Leadership

PRESIDENT: Gentlemen, Your Grace and Members of The Empire Club: It is a very great compliment indeed to the Empire Club of Canada that Archbishop Owen has consented to address us on an occasion so very soon after his election to the Primacy of all Canada.

On behalf of the Club, I wish to take this opportunity of congratulating our guest of honour on his appointment. (Applause.) I am sure that we, in Toronto, do not regard this choice in any way as a surprise; indeed, quite the contrary, because, knowing Archbishop Owen as we have during the time he has spent in this city as Bishop of Toronto and as those who knew him in the days when he was Curate of St. James and Rector of Holy Trinity, all feel, I am sure„ that the choice was one that was obviously right-that he was the inevitable choice.

Archbishop Owen represents that tolerance of view in matters of religion which seems to be the spirit of the times, whereas the disputatious dogma of the days gone by has rather given way to the recognition, the general recognition that although denominations may differ in the forms of their expression of worship, nevertheless there is a oneness of purpose which is recognized now by all. Archbishop Owen represents this very great tolerance of view, deep human sympathy, and, above all, an unobtrusive humility-such, indeed„ that even those who have been most remote from the immediate sphere of his activities have been touched by the sense of his unforgettable presence.

It is a very great privilege, indeed, to be able to introduce to you, Archbishop Owen, Archbishop of Toronto and Primate of all Canada, as your guest of honour today. (Applause.)

ARCHBISHOP OWEN: Mr. President and Gentlemen of The Empire Club: It is natural and right that the very first thing I should do as I begin to speak to you is to acknowledge your very kindly introduction of me, Sir. I have been introduced to different audiences in the last two weeks, quite frequently and I have listened to descriptions of myself which sometimes dumfounded me. I felt entirely detached from the situation for while one part of my mind had to accept the fact that the speaker was referring to me, there was another part-a far more rational part which knew very well he was referring to someone else. Your introduction however, ran a little closer to reality. It was very kind of you to speak as you did and I appreciate indeed the references that you have made. I can only hope that in the years to come I may be proved worthy of some of the kind things that have been said about me of late.

The subject which I wanted to speak about in the few minutes that we have at our disposal for the address after luncheon is the general subject of "Leadership". Leadership leaves one lots of room to stray hither and yon„ as you can readily understand. I want to speak of it rather as the qualifications far leadership. First of all, there is the need for leadership. That goes almost without saying. In the midst of the difficulties and the problems by which we are surrounded and of which we read day after day in the newspapers, we are so well aware that we need under God, the leadership of the best possible men in every department of life.

I know, in speaking to a Club like The Empire Club which has been founded now for more than thirty years--for thirty-one years, I think--there has been found a place for the making of leaders, and that you, to whom I am speaking, have the responsibility of leadership in certain departments of life. Some of you have that responsibility in very large departments of life. You have that put upon you which requires daily from you, courage and patience and endurance and far-sightedness and a sense of humour, but whether you have a large department under your leadership or whether it be small, I want to speak to you as brothers together in this great task of trying to lead.

I think one of the very first things so necessary in face of the difficulties and the tangles and the problems that confront those who are called upon to lead is a very simple thing and an absolutely essential thing. I was down in a certain place in the Maritime Provinces, having a conference with a group of people, not long ago. We were discussing the affairs of a certain institution and this group of people were quite frank in what they thought was the matter with that particular institution. One said that this was the matter and another that. Each one made some sort of contribution to the discussion. After the meeting a young girl came up and looked at me--she was a very intelligent girl--and said, "Do you know what is really the matter with us here?" They had been talking about all kinds of things. "The matter", she said, "is that we don't care. That is what is the matter." Whatever else a leader is, he has to be a man who really cares about the problems of the day and the burdens the people have to carry and all the difficulties by which they are surrounded.

And I want to make a reference at this particular point to that which is to take place in this city next week in which I am very much interested and in which I feel most of you are intensely interested; that is, the matter of the drive for the Federation of Community Service. That is something we all must take an interest in. I am not going to speak on the drive but I want to make a reference to it. The thirty-seven social service organizations bear the most thorough-going investigation. I believe and I speak as a churchman, as a man who speaks on behalf of the Church, I believe we are under a great debt of gratitude in the political and the social sphere to those organizations that have been working in our midst, so patiently and so faithfully. No one knows what a contribution they have made to the peace and the well being of the community. I bear my tribute to the courage and the steadfastness of the multitudes of our people, the vast majority of our people who, in these times of great stress and hardship have exercised such patience. One of the reasons, I am sure, has been the quiet, unostentatious work carried on by the various social welfares.

