The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-08-17
WHAT CONSTITUTES A LEADER
BY

some notice in the public press, is too
frequently but a misnomer. Especial
ly is this true in these days when in
the lines of some extravigantly flat
tering, gr~andiloquent tribute to a
leader" may be seen the d~ictation
of the leader to some pecuniarily
ambitious press agent.
The real leader, and they are few
is these days of a verile, unselfish
Colored press, is one who has won his
spurs by, and through, unselfish devo-
ton to the common people-the "holy
middle" AMI the Flooding lowly who
earn their bread by the sweat of
their brow
Too frequently do some Colored
men, who having gained the ~acquaint-
ance of some man of Importance, and
who merely because of that acquaint-
ance, and without any merit or
achievement of their own, their own,
mistake such acquaintance, and a few
invitations to empty social affairs
given by aping, spurious, self-assumed
social lights as the sin quo non for
leadership, and proceed to exploit
themselves as leaders"
The late Frederick Douglas was a
real leader because he blazed the
way for the common, people; because
they followed him believing in his sin
cerity; admiring his heroic defiance of
threats and intimidation for having
bravely espoused the cause of the
common people-the masses.
The late DR.. Booker T. Washington
was a real leader because, coming
up from the sweet fragrance of the
soil, he labored and wrought, planned
and builded, not for himself, but for
the masses of his people-those over
whom avresity had kept a constant
menacing virgil; those who had
known naugh but sorrow and d~epriva-
ton from the day their eyes first
opened upon a cruel world to the day
manhood and womanhood's estate had
presented to them an uninviting, un-
just present and future.
Both of these men were BORN
LEADERS-they were magnetic lead
ers for whom there was always and
ever the enthusiastic applause of the
common people for whom they labor
ed, and whom they served with I'M
questioned fidelity. And it is the
common" people who make up the
great majority-they are the Lords
chosen. Lincoln once said he be-
lieved God loved the common people
best, for he had made more of them
than of any other class.
Dubois is a real leader, because,
radical though he be, he has fought
the battles for the masses, and that
too uncompromisingly. He has not
the magnetism of the first two. Per-
sonally, he is rather a sort of recluse,
but whether you like his personality
or not you must agree that he has put
up a splendid, a magnificent fight for
FULL RIGHTS for his people, hesitat-
ing to even compromise by accepting
the traditional half loaf when a crum
was but the grudging possibility.
Emmett j. Scott has developed into
a real" leader because he silently, I'M
selfishly labors to bring to his race
the full measure OF reward their serv.
ices, their loyalty and their ability
merits. He does not possess the loren.
sic force of a Douglass-the times do
not demand it. He does not possess
those abnormal attributes with which
Booker T. Washington was endowed,
and he does not aspire to that radical,
as we call it, insistance which is Pc
c~ulairly DuBoisesque, but he has
shown marked leadership, nevtrthe-
less-a safe, sane nan who deity
camouflages radicalism with effective
diplomacy that gets results-and re-
suits are what we want.
Major Motion has demonstrated
real leadership because he has sub
ordinated self interests to the interests
of the masses; because he is striving
to serve, to achieve the greatest good
for the greatest number, to modestly
SOW for others to reap.
There are many real" leaders, less
pretentious, but none the less earnest,
laboring in restricted fields from sun
up to sun down, in various fields of
endeavor, for the common people of
their race. And there are many "ac-
cidents," self-assumed leaders" who
because they have, at some time, won
a smile from a Washington, from a
Dubois or a Scott, in return for their
selfishly promted adulation; their
willingness to carry the grip of the
most high" or because they have, at
some time, held some petty political
office, or because they have weedled
themselves into a society" of doubt
full meaning and valueless worth as
sumo they are leaders and who are
constantly using the plural pronoun
I'VE" for the selfish singular IT,"
Those are of the common people, BUT
NOT FOR the common people.
However, the sun of self-assumed
eInaaAraS so .AorsH- A. aaI4-.z L.