Making of a Nazi

Most U. S. citizens regard totalitarians as a foreign breed, find it hard to believe that they can grow in U. S. soil. Yet not every totalitarian is trained in a totalitarian school. Last week one appeared at Harvard. TIME herewith reports the brief case history of a native U. S. Nazi.

Dale H. Maple, 20, is a clean-cut U. S. boy, with hazel eyes, white, even teeth, a firm, straight jaw. Born in San Diego, Calif, to middle-class U. S. parents, he went to San Diego High School, shone in his studies, showed talent in music. A devout Catholic, he attended church every Sunday. In school he studied German, became interested in German culture. He graduated from high school at 16.

At home, affairs went less well. His father and mother eventually separated. His father wanted Dale to be a chemical engineer, his mother, a diplomat. Three years ago Dale entered Harvard. To please his mother, he concentrated on history the first year; second year, to please his father, he majored in chemistry. Third year, he pleased himself, concentrated on comparative philology--because he had always wanted to be a linguist.

Shy and unhappy, Dale made few friends, immersed himself in the study of difficult languages--Assyrian, Catalan, Hungarian. For relaxation, he joined the Verein Turmwaechter (Harvard's German Club), became its treasurer. With fellow club members, he spoke German, drank beer, sang German songs, heard German speakers, discussed German culture. For all their Germanic carousing, his companions remained good democrats. But they soon began to discern in Dale Maple a growing admiration for Adolf Hitler, and for Nazi "efficiency." Dale took perverse pleasure in shocking his associates by singing the Horst Wessel song and Deutschland Uber Alles. When pink-cheeked Faculty Adviser James Hawkes became perturbed and tried to squelch his Nazi talk, Dale conceived a cordial dislike for Instructor Hawkes, became still more defiant. To the dismay of his roommate, Dale installed a bust of Hitler on his desk.

Last week Dale Maple shocked arch-patriotic Harvard by resigning from the Verein Turmwaechter and publicly applauding Hitler and all his works. To the Harvard Crimson's editors, who could scarcely believe their ears, he defiantly exclaimed: "Even a bad dictatorship is better than a good democracy." To educators, Dale Maple's case proved little about Harvard, much about the psychology of frustration.

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