f a maximum of leadership can
the best life of the community be achieved. Every citizen has some
ability which qualifies him to lead some group, however small it may be,
or however humble the cause. Indeed the highest type of community is one
in which there is a conscious direction of community purposes through a
body of leadership which is divided among all its members, so that each
feels responsible to the whole community for the success of his share of
the common enterprise and has satisfaction in his contribution to the
common achievement. In last analysis the success of the community rests
upon the loyalty of its people as measured by their willingness to
assume leadership in whatsoever capacity may best serve its interests.

As the farm people of the United States have more contact with towns and
cities and as through better education and means of communication they
come into a larger participation in all the ranges of human culture,
they come to realize that only through collective effort can they secure
many of their new desires. Although many associations for special
interests attract their allegiance, their attachment to a locality and
their common relation to the existing center of social activities, give
rise to a devotion to the community, for only through the united effort
of all interests can they realize their highest desires. Loyalty to the
family is broadened into loyalty to the community, which finds its
incentive and dynamic in devotion to the family. The family becomes less
self-sufficient, but through its wider associations in the community,
the relations of the members of the family to each other assume new
and--because they are more largely voluntary--higher values, and the
family attains its highest development through the larger fulfilment of
its members.[103]

The farmer no longer glories in his isolation, or magnifies the virtues
of independence, for new conditions require the cooperation of the whole
community if farm life is to be made satisfying. Willingness and ability
to work with others for the common good win social approval. Next to
devotion to the family, loyalty to the community is essential for the
realization of the best possibilities of rural life.

COMMUNITY SERVICE[104]

"Strong, that no human soul may pass
Its warm, encircling unity,
Wide, to enclose all creed, all class,
This shall we name, Community;

"Service shall be that all and eac