An Announcement 
America is at war and The Garden Club of America must as- 
sume what responsibility its name implies. Our duties cannot be set 
aside but our pleasures can. 
With this in mind, your Executive Committee has decided to 
abandon the Fifth Annual Meeting which was to have been held with 
the Garden Club of Illinois on June 26, 27, and 28, 1917. 
It is with keen disappointment and real regret that this announce- 
ment is made but in these troublous times there is much new work to be 
done. This cannot be undertaken at the expense of established ac- 
tivities. Therefore women everywhere must sacrifice their leisure, 
amusements and luxuries. 
This is our sacrifice and those who have attended the Annual 
Meetings know how great a sacrifice it is, not only of enjoyment but of 
inspiration and advancement. 
Probably a business meeting will be called later to be held in New 
York and to discuss plans for the coming year. 
For the time, it only remains to thank the Garden Club of Illinois 
for its proffered hospitality and to express sincere regret that a pleasure 
so long anticipated must be further postponed. 
Elizabeth P. Martin, 
President. 
At a meeting of the Council of Presidents in New York on March 
1 6th, rumors of mobilization were heard. Ours is a peaceful craft 
but a useful one and when war comes a task of real importance and a 
service of true patriotism confronts us. 
In these days we do not beat our plowshares into swords, but be- 
hind the army of fighting men is the great army of tillers of the soil 
whose service to the nation is scarcely less important. 
This spring England is planting her lawns and borders with food 
crops; France is training her children for service in the fields. The 
world cannot afford another lean year. In America, we cannot afford 
to wait until we have been three years at war before beginning a great 
conservation movement. We must and can do it now. We have the 
land, we have the money, we are given credit for the energy. We 
must prove that we have the brains, ability and perseverance. 
One question considered in the Council of Presidents was: "What 
part should the Garden Club oe America take to reduce the high 
cost of living and what method can the Member Clubs suggest?" 
The last few weeks have changed the significance and bearing of that 
