Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-03-21
One Hour More of Daylight.

In accordance with an act of Con-
gress recently enacted, at 2 O'Clock on
Easter Sunday morning, March 3lst, a
piece of Federal legislation will go into
effect which will change the habits and
daily routine of every man, woman and
child in the United States. The change
will be sudden, but once il has been
made it is expected that very few per-
sons will feel it after a week or two.
| At the hour above named mandate OF
the federal government will require the
| advancing of every clock in the country
just one hour. Of course, most folks
will do this advancing before they go to
bed. They are not called upon TO stay
awake until 2 o'clock or get up at that
hour TO comply with the letter of the
law. But at some time between the
end of the day Of March 80 and the be-
ginning of the day Of March 81, the
time must be advanced.
Nothing could be more simple than
the carrying out Of this rather novel
idea, although it was shown by the de-
bates inthe House and Senate that much
misunderstanding existed as to what the
government expects. Here is the way
it works: When bedtime comes the
night of March 30, every person in the
country who owns a clock or watch
simply moves the hands forward one
hour. If this operation takes place at
Il in the evening, the clock should be
set at II. And, of course this means
that the whole family must arise in the
morning by the new time, losing there
by one hours sleep, unless this is made
up by retiring an hour ahead of the
usual bedtime.
All business of whatever character or
the morning of March 81 will begin on
the new time basis. 1t will begin at
the same hour as before, so far as the
reading of the clock is concerned, but
actually it will begin one hour earlier
so far as the sunrise and so far as day
light are concerned. And that is the
whole purpose of the legislation. Ii
is designed TO wake the country up an
hour earlier each day, in order TO give
the American people the opportunity
to live a little longer in the daylight.
The gain in this direction, of course, is
at the end of the day, not at the begin
ming.
Presumably those persons who have
been arising at, say, I o'clock in the
morning Will arise at I by the new
time, but it will in reality, by the sun,
be an hour earlier. We will have
breakfast an hour earlier and get to our
work an hour sooner. Dinner or lunch
will be an hour earlier-and quitting
time in the afternoon will be an hour
sooner, and We will all have an hour
more Of daylight in the evening than
under the old plan. At present ii is
contemplated to have the new rule in
force seven months in the year-from
the first of April to the first Of Novem-
Der. Schools, banks and all public
business must obey the new law, and
this means, of course, that the people
generally and their private business
must fall in line.
We rather like the idea. The early
morning is the sweetest time of the
whole day, and those who viii now be
required to arise an hour earlier will
find real pleasure in the freshness of
the earlier hour, and the beauties of the
sunrise and the singing of the birds and
the many charms of nature will recon-
penSe for the Inconvenience that may
be anticipated until the people shall
adjust themselves to the new condi-
tons And the additional hour of
daylight at the close of the days work
should prove very acceptable and afford
a time of relaxation and enjoyment that
will be more beneficial and agreeable
than the hour spent in bed after day
light in the morning.
We rather expect to hear of a good
many folks oversleeping themselves at
first, but they will soon have to fall in
line unless they want to be at the tail
end of the procession.