New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-05
Saving DAYLIGHT"
A Proposal for Some Further Saving, },
Professor Daniels

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The plan of lengthening daylight b,
putting the clock ahead has been preached In
several high class papers. We are told that
the plan has been put in operation in Great
Britain with very satisfactory results, but
no one seems to have noticed that the id..
is capable of very rich development
Setting the clock ahead by an hour com.
pels daylight to begin an hour earlier-an,
one can see that. What many do not notice
is that by putting the clock back an hour We
compel the daylight. to last an hour longer
in the evening. The clock should be put
forward at night to gain the morning hour
Of daylight, and then put back two hours
during the day in order to secure the extra
hour in the evening, and all would go well
But the slow-thinking Britons appear not 10
have noticed that the plan would admit Of
saving OF two hours in the morning and two
in the evening just as easily as one hour, and
now that the ice is broken We can go on and
extend the morning daylight back to whers
midnight was and prolong the evening day.
light in the same degree, thus by act Of
LEGISLATURE abolishing the dark altogether.
The marvel is that no one seems TO have
thought of this long ago; the darkness OF
the Middle Ages might never have been and
the light of Greece and Rome have shown
straight down to these days.
Rut this idea is still more fecund There
is no necessity for US 70 suffer the bufeting
of March. Let the Legislature abolish March
and reform the calendar. Julius Casar did
in his DAY. and in this twentieth centuryve
can certainly improve on the great Julius:
In like manner October could be extended
TO near Christmas. This would still leave
two months of snow and ice for the farmers
To get their saw logs to mill and at the same
time enable us to keep the summer bosrder
with us much longer. Some people OF hssy
temperament may say why not let Congress
mass an act for the whole country but then
where would be the distinctive character o.
Vermont's position? Thus We shall steal
march OH all the rest of the world, which will
only have to keep the column closed up
Thus. by aboishing March and calling Il
April, by leaving out November and peccm'
Der and calling it all October, the Legiss-
ture would confer great boon upon Yer
mont. and at the same time furnish rebuss
20 those who will not believe that calling
tail a leg makes it leg.
So much for the scientific view. The en-.
deavor is to induce as many people as posi-.
bic to get up an hour earlier in the morning
and presumably to retire an hour earlier a.
night If We undertake TO secure this end
BY merely Setting the clock ahead" q
part Of the inhabitants will doubtless CON.
ply and many will not, and we shall Ger.
tainly have all summer a dual system in
every town, and o'clock will mean either :,
or S, or ,. and our statements Of time will
be guilty, like Reed Smoot, not merely OF
bigamy, but. as the old lady said, Of trigo'
nometry, We are 10 imagine that on put
ting the clock back in the fall we shall rap.
idly forget the nightmare.
What practical way out is there! Let the
employers of town agree to open their
places of business one hour earlier and close
one hour earlier, and the desired end Of
early rising and earlier retiring, and conse.
quent wealth and wisdom getting, will follow
automatically, and we shall not be cheated
Of the credit for early rising by mends
cious clock.
Thirty years ago, when standard time was
introduced. there wa. for a time some con-
fusion near the boundaries of the time sec.
tons, but the inhabitants adjusted their af-
fairs TO tho situation in no very long time.
But here you would raise the difficulty twice
each year and for every city, small and great,
ard not merely for those near the boundary
line-an Intolerable situation that is un-
necessary. Let us continue TO use standard
time the year around and speak of the time
of day without ambiguity.
ARCHIBALD LAMONT DANIELS.
Burlington, VT, Feb. /, 1917.