats, sponsored by various civic
organizations; there will be a Car-
nival Midway. Many valuable priz-
es have been donated. Among them
are a 7-day all-expense trip for two
to New York City, with accomo-
dations at the Plaza Hotel; an all-
expense trip for two to Mexico
City; and a 4-year scholarship to
the University of St. Thomas, trans-
ferable to any friend or relative,
and with no time limit.
A.F. of L. Pickets New Stadium
Stadium Pickets
Want Recognition
Of Trades Union
By Bill Hobby
The Thresher sent a reporter to
interview the pickets picketing the
new stadium—with the following
results.
E.B. Wade, a 62-year-old carpen-
ter, had this to say: "We crafts-
men have built almost the whole
city of Houston. All we are trying
to do is to get Mr. Brown to rec-
ognize the Building Trades Coun-
cil." The major point of difference
between the Council (an AF of L
organization) and Brown & Rot
is, according to Mr. Wade, the rec-
ognition of carpenters, electricians,
etc., as craftsmen. In other words,
the union objects to carpenters do-
ing any other type of work except
carpentry, electricians doing other
than electrical work, etc.
Another picket, who refused to
give his name, complained that
Brown & Root was importing out-
of-state labor. "Check those li-
cense plates," he said, pointing to-
wards a row of cars parked near the
construction. "Most of them are
from out of state." "
Questioned about Brown & Root
pay scales, the picket said, "The
men working on that job are get-
ting higher wages because of the
unions. Why doesn't Brown & Root
pay the (union) scale? Why do they
pay starvation wages.?"
Asked if he knew what wages
Brown & Root pay, he replied "No."
Both men said they had never
worked for Brown & Root.
Both pickets carried signs read-
ing "This job unfair. Houston
Building Trades Council AFL."
Biology Fellow
Develops Possible
Test For Viruses
by Beverly Brooks
On December 30, 1949, Mrs. Luo-
lin S. Altenburgh, a fellow in Biol-
ogy at Rice Institute presented a
paper to the American Association
for the Advancement of Science,
describing a possible virus-detec-
tion test which she has developed.
Awarded a pre-doctorate research
fellowship by the Atomic Energy
Commission in 1948, Mrs. Alten-
burg is now in the second year of
her work. With the pi-esentation of
her theory last year, Mrs. Alten-
burg stole a lap on four other large
schools throughout the United
States, and who were looking for
the same answers that she was,
Viruses cause smallpox, influen-
za, poliomyelites and many other
human diseases, but because of their
small size they cannot be seen un-
der the ordinary microscope, and
so it is difficult for the doctor to
diagnose a suspected virus disease,
or for the research worker to de-
tect viruses for study in the labor-
atory. Mrs. „Altenburg began her
experiments in the hope of finding a
method of detecting suspected vir-
uses by means of radioactive phos-
phorus.
Using eggs, Mrs. Altenburg in-
jects radioactive phosphorus which
the viruses need to grow, 18 of the
eggs having a virus added, and 6
without. After a period of time the
radio-activity of the eggs, with the
added virus, is considerably higher
than that of the non-treated eggs,
because the virus itself causes ra-
(Continued on Page 3)t
Decline of West is Forum Topic
By Dewey Gonsoulin
Tuesday evening three Forum
speakers grappled with a problem
which has intrigued, baffled, and
discouraged men for many years:
"Is Western Civilization Declining?"
The speakers were Dr. William Dix,
Librarian and assistant professor
of English, Dr. Lyle, assistant pro-
fessor of German, and Mr. Jim
Smith, former president of the Tex-
as University student body and ob-
server for the National Student
Union in Prague when the Commun-
ist coup occured.
Dr. Dix began the discussion by
an address in which he assumed an
optimistic note, concluding that
western civilization, on the whole,
was meeting its challenges and was
expanding the realm of individual
freedom. He began his address by
defining the terms of the questions
and observing the difficulty of ob-
taining any one test by which we
could judge civilization's decline or
advance. "Western civilization" was
defined as "the complex of ideas,
attitudes, and customs which have
spread over most of Europe, the
Amer|cas, and other parts of the
world". Neither material wealth, lit-
eracy, nor church membership are
adequate crieria of the state of ad-
vancement or degradation of civil-
ization.
Dr. Dix outlined Toynbee's theory
of history whereby it is held that
St'
civilizations grow or decline by the
nature of their responses to chal-
lenge. Dr. Dix's thesis maintained
that Western civilization is meeting
the challenge of industrialism, as
is shown by the progress in factory
working conditions achieved in the
last 110 years.
