Above all things, then, it is essential for us as a people not to
abandon our faith in man, our belief that not only the exceptional
individual but the majority of mankind can be socialized. What is true
of our physicians, our scientists and professional men, our manual
workers, is also true of our capitalists and business men. In a more
just and intelligent organization of society these will be found willing
to administer and improve for the common weal the national resources
which formerly they exploited for the benefit of themselves and their
associates. The social response, granted the conditions, is innate in
humanity, and individual initiative can best be satisfied in social
realization.

Universal education is the cornerstone of democracy. And the recognition
of this fact may be called the great American contribution. But in
our society the fullest self-realization depends upon a well balanced
knowledge of scientific facts, upon a rounded culture. Thus education,
properly conceived, is a preparation for intelligent, ethical, and
contented citizenship. Upon the welfare of the individual depends the
welfare of all. Without education, free institutions and universal
suffrage are mockeries; semi-learned masses of the population are at the
mercy of scheming politicians, controversialists, and pseudo-scientific
religionists, and their votes are swayed by prejudice.

In a materialistic competitive order, success in life depends upon the
knack--innate or acquired, and not to be highly rated--of outwitting
one's neighbour under the rules of the game--the law; education is
merely a cultural leaven within the reach of the comparatively few
who can afford to attend a university. The business college is a more
logical institution. In an emulative civilization, however, the problem
is to discover and develop in childhood and youth the personal aptitude
or gift of as many citizens as possible, in order that they may find
self-realization by making their peculiar contribution towards the
advancement of society.

The prevailing system of education, which we have inherited from the
past, largely fails to accomplish this. In the first place, it has been
authoritative rather than scientific, which is to say that students have
been induced to accept the statements of teachers and text books, and
have not been trained to weigh for themselves their reasonableness and
worth; a principle essentially unscientific and undemocratic, sinc