Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-18
LEADERSHIP

More than anything else today the world needs
leadership, not the kind of leadership which consists
i'll mere experiences, or skill in the solution Of puzzles
but the leadership wlJicl, will bring men to an under
standing of fundamentals, and which will inspire
them with the courage to face facts and the will to
achieve by their own effort.
The world has been shocked. disorganized, al
most disintegrated by war. There has never been
the power in humanity to restore theS shattered
world, heal its wounds and arrange its affairs in any
quick and easy fashion after such a calamity as over
whelmed it. There were those who, Immediately
after the signing Of the armistice four years ago,
considered that because the war was over it's con-
sequences would Immediately disappear. and that
We should jump Immediately into a state of marvel
Gus prosperity. For a time they lived in their fools
dream. They have been awakened, but the, memory
of the dream fingers, and there is a feeling Of dis
appointment and resentment that the dream was
not a reality. '#. MI
We need leadership which shall bring us to .
clear understanding. Perhaps it is unreasonable to
expect such leadership to manifest itself and to be-
come effective in any period short of many years.
The past has produced great leaders, but'the prob
lens with which they had to deal were simple COM
pared with those Of the present. The events which
began their tremendous procession iii 1914 are un-
parralleled in their scope. Heretofore, even when
many nations were involved in long and ,exhausting
conflicts, there were physical limitations which re-
|stricted and localized the effects of those disturb
|ances. Today, with a world knit together as never
before, and with all its parts interdependent, we
have all humanity struggling to emerge from a
universal disaster. We admire the achievements of
great leaders of the past, but when we imagine
those same men attempting to deal with. the prob
lens OF the present, we may we'll question how far
they would have been successful. l.
It is not likely that we shall find the leadership
which we, seek in any one man. More probably it
is to be a leadership Of thought and sentiment, mani
Testing its presence in a thousand %centers,. and ex-
pressing ~itselfIin a myriad ways. We must look for
it in the school and the church., in the merchants
organization and the farm bureau, in, organizations
of men and women everywhere which, dealing local
" with Small groups of people, shall nevertheless
be so conducted and so inspired that their work
will be constructive because founded on elemental
facts and directed toward the. achievement of a
higher purpose. atY t 4
and therefore more satisfactory, to have some in
t~ellectual giant, superlatiyely wise, commanding and
magnetic, who should say "Here is the solution of
your problems. This is the way ). walk ye in >it."
But we have reached a state where that kind Of
direction is exceedingly improbable. AS never be-
fore we need to get down to first principles, to know
what truth is. And, having found the truth and
recognized it, we must make it's application for our
selves, each according to his ability, but all with
sincerity and courage. The leadership that the world
needs today is the leadership that is to be found in
the constructive work of an enlightened democracy.