1930 - Annual Convention Report

              S I X T E E N T H A N N U A L C O N V E N T I ON < 55
cave- man idea of imposing obedience on his wife. Personally I was never
asked to take that vow, but perhaps Scots L a w is more elastic. In spite of
Tennyson there is not yet the age of con'fusion. Similarly that novel, so much
discussed several years ago, " This Freedom," by A . S. M . Hutchinson, is not
fair to the working married mother, the ultra modern and gifted one, who pro­vided
her children with every care and attention from salaried nurses and
teachers. She did not merit the Nemesis that overtook her whole family. If
personal attendance were everywhere essential from the mother to the child,
then woe betide the B r i t i s h aristocracy, and the wealthy Americans.
" Wise women, balanced women, are what are needed," said Dr. Henry
Drummond years ago, and where can one find such more readily than in the
Women's Institutes? This world will be better for our organization; children
in the mass will grow up with a better chance in the light of modern know­ledge,
and in the home the mother who gives some time to the rest of the
world will still hope and pray that one day her own family may experience
at least the bliss of one beatitude and reach a share in the kingdom of
heaven. As I said, every contact is far- reaching, the wider our contacts the
richer the influence. Far horizons clarify the vision; a Canadian viewpoint
embraces and surpasses the Albertan. the Ontarian; a Federated Women's
Institute reveals the richest elements of its constituent parts. Truly our con­tacts
during the next ten years will be the live wires that electrify our exist­ence
and give us power and newness of life.
Proceeding again to gaze on our reflection in the mirror of the future,
after seeing the march of progress on the records of broad Standing Com­mittees,
in Education, Public Health, Child Welfare, Immigration, Home
industries, Legislation, Canadianization, etc., there is still a fraction of life
left out of the reckoning, one that is vital, the leisure hours. The future
would be a terror, deprived o'f some moments to go into retreat with one's
own soul. Time must go to the satisfaction of hobbies, of innate desires, of
flights of fancy. To drift the time away does little obvious good, although in
the stress under which some of us live, an hour of folded hands might prove
a recreating tonic. In general however many tempting and alluring prospects
lie waiting for the scanty leisure. Grasp all the time you can, let your taste
have its run, do the thing you love to do, and never let yourself call it an
indulgence. Self- expression is a need in life, and develops the character. If
reading is everything, read constantly; music stands the test for ever as a
relief from the commonplace; art is a refuge and a creative gift; " a garden is
a lovesome thing, God wot"; beautiful needlework makes the readiest appeal
to many women; social service and pious deeds are a solace to innumerable
hearts; nothing can excel the power of travel to enrich life. These are the
occupations of leisure, and each one has its intrinsic value. The influence of
the leisure hours, of what I might term productive leisure, is something that
makes any person more valuable to her friends, and thus of more account in
the world. A few years ago a most striking article appeared in Harper's
Magazine from the pen of E m i l y Newell Blair, a prominent American writer.
The article was entitled " I prepare to face fifty." Many of us are just there­about
with little or no preparation for what is in all likelihood the last lap
of life. Mrs. B l a i r argues that when the half- century is told, the time has
arrived when a woman has the right to do some l i v i n g for herself, to choose
how she will spend her time— those hours left over after duty, which never
ceases in this country, has been fulfilled. Youth can set a facile course in
this direction or that, but riper age must make a selection. Health does not
permit promiscuous energies, life is fleeting, and opportunity does not return.
Some time the desultory and routine filling in of spare time has to call a halt.
How true is this of the multiplicity of women's organizations. Instead of
expanding into half a dozen of these, why not concentrate on that in which