THE STORY OF THE WOMEN'S INSTITUTE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND AND
WALES AND SCOTLAND. By J. M. Robertson Scott. (The Village Press, Idbury. 6s. 6d.) Tan Women's Institute Movement has found an efficient and sympathetic chronicler in Mi. Robertson Scott. Its rapid development proves that these Institutes were badly wanted. First started in Canada, they were introduced here in 1915 under the Agricultural Organization Society, and in 1917 were
transferred to the Board of Agriculture. The 3,383 Institutes composed of 204,460 members in 1925 were subsidized by a Government grant of only £950, which compares favourably with the grant of 110,000 in 1921. Shortly the Women's Institutes will be entirely self-supporting. In wartime the club interests centred on Food Production and household economies; but now the study of handicrafts is chiefly pursued, with excellent results. As a means for bringing women together for 'social recreation and intellectual and domestic improvement the Women's Institutes have justified their existence, and the democratic and constitutional way in which they are managed, or rather in which they manage themselves, is in itself an education to women in the correct way of conducting affairs.
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