1930 - Annual Convention Report

              62 A L B E R T A W O M E N ' S I N S T I T U T ES
Probably the best way to gauge our advance up to this point is to com­pare
ourselves with others similarly placed, with our sisters on the prairies,
in the Maritimes, on the west coast, in old Ontario and Quebec. Nothing is
easier or can be more accurate. Can we note any ' tendency here to lag behind
i n those things that matter, in the welfare of children, of our own families, in
the general health of trie Province, in the efficiency of our educational system,
in our efforts to raise the highest type of Canadian citizen? The Biennial
Report issued last fall is in. our hands, a familiar sight to the women of A l ­berta,
for it is the work of M r s . A . H . Rogers of Fort Saskatchewan, and as
a handbook showing the results of the F. W. I. C. Convention held at Saskatoon
last June, it could not be surpassed in accuracy and brevity. There informa­tion
is l i k e the city of Jerusalem, compactly built together, and perusing these
pages we see that your provincial contribution in work, though but a fraction
of the task set for the Dominion, stands creditably beside that of any Pro­vince,
and that with all modesty, it could not be dispensed with. In compari­son
with the rest of Canada, Alberta, in Federation with her sister provinces,
is upholding the honor of the family. Self- criticism is not spared, oppor­tunities
for improvement are noted, ideas already put elsewhere to the test,
are borrowed, experience is common property. In vigilance i n regard to our
children, their health, habits, training, education, the women of our great
Federation are literally standing on guard in the truest patriot love. Not as
an idle boast, but in all sincerity do we sing " Oh, Canada, W e Stand on Guard
for Thee." Not alone for Alberta, not for Saskatchewan, do we thus stand,
but for our wide Dominion. This is our attitude at the moment. What may
not be accomplished w i t h women united heart and soul, from coast to coast
in such an attitude for the next ten years 1
Children w i l l be privileged to be well- born, well- trained; school will have
forgotten the shade of the prison- house, the lagging school- boy will have
passed into the limbo of myths, the growing girl w i l l get time to grow, freed
from non- essential school tasks, boys and girls, the parents of the future,
w i l l learn in hygiene, in history, in literature, in economics, how important
it is to preserve a race, strong, alert, active and intelligent, and how great
and grave a matter life is in the storm and stress of scientific and social pro­gress.
Here the rural women of Canada, the women of our F. W. I. C. have a
field that they can hold, for theirs is the deepest interest, the interest of the
mother in the home. Yes, undoubtedly there is room for every worker, need
for study, for comparative research. At present demands are made that Pro­vincial
Governments provide adequate homes for young delinquents. Let it
be our a im to make it possible to dispense with such institutions, to protect
young people against their temptations and even against themselves; let us
try to have the crippled, the blind, the deaf, cared for and treated at an early
stage, so that in some cases there w i l l be a prevention of saddened and dimin­ished
lives. Our schools are already shaking off the fetters of uniformity
with a view to developing the personality of the child, rather than producing
a mine of information. These. I maintain are results not to be obtained by a
narrow and provincial effort, but by a national co- operation. W i t h the wel­fare
of the child assured, no misgivings should prevail upon us to doubt the
inevitable advance that must characterize the next generation of Canadians,
and these denote changes that the Federated Women's Institutes have assisted
in bringing about, and toward which their concerted efforts have tended. The
next decade, in logical progression, must reap very visible benefits from so
much thoughtful and systematic endeavor.
This evening, by inviting a stranger to enjoy your hospitality, you have
established a fresh human contact, one which, like the waves of the wireless,
w i l l be preserved for all time in your memory, in mine. To measure the
reach of human contact is beyond any human instrument. How boundless