14 
Land & Water 
May 1 6, 1918 
nse in the qualities of the public ? I confess I have my doubts. 
A community composed of superior persons would be a very 
difficult lot for any leader to handle. Suppose for example 
that the average citizen everywhere were suddenly to acquire 
the political intelligence and the high moral standards of Dr. 
Cram himself, and were to apply this intelligence and these 
high standards, as Dr. Crani does, to criticising the claims 
and pretensions of every great man who came forward to 
guide the destinies of the body politic. Is it not obvious 
that under these circumstances the position of the leader 
would become exceedingly difficult, if not impossible ? 
Little to be envied is the great man entrusted with the 
task of leading a public in which there are thousands 
of connoisseurs in leadership prowling about and seeking whom 
they may devour. I think he would soon come to grief. The 
sharpness of their criticism would undo him ; he would be 
torn to pieces. This reminds me of what I heard lately from 
a gentleman who has just returned from Russia. He said that 
when the revolution took place all the privates in the Russian 
Army suddenly became generals. After a little experience 
it occurred to this army of generals that it would be wise to 
appoint a generalissimo, and a deputation was sent to a pro- 
mising strategist to offer him the post. For answer the pro- 
mi^ng strategist drew his hand across his throat and shook 
, his head ; which gestures the deputation rightly understood 
as meaning that the post was declined. This incident seems 
to me a fair illustration of what is likely to happen when a 
public which has got rid of its mediocrity, as the Russian 
privates had done, sets about the task of finding a leader. 
The situation is deeply paradoxical. Is it not because of our 
mediocrity that we need somebody who is not mediocre to 
lead us ? What then will happen when we have all ceased 
to be mediocre ? 
The truth is that the game of leadership requires two 
to play it ; a leader to give orders and a public to obey them. 
The prgblem is not merely that of finding a man who is able 
to lead ; it is equally that of finding a public which is willing 
to follow. People like Dr. Cram who deplore the lack of 
great leadership in modem times usually fix their attention 
on the first half of the problem and ignore the second altogether. 
And yet, if I am not mistaken, the root of the problem lies, 
there. We live in an age which on the one hand clamours for 
leaders ^nd on the other grqws less and less willing to follow 
anybody. Perhaps we are under some illusion on this matter. 
Most of us feel — I certainly do so myself — that if only we 
could find a leader after our own heart we would gladly 
.follow him. After our own heart ! Precisely — but is that 
playing the game ? May it not be that what we all need — 
as distinct from what we want — is a leader not after our own 
heart ? Should we follow him ? 
Dr. Cram, comparing past times with present, looks back 
regretfully to the days of his youth, 1880, or thereabouts, 
and tells us that he has made out a list of i6o great leaders 
who were then alive and active. Now the question that 
rises in my mind is not about the leadership of the 160, 
but about the followership of Dr. Cram. Did he, when a 
young man, follow the whole lot ? In theology he mentions 
Newman and Martineau. Did he follow both of them ? 
In politics he mentions Gladstone and Disraeli. Did he 
follow both of them ? With r6o leaders all leading 
at once, would not the confusion be very great, and would 
it not be a pious prayer on the part of any man to ask the 
devil to fly away with them all and leave him to find his 
own way through this bewildering world ? Would it not 
be better, therefore, to speak of 1880 not as an era of great 
leadership, but as the beginning of the confusion, the in- 
decisiveness, the uncertainty as to who is right and 
who wrong, which makes it equally difiicult in these days 
for followers to find leaders or for leaders to find followers ? 
Perhaps if there had been fewer leaders in 1880 there would 
be more now. 
The difficulty of finding leaders is, therefore, far greater 
than Dr. Cram imagines, for it includes the difficulty of 
finding followers — the major part of the problem. The 
question arises, what is to be done ? Various alternatives 
present themselves of which the following three are perhaps 
the chief. 
(i) Would not the public be well advised to make up 
its mind to do without leaders altogether, contenting itself 
with servants only, and giving all Ministers of State to under- 
stand cleariy that that is what they are and that nothing 
else is expected of them ? Is not the public playing fast 
and loose with a vital problem when in one and the same 
breath it declares itself master and bemoans its lack of 
leaders ? Is not this double-minded ? 
(2) May we not have a kind of secret leadership .? What 
I have in mind is the existence of a body of powerful person- 
alities, whose identity is unknown to the public but who. 
by indirection and various byways, manage to make their 
ideas effective and so lead the people without letting them 
know who is leading them or even that they are being led at 
all. These men by playing their part judiciously might 
exercise enormous influence,' though, of course, they would 
receive no salaries, and enjoy no fame until they were dead. 
Much influence of this kind is being actually exercised at 
the present moment, though perhaps it js a little indiscreet 
to say so. For example (if I may be pardoned a personal 
confession) I have long been convinced that somebody is 
leading me. But I do not know who he is, and if ever I 
find out I intend to keep his name a secret. I wonder if 
the reader has had the same experience ? 
We make a mistake in thinking only of the great men 
who are in . evidence — or in fragments. We should think 
also of those who are in hiding and intact. There are manjr 
of them. Some are in hiding for reasons which are suggested 
b\' the incident already mentioned of the Russian general- 
issimo ; that is to say, they are averse to having their throats, 
cut by their followers ; or to being torn to pieces by their 
critics — whetlier by connoisseurs in leadership like Dr. Cram 
or by a powerful newspaper press. Should not these men 
be encouraged ? And would not a wise public abstain from 
all efforts to lift the veil of anonymi^ which now protects 
their leadership from destruction ? ~" 
(3) The last alternative is suggested by the position of 
the President of the United States. He is appointed leader 
for four years with the possibility of renewing the term. 
It is an admirable arrangement, for it gives the President 
a chance which Ministers of State in this country do not 
possess. Think of what Mr. Gladstone, or, if you prefer. 
Lord Salisbury, might have accomplished if at the time 
of Lord Morley's "tornado" they had been assured of four 
years of office. Then think of what President Wilson would 
have failed to accomplish had he not been assured of four 
years of office. Had his tenure of office been as insecure 
as that of a British Prime Minister he would have been turned 
out long ago. It would never have been foimd out that 
President Wilson is one of the greatest men of modem times. 
The men who framed the American Constitution had a 
profound political insight. They understood that leadership 
is a game which two must play if it is to be played at all ; 
and accordingly they made arrangements to follow their 
leader for four years. 
In conclusion, I may point out that the right relation 
between leader and follower is admirably portrayed in 
Tennyson's picture of Arthur and the Knights of the Round 
Table. The ideal follower is Lancelot, and it is just as 
important, at the present day, to emphasise the scarcity 
of Lancelots as to emphasise the scarcity of Arthurs. 
Lancelot puts the whole secret of followership, and there- 
fore of leadership, in a nutshell 
in me there dwells 
No greatness, save it be some far-off touch 
Of greatness to know well I am not great. 
Order Form. 
1918. 
To Messrs. 
Newsagents,^ 
or The Publisher of " Land & Water," 
5 Chancery Lane, London, W.C.2. 
Please deliver "Land & Water" weekly until 
further notice. 
Name • 
Address 
The present rates of subscription are : P" »n°"m 
post free. 
For Great Britain, Ireland, and Canada £2 2 
Elsewhere Abroad - - - - £2 10 
Subscriptions received before the ist June will be 
accepted at the existing rates, but after that date 
the rate of subscriptions will be increased to 
£2 14 at home and £2 18 6 abroad. 
