The Alaska daily empire., 1916-08-08
JUNEAU AND THE RIGHT TIME.

We are all justly proud of Juneau, Mir. Editor, its spirit, the character of it's people and the progress it has made Our streets are crowded with automobiles and general traffic; our docks with the cargoes of an hum dred ships. We have moving pie ture houses galore where one can laugh or cry for an hour ali for twenty-five cents We have fine hotels and restaurants where one can so slow or so broke expeditions fly and pleasantly Our fire depart ment is the pride of our heart, while our police force, resplendent in new uniforms and the brightest of brass buttons, though small. is one of the finest. Our banks are as solid as the government itself and, on any business day. if you think lt will add to your joy in life, you are privileged to visit them and gaze upon more real gold coin than there can possibly be in existence. Our stores are crowded with merchan- disc from all the coasts of the seven seas. You can buy in them lanythlng that your heart desires and have the money to pay for Then there are our newspapers, our churches, our school system, our electric light system, our water sys- tenn and other popular institutions. And beyond all there are the mighty mines and mills that make Juneau what 1t is.
 Time, Ladies and Gentlemen, (you will pardon me- Mir. Editor, if ap- pear to talk across you), is mighty important thing. and, with all her wealth and activities, Juneau never has the right time. Did you ever see an orchestra or a band without leader? Of course you have not. Well, here we have the cu- rious spectacle of a modern, pro- gressiye city that, so far as the right time is concerned, is simply running amuck. The whole universe is based upon the right time; the stars in their courses are governed by it. But our dear Juneau runs on schedule of her own, bobbing about on either side of the meridian, using it as a skipping rope in fact, and enjoying 1t. It is bad for her; it is disrespectful and it is wrong.
 Generally speaking, everybody has watch Watches are cheap. You can get them from a dollar up or a dollar down. A man may have an expensive one, or 1t may be cheap one, or it may be a gift, giy- en to him. doubtful cigar is some times bestowed on a friend, to get rid Of it. At any price and in any manner acquired, a mans watch is cherished possession. It is his balance wheel and he has in it the faith, justiGable or not, that moves mountains. All men more or less worship at the altar Of truth, and here is truth enshrined as it were, in his waistcoat pocket. It's owner may drink. fight, swear, rob the children's bank beat his wife, and do many other reprehensible things, but he feels that he has with him that which will redeem him, one thing at least that is undeyiatingly certain and true. The sun is not more absolute in it's diurnal round. It is his particular vanity and he is ready to wager all that he has upon the information 1t furnishes. Then there is that parish among time pieces. the kitchen clock. The ay- craze mans generous belief in his possessions would extend to that also if his wife would only leave it alone. But a woman has her own weird notions about time and its management, and the kitchen clocl, is peculiarly within her domain. She will set a clock because she thinks it is time to set it; and she will set it by the church bells, or an automobile horn or the weather or because she thinks it looks bet ter when it's hands are in cer- tain position. Time and chance happeneth to all; but time and chance in Juneau are inextricably mingled. with never chance for time. Who ever heard of any one Keeping an appointment. As Rug gles would say, Tt isn't done"
 The point is that among all these watches and clocks, broadly speak ing, no two of them can be found to agree, and no organized attempt has ever been made, that am aware of, to establish the standard and bring them into harmony The matter has become an important one with the growth of Juneau in population and business. Modern life is to a large extent governed by the clock, and if clocks are per- mitted to have only opinions about the right time, and not the right time itself, the reason for their eX- istence ceases. To an extent we should be as well off without them. The synchronization of the watches and clocks of Juneau. then, has become highly desirable. Harmony among our timepleces once estab- lished, then will there be a true democracy among men, and mans ...tfr ,w.flaV