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EDITORIAL W33 1." a Worn?“ woman visiting in Morris Mani“): 18:! and dgolout to the prairie to pick flowers. An Ontario to , k H E B h i a, ect e a so, on that summer'day to go out to the prairie PIC 0‘" 15~ _ Y C 3369 these Women, a Mrs. Finlay Mackenzie and a Mrs. Graham from Brantford, Ontario, met. we can imagine that the conversation turned to Ontario, for in the prevrous year Mrs. Mackenzte had visited her mother in Ontario. We do not have to imagine that the conversation turned to the Ontario Women's Institute. for “Ford5 15ft ,bY Mrs. Mackenzie tells us 50. She said, "I turned the conversation to the Ontario Women s Institutes and lo! I had an enthusiast." .Before these women parted the Manitoba Women‘s Institutes had been visualized. A meeting was arranged at which Mrs. Graham promised to speak. Later a branch was organized and thirty-seven women became members. Manitoba was not the first Western Women's Institute to be organized. In Alberta in 1908 two women, who had been members of the Ontario Women's Institutes, met and again the conversation turned to the Women's Institute. There and then the Alberta \V.I.‘s got their start. In 1909 a Deputy.Minister of Agriculture in British Columbia promoted the \Vomen's Institute as an organization for women and invited Miss Laura Rose of Ontario to act as an orgltiynlifer. In Saskatchewan groups of women, known as the Homemaker‘s Clubs, were organized In . Rumours of an active, interesting women's organization seeped across the provincial border into Quebec and in 1911 the Quebec Women‘s Institutes were started. \Vomen in the Eastern provinces, often inspired by enthusiastic stories from Ontario, soon had Women's Institutes; New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in 1911; Nova Scotia in 1913. Again Miss Laura Rose of Ontario was the organizer. The Jubilee Guilds of Newfoundland and Labrador were started in 1935. Then in 1956 Women’s Institutes were organized in the North West Territories and the Yukon. They too, were started by an Ontario woman Mrs. Hough now of Stratford. In 1919 representatives of the Provincial \Women's Institutes met in Winnipeg and a national organization known as the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada came into being with Judge Emily P, Murphy (Janey Canuck) as its first president. Mrs. James Haggerty of Napanee, Ontario, has served a term as the national president, Since so many Ontario women have been involved with the spread of the Women’s Institute in Canada it is natural that Ontario W1. members have a special interest in the Federated Women‘s Institutes of Canada. It was a special privilege. for the Ontario members, when the F.W.I.C. Convention was held in Guelph in June 1967; and despite the 90 degree heat about thirty-seven hundred women took advantage of that privilege to attend the opening day sessions. It was a thrilling experience with the colourful pageantry of 24, 4 H Homemaking Club girls marching to the platform carrying flags of many nations. It was also a rare privilege to hear the charming Mrs. Aroti Dutt, wearing her beautiful red silk sari, speaking. not only as President of A.C.W.W.. but as an Indian woman: telling with deep concern of Conditions in her own country and as a woman with devotion for home and family. The Women‘s Institutes of Ontario may well be proud that the organization started here in Ontario was responsible to such a large extent for the spread of the Women‘s Institutes to all parts of Canada. They can be proud too, that a Woman. who was born in Clinton. Ontario, and educated in Ontario, Dr. Mary (Irwin), Rutnam is the person responsible for the W’omen's Institutes (Lanka Mahili Samiti) in Ceylon. The program of the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada is basically the same as our Ontario program. Our motto provincially and nationally is, "For Home and Country," Home for us, is Ontario, Country is all other parts of Canada and anything that affects any part of our cauntry affects us. Any situation or condition in any country of the world, that in any way affects our country, affects the individual Canadian citizen. - ' _ ' Through personal Contact, reading and studying livmg conditions outside our own envtron- ment we came to understand that our problems are not unlike the problems of people in other parts of Canada, in other parts of the world. ‘ ' _ I _ The provinces, combining their efforts, under the direction of the National Organization, have great opportunities for assisting women in the developing countries. The need for concern on the part of Canadian people, Canadian women, was Vividly outlined by Mrs. Dun and by Mr. J. J. Greene, Minister of Agriculture in the Canadian Government. We are a part of the Federated Wei-men's lnstitutes of Canada. The more we know of our national organization, its structure, its PITUJEL'ES, the_more meaningful our programs at all levels of Women’s Institute work will become. Let us think of the women in Brillhh Columbia, or Newaundland or Yellowknife or South America as our next door netghhours. \Ve need them and they need us.