CHAPTER X 



WHAT WOMEN IN CANADA ARE DOING FOR THEIR 

 COUNTRY 



In considering this all-important subject of retain- 

 ing the right kind of workers on the land, of 

 making them healthy, resourceful, and happy, it 

 is desirable that we should think of them, not as 

 isolated, scattered inhabitants, but as dispersed 

 evenly throughout our counties, in co-ordinated 

 bodies, without undue crowding. In this way 

 alone will they prosper commercially, in this way 

 alone will monotony of existence and stagnation 

 be put an end to. By recalling the words of that 

 great thinker, George Meredith, who said, " Let 

 us have an Imperial people at home," we know 

 that in his opinion the first essential of an Empire 

 is to raise the average standard of our home 

 population. Many of our leaders have hitherto 

 directed the majority to dispatch people abroad 

 in order to expand the Colonies, but beneficial as 

 this has been in enlarging the strength of the 

 Empire, it has hindered attention being bestowed 

 sufficiently upon development at home. This is 

 now a vulnerable point, for in allowing ourselves 

 to become engrossed with a more distant scene, 



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