The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-15

| fall each change to be binding Tor SIX
months of the year. We are not sure
whether he expected to thus make the
sun rise earlier at one season and set
later at the other. but at any rate he
proposed by this means to save an
hour of daylight throughout the year
and give people one hour more to
work.
Brilliant scheme. was It not7 Some
people are too slow about getting out
of bed at one season and too fast In
getting into It at another. so this re-
former proposed that the law and the
timepieces should regulate them. But
to his surprise and chagrin the Par
lament refused to see 1t as he did
The refusal. however. was managed
in the formal and serious way that
things are done In that ancient body
of statesmen! When the bin to regu-
late time was introduced in the House
| of Commons II would have been nat.
ural. IL they had been Americans. for
some member to jump up and move to
lay the bill on the table.
That would have been the Ameri-
can way OF dealing with the PROPOSE
tion. They might have managed In
some way to permit debate. and there
would have been floods Of eloquence
poured out. but In the end the propo-
sition would have been properly bur-
led and soon forgotten. however much
Its author and originator might have
felt chsgrined at the sade fate of his
luminous conception. But the Parlia-
ment of England never does things
that way. They believe that every
| thing shall be done decently and In
order. so a special committee was
formed to which the matter was re-
ferred for investigation and sugges-
tion. with orders to report after due
elaboration.
One might have thought that such
proposition would have been settled
In short order by the committee, and
1t might have been done over here.
hut that, again, is not the British way
of doing things. The special commit
tee deliberated year over it and then
reported adversely. and that settled 1t.
The Parliament refuses to enter into
that branch OF reform business and
there's nothing more to be done. Even
the King cannot call an extra session
to reform the clocks. so this reformer
must hunt another place to work the
reform business.
All this causes The New Haven Reg.
lister to say:
"a There h, re, is 81 no objection to sensible
for reform will be worth while IL 1t
shall serve tot call attention to the
fact that the sun does rise earlier In
the summer than In winter. There are
which the majority wastes in sleep.
or at least in bed. They are the
coolest, the freshest. the most valu-
able hours OF the day. II all workers
should do their work before / o'clock
for four of the summer months, they
would be healthier and happier. per-
haps wiser. That might be arranged
between employer and employe. That
could be done without upsetting every
thing. Perhaps something like that
probably seen the beginning of the
end of law-enforced daylight saving.
OF course there can be no valid OBJ
lection to saving daylight" when
that is possible, for beyond a doubt
too much Of it is wasted. There are
those who do themselves harm by
burning too much midnight oil. but
there are many others who waste
great deal of daylight and try to make
it up by substituting the night hours
when they should be resting and
sleeping. They would do much bet
ter to rise earlier. finish their work
and go to bed in due time. That old
saying about "early to bed and early
to rise" has q lot of hard sense In
It.
But this fault cannot be broken UP
and corrected by law. Not even an
Alabama reformer. with a wild and
woolly Legislature to back him, could
enact and enforce a law to regulate
the rising and setting of the sun or
of the people. or to fix their hours Of
sleep. We are just a bit surprised
that 1t has not been attempted. and II
may come yet. but the time has not
arrived. If precept and example can
not cause people to save daylight the
law cannot do 1t. The English re-
former went a little further than
some of our own have done, and we
suspect that some of them feel en-
vious. But he failed.
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