WOMAN'S PART IN THE WORK 319 



the fact that in Canada female rural education is superior to that 

 prevailing in his own country — that women teachers pay more 

 attention to the " special " character of their mission, upon the 

 fulfilment of which " the future of the nation depends." We are, 

 so it must be apprehended, a little in arrear under this aspect. 

 We cannot pretend that we have an array of specialist educational 

 girls' institutions preparing their pupils for a life as mistresses of 

 homes comparable to that of the Swiss and German Itindliche 

 Huahaltungs-schulen or the Belgian Ecoles menageres and such 

 schools of the same character as religious houses in France and 

 Canada are keeping up. The American " girls' clubs " are, how- 

 ever, superior to these institutions in practical value. For what a 

 girl is told, she is likely to forget. What she is made to do for herself, 

 especially under the stimulus of distinction to be gained, is pretty 

 sure to remain fixed in her memory. We need not take it that, 

 because the " club " movement began with pigs, and went on to 

 calves and eggs and chickens, and canning of fruit and vegetables, 

 therefore its programme is necessarily limited to such objects as 

 these. Everything within the limits of a woman's legitimate 

 occupations in country life that admits of being taught by demon- 

 stration, and stands to become more firmly impressed by practice 

 and emulation, is equally suited to it. 



The institution of women's institutes certainly deserves pushing 

 in our country. But we shall do well with it also to make the pre- 

 paratory institutions spoken of our own, as enhancing its utility and 

 giving it freer scope for exercising its high mission among people 

 prepared for its full action. And it may be hoped that by degrees, 

 at any rate, we may succeed also in importing into it the democratic 

 spirit, the sense of social equality, pro hoc vice, and " one-for-all-and- 

 all-for-oneness " which alone can secure to it its complete value. 

 'It is probably because the work of women's institutes means so 

 much for the future welfare of the sons and daughters," so writes 

 Mr. George A. Putnam, Superintendent in the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment of Ontario, " that the mothers have taken such a deep interest 

 in the work. For the most part one thinks of the present only ; 

 but the mother's thoughts are of that which will result in better 

 conditions for those dependent upon her, and she thinks and acts for 

 the future. She finds many opportunities through the women's 

 institutes to accomplish that object. And so she provides for the 

 well-being of the coming generation of men, the Nation." 



Women's institutes, as observed, are of Canadian origin, and had 

 their birth in Ontario in 1900. They were started as entirely volun- 