Now, I can see two reasons why the Community Federation drive should not be supported. I can only see two excuses for not supporting it; others may think of others. Either we don't support it because we do not know what is being done or because we don't care. As I say, I can not think of any other reason--either we don't know or we don't care.

But to come back to my subject: All leaders have got to care and care intensely„ to really allow the situation which confronts him as a leader to come close to his heart.

Now I, want to pass on to speak of other requirements of leadership. The one that occurs to me is a very old-fashioned thing; that is, the old way of doing what you are told. I haven't learned very well the duties of leader ship yet. I am gradually learning through the ordinary processes of experience. One thing which I do know teaches one how to lead is to learn how to obey, to learn self-control, to get control of one's own mind and not give way to impatience and--this is very important, I think--not to get embittered. Sometimes you have great ideals and you see what ought to be done and you go to work with all the enthusiasm of youth or the new leader and you find the things you thought ought to be done cannot, for the moment be done. It is just this particular point that some people are broken. They cannot stand the strain of that disillusionment. I have found in my life that the leaders who have helped me and who have given me strength have been men, who when they found that they couldn't do what they would, have been content to do what they could. (Applause.)

Another important thing in that realm is the matter of patience which is all hinged on an even temper. You know men and so do I, who have real gifts for leadership-greater gifts than many who are in positions of leadership--but they just fall short in that they cannot keep their temper when things go against them, when things do not work out as they expect them to work out, and it is that kind of temper which is so important for us who are trying in our own way and particular spheres to exercise the gift of leadership.

There is a certain writer of whose writings I am very fond, who has a word to say about this quality, one of the essential qualities of leadership. He doesn't mention it in that connection but I bring it in in that connection. He says: "I mean, not temper, as we call it, shown in the intercourse of society, nor temper shown in argument, I mean the permanent and recurring impatience and irritation sometimes produced in the mind, by a state of facts which continually cuts across our wishes, jars with our tastes, upsets our theories, or baffles our practical efforts; which seems to us wrong or absurd, but which we cannot alter; which mocks and defies our reason, or our sense of right, or our good feeling, but also defies our strength."

Who does not know of such situations? Who does not know of the irritation and the impatience that takes possession of one's heart in a situation like that? So absurd, so almost ludicrous! So paradoxical, so hopeless

And yet, it is just in the face of that situation that a man is being tested for real leadership. If he can maintain his poise, if he can renew his strength and go on in the face of those paradoxical situations, he may be found worthy to lead.

Those qualities that I am speaking of are more or less on the negative side; you will say, and very rightly, "But surely a leader has to have originality. He has to be the man who will take risks, not merely the man who will endure and take control of himself, and keep on trying, and when one thing fails try another." You have to have people strike out for themselves and take a chance. That is quite true. We have to have the spirit of originality and be ourselves and stress our own originality and go on a great adventure and we have to take chances and run risks. You have to combine those two things together always.

If I were trying to paint a picture of a person I thought could really lead, it would be a man who has had his head in the clouds but his feet right squarely on the ground. He would have to be a man who had real vision and yet be very practical. There are people like that, who have a great capacity for seeing long distances and viewing the great horizons, who at the same time are very practical about the ordinary details of life. A leader has to be a man who says, "You set me to make bricks but without straw. I will make bricks without straw. I would rather have the straw but I have found in my life and in my reading that some of the finest edifices erected in history have been made of bricks erected without straw." The people who do things apparently impossible to do are people with that wonderful combination of the vision and the practical. You ask the pioneer--my old friend, the pioneer. As he stands in the door of his shack in the forest of Upper Canada, if he were asked what he saw from that door-and from a great number you would get the reply that he saw a wonderful community about to grow out of the swamp and morass and dark forest of Upper Canada. He would say, "I see far greater communities and cities growing up here. I see wonderful roads instead of a corduroy road. I see a place for my children and my children's children, far greater than that." Yet, that was the same man who went on toiling, dragging out the stumps, doing the ordinary everyday things, year after year. It was the pioneer spirit of which I was trying to speak in the Club a year and a half ago, the pioneer spirit we need in all our leaders, the combination of vision and ordinary hard work.