Dr. Dix concluded his address by
propounding the idea that it is pos-
sible to measure the decline or ad-
vancement of civilization by the de-
gree of individual liberty existent.
Using the criterion of individual
liberty we can conclude that West-
ern civilization is enjoying remark-
able success and that so long as
this individual freedom is maintain-
ed and expanded, our civilization
will not decline.
Mr. Jim Smith seconded Dr. Dix
in his optimism. He began by ad-
miring the Library Lecture Lounge
and making the statement—"If this
building represents a declining civ-
ilization, I would certainly enjoy
living in a civilization which was
not declining." He maintained that
rather than a decline, western civ-
ilization was engaged in a tran-
sition and that we weren't far
enough along in this transition to
know very much about it.
Smith outlined several theories of
history and eventually expounded
an evolutionary theory which makes
change and adaptation constantly
necessary if decline is to be avoided.
He said, "If western civilization de-
clines it will be a consequence of
our intellectual laziness. We have
the resources necessary to find a
solution to the problem." He con-
cluded ' by pointing out that he
agreed with Dr. Dix's test to de-
termine the state of advancement
of civilization. He emphasized the
importance of the freedom for the
individual to grow.
Dr. Lyle was unable to adopt the
rosy view of the nature of things
which the other two speakers ex-
pounded. He pointed out that the
once trite analogy between western
civilization and the Roman empire
hadn't been used lately so he would
revive it.
Dr. Lyle traced Roman history
through the Augustan period, which
began by Caesar Augustus, a great
man, consolidating power in the
central government and assuming
legislative power. Augustus was
popular with the people because
he gave them corn and because he
put on spectacular circuses. Tiber-
ius folowed Augustus and wasn't
a great man or even a competent
administrator of the vast bureau-
cratic structure which Augustus had
created. The government became
corrupt, but the corruption was of
no consequence since everybody was
rich. The real cause of the decline
of the great Roman empire was the
(Continued on Page 2)
Union Protests
Use of Open Shop
By Brown & Root
By Emmett McGeever
Pickets are walking their slow,
protesting circles at two gates to
the construction site of the new sta-
dium. They've been there every
workday since January third. They
were put there by the Houston
Building and Construction Trades
Council, which is defying Brown &
Root, the building contractors when
have agreed to construct the sta-
dium at cost.
Tuesday, Richard J. Gray, pres-
ident of the Building and Construc-
tion Trades Department of the Am-
erican Federation of Labor, arrived
in Houston. The Houston Council is
affiliated with the AFL group, Mr.
Gray stated that the object of his
trip was to confer with Houston
Council members about non-union
conditions which exist here. "I refer
specifically to Brown & Root," he
said.
The dispute resulting in the pick-
eting of the Rice Institute is an
old one. The AFL has been trying
for years to organize Brown & Root,
one of the nation's largest "hold-
outs". The Rice Stadium dispute
started with a request from the
union that Brown & Root hire union
labor exclusively. Brown & Root
refused, and the union began pick-
eting. Then the Supreme Court up-
held enforcement of the so-called
"right-to-work" law, which forbids
discrimination in hiring against
either union or non-union labor. So
the union changed its grievance to
the complaint that Brown and Root
doesn't observe proper craft dis-
tinctions, that is, that carpenters do
electricians' jobs, etc. It is on this
basis that the dispute is being fought
at the present time.
In addition to this, Tuesday, Mr.
Gray said that the Brown & Root
wage scale was under union stan-
(Continued on Page 3)
0 ±
Firms Advertise
In Review Program
Ed Kaiser, Senior Civil Engineei-,
jhas been appointed Advertising
Manager of the Rice Institute Re-
view of Science and Arts. He is
charged with the responsibility of
selling sufficient advertising for
the program to finance the 1950 Re-
view which will be pi-esented on
April 14 and 15. Most of the ad-
vertising to date has been sold by
members of the engineering depart-
ments; but, any student wishing to
sell ads for ten percent commission
should contact either Kaiser or Wal-
ly Lovejoy.
Those Huston companies which
have purchased advertising in the
program for the Review are:
South End Building Materials
Company, Jeenan Furniture Co.,
Howe and Wise, R.B. Everett and
Co., Bellows Construction Co., Mar-
shall Construction Co., Tharsten-
berg and Tambrello, Shatlman Lum-
ber Co., J. Edwin Farrington Co.,
Schlumberger Well, Surveying
Crp., Lane-Wells, Houston Equip-
ment Co., H.L. Allen Oil Co.
A meeting of the officers and de-
partment managers of the Review
will be held in the Review office
Wednesday noon.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 13, 1950, newspaper, January 13, 1950; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230828/m1/1/: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.