LEADERSHIP 593 



The Difficulty of Developing Rural Leadership. I am now 

 ready to offer a suggestion in answer to the question: // 

 country life furnishes so much leadership for the city, why is 

 leadership a problem in the country f I am confident that there 

 is no dearth of latent leadership in the country. In general, 

 I do not believe it has been depleted by the exodus to the city, 

 though in some places this has been serious. In general, it is 

 mainly the question of developing the qualities of the leader- 

 ship which are latent in the finest types of young men and 

 women living in the country. 



You will readily grant me that there is much latent leader- 

 ship in country boys. Some of these boys go to the city, and 

 there under urban stimulus and opportunity this latent initia- 

 tive develops strongly, and they become vigorously influential 

 personalities. Others of them, equally well endowed, remain 

 in the country, and though they may become successful along 

 individualistic lines and -accumulate property, their latent leader- 

 ship fails to develop. It fails to develop because of certain ele- 

 ments in the rural environment: the lack of sufficient stimulus 

 and challenge, the -lack of urgent opportunity for self-expres- 

 sion, possibly because of real social repression, an inhibition of 

 social effort due to the positive disapproval of inhospitable 

 minds. This is why, in so many rural villages, there is a per- 

 sistent and deep-seated conviction that it is impossible to develop 

 effective leadership for cooperation in community welfare until 

 there have been a few judiciously selected, providential funerals. 

 Hence an utterly stagnant community, socially speaking. 



Again let me voice a gentle plea for consideration and charity. 

 Mentally I rate the average rural citizen high, but he is likely 

 to be socially awkward mainly for lack of social stimulus and 

 practice. The term ''social awkwardness" may seem a rather 

 strange one until we consider it in its relations. The country 

 boy is likely to be awkward physically because of the overde- 

 velopment of the large muscles and the underdevelopment of the 

 accessory muscles. Hence his very gait sometimes suggests that 

 he is still walking the furrows. He may be awkward also men- 

 tally. Though possessing strong mentality and accustomed to 

 do clear thinking, he has lacked variety of stimuli, and still lacks 

 sufficient opportunity for self-expression. He probably thinks 



