The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-05-26

ualisn of Europe. There can be no
rise for the individual through the
frozen strata of classes. or Of casfes.
ond no qualification can take place In
a mass Heened by the free stir Of its
particles. This guarding Of our in.
dividualism against stratifcatiOn in.
sists not only in preserving Ia the 81.
rial solution an equal opportunity for
the able and ambitious to rise from
The bottom; ii also insists that HE
sons of the successful shall not by
any mere right Of birth or favor con
tinue TO occupy their fathers places
of power against the rise Of a new
generation in process Of coming VI
from the bottom. The pioneers Of our
American indiyidualisln had the good
sense not to reward Washington am
Jefferson and Hamilton with hered'
tary dukedoms and fixtures in LANDED
estates, as Great Britain rewarded
Marlborough and Nelson. Otherwise
our American fields Of opportunity
would have been clogged With long
generations inheriting their fathers
privileges without their fathers capac
isy for service.
That our system has avoided the es-
adjustment and domination of class
aas a significant proof In the present
administration in Washington. OF the
twelve men comprising the President.
vice president, and cabinet, nine have
earned their own way in life without
economic inheritance, and eight of
them started with manual labor.
If we examine the impulses that
carry us forward, none is so potent
for progress as the yearning for in
dividual self-expression, the desire for
creation of something. Perhaps the
greatest human happiness flows from
personal achievement. Here lies the
great urge of the constructive instinct
of mankind. But it can only thrive
In a society where the individual has
liberty and stimulation to achievement.
Nor does the community progress ex-
cept through It's participation in these
multltudes of achievements.
Furthermore, the maintenance of
productivity and the advancement of
the things of the spirit depend upon
the e~ver-renewed supply from the mass
of those who can rise to leadership.
our social, economic, and intellectual
progress is almost solely dependent
upon the creative minds of those in
dividuals with imaginative ami admin
istrative intelligence who create or
who carry discoveries to widespread
application. No race possesses more
than a small percentage of these
minds in a single generation. But lit.
tie thought has ever been given TO our
racial dependency upon them. Nor
that our progress is in so large a
measure due to the fact that with our
increased means of communication
these rare individuals are today able
to spread their influence over so en-
larged a number of lesser capable
minds as to have increased their po-
tency a m~illion-fold. In truth. the vast
ly greater productivity of the world
with actually less physical labor is
due to the wider spread of their inlu-
ence through the discovery of these
facilities. And they can arise solely
through the selection that comes from
the free-running mills of competition.
They must be free to rise from the
mass; they must be given the attrac-
ton of premiums TO effort.
Leadership is a duality of the in
dividual. 1t is the individual alone
who a function in the world Of in
tellect and in the field of leadership.
If democracy is to secure Its authori-
ties in morals, religion, and statesman
ship, 1t must stimulate leadership from
its own mass. Human leadership can
not be replenished by selection like
queen bees, by divine right or bureau
c~racles, but by the free rise of ability.
character-an intelligence.
Even so, leadership cannot, no mat
ter how brilliant, carry progress far
ahead Of the average of the mass of
individual units. Progress of the ma
ton is the sum of progress in Its In
dividuals. Acts and ideas that lead
to progress are born out Of the womb
of the individual mind, not out of the
mind Of the crowd. The crowd only
feels: it has no mind of It's own which
can plan. The crowd Is credulous, 1t
destroys, it consumes. ii hates, and 1t
dreams-but 1t never builds. 1t Is one
Of the most profound and important of
exact psychological truths that nan in
the mass does not think but only feels.
The mob functions only in a world of
emotion. The demagogue feeds on
mob emotions and his leadership is the
leadership of emotion. not the leader
ship of intellect and progress. Popu-
lar desires are no c~riteria to the real
need; they can be determined only by
deliberative consideration, by educa-
ton, by constructive leadership.
(rO BE CoNTINUED)
Copyright, 1923, by Doubleday, Page &
Co. Published by arrangement with
Western Newspaper Union.)