The Nome daily nugget., 1918-04-04

when l associated with our exchange professor from Germany l thought of his as getting as much benefit from us as We got from hin. Now l began :, to put little things together and saw that he regarded himself as a mis- sionary bringing light into American darkness.
 That attitude l could dismiss with a laugh, but how did he get it? Per naps because for years We teachers had been going to Germany to com ing our graduate students there. We were all good fellows, and frankly, we were successful. Those of us who were scientists, insisted that students should elect German in their college courses because German was the great storehouse of scientific information. At various educational meetings we read papers in praise of the German system of instructions. We gave pom derouS lectures to our freshmen in true German university style
 No doubt all this laudation was de served; but summing up its probab,s effect on a nation, began to see eonlt reason for the attitude of the German rulers, if not the people. They were suffering from a disease, which, in my boyhood days we called the "big head" It is superinduced by q rush of success to the head It's symptoms arc cock -sureness that you are right and all the rest of the world is wrong; that you can not be overlooked in the general scheme of world development; and that you have received q God giv- en commission to impose your plan and views on all the rest of mankind, When a boy got bad case of 'big head" the rest of the crowd gave him a good humping. That usually TO- duced the swelling.
 Perhaps a nation can endure too much adulation without getting un- duly inflated If we had seen for the last 10 years Made in the United States" on the bottom of the worlds vest manufactures, had connected it with the worlds best music, and had cad it attached to the best research literature fe might have grown un- duly chesty ourselves.
 But this case of hallucination is away around the globe; l and my family and my interests are on this side. Prussia is only a province; al Germany is not vast nation. One can't stand against all the others. Then l remember seeing two com. parativc maps showing what charges three ycars of war had wrought ia Central Europe, and how the menace had grown.
 When I looked at that exhibit a few moment I began to weaken on my proposition that this was q foreign war and that we were fighting solely for our European allies. I began to see that if this thing kept on, as seemed probable unless Uncle Sam took a hand, we were likely soon to be fighting a home war with our backs up against our own doors. prsssIan- ism began to loom up as a menace right hero instead of "out there" It looked now as If 1t were my war; for my family and my home; for my right to be free from a military system: and for my right 10 think and act as I please. It is a choice between American liberty and Prussian cru elty--I want liberty.
 But where are all my theories of the evils of war my duty to my fellow man. my objection to forced military service. my scrupies against taking human life? As strong as ever; be- lleved in them; as a fighting pac'ftst I still be lieve in them, Then why have I become denatured? Because my house is on fire. I want the fro put out and my house preservo1. And i am not fool enough 10 stop to enquire what kind of a fire engine the com pany brings to aid me; what is tho diame'sr of the hose or no2cel; whether it is right to use .he water on a burning house when it might be needed on some garden; whether or not there are evils attending q paid or volunteer organization of firemon: whether some of tho firemen may be hurt in performing their duty. No. I say, "Go ahead! Put out the fire! Save my property"
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