s had but little call
for leadership. Successful farming required strict attention to the work
of the farm and leadership brought no pecuniary advantage to the farmer
as it did to the business or professional man. Furthermore there seems
to be an innate desire for equality among farmers and a disinclination
to recognize one of their number as in any degree superior, which
discourages the development of leadership among them. The town and city
place a premium on leadership and a position of leadership gives a
status which is coveted; but for the farmer any position of leadership
is a burden or a public duty rather than an opportunity. For this reason
the control of government, education, religion, and all the larger
associations of life has been largely in the hands of urban leaders.
This has been inevitable and the lack of representation of the farmers'
interests has been incidental to the nature of his vocation.

Whenever the need of adjustment to new conditions becomes sufficiently
acute as to demand action for the preservation of interests of any group
of men, the cause creates leadership; leaders either come forward or are
drafted and the successful leaders survive through a process of natural
selection and receive recognition and support. This is what is now
occurring in American agriculture. New conditions have forced farmers to
organize for cooperative marketing and are necessitating the better
organization of the whole social life of rural communities for reasons
which have been previously indicated. With better education and with
more contacts with city life, farmers have come to appreciate that if
they are to compete with other industries and if the rural community is
to have a satisfactory standard of living, they must develop their own
leadership and that those who are qualified for leadership cannot be
expected to devote their time to the business interests of their fellows
unless they are adequately compensated. On the other hand, there is
gradually developing a new sense of responsibility for assuming
_voluntary_ leadership in community activities, and a larger
appreciation of the need of leadership and the duty of supporting it.

One of the greatest benefits of the Extension Service and the Farm
Bureau Movement is the definite effort to develop local leadership and
the large measure in which this has been successful. The demonstration
work and cooperative organizations produce a new type of leader, for h