Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1899-01-13
TN THE race against time the Uni
Il 4al NEr4c IL liz t1I,A

ted States beat out the sun by two
never sets on the territory Of this land.
Before it 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
i'll the equation OF time; the nag has
eighteen over the half of the twenty
four hours. 1t is 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-
treme eastern borders just ninety min
utes of longitude farther east and six
Eastport, 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 trifiing. Porto Rico COM
mences-just out of the Saragossa sea
in longitude 65 degrees 80 minutes
west. Eastport is within half mile of
67 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 pont-al-
though it is not the extreme point
and these United States extend over
1S4 degrees 80 minutes and seconds
of longitude. That is nearly five de-
grees 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 n. m. in
Porto Rico Saturday morning 1t was
4:42 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 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 1t will be 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 Atlantic ruby red in the vicinity of
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
be far away in the dead of winter. So
the flag Is never wholly in the dark
these days, as the sun flashes on its
ensign and stripes somewhere in the
earth every minutes of the day.
These United States did not need tC
go beyond their original limits-that is
their transcontlnental limts-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 II
taking San Francisco as the western
objective, although the California city
Is not as far west as some others far
ther north. The difference in time be
tween the extreme eastern coast n
Eastport and San Francisco Is thre,
hours and forty minutes, quite an ex
tent of territory. From the seat o
government the time difference Is Jus
three hours.
Westward the star of empire, etc
has been eXemplllied in nearly all tha
the United States have done Mos
people would believe that when Hawai-
and the rest of the Sandwich grou
were taken in by treaty that the west
ward limits were extended, yet this
far from being true. Honolulu is /
degrees in longitude, or forty minute
in time, east of Dawson City, Alaski
| and over an hour east of the extrem
western limits of the northern terr
, tory. But big jump was made to tn
west until longitude began to read eas
when Dewey licked Montejo in Manil
bay.
Incidentally these United State
/ cover large amount of distance in In
| ituda Thpv RIM from tha arctic oirnI