the rural situation is the community leader. Institutions can do
little for the enrichment of rural life if personality is wanting. It
is the leader's energy that keeps the wheels of the machinery turning,
his wisdom that gears their action to the needs of the community. It
is desirable that the leader should spring from the community itself,
acquainted with its needs and voicing its aspirations. But more
communities get their leaders from outside and are often more willing
to accept such a leader than if he came up out of their midst, for the
proverb is often true that a prophet is without honor in his own
country.

175. =Qualities of Leadership.=--Social leadership is dependent upon
certain qualities in the person who leads and in those who are led.
The attitude of the people of the community is fundamental. The
stimulus that the leader applies must find response in their inner
natures if his energy is to become socially effective. If there is not
a latent capacity to action, no amount of stimulus will avail. It is
safe to assume that there are few local communities in America that
will fail to respond to the right kind of leadership, but certain
qualities in the leader are essential for inspiration. It is not
necessary that he should be country born, but it is essential that he
love the country, appreciate its opportunities, and be conscious of
its needs. He cannot hope to call out these qualities in the people if
he does not himself possess them. And it must be a genuine love and
appreciation that is in him, for only sincerity and perfect honesty
can win men for long. It is essential that he have breadth of sympathy
for all the interests of the people that he seeks for his own; he may
not think lightly of farming or storekeeping, of education or
recreation, of morals or religion. He must be devoted to the
community, its servant as well as its leader, content to build himself
into its life. It is not necessary that the leader should be a trained
expert, a finished product of the schools, desirable as such equipment
is, but it is essential that he know how to call out the best that is
in others, to play upon their emotions, to appeal to their intellects,
to energize their wills. He must not only understand their present
mental processes, but he must have a vision of them when they have
become transformed with new impulses and ambitions, and converted to
new and nobler purposes. He needs an unquenchable enthusiasm, a