RURAL LEADERSHIP 



gallons of water are stored. Before the construction of these 

 reservoirs there were millions of acres of land beyond the 

 Mississippi which, though producing more bountifully today 

 than any section of the Mississippi Valley, were practically 

 worthless. The water existed in as large quantities and the 

 soil contained as much fertility then as now, but the water 

 had not been mobilized, to use a war term, and could not be 

 used when, where and as needed, as it can at present. Today 

 there is an abundance of leadership in the country, but this 

 leadership, like the water of the Great West, must be mobilized 

 so that it can be used when, where and as needed. 



The greatest need, then, of Rural America is to utilize her 

 leadership. But before country leadership can be utilized it 

 must be trained somewhat. Untrained leadership is a good 

 deal like an unpruned, unsprayed fruit tree. In the Great 

 Northwest, orcharding has been reduced to a science, and one 

 sees in that country thousands of acres of fruit trees that are 

 beautiful in their symmetry and bear almost perfect fruit 

 because they have been properly pruned and sprayed. How 

 different many of the neglected orchards of the Mississippi 

 Valley, in which one finds ill-shapen trees and much gnarly 

 and worm-eaten fruit! Only a small percentage of the fruit 

 from the average Mississippi Valley orchard is perfect and 

 fit to use, because the orchards have not received proper 

 attention. 



Now the question is, who will train the country leadership 

 so that there may be a symmetrical development, with a fruit- 

 age large in yield and perfect in character? Unfortunately, 

 in the past, facilities for training leadership for Rural America 

 have been very meager. The educational system of the nation 

 has been ill adapted to the great task of preparing the youth 

 of the nation for all the nation's work. As a rule, boys and 

 girls have been educated away from rather than for the coun- 

 try, and the educational life of the nation has had a distinct- 

 ively urban flavor. But a change is taking place. The courses 

 of study of all the schools, from the lowest to the highest, 

 are being gradually modified, that they may become more 



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