Our plight would be sorry indeed had it not been for the presence of the little red school house among us. No country has ever gotten along without it and escaped the penalty which Fate is certain to impose. The situation in Russia now is undoubtedly largely the result of the age-long lack of an adequate educational system. Civilization simply cannot be moulded without the patient and painstaking work of the pedagogue. Bismarck once said that whatever one would put into the state he must first put into the schools. This was a great utterance, and its truth has been repeatedly demonstrated in the years since. His own country used the principle wrongly, but her use of it demonstrated its correctness. When William II came to the German throne, he did not long retain Bismarck as his chancellor, but he did follow many of Bismarck’s policies to the end of his career. This was one of them. Imperial Germany was largely built upon this principle. The educational system from the beginner’s classes to the universities was standardized and utilized to inculcate the Pan-German theory of the state and its development. Philosophy was prostituted to this end. Literature and art were bought by the state for its own purposes. History was written with the ambitions of the state in view. According to the German theory, this was perfectly proper, for, as General von Bernhardi once said, “There is no power above the state.” The result is familiar. A loyal nation and a mighty military power were built up by first putting into the schools what the leaders wished to inject into the life of the state. Under German guidance, Turkey did much the same thing. When Abd-ul-Hamid II was dethroned in 1909, and the Young Turk party came into power, an imperialistic program was undertaken in behalf of the Ottoman state. One of the first things done was to standardize the educational system and set it to work to weave the Ottoman spirit and faith into the lives of the young. The leading military spirit of Turkey for centuries was the organization of soldiers called the Janizaries. This organization was started in the fourteenth century by Orkhan, son of Osman. The first members of it were the children exacted as tribute from conquered Christian peoples. It was kept up afterward by levying a tax on Christian towns to be paid in children. These children of Christian parents were trained to be Turks, Mohammedans, and soldiers, and they became all three things with a vengeance. They were the most loyal Turks, the most fanatical Mohammedans, and the most cruel soldiers. Such is the force of education. One may take a vine and train it in any direction. One may take a young life and make of it what he will.