Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-10-30

the earth for a considerable portion
Of the year upon which the sun doe.
not rise or set. So 1t would not be
possible for people in the polar
zones to count the days, if they re
lied on sunset or sunrise to mark
the beginning of new day
But in strict accuracy, even if We
agreed to fix the beginning of The
day at one of the four times above
mentioned, still no two men would
have exactly the same absolute day
The day would begin for man
mile west OF me, four seconds at
ter my day began But We obviate
this confusion in the United States
by dividing our country into zones
| fifteen degrees wide and when We
change time SO as to more nearly
agree Nth our longitude, we move
our time piece through one whole
hour,-back if we are travelling west,
and forward, if We travel east.
To illustrate more fully the fore
going simple facts; This day is Wed
nesday and next Sunday does not
now exist anywhere on the earth.
1t will exist in New York before it
comes to US. 1t will exist in Lon
don before it comes to New York.
How many hours is Sunday on the
earth before it comes to us? 1t
will exist here twenty-four hours and
1t will continue to exist to the west
OF us for many hours after it has
ceased to exist here; and as mat
/ ter of fact it stays on the earth a
little more than fifty hours, and a
large part of the world is calling
its day Saturday or Monday while
we call it Sunday. If the earth
were flat, and the sun moved across
the sky as it appears to do, sun
rise and sunset, midday and mid
night would exist at the same time
for all of us.
1t must be apparent to every
thinker that what we know about
time is purely relative. The names
or the numbers We give to the days
of the week or the days of the
month is of very little Importance,
but it is of great Importance that
We should secure harmony and pre-
vent confusion.
Our railway operators do not hest
tate to abandon the true local time
of the place where their train is.
and accept instead a relative time
by which they secure harmony and
prevent confusion and collisions.
But we have among us a sect that
places great stress upon the num-
Der given to the days of the week,
and they regard it as their sacred
duty to rest on what is enormously
called the Seventh day of the week,
and they begin and end the Observ-
ance of that day strictly at sundown
These people are sincere, industries
economical and self sacrificing. They
seem to think the whole moral code,
''the teachings of the law and the
prophets" all turns upon keeping as
a rest day, what they call the Sew
enth day. This brings confusion in
n q
people observe Sunday as their day
of worship and rest They may be,
and doubtless are generally good
kind, and obliging neighbors, but we
can cooperate and do business with
them only five days in the week.
This makes it bad in a business way
and brings to their neighborhood con
fusion as to the day of rest 1t IS,
in social way, sort of a train
collision caused by a difference in
the method Of computing time; for
as stated above, which is the first,
or which is the seventh day depends
solely upon where we begin to
count the turns of the earth as a
body
When human beings become firm
y set in any hobby it is useless to
try to reason with them. So l would
suggest that We try to induce them
to go or trip round the earth, |
going east. If on that trip they
would rest strictly on what they call
the seventh day, beginning and end
ing their day of rest at shutdown,
On arriving here from the west they
would find themselves resting on the
same day of the week that we rest |
But they would call it the seventh |
day, while we would still be calling
it the first day of the week. This
difference would be purely nominal, |
and we would be rid of the old con-
fusion, and besides their trip might |
convince them that the earth is a
sphere that rotates on its axis,