Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/65

 of the workers, but they lack the essential of nationality, and the real work must ever be done by the people of the country themselves." Scattered individuals, however capable and however well meaning, are powerless singly. What is needed is union, organization, and well-defined lines of action; and to secure these an association is required, armed and organized with unusual care, having for its object to promote the mental, moral, social, and political regeneration of the people of India : "Our little army must be sui generis in discipline and equipment, and the question simply is, how many of you will prove to possess, in addition to your high scholastic attainments, the unselfishness, moral courage, self-control, and active spirit of benevolence essential in all who should enlist." And then he proposed that a commencement should be made with a body of fifty ** founders," to be the mustard-seed of future growth ; ^*if only fifty men, good and true, can be found to join as founders, the thing can be established, and the further development will be comparatively easy." The details of the organization would have to be decided by the members themselves. But he made suggestions as to the personnel, discipline, and working methods of the association ; and specially he insisted on its constitution being democratic, and free from personal ambitions : the head should merely be the chief servant, and his council assistant servants. This is the principle followed in later years by Mr. Gokhale in his Servants of India Society; and it conforms to the precept, "He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant." And his long letter ends with an appeal, which both stirs and tings : "As I said before, you are the salt of the land. And of amongst even you, the elite, fifty men cannot be found with sufficient power of self-sacrifice, sufficient love for and pride in their country, sufficient genuine and unselfish heartfelt patriotism to take the initiative, and if needs