NEED OF LEADERSHIP

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5596, 24 March 1943, Page 2

NEED OF LEADERSHIP

IS not this age of ours careless of intellectual achievements while it gives too much worship to sport and record-breakers of all kinds who have some special quality of nerve or wind, or muscle, or cardiac action ? We ought to do something about it because the world is desperately in need of leadership at the present time, and we cannot afford to wait very long for a general increase in intelligence without risking some very unpleasant consequences. The truth is that we

! don’t want it. Leaders are proI duced by the spirit of the age, and ; cur age is mostly interested in having a good time at all cost and avoiding thought as much as possible. Professional sport, the latest stunt, ‘and concentration on the totalisator are not likely to produce national leaders who dare to tell the truth or are inspired by some spiritual genius. At least they are not likely to get much encouragement. That is a gloomy thought. The cheerful hope is that in all nations to-day there are large numbers of men and women, mostly unknown, who are doing fine and splendid work without any desire for publicity, beyond the sense of service to their fellow-beings, and whose intelligence and characters are pushing humanity towards the next stage of (he long journey—uphill.