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Searchable Stewartville Tweedsmuir History 7 Book 1 for women similar to the Farmers' furnishing. Other provinces have similar Institutes. 0n Frida , Februa 19. departments or the W. [.7 is under 1897. at uire’s Hall. honey Creel-i2, 101 the special care of a womm the rotten- women on one man attended a meetin sion Iervioe. Thousands and thousands which nixed the first Women's 1 - of women have acquired an adulation in tutes. he second was sun-ted at Whitby the things that matter most to them. It in June, and then the ball had rally begun to roll. It is ap rent that cdumtion of women to do their best for their own home: and families. which meant for the nation. was the fundamental reason for this move- ment. Where the Institutes have held last to their purpose, education has always been the chief interest and purv pose of their meetings. They became a sort of ward of the Provincial Govem- ment, and in Canada. they are still at- tached to the government in all provinces nave Alberta. and the reason was that they provided a channel for the spread of education on those matters which afiect the health and well»being of the eople. Attachment ol the W. I. to the part» ment of Agriculture. with grants and AdehllemdlludnCredbad'nofnGmlCame. speaker: and constant service, was a recognition of the first principle stated by Mrs. Headlessâ€"that the people were more important than live stock and that the health of the pen le, and the saving of the children. must he the first concern of any nation which hoped to live and prosper. Fortyâ€"five years later we find a great association and a complex programme in which education in first principles of homemnlting is still the motivating lorce. In Ontario the institutes Branch. under Misl Mary A. Clarke, has a stafi of experts in nutrition, clothing, house will never be ssihle to know how many babies have ived. how many children have reached maximum health. how many lives have been made better and happier, because one little son died and in dying wakened his mother to a new realimtion of the duty of all mothers to know the perils that lay in unclean milk, in un~ checked epidemics. in faults of feeding and are. Naturally interest in the individual home and famin soon widens to interest in the communlt , for so many matters of health and welihre man be handled only by the group. Public health services, nursing care. short courses in domestic science applied to the home. rural beauti- fication, a 1 these have been headliners on the programme of study. Over and above all the pracliml work there has been a spiritual value not so may to measure. One sees it more lainly in the new districts but it is true every- where that the braking of bar- riers. the coming together in lriendship. the social relaxation of meeting and talking, has been a lifesavsr to countless women. The Women's Institutes. with their worldwide afliliations, are not the only memorial to Adelaide Hoodlum. She became later the head of the Macdnnald Institute at Guelph, and a leader in the new ida which gave to girls a special training in domestic science or household economy. The institutes began in a world which was reaching out towards new ideals of peace and friendship and it played a major part in the practical appliuition of these Ideals. In the 1890's security was taken for granted and every- one believed we were well set on the path towards enduring peace. If the world has since been plunged into two terrible wars perhaps it simply means that the powers which hate freedom saw that their day was waning and they are struggling fiercely to draw hua mamty ack into a dark age, when light will be the privil of the few. We believe they wtil fail and that their defeat will be the result of that strength a! free men uniting freely in defence of their right to work for better things. It is the same spirit which gave motive {owe to the movement we have known [or forty-five yours as the Women's Institutes, united for Home and Country, refusin to let narrow vision shut out the hope 0 life and health and friendliness for all the people. digitized by Jim Austin