The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1899-01-12

ted States beat out the sun by two
u minutes. In other words the sun
never sets on the territory of this land.
Before 1t can set in one extreme its
face peeps above the ocean at the
other, and on the longest day Of the
year the flag beats the sun and has two
minutes to spare. Sixteen minutes are
added as the extreme limit to any day
in the equation of time; the flag has
eighteen over the half of the twenty
four hours. 1t is a narrow margin. but
it will do. as the following demonstra-
ton will show.
1t was not necessary for the United
States navy TO take the Canaries In
order to extend the territory eastward.
The taking of Porto Rico put the eX-
IRENE eastern borders just ninety min
utes of longitude farther east and six
minutes of time in the same direction.
Passport. Me-. which for all the life of
the nation before the Spanish war. held
the honor, must now yield the palm to
Porto Rico. But the difference is COM
paratively trifling. Porto Rico COM
mences-just out of the Saragossa sea
in longitude GJ degrees 80 minutes
west. PASSPORT is within half a mile of
81 degrees west. This makes the diff
ference ninety minutes of longitude in
favor of Porto Rico. Fifteen minutes
of longitude equal one minute of time,
so the island wins by six minutes in
time.
With Porto Rico for the extreme
eastern starting point, the flag runs
with the sun to the Philippines. TAX
ing Manila as the western point-al-
though it is not the extreme point
and these United States extend over
1Si degrees 81 minutes and 4 seconds
of longitude. That is nearly five de-
grces more than half the circumfer-
ence of the earth. The difference in
time between Porto Rico's eastern
point and the cathedral in Manila IS
twelve hours and eighteen minutes. In
other words, when it was a. IN. in
Porto Rico Saturday morning it was
10 p. m. Friday in Manila. This is.
of course, reckoning all from east to
west. OF course out somewhere in the
mighty Pacific they play fantastic
tricks and take their time from Toxic.
Singapore or some other oriental city
and lose a day, but that is another
story.
But the sun pays no attention to the
fantasies of man; he just goes on and
shows his face as the earth revolves on
Its axis. So it will he seen with this
wide variation of time covering thou
sands of miles, the sun will not set in
Manila on Friday before it has made
the eastern coast of the western CONT
nent. In Porto Rico it will have lifted
its disc above the tumbling waves for
several minutes in the summer and not
he far away in the dead of winter. So
the flag is never wholly in the dark
ensign and stripes somewhere in the
earth every minutes of the day.
These United States did not need to
go beyond their original limts-that is,
their transcontinental limits-to be
larger than any other land on earth.
The United States on this continent,
excluding Alaska and measuring in de-
grees of longitude only continuous ter
ritory, covers 80 degrees. This limit is
taking San Francisco as the western
objective. although the California city
Is not as far west as some others far
Their north. The difference in time be-
tween the extreme eastern coast at
PASSPORT and San Francisco Is three
hours and forty minutes. quite an ex-
tent of territory. From the seat of
government the time difference is just
three hours.
Westward the star of empire. etc,
has been eXemplified in nearly all that
the United States have done. Most
people would believe that when Hawaii
and the rest of the Sandwich group
were taken in by treaty that the west
ward limits were extended, yet this Is
far from being true. Honolulu is IL
degrees in longitude, or forty minutes
in time, east of Dawson City, Alaska
and over an hour east of the extreme
western limits of the northern terri.
tory. But a big jump was made to the
west until longitude began TO read east
when Dewey licked Montejo in Manila
bay.
Incidentally these United States
cover a large amount of distance in lat
tn nj