1920.] National Federation of Women's Institutes. 859 



small owing to the monotony of a purely local environment. 

 Hence, in spite of the efforts of pioneers, the stultifying effect 

 of the sensation of detachment was giving way to the craving 

 for a closer connection with the centres of industry, trade and 

 social interest. 



The forerunners of the Federation of Women's Institutes were 

 men and women who had wrestled, sometimes single-handed, to 

 open out \dllage life, to find scope for tentative energies and to 

 turn them into practical achievements. They had long realised 

 wherein lay the difficulties of their task. They had seen that 

 the obstacles which so often prevented local attempts at organisa- 

 tion from becoming" abortive were not actually lack of imagina- 

 tion and a vague desire for growth on the part of the villagers, 

 but were rather the dire need of a more comprehensive 

 organisation which could hnk effort to effort, and give them the 

 significance of co-operation. They knew that it must in some 

 way be possible to re-awaken neglected industries inherited by 

 individual women and individual villages from generations back, 

 adapt them to modern requirements and turn them into market- 

 able produce. They knew also that there was latent talent to 

 be developed into adequate means of self-expression for the satis- 

 faction of the owner and for the good pleasure of the community, 

 but only too often the interest aroused perished for lack of a 

 breath of outside encouragement and the stimulus of wide com- 

 petition. Drawbacks such as poor roads and bad train service, 

 the distance of many villages from their market towns, the 

 shortage of good rooms and halls for exhibitions or entertain- 

 ments (and the lack of funds to hire these\ made the task of 

 local organisers yet more difficult. In some of the villages, 

 therefore, such industries as had begun to flourish were discon- 

 tinued because the market value was not sufficiently established 

 to admit of the purchase of fresh material. 



In many villages yearly fruit and vegetable shows, at 

 which were also exhibited dairy produce and needlework, 

 had l:)ecome regular and. prosperous institutions even before 

 the advent of the Women's Institute Federation, but in other 

 places the anticipated development did not mature. In these 

 cases failure was due to the monotony of a purely local standard 

 of exhibits. and to the fact that technical interest was not suffi- 

 ciently developed to induce perseverance or the spirit of legitimate 

 competition. Then a remedy came. 



At the end of the 19th century a small body of women who 

 were anxious to develop country life in Canada had organit^ed 



