The consequential ends in America, we have seen, have been less clearly defined than in Germany.  Within a year, the United States has become conscious as a nation of place and power, conscious that it is to play a part with the other states of the world.  In playing this part, will it retain its role of servant of the people, or will it assume with its new world dignity the role, if not of master, then of leadership?  If still servant, will it serve more efficiently than it has our dominant institution, industry?  If the silent partnership between business and the state is strengthened, will not the promoters of industry be in a better position than before to appeal through the state, through the patriotism intensified by our newly acquired world position, for a more universal and a systematized adaptation of workers in industry?  The schools in their disinterested capacity, disinterested, that is, in the profits of production, it would seem could be used most effectively toward this end.  German manufacture made that clear to American manufacture before the war.  It also must be remembered that it was Prussian pride for imperial position that inspired the complete and efficient surrender of the German schools to the needs of the German manufacturers.

America is, of course, “different.”  All peoples are.  But so is our position in the world different from what it was.  Our position is not now, nor could it be, the German position.  Our past is different, and that will continuously have its effect on our future.  But we are facing a great period of change, and the strongest forces in the country are the industrial, and the strongest leaders are the financiers.  What the financiers and industrial managers most want is efficient, docile labor.  The German system of education, in spite of the fact that we are different, might conceivably have that effect on the youth of this country.  Under the pressure of industrial rivalry after the war, under the pressure of an imperial industrial policy, it may be that the people of the country will yield to the introduction of a scheme of education which it has been proved elsewhere can fit children better than any other known scheme into a system of mass production.

It is clear that industry could set up models of behavior more successfully in the name of education than in its own, and to the extent American children come up to these models the more employable they would be from the standpoint of business.  If the pressure is sufficiently strong the people may yield to the introduction of a system of compulsory continuation schools similar to those of Germany.  If they do, I believe they will eventually fail.  But there is danger through loss of energy and loss of purpose in their introduction.  Is it impossible for us to hold to our native experimental habits of life and attain standards of workmanship?  Is it possible to realize the full strength of associated effort and at the same time advance wealth production?