The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1912-10-03
q Err M ANS. PLAN TO
NORMALlZE THE WORLD
Time Refashioned and
Arithmetic Completely
0verhauIed.

The day Of the future will therefore
begin at 6 in the morning, but it will
be called 0 o'clock, and what is now
b:45 a. m. will be 80 o'clock.
A Similar reduction to reason is sug-
gested for the system Of changing the
date The day should change not as it
now does on the $50 meridian, but a
little to the east, so that it will coin
eide with the American Pacific coast,
That will give the Pacific ocean an alb
solute unity as regards dates. At pres
ent it is Monday in the eastern islands
OF the Pacific when it is still Sunday in
the western islands,
New Years day also badly wants
transfer. The present New Years day
Is wrongly placed, and, though nobody
says so, everybody ignores it in prac-
tice. Financial years, school years and
many other years are dated from
spring to spring. This is clumsy, and
instead of 1910, 1911, 1912, we have to
write 1901, 1911-12, and so on.
Statistics usually adhere to the calen-
dar years; hence there is confusion.
We have the statistics Of a country
for single year, but the finances for
three-quarters of one year and quar-
ter of the next. This could be remedied
by putting New Years day in its log
1cal place. The real beginning of the
year is the beginning of spring-that
Is, the 21st Of March at a. m. For
convenience sake the best day to
choose would be the first of April.
simplifcation of Metric System.
simplifcation Of the metric system is
required by PROFESSOR Ostwald. The
system will gain acceptance every
where only if it is simplified. The me-
ter should be the standard Of measure
ment for land. Acres, hectares and
other superficial measures must be
abandoned. Seven hundred and fifty
| thousand square meters of land'' will
| henceforth be the expression. The OBJ
lection is that this gives no one any
idea Of area. The schematizers reply
that this is true only at first A per-
son used to calculating in English
pounds sterling has no idea at first Of
10000 francs, but he soon gets used
to it.
OstWald is strongly in favor of
homogeneous money system. His pro-
posal for unit is a gram Of gold.
That is worth about 70 cents. 1t will
be divided into a hundred parts, as are
the American dollar and the French
and German francs and marks.
DR.. Hermann Kaufman is the in
ventor of reformed international al
phabet. It is called the 'hygienic-log-
1cal alphabet It is logical because
it has one letter to every sound and
hygienic because it is based upon sound
study Of the human eye. The present
system of printed type, says Kauff-
mann, is absurd and an anachronism
It is a mere servile copy of the old
fashioned handwriting.
Handwriting. having to be done with
a pen. developed Of necessity system
founded on strokes. But printing does
not need to be so done. Strokes are
bad for the eyes and hard to read; the
eye naturally prefers to deal with
black, solid surfaces. Kauffmann's ex-
periments with the eye prove that His
system has characters that are solid.
angular, round and irregular ink blots
When printed merely the same size as
newspaper type they can be read at
double the distance and without ia
tgue. In week you can learn fluent
ly to read anything printed in your
own language in ARCHAEOLOGICAL
type.
No Decimal Arithmetic.
Decimal arithmetic is the last ene-
my of the schematizers: It must be
abandoned. they say, in favor Of the
duodecimal. which formerly prevailed
Instead of calculating in tens and hun
and one hundred and forty-fours.
The units will not, however. be
written II and IA. New charac-
tiers will be invented, but that will
be their value. Instead Of the present
ten Arabic numerals from naught to
eleven will both have independent nu-
merals to represent them. In future
people will count-nine, ten, eleven.
twelve, One-twelve, two-tWelve. and so
on, and they will count-ninety, tenty.
eleventy. hundred, the new hundred
being equal to IA. The advantage Of
this system for practical life is great.
One hundred and forty-four is really
more logical and complete unit than
100, as it can be divided up Indefinite
~ in twos and threes.
Most Of these proposals. say the
schematizers. will make no real diff
Guilty. The change in arithmetic. is
the only exception. That is remote
ideal. The other changes would cause
a little confusion and worry for "A few
days. but they would save the perma-
Oont confusion and Uor,.v oa,,eoa h,,