MEMORIAL DAY FOR JULY

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 5, 1 June 1947, Page 6

MEMORIAL DAY FOR JULY

For the benefit of the many Unions whose monthly meetings are held early in the month, and are therefore deprived of any assistance from cur pages, in arranging for their programmes, we arc making an effort to provide something of value in the preceding month’s issue. The present number contains an article for “White Ribbon” Day in June, but some fort>-fonr Unions’ meetings will Ik over before it reaches them. Hence the necessity for earlier publication of relevant material. The shortage of staff at the printing office causes considerable delav in the ap|*arance of the current numbers each month, and until this'position is remedied (and may it be sOon!) tins column will be used to make suggestions for the meeting of the following month.

‘‘Memorial Day” is a fruitful occasion for the buildin up of our hopes and ideals. After long striving towards a goal which almost seems to recede before our eyes, it is good to look backward along the road, and to see again those cheerful “Happy Warriors" of the past. The great names of T. K. Taylor, in whose memory this dav was first set ar»art in our calendar, Dr. Bedford, L. M. Isitt, John Dawson, and the equally great ones of Mrs. Marv Clement Leavitt, Mrs. Don, Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. T. F.. Taylor, Agnes Slack-Sanders., and leading them all. that of our Founder, Miss Frances Willard, bring to our minds a brilliant, colourful pageant of glorious endeavour and great achievement.

And in our individual Unions there are many names to be remembered with love and thanksgiving. That long list read at Convention, and since added to, represents a vast volume of unrecorded service, and the many Unions who have suffered bereavement will not need to be prompted in regard to their Memorial Day observance. With so many in our minds, we can sing—“O fuller, sweeter is that life, And larger, ampler is the air; Eye cannot see or hear conceive, The giory there. Nor know to what high purpose Thou Dost yet employ their powers, Nor how, at Thy behest, they touch This life of ours. There are no tears within their eyes, With love they keep perpetual tryst, And praise and work and rest are one With Thee, O Christ.” —W. C. Piggott.