We have to dream dreams. It is a good thing to dream dreams in these days of hard practical realities and we must not stop dreaming dreams. As a friend of mine said in a letter a little while ago, "The best thing you can do after you have been dreaming dreams is to wake up and after you wake up, you had better go to work." I think that is a very good illustration. Those are the things most important in a leader's work. Dream dreams? O, yes, otherwise your work won't be much use. Don't stop dreaming dreams but wake up and go to work.

There is another thing about a leader. It is very important that you and I who are trying to lead in our different departments of life, it is very important that we should be a little ahead of the group we are trying to lead. It is our business to see a little further, to be a little bit ahead, but we must not be too far ahead because if we are too far ahead we lose touch and we may not hear what they are saying and it is very important to hear what they are saying. Don't misunderstand me about this--we must be in touch with the crowd, with the group we are trying to lead. Therefore, I would suggest those two things as being very important.

You know sometimes I get some advice handed me. So do you. It takes a good deal of understanding to take advice right. Sometimes the advice I get is excellent advice; it is just exactly what I thought myself.

Sometimes I get better advice than that and I get advice which shows me that what I thought myself was wrong. But the kind of advice I have no use for--and I think all of us in certain positions get this kind of advice--how can I put it? He comes to me and tells me what I should do were the conditions ideal, if everything was all right. He assumes that the conditions are all ideal and then tells you what to do. That kind of advice is no good to me. I know pretty well what to do if the conditions are ideal. What I want to know is what to do with the conditions far from ideal and what am I going to do with things as they are, the situation being what it is.

Therefore, I think it is most important that we, having these positions, should not assume any kind of doctrinaire attitude towards life. We should be very practical, dream our dreams, but stay wide awake. Have our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground.

Now, I have one more thing to say and I think it is the most important thing about the leader. We must have a profound belief in something that is very hard to say in a few words. We must have a profound belief in the fact that goodness, order, beauty, are stronger than badness and chaos and ugliness and that those things must win. (Applause). You know, I think one of our troubles is a kind of question mark right there. That is one of the problems of leadership. Yes, people say they don't say it in words, but you can hear almost singing through the atmosphere, not singing but groaning through the atmosphere-just a kind of question: I wonder if life has any meaning? Is there any guarantee that hard work and sacrifice and beauty are really worth while? Any one with a sensitive mind senses that question and I think it is a good thing for leaders to face that question very squarely. You know what it is--the question of God. Who can lead in these days and who can lead but those who believe that there is a unifying purpose running through life which is on the side of order, goodness and truth, and that that is the strongest thing in life? It is that which we call God.

I have in my hand two stanzas of a poem of which I am fond and with which I wanted to close these few words about leadership. They were written a good many years ago by a son, concerning his father. When Mathew Arnold went back to Rugby Chapel, some few years after his father's death, he wrote a poem called "Rugby Chapel," about his father, the great Dr. Arnold of Rugby. It is about as good a description of a leader such as we should like to be--and let us try to be--as any I know. This is the picture and remember, this was written eighty years ago, nearly, but it might have been written in the year 1934 instead of in 1857. It might have been written in Canada

"See ! In the rocks of the world
Marches the host of mankind,
A feeble, wavering line.
Where are they tending?--a God
Marshalled them, gave them their goal.
Ah, but the way is so long
'Years they have been in the wild
Sore thirst plagues them, the rocks,
Rising all round, overawe;
Factions divide them, their host
Threatens to break, to dissolve.
Ah, keep. keep them combined!
Else, of the myriads who fill
That army, not one shall arrive;
Sole they- shall stray; in the rocks
Stagger orever in vain;
Die one by one in the waste."
And here is the leadership. Here comes Dr. Arnold in the situation--in my department, in yours:
Then in such hour of need
Of your fainting, dispirited race
Ye, like angels, appear,
Radiant with ardor divine!
Beacons of hope, ye appear!
Languor is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
Weariness not on your brow.
Ye alight in our van !
At your voice,
Panic, despair, flee away.
Ye move through the ranks, recall
The stragglers, refresh the outworn,
Praise, re-inspire the brave!
Order, Courage, return,
Eyes rekindling, and prayers,
Follow your steps as ye go.
Ye fill up the gaps in our files,
Strengthen the wavering line,
Stablish, continue our march,
On, to the bound of the waste,
On, to the City of God."

And the leader must believe in a City and in God and the worthwhileness of sacrifice and work and ideals. (Hearty Applause)