Useful Employment of Leisure STUDY to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands, that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without and that ye may have lack of nothing. Thus wrote the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, advising them how to employ their idle time. He hath no leisure that useth it not, runs a proverb. Another observes that idle people have the least leisure. In his wisdom Quintus Ennius, the Roman poet and philosopher, declared that he who does not know how to employ leisure will not be able to employ his business hours profitably. Seneca observed that leisure without books is like death and the one who so misuses it is buried alive. The study of this subject has long been recognized for its importance in the development of character and the improvement of morals. Educators, civic workers, club leaders and directors of wholesome amusements from all parts of the state have been attending conference in Salt Lake City for two days past for the discussion of recreational leisure and the best methods of employing it. There have been periods in the development of almost every section of this country when leisure was a negligible portion of daily life. This was particularly so on farms when almost every task was accomplished by main strength, and in shops where workers put in long hours and ate hurried meals to keep from being docked. Of recent years laws, customs, mechanical appliances and welfare organizations have made it possible to loaf part of the time. As misdirected idleness generally leads to mischief and formation of bad habits, the problem of employing leisure hours so they retain the desirable elements of rest and recreation without being lost to the individual or the race, is a matter of earnest consideration. Richard Bright (1789-1858) was led into his celebrated discovery of Brights disease through an inquiry into dropsy. University of Edinburgh, Scotland The youngest of the Scottish universities, was founded in 1582-1583 and chartered by James VI. The Medical Faculty was founded about 1726 by Alexander Monro (primus). John Rutherford and others who studied under Boerhaave and carried the Leyden traditions to Edinburgh. During the past four years, the need of a solution has become urgent. Panics, lockouts and economic disturbances have filled the land with unwilling loafers. The government, by a lavish distribution of money and the establishment of relief work, carried forward under the supervision of general, special and local agencies, known as bureaus, has been trying to steer these involuntary loafers past the pitfalls of savagery along civilized pathways. The purpose of these conferences is to devise ways and means to encourage people with idle time on their hands to make it valuable. Besides the great army of unemployed whose rank and file grow restless and dangerous under enforced idleness, those who are employed have intermissions. With working schedules of 30 to 35 hours a week only five or six hours a day there is a lot of time to be wasted irretrievably or utilized to advantage. Boys and girls are entitled to their chance in the busy world and ought to use some of their time for themselves when they give so much of it to their employers. If life is worth living and its work worth doing, leisure should be worth enjoying. There are many ways to profitably employ those hours that every worker should regard and treasure as his very own. They include social entertainment, such as dancing, amateur acting, reciting, singing and playing musical instruments. There are outdoor sports and games. Window shopping is an innocent and educational pastime. Collection hobbies arouse interest and pride in possession. Indulging the restless mind and body in long walks or mental excursions; writing fancies, impressions, experiences and descriptions of scenery; visiting libraries, art galleries and museums all these occupations in idle hours are elevating and educational. Most people on wage or salary have hours of leisure these days to where they had minutes a few years ago. The trend of the times is to still further increase these intervals in length and number. The way to employ them advantageously is worth serious contemplation. To stimulate interest in making both life and leisure worth while is the main object of these conferences. The richest soil if uncultivated produces the rankest weeds. PLUTARCH WARNERS CALENDAR OF MEDICAL HISTORY