LEADERSHIP 595 



Congress is over 120 times as large as it should be, whereas the 

 farmers' representation is but one-tenth of their proportionate 

 share; that is, the lawyer's chance for political leadership, on 

 the basis of our present Congress, is 1,200 times that of the 

 farmer. 



This condition, however, is not likely to continue. The farmer 

 is beginning to discover and to wield for himself political leader- 

 ship. It may or may not seem significant to you that prac- 

 tically every great rural state voted last month for the President 

 who gave rural America the long-postponed rural-credit system, 

 and that this President was elected over the protest of nearly 

 every great urban state in the land. It is also worth noting that 

 the ''Farmers' Non-partisan Political League" which cam- 

 paigned North Dakota last fall with the slogan, "A farmers' 

 government for a farming state," swept the state clean last 

 month, losing but one candidate on the state ticket and electing 

 eighty-one out of 113 members of the legislature. 



Before offering some specific suggestions in detail may I ven- 

 ture a few generalizations regarding the social function which 

 we call leadership? It is a term that is increasingly used in 

 these days. Its connotation seems simple, but it is seldom 

 clearly defined. Professor Cooley's brief definition of leader- 

 ship as "personal ascendency" is excellent as far as it goes. 

 John R. Mott's definition, "Expert service," is perhaps more 

 descriptive than definitive. To me leadership is personal initia- 

 tive, unusual efficiency, and executive ability by ivhich an out- 

 standing personality projects his ideals and purposes through 

 group and mass activity. It involves the development of un- 

 usual personal efficiency and social service of the highest poten- 

 tial. Leadership is a fascinating thing, not simply because it 

 is the exercise of power and appeals to selfish ambition, but far 

 more because it means superlative self-expression, the projec- 

 tion of one's best self into life, one's maximum service of his 

 generation. In the very nature of things leadership involves the 

 development of personality, growing under the pressure of re- 

 sponsibility, and its application in expert service of the com- 

 munity. 



I do not think leadership is often an endowment. Rather 

 it is an attainment, a conquest through struggle. We talk about 



