480 
and its limitations are frequently forgotten. 
The masses can never build; but they can al- 
ways and easily destroy, as the wrecking of 
Russia, following historical precedents, plainly 
shows. They can, however, for good or for 
evil, choose their rulers and displace them 
when they please. The theory that the in- 
tensely complex and vastly important work of 
modern governments can be continuously in- 
spired by the will of the people is untenable. 
The hopes of the future depend upon the 
trained and disinterested leadership of a mi- 
nority, in the workshop as in the cabinet, and 
upon the intelligent acquiescence of the ma- 
jority. 
During the war, the duties normally under- 
taken by government have been immensely ex- 
tended and not always satisfactorily dis- 
charged. It has become more than ever clear 
that private enterprise and initiative, by which 
the trade and commerce of the empire were 
built up, are far more efficient than the agency 
of government. But there is work to be done 
which must be entrusted to government and 
to elected local authorities; and private enter- 
prise will need assistance in certain directions, 
and some measure of wise control in others. 
When peace comes, more will be demanded 
from our governments than they have been 
accustomed to undertake in the past, and 
trained intelligence in our departments of 
state and wherever leadership and direction 
are required will be the essential condition of 
successful reconstruction. Of the future of 
democracy, nothing is certain except that it 
must inexorably depend upon the character of 
the acquired knowledge of the leaders whom 
the enfranchised masses elect to follow. And 
as the choice of leaders will be decided 
largely by the moral and intellectual equip- 
ment of the masses, the importance of sound 
and widely diffused education must be vastly 
enhanced in the years to come. Germany has 
shown to the world the appalling results of an 
education directed to Prussianize a great peo- 
ple and to concentrate their minds upon mate- 
rialistic ideals to be enforced by arms on other 
nations. Our education must seek to inspire 
ideals of another kind—the true patriotism 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIII. No. 1246 
which places the national welfare in the fore- 
front of its efforts, which desires nothing at 
the expense of other peoples, which regards 
peace as the greatest of blessings and the sure 
safeguard of the progress of mankind, and 
relegates force to the righting of wrongs in 
the last resort. 
Since the last annual meeting of the guild, 
all questions of education have been under 
discussion, and we now know better where our 
weakness lies and the entent and nature of 
our needs. Jn the number of our institutions 
providing higher education America alone 
stands ahead of us. Sir Robert Hadfield has 
pointed out that Great Britain and Ireland 
have one university per two and one half 
millions of population as compared with one 
million in America. In the dominions, on the 
other hand, where the population is relatively 
sparse and the distances great, the proportion 
is one university to two thirds of a million of 
people. This numerical comparison is, how- 
ever, misleading, except that it indicates edu- 
cational centers capable of extending their 
activities. The true criterion is the number 
of students who undergo a complete course of 
training. Of full time students only 4,400 
entered our universities in 1913-14, and of 
them several hundred were foreigners who 
would subsequently leave this country. Put- 
ting the output of university and technically 
trained men and women in another way, it 
appears that per 10,000 of population there 
were 16 full time students in Scotland, 13 in 
Germany, 10 in the United States, 6 in Ire- 
land, 5 in England and 5 in Wales. The fig- 
ure given for the United States includes only 
students at universities and technical schools 
of recognized standing. If all students taking 
four-year courses at such institutions were 
included the rate per 10,000 of population 
would be doubled. It is impossible not to be- 
lieve that these figures help to account for the 
high standard of intelligence in Scotland and 
America and for the success of the Scottish 
and American peoples in many spheres of 
activity, while the relative backwardness of 
England, Ireland and Wales must exercise an 
influence in public life. 
