The Uncommon Man; H. Hoover

The uncommon man is to be whittled down to size. It is the negation of individual dignity and a slogan of mediocrity and uniformity. The common man dogma may be of use as a vote getting apparatus. It supposedly proves the humility of demagogues. The greatest strides of human progress have come from uncommon men and women. You have perhaps heard of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Thomas Edi son. They were humble in origin, but that was not their greatness. The humor of it is that ,,,hen we get sick, we want an uncommon doctor. When we go to war, we yearn for an uncommon general or admiral. When we choose the president of a university, we want an uncommon edu cator. The imperative need of this nation at all times is the leadership of the uncommon men or women. We need [144 ] men and women who cannot he intimidated, who are not concerned with applause meters, nor those who sell tomorrow for cheers today.

Such leaders are not to be made like queen bees. America recognizes no frozen social stratifications which prevent the free rise of every individual. They must rise by their own merits. [145 ] EDUCATION FOR PRIVACY tg mapfen fen JJooP IN VIEW of the hundreds of conferences which have been held on liberal education, it would seem to be impossible to say anything new on the subject. Since there seems to be nothing new to say, one must, in order to be original, be contrary, eccentric, or partisan. I have chosen to be partisan. The proposition to be defended is, frankly, a half-truth. If it can be established, there will be some cause for satisfaction; for the establishment of a half truth is not a bad average in this complex and confused world. There is the justification, moreover, that the other, and possibly the better, half has in our day had practi cally all of the attention. The Proposition Stated concretely, the proposition is this: Never in the history of the world have there been so many people occupied with the improvement of so few. To sharpen the point by a specific example: Never have there been so many people making a good living by showing the other fellow how to make a better one. If you are skep tical, I recommend that you try this exercise-add up, as [146 ] of the current date, the social workers, planners, and reformers; the college presidents, deans, and professors; the editors of magazines, journals, and newspapers (not forgetting college newspapers) ; almost everybody in Washington, D. C., during recent years; and the tens of thousands of miscellaneous social-minded folks who at tend conferences, workshops, and institutes organized for the improvement of the human race. Subtract that figure from the total population of this country, and compare this figure with a corresponding figure for, say, the year 1900. You will then see what I mean when I say that this is the era of undiscriminating allegiance to good causes.