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The Oficers’ Conference President Speaks on the Conference Theme annual Ontario Women‘s Institutes Offi- cers‘ Conference: “To whom much is given of him much shall be required". the provincial president, Mrs. L. R. Trivers reâ€" minded the women that “the lines had fallen to them in pleasant places.” “Let’s pretend." she said, "that your soul or mine had been placed in the body of a person living in the steaming jungles of Africa. Can you imagine how difâ€" ferent your life might be? You might now be pounding out the laundry on the stones in a river or carrying a basket of fruit on your head or grinding up medicine prescribed by the medicine-man for your sick child. It is purely by accident that our lives are placed where they are.” Among the things that have been given us Mrs. Trivers listed the freedom of living in a democracy, the opportunities for education and our high standard of living. We did not create our democratic freedoms; democracy originated with the ancient Greeks; it was fur- ther developed by the Romans; and our British ancestors had a hand in it when they established Magna Charta. The basis for our education, our culture, our medicine was given to us by men like Socrates, Plato and Hippocrates; of the classics used in our children’s education, some of the best were written by Shakespeare nearly 400 years ago. Our standard of living gives us not only material comforts but enter- tainment and travel and leisure and health services. SPEAKING ON the theme of the sixteenth * * * LIP WISDOM By Jane Sayre \Vhen I was one and twenty, Concerned with much undone, I criticized aplenty The ways of everyone. I cried of change and nettled My kin with verbal storms; And, in my mind, I settled The world with my reforms. But folks went on unheeding . . . At thirty, I could see The change the world was needing Began, somehow, with me. * ‘k * SUMMER l964 Mrs. Trivers, Presidenl F.W.I.O. and the Hon. W. A. Stewart, Ontario Minister of Agricullure, speakers ol lhe Conference. “How are we using these things?” the presi- dent asked. “We claim to uphold democracy but we have a class system in which people are graded according to their financial sucâ€" CESS: and the "haves" are not very much con- cerned about the “have nots." Those born into poverty have little prospect of ever getting out of it. There is a moral slackness in our society. So long as a man has wealth it doesn't matter much to us how he got it. We are preâ€" pared lo accept all sorts of snide practices in business because no one Wants to rise up and protest. We are mentally lazy. No end of education is offered to us but what do we turn to on our TVs and radios? Usually someâ€" thing to make us laugh. We expect great things of our children; we may even expect them at the end of a day of hard work at school to continue with four hours of homeâ€" work whilc we enjoy ourselves with some light entertainment on television.” Mrs. Trivers suggested several problems in our own communities and our own province worth study and action by Women's institutes, institutes were organized not only for improved homes but for improved citizenship. she said. Today we have better homes. better education, better health services because the early Wom- en‘s Institutes worked for them. There is still work to be done to improve the social and economic life of our people and we need ideas from the best minds in our organization. One of our difficulties is that we have become self centred. in our state of comparative affluence we can afford to think of others. (A man whose child is starving cannot be expected to think much about the hunger of someone else). Our organization gives us opportunities for friendshipâ€"local. national and international. In the words of our collect. the president said: "May we strive to touch and know the great human heart common to us all. And oh Lord God. let us not forget to be kind.“ 13