Red Granite Boulder

Out In The Open
Indianapolis News Aug 14, 1950
By Tuddy Toms

"Lest we forget that out of our instincts are great, our wisdoms our will is still like the green choices like the flutter of foam citizens but yesterday, and were the wild nature we are come; that little, that the main current of moving waters, and our reasoned o nits surface: that we became bred in the wilderness."

On the low, grassy north shore of Lake Maxinkuckee rests enormous red granite boulder, a stone of prodigious size which had been torn from its moorings, hundreds of miles north, and transported to a new scene the ice sheet.

Three - hundred centuries passed, the waters of the lake subsided and finally the huge spheroid of granite lay exposed to the sunlight. Meantime a new race of men, white men, had come to this continent and brought with them a social device known as civilization.

Out of that came a system known education. On that same north shore this lake a new institution education was founded 56 years ago - - Culver Military Academy.

And late each succeeding spring a new class of cadets was graduated, trained to go forth in the world and meet its challenges the better and, if need be, lead men in the field of conflict and direct them in the interest of a common cause, yet always with the element of safety stressed.

MILITARY STRESSED WITH EDUCATION

It was the theory that if men must fight for their country and the liberty it sustains, it is better that they might know how to fight well.

Thus Culver was conceived as a military academy rather than solely an institution of education.

In the course of its evolution the time arrived for the class of 1911 to be graduated. In the roster of that class were many who had found inspiration in that ancient boulder, in the giant. forest trees that surrounded and shaded it, in the sapphire waters that rippled to the and in all the other primitive surroundings.

So as the day approached those boys to receive their diplomas, say farewell to alma mater and go their respective ways, some never to return. they conceived a tribute to institution that had trained in the self-reliance that had become theirs. That granite boulder became the foundation of their departing salute to Culver and on bronze plaque attached to immense stone were etched words that expressed was thought. said in Their the words tribute quoted Culver the beginning of this column.

In those words one finds suggestion or intimation of warfare, no hints that some must forfeit their lives because others refuse to deport themselves as well as they might, raucous words or phrases whose sounds suggest the din of conflict.

As you read and reread those words in that tribute you note gentleness of expression which reaches deeper into the philosophy of men living with others, the humility that surrounds those who cherish peace.

After I had read those lines myself, even a third time, I turned to a question to Arthur Hughes, director of public relations for Culver. I asked him rather bluntly how this could be a military academy and yet develop such sweetness of compassion among its cadets.

AN ARGUMENT FOR MILITARY TRAINING

He led me over to a tented village on the north edge of the campus.

There, in the open spaces, were hundreds of boys, ranging in age from 9½ to years, playing various games and building up their bodies under the rigors of their training.

They were the Woodcrafters learning all the mysteries of nature, exploring the forests, developing their own initiative, learning what to fear and what not to fear, equipping themselves, first, to meet the challenges of the world.

I saw them learning the fine art of canoeing, handling a boat in high seas, classifying specimens, doing everything. It was nothing short of amazing, when I entered the woodcraft museum, to observe these young fellows identifying birds, insects, butterflies, Indian artifacts, geological specimens - things that arouse the curiosity of everyone. It's something worth seeing!

Yet they call it a military academy; yet some people still think military training is all wrong.

Bosh!.