The Social Study Club, established between 1898 and 1902, which led up to the formation of the University Settlement, owes its existence to the Local Council, and as early as 1894 the latter body was considering the question of industrial education. Investigations into industrial conditions were made and reports presented to the Royal Commission. Laws affecting women and children, and labour conditions, have been promoted so that women factory inspectors and the amended shop act were obtained, and many other ameliorations for the women workers.
It has made careful study of the questions relating to special treatment of mentally defective children and the segregation of feeble-minded women of child-bearing age, while the matter of segregation of male defectives has also been considered.
The education of mentally defective children in the province has been studied and recommendations given to the provincial government, while another important matter which it has endeavoured to promote is compulsory education. Great interest has been taken in the recreational and social side of education, notably in the supervision of play grounds. At a meeting held under the auspices of the local council an outgrowth was the resolution to form a larger movement which developed from the already existing Parks Protective Association into a Parks and Playgrounds Association, as the new organization became in name, having the addition of women on its board.
Among other social reforms the council has secured the registration of births since 1899. Various jail and reformatory ameliorations, such as police matrons and assistance for discharged prisoners, have been accomplished, and the movement promoted which, through the efforts of the Montreal Women’s Club, led to the formation of the Children’s Aid Society, the chief result of which has been the establishment of the Juvenile Court. The preliminary agitation which ended in the formation of the Charity Organization Society was conducted by the local council, seven members of its executive becoming members of the first board of directors of the Charity Organization Society.
The cause of temperance has received careful attention from the council, in conjunction with the Fédération Nationale, so that 70,000 signatures were signed in favour of an amendment to the license law, the suggestion being adopted by Government.
Notably, since 1910, the local council with the Fédération Nationale and other women’s societies have cooperated with the Citizens’ Association and other bodies working for municipal reform. A large proportion of the 8,000 women voters of the city registered at the polls, showing the success of the new movement, which has been continued to 1914.
In 1912 the Child Welfare Exhibition found the local council from the first one of the coordinate cooperating societies organizing and carrying out the exhibition. In this the women’s societies of Montreal, French and English, took charge of the sections relating to their special aptitudes and previous experience. The council were represented on the executive and beyond special work in the exhibition, undertook the charge of the “Explainers” committee in English and Yiddish.
In aid of the combined women’s charities of Montreal the Local Council has cooperated with the Fédération Nationale in holding two successful tag days.
The council has also taken interest in the subject of immigration and suggested useful ameliorations.