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FOREWORD Believing that events of yesterday can give us guide lines for today and tomorrow, and the achievements of the past 'in5pire us for the responsibilities of our time, the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario present this "Ontario Women's Institute Story." In the year 1947, the fiftieth anniversary of the Women's Institute movement, the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario published a book, "Fifty Years of Achievement." This Was a history of the Ontario Women's Institutes in the period from 1897 to 1947 -- the founding of the organization, its growth and accomplishments and its spread to other provinces of Canada and other parts of the world, NOW'We come to another milestone in Women's Institute history, the seventy-fifth anniversary celebrated on February 19th, 1972. It was felt by many of the members and the Provincial Board that events and developments of the .last quarter-century should be recorded too, and the task was assigned to a committee. The committee felt that if the book is to have clarity for readers of the present and the future, it would not be enough to begin where "Fifty Years of Achievement" left off. Early events are inseparany linked with what comes later; so the new volume sketches the basic histOry of the Women's Institutes from the beginning, This is necessary also because, except for file copies, "Fifty Years of Achievement" is now out of print. "The Ontario Women's Institute Story" does not review or repeat'the general content of "Fifty Years of Achievement" -- from the perspective of an added quarter-century certain events may have lost some of their relative significance. But happily every- thing in "Fifty Years . . will be preserved in the archives for future reference; and we would pay a grateful tribute to the authors for this book of fascinating history and human interest. While "The InStitute Story" coVers the basic. history of Women's Institutes from their beginning, the reader may find an emphasis on events of the last tWenty-five years. The, original and continuing V i i I l I l I