104 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



most potent disturbing factors to the progress of communal evolution. 

 This disturbance is brought about through interference with the workings 

 of one of the great principles of communal evolution — that of leadership. 



Leadership. 



Already in the primitive tribal community we find this factor at work. 

 Tribes differ in their size and power^their men may number a mere half- 

 dozen or several hundreds — and the main factor in this is the personality 

 of the tribal chief. Among his own men the chief stands out by his 

 capacity, mental and physical : a quick and accurate observer, he is also 

 quick and accurate in drawing his deductions : he is wise, he is rich in 

 knowledge and in its bearings ; while alert and quick in decision, he is of 

 steady nerves, has a good sense of balance, and is reliable in emergency. 



And so it is onwards through historical evolution — ^the chief, the ablest 

 man of his tribe, finds his successors in a long sequence of natural leaders 

 of men. 



It is the more modern developments concerned with the transmission 

 of thought — printing, telegraphy, wireless telephony, cinematography, 

 and so on — that constitute the great disturbing factor, inasmuch as they 

 have given enormously increased importance to elements of individual 

 personality quite distinct from general strength and capacity, mental and 

 physical. Amongst such elements there stand out conspicuously 

 oratorical power and skill in the method of advocacy. - The leader no 

 longer forces himself to the front by the sheer power of his outstanding 

 constructive ability ; the place of this is to a great extent taken over by 

 the power of effective and persuasive writing and speaking. The most 

 responsible posts in the leadership of the modern State have been rendered 

 accessible to the skilled orator, even though his constructive ability in 

 statesmanship may not be of the highest. That this development involves 

 serious dangers is obvious ; it seems equally obvious that one of the 

 main tasks confronting the. community is the devising and setting up of 

 the educational safeguards which alone can be efficient against these 

 dangers. The task will, indeed, be no easy one : it will clearly, for its 

 satisfactory accomplishment, call for the best intellects the community 

 can provide. However great the ability of those to whom the task is 

 entrusted, it will prove one of high complexity and much difficulty ; but 

 certain inevitable conclusions seem to be visible, one of the chief of these 

 being the need of drastic cutting down of the number of subjects at present 

 inflicted upon the young citizen in training during his school period. How 

 exactly this is to be done will have to be carefully worked out; but it seems 

 clear that at present an immense amount of time is given, during the early 

 stages of the curriculum, to subjects which might profitably be replaced by 

 others of greater value in mind-training during these earlier stages. If 

 postponed to a later stage of mental development such subjects can be 

 mastered in a small fraction of the time required in the earlier stages — when, 

 by the way, their prolonged and wearisome study is but too apt to kill 

 effectively all interest on the part of the pupil in the particular subject. 



While I am in complete agreement with those who desire to see the 

 school curriculum greatly lightened as regards number of subjects and who 

 desire to see ' snippets of many subjects ' replaced by more thorough 



