Stewart graduated from Marshall High School on June 15, 1944 (see note under caption below), and I'm going to append his Commencement Program here:
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| This is an impressive program. One of the student speakers, John Wagner, was Stewart's best friend. He spoke on the topic, "Music as an Expression of the Emotions." I started seventh grade at Marshall the fall of 1944, so I just missed overlapping with my brother. I had only seventh and eighth grade there, and that was interrupted when my mother and I moved to Kentucky to be with dad while he was stationed at Camp Breckenridge, KY. My schooling during the 1945-46 school year was sort of a mess - Marshall, Henderson, KY, Morganfield, KY, then back to Marshall! Then we moved to Anamosa, IA where I entered high school. Note: Stewart seems to have been confused about the date of his graduation. I quoted him earlier that it was "June 13th" but it was "June 15th." |
July
1, 1944
Dear
Dad,
After
saying goodbye to you[i] I waited at
the gate until Hiawatha left. I then
had quite a wait, because my train was about ten minutes late in leaving,
leaving at 8:45 instead of 8:35. The train arrived in Loretto about 10:05. It
stopped at several places for some time, otherwise it would not have taken so
long, as it is only 23 miles from Minneapolis by rail. It then took me about twenty
minutes to walk to Ihduhapi, about two miles.[ii]
The
good weather we had enjoyed the first few days continued the last few, although
it rained just as hard at Ihduhapi
as it did in Mnneapolis on Thursday night. We had a nice banquet on
Friday night. Afterward, Ross Snyder, Julias Keiser, Kendrick Strong, Royal
Gilman and Dr. Samuel Strong from Macalester College[iii]
participated in a skit entitled Races of Mankind, in which they showed the petty differences
between men living in different nations of this planet which are made into
important differences by men like Hitler, and also by many in this country.
The war
to some is progressing at an unheard of speed. But three top military leaders
just said that there is a long road ahead in he fight for complete victory. We
didn't have a strong base in France to start with in this war, and consequently
it is taking longer, more casualties are being suffered on the fronts, the war
is being fought on more fronts. and the civilian population is being allowed to
have the fact of total war settle upon their consciousness. I will not say that
they are being affected more adversely by war conditions, for comparison of this
war with the last is unfair, considering
the greater amount of luxuries we had immediately prior to this war, and
luxuries are bound to go when war comes, so we have lost a greater number of
things, but even so, it has not touched as deeply. Price control has helped to
some extent, and rationing has helped to distribute scarce goods more fairly
than otherwise would have been done.[iv]
Because
I do not think that the war with both Germany and Japan will be over before
late in 1945, I want to get into a training program now. But however, on the the other hand, I
would rather enlist in a branch where I would be released within six months after
the war's end. Even training for the Chaplain's Corps would be distasteful to
me simply because it would entail such a long time in the Navy. However, on the other hand, going to
C.T.S. as a civilian before the war's end does not appeal to me either because
that would mean deferment, and I believe that a short term in the armed forces
would be a rare experience, one to be enjoyed, and one that cannot be had by every person in the course of
his life.[v]
Your loving son, Stewart
[i] This must refer to the short
visit dad had at home on his way from Fort Lewis to Washington, D.C., and then
on to England, and ultimately France. Stewart and dad must have left for the
train station together, dad's train left first (named the Hiawatha) and then Stewart caught one to
go to Camp Ihduhapi.
[ii] Camp Ihduhapi was a YMCA Camp located in suburban
Minneapolis. It was founded about 1930 and is still in operation today. It
isn't clear whether Stewart was
just starting camp, or was returning, but since this letter was written on a
Saturday, and a few days have gone by since Stewart left dad, I'm guessing that
he had been at camp, came home for the one day dad was able to be there, and
then returned to camp late that night. That way he would know exactly where to
go to his cabin, etc.
[iii] I immediately recognized one
name out of this list: Ross Snyder, who was one of my professors at CTS, some
10-11 years later. I have also indentified Dr. Samuel M. Strong, who was a
prominent sociologist at Macalester, and just before this camp was held, had
published, "Observation
on the Possibility of Attitude Modification: A Case of Nationality and Racial
Group Interrelationships in Wartime," Social
Forces, XXII/3 (March 1944). This article is a detailed description of a
3-day Festival of Nations held in St.
Paul in 1943, which brought together people from almost 40 countries, including
Germany and Italy, with whom the U.S. was at war. Every nation had a booth
devoted to its culture, women from every nation prepared and served "favorite
dishes" of that nation, there were performances of singing and dancing,
thousands of people attended, etc. It was Strong's conviction that this Festival had a
decisive impact on people's attitudes toward others they might otherwise have
looked at with prejudice. I looked
around at other things Strong wrote, and I'll have to say, he was a very
progressive thinker for his time. Indeed, the theme of this skit is pretty progressive.
[iv] This is a pretty darned
astute assessment of the war and its impact for a just-turned-seventeen-year-old!
[v] This paragraph reveals that
Stewart was at least entertaining the idea of going to CTS and becoming a Navy
chaplain! News to me! I wonder if dad had encouraged that idea, and if they
might have even discussed it during their brief time together? It also reveals
that he was eager for military service, but in that respect he was probably
typical of the men of his age at that time. But this letter also suggests that Stewart was remarkably mature
for his age.
