The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1919-11-20
| ARCF CITIES TO
KEEP OWN TINE
Daylight Saving. Killed by Congress,
to Continue Under Municipal Or
dinance in the East--New
York Takes the Lead.

(By International News serviee)
Washington, Nov 15.- Many cities
in the Eastern States will continue
daylight saving next year under mu-
nicipal ordinances. it is learned here
That confusion will result there is no
doubt, due to the fact that the rail-
roads, telephone and telegraph COM
panies and interstate and intercity en-
terprises will carry on their business
on the time of the Naval Observatory
in Washington.
Weather reports, market reports
and functions of the postoffice viii also
be controlled by standard time.
New York has taken the lead in con-
tinuing the daylight saving plan. An
ordinance providing for turning back
the clocks one hour in Summer has
been passed by the Board of Aldermen
and signed by Mayor Hylan. When
the State Legislature convenes in AL
bany in January it is likely that an eff
fort viii be made to enact Statewide
law for the same purpose.
Similar legislative acts are being
urged in some of the States of New
England. Industrial centeis like Bal
timore, Philadelphia, Reading, Hobo
ken. Jersey City, and South Bethle-
hem, are considering the enactment of
municipal laws to continue the extra
hour of sunlight
In Pittsburgh a movement is on
foot for municipal ordinance for the
same purpose. In the West the move
ment has been started too; Cincinnati
already has local ordinance; Chica-
go is considering one, and Salt Lake
City is debating the matter.
There is little prospect that Con-
gress will give an ear to the pleas Of
these cities to reconsider the action
abolishing the national daylight saw
ing plan. Overriding the Presidents
veto on the first repeal act, they are
dead set" against it.
Protests from the farmers have
been loud and prolonged in the matter
The claim is made that the farms are
controlled by city time regardless of
their distance from urban centers
Farm workers and hired men have in
sisted on beginning their work at the
usual hour, according to city time, and
stopping work in the late afternoon in
like fashion. The farmers point out
that the time-saving scheme does not
change the laws of nature. The dew
remains on the ground as long in the
morning an hour longer, in fact
under the time saving plan as it did
before.
The farm help, altho reporting for
work an hour earlier, have not been
able to enter the hayfields or begin
blowing at an earlier time by the sun
than they did before. They insist on
quitting work an hour earlier by the
"sun time" which, it is claimed, causes
the loss of an hours work on the
farms.
"You can't cut down the cost of liv-
ing by a scheme of that kind" wrote
an Indiana farmer to his congressman.
MY farm help insists on quitting
work by city time, altho the sun is
still high in the sky, and am simply
losing an hours work in my fields"
The cows, too, it is claimed. have
not taken kindly to- the time-saving
plan. With change in time twice
each year in the usual hours of milk
ing there has been noticed a decrease
in the quantity of milk another cause
for the high cost of living. The OBJ
lection raised, too, that some farmers
are accustomed to getting up at about
A o'clock in the morning, which, if
they get their eight or nine he's of
sleep. sends them to bed before the
chickens go to roost, and sometimes
even before the sun had disappeared.
Officials of the Federal Government
do not look kindly on the local move
ments to retain the time-saving plan,
and say it will lcause untold confus-
ion.