4 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
Beach, but success or defeat on the Western Front. Gases which 
the chemists had worked with cautiously in his laboratory, 
fully protected by fume chambers and ventilating systems, were 
liberated on the battle field in such volumes that they trans- 
formed whole companies of “first-class fighting men” into gasp- 
ing, writhing wretches. How sorely has the science of the allies 
been tried to meet such infernal devices of destruction. Of the 
consecration with which our American men of science have 
given themselves to the defense of our democracy we can speak 
only with the highest praise. May their every effort be 
crowned with success! 
But what of the days after the war? Shall we again seek to 
save the world with the prattle of a culture that has no body 
in it, that is disconnected from reality, or shall we give our- 
selves, as a people, to a Kultur that has three dimensions. Is 
an American Kultur possible that can satisfy the everyday 
needs of men and yet be strong enough to compel respect? In 
the hour when danger threatens, shall we have the means of 
defense organized, or shall we go back to our desire for individ- 
ual, uncontrolled selfishness? Shall the. relation of German 
science to our own be restored as an autocracy or as a real 
democracy of science, founded on reciprocal respect for achieve- 
ment? We may respect German science, but it is more im- 
portant that we respect our own, which is another way of 
saying that America must have a real science as the basis of its 
national life. America has too long been the humble imitator, 
feeding to German science the “pap” of a flattery that has 
raised it to its present status of the foe of mankind. It is not 
too much to ask that we have a science that will not merely 
engage in private research, but also in the organization of 
business, that will take not simply a subservient attitude 
toward constituted authority, but the rele of the ruler himself. 
The progress of the war is showing us more and more 
clearly that America has been all along the target at which the 
Teuton plans have been aiming. These plans included an 
acquiescent United States, so that there might be a subservient 
South America. A United States which flattered itself that 
the seas kept off the danger of an invasion, while it hid securely 
behind the British fleet. A United States that deluded itself 
