ibed by Professor Royce in his essay on "Provincialism":

"Local spirit, local pride, provincial independence,
influence the individual man precisely because they appeal
to his imitative tendencies. But thereby they act so as to
render him more or less immune in presence of the more
trivial of the influences that, coming from without his
community, would otherwise be likely to reduce him to the
dead level of the customs of the whole nation. A country
district may seem to a stranger unduly crude in its ways;
but it does not become wiser in case, under the influence of
city newspapers and summer boarders, it begins to follow
city fashions merely for the sake of imitating. Other things
being equal, it is better in proportion as it remains
self-possessed,--proud of its own traditions, not unwilling
indeed to learn, but also quite ready to teach the stranger
its own wisdom. And in similar fashion provincial pride
helps the individual man to keep his self-respect even when
the vast forces that work toward industrial consolidation,
and toward the effacement of individual initiative, are
besetting the life at every turn. For a man is in large
measure what his social consciousness makes him. Give him
the local community that he loves and cherishes, that he is
proud to honor and to serve, make his ideal of that
community lofty,--give him faith in the dignity of his
province,--and you have given him a power to counteract the
levelling tendencies of modern civilization."[102]

Community loyalty is largely dependent upon leadership. There is a
reciprocal relation between loyalty and leadership; leaders inspire
loyalty and loyalty incites leadership. Thus the amount of leadership in
a community and the willingness of its people to assume leadership are
good indices of community loyalty, and the willingness to work under
leaders is its crucial test. The leader is essential to group activity.
Without a leader group activity is difficult or impossible. If men are
to act together effectively some one must be spokesman and director.

Lack of leadership has ever been one of the chief handicaps of rural
life as compared with that of the town and city, and with the growth of
organization the need of rural leadership is increasingly apparent.
Until very recently the vocation of agriculture ha