WASTEFULNESS

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 374, 18 August 1926, Page 8

WASTEFULNESS

There are quite a numl*q of women, members of W.C.T.P., usually considered to lie thrifty, careful persons, who ure at this moment guilty of tin* sin of wastefulness, but who would indignantly deny It if anyone taxed them with it. They are careful of their houses, their clothes, their money, their time, but there is one thing they have wanted, and that is the paper they wrote for the I’nion meeting. I hear an indignant snort from someone; “I was asked to write a j*aper, and I wrote it but I didn’t waste it. l took it to the meeting and read it. It was mentioned in the report in ’White Ribbon."’ Yes, my indignant friend, it was. That’s how I knew wou had wasted it. You hu«l a perfectly good paper on some useful subject, and you read It once, and then what? I Ad you lend it to a neighbouring Union to read at their meeting? “I didn’t know they wanted a ” Doubtless, nor did they, hut some o»,e of our little struggling country Unions would have blessed you for the oun of it to eke out the material they hud got for tneir small, dull meeiing. It’s no use to say that it was not w'orth lending. If it did to read at your meeting, why wouldn’t it do for some one else’s? If it wasn t very learned and intellectual, it must have had some kind of thought in it. and even if it made them laugh, that wouldn't hurt, would it? You wouldn't he there to hear them. As one who has spent a good deal of time at small Union meetings. I must say I don’t think they would laugh ut it or you. They would he too grateful for the help of having some material for their work. No, I Isdieve this waste occurs fioni thoughtlessness. A paper la written for a meeting, and is then throwm away. You cannot keep it in use for your own branch, because it has ser\e«! its purpose there. You do not know to whom it would be helpful, so you throw it in the fire and think no more about it. Why not address it to Misa M S. Powell. 120 diff-s Hoad. St. Clair. I bin edin. stamp it. and throw it in the post instead? She knows who wants papers, though you don't. And you will la*

able to liorrow’ someone else’s papers to help in your meetings. Every number of “White Rihlion’’ contains rel*orts of j*apers read by members at meetings all over the country. Som** people rej*ortlng in the July Issue were so rich that they report, ‘‘Six \ ery excellent impers were read” at one meeting. Hut most of these are then thrown away. “To what pun*>*«* is this waste?’ The hahy Unions and the little far away, struggling ones who have for years tried to hold together, and yet have such difficulty in providing subjects for their meetings, need the help of those who have the time to read or the more frequent op|*ortunlty of hearing speakers. You cannot go to them and speak to them, blit you need not throw away w hat you have taken the trouble to write, when you no longer need it for your own meeting They would 1m» glad to have it. (Jive them the chance to get it. A RICE r. WEBB.