EX-SOLDIERS ON THE LAND 179 



true sense of the word, making it consist of associa- 

 tions of people possessing the same interests and 

 bound together by united high ideals, we shall, 

 when the Great War has ceased, fail to establish 

 ex-soldiers on the land. 



Those who have lived on the land, have studied 

 these questions and been able to give expression 

 to them, often place a higher value upon social 

 effects that result from co-operative organisation 

 than upon economic benefits that come with it. 

 Belgian refugees and others have described the 

 saving that it effects for the grower, enabling him 

 to buy cheap and sell at a fair price, but this 

 monetary side of the question is not the only one 

 to be considered. There is a higher, finer motive, 

 and it is the character-building that ensues from 

 it which should be our chief national aim in teach- 

 ing the value of co-operation. In short, it has 

 to be borne in view that, until we secure for country 

 dwellers food for the mind and soul as well as for 

 the body, we shall not obtain by means of their 

 work the increased home-grown supplies which 

 cultivation of waste land and better tillage should 

 place at the disposal of the nation. These higher 

 ideals connected with organisation in rural districts 

 have nowhere received greater attention than in 

 Canada, and the leaders there of this splendid 

 work are women. 



When we read about the Women's Institute's, 

 which in Ontario alone possess nearly twenty-five 

 thousand members divided amongst eight hundred 

 and forty-three branches, it must be confessed that 

 in energy, perseverance, and a true grasp of the 



