The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-26
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By FREDERIC }. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. C.
SAVING DAYLIGHT.
The Coal Shortage Gives This Econ
omy a New Meaning


The Coal Shortage Gives This Econ
omy a New Meaning
Washington, d. c., Dec. 24.-The
present urgent need for conserving
! fuel has raised the ghost of the day
light saving bill. This bill died
natural and peaceful death in the
house last spring, after having passed
| the senate and won the approval OF
the president and his cabinet. Now
| it has come to life again, and there
is talk of putting it thru as neces-
sary war measure.
The daylight saving bill proposed
putting the clocks ahead one hour in
the spring and turning them back
again in the fall. From April to Oc-
tober daylight arrives by o'clock or
before; perfectly good daylight in
which you can see to comb your hair,
thread a needle or catch a street car.
but on the majority of people it is
absolutely wasted. They are sleeping,
and don even know it is there. But
late at night, with the daylight long
since fed, they stay up, prolonging
their daily existence by means OF ar
tificial Hgn.
A Nurses Request.
Now this is a great extravaganza, as
any payer of gas or electric bills can
tell you, but under the present coal
/ -
| it is Il crime. Over in France coal
| is being distributed by the pound. We
have letters from Red Cross nurses to
prove it; otherwise, we wouldn't be-
lieve it. What would please me most
as a Chistmaj present." a nurse re-
Gently wrote to her wealthy American
father. "A ON with gloriously warm
temperature of siXty-a pair of sheets
that are not damp-the sight OF an old
| fashioned coal range, with coal in it,
and a teakettle humming and putting
| on the top"
Wasting Daylight.
Which incident is inserted for the
sake of arguing that if it is unpatri-
otto to waste food when people are
! going foodless in Europe. it is also
unpatriotic to waste ddyLght-and
thereby coaI-When they are going
! coalless. Or, for those who believe
| that charity should be in at home, it
is necessary only to point to our own
coal shortage. Duril g the past month
many people have nearly frozen from
| lack of fuel to burn who never sus-
| pected that such a fate awaited them.
Apartment Mouse jewellers have sud
| denly been informed by polite but pes
| simistic janitors that there was no
more coal in the cellar; people with
large residences but no coal have had
! to take refuge in hotels and tenement
] house jewellers, unable to afford
coal substitute, have died or adjourned
1 to the free wards of the city hospitals
Broadway Dims It's Lights.
All these disastrous results of the
coal famine, however, have created
but a mere ripple of comment COM
pared to the horrifed splash that oc-
CURED when Broadway was compelled
to dim its lights a few hours earlier
than usual Yet thousands of tons of
coal will be saved in those few hours,
Il sffNV-S. toll lou
tmuch more coal would be saved if
people went to bed and arose-an hour
earlier.
AS it is, we are all slaves to the
clock-a fact pointed out by the advo-
Gates of the Dayligh Saving bill last
spring We no longer follow sun
time, o. pay any attention to the mat
ter CT daylight at all. During the
summer months daylight begins as
early as half-rast in tie morning,
pass before the majority of Americans
leave their beds. Having gotten a
| late start, there is very little daylight
| left after they finish their work at 5
O'Clock and eat their o'clock dinner.
Some men do manage to get in an
j hours tennis in the summer evenings,
thereby disrupting the whole family
routine which is regulated by the
clock, but there are thousands of peo-
pie who are deprived of any recrea-
| Iion at all simply py -thlS arbitrary
lruling.
Nothing Like Sunlight.
| There is nothing like good sunlight
| to stimulate the human desire to play
| People battle, picnic, play games and
| otherwise disport themselves in the
| frivolous manner for which the
species is famous during the day
| They can wear their most dilapidated
! clothes, and feel perfectly respectable
| But at night they don't do any of
these things, as rule. They wear
/ uncomforta BILE reSpecta BILE clothes and
| spend their leisure in a quiet respec-
table manner, occupying the porch
! furniture, patronizing ice cream par
| Tors, dancing an occasional dance,
Strolling an occasional stroll
The advocates of the Daylight Saw
ing bill are not inspired by sentiment,
however The bill is not intended to
be q philanthropic measure They
| would probably not have thought of
| the recreation feature at all if thew
mad not started taking a census Of
! opinion on the question in cities that
had already adopted the measure.
FROM the individuals point of view
| the hours additional recreation was
| its chief asset.
"A large factory in New Jersey start
ed setting its clock ahead in the sum
mer OF 1915, with the inuAntion of
turning it back again on the first Of
September. When that date arrival
? vote was taken among the EN-
ployes as to whether it should he con
unued for the month of October. and
me vote was "a per cent in favor of
continuing it. All of the workers
agreed that getting out at 4 O'Clock in
stead of five was much bette- on
| their nerves and health. AS one man
said, we can accomplish something
in the daylight; We can make plans
LOT excursions; we can plan to look