Ralph Nader was there, and so was the executive vice president of American Motors. The founder of Rolling Stone and the managing editor of the Washington Post took part, as did two of the most conservative newspaper columnists in the U.S. Gloria Steinem and the Knicks' Bill Bradley were there, and so were a former Heisman Trophy winner, a Nobel Laureate, a Navajo tribal leader, nine college presidents, 15 mayors and Governors, 14 Congressmen and Senators, and scores of businessmen, teachers, lawyers and economists. The occasion: a two-day conference held in Washington by TIME on the subject of leadership. That elusive yet essential, indefinable yet recognizable quality became the biggest issue of the 1976 presidential campaign. Jimmy Carter's TV ads describe him as “a leader, for a change.” Gerald Ford's say of the President: “He has virtually a' lifetime of leadership.” Closely connected with the issue of leadership was that of trust, the indispensable link between leader and led. Said Carter: “Trust me.” Replied Ford: “It is not enough for anyone to say, Trust me.' Trust must be earned.” So it has gone. The debate has been imprecise, subjective —and inevitable. It reaches far beyond the campaign. The turmoil of the 1960s and early '70s left a corrosive residue of apathy and skepticism that has eaten away at all major institutions. A report issued in September by the Public Agenda Foundation noted that trust in Government declined from 76% in 1964 to 33% today; that 83% of American voters say they “do not trust those in positions of leadership as much as they used to”; that confidence in Congress, the Supreme Court, business, college presidents, the military, doctors and lawyers dropped sharply from the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s. Two years ago, at a time when the Watergate scandal had reduced the Federal Government to near paralysis, TIME decided to explore the subject of leadership in depth. The result was a 38-page special section . Included was a portfolio of “200 Faces for the Future”: young American leaders who, in the editors' view, had noteworthy civic or social impact on their communities, their institutions or the nation. When the special section appeared, Richard Nixon was still in the White House, Jimmy Carter was still in the statehouse in Atlanta and the corporate bribery scandals had not yet crested. The editors believed that, two years having passed, some updating might prove fascinating. With this in mind, TIME invited the men and women on its 1974 list to the nation's capital in late September for its leadership conference . TIME described its original list as “a fallible selection,” and in some ways it was. One of the 200 is now in jail for income tax evasion . Some lost elections—but are doing well in other pursuits . Most started out with impressive jobs and flourished in them —or traded up. One was awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize for
