Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-30

The above shows a cut of the
much talked of new Liberty Calen-
dar. The mere suggestion that this
plan of measuring time should take
the place of our present calendar is
enough to make any real nice, old
fashioned, conservative person gasp
for breath. To such a person it
would seem preposterous that any
one should have the nerve and eff
change in our time-honored and
much-revered, though atrociously
constructed, old-time calendar.
1t would be bad enought if some
one were to simply offer slight
amendment to the calendar,-such
for instance as Caesar Augustus
asked for when he got peeved be-
cause his month of August con-
tanned only thirty days, while July,
named for julius Caesar, contained
thirty-one. The august parsonage,
{, in his petty jealousy, asked the
Roman Senate to add an extra day
| to his month, and straightway it was
| done. They did it by simply rob-
hing poor little February of one of
its twenty-nine days, so that through
all the ages since, this little, sawed
off month has had to get along with
only twenty-eight, barring each
fourth year. However, it was a COM
mon thing in those days to change
| the calendar semioccasionally.
| But,--to get back to this Liberty
| Calendar scheme: 1t is not simply
a slight change which is proposed
| by the men who are advocating
| this new plan, but they want to DO
away with all of the 420 little
| squares-thirty-f five to the month
! which are now used to make up our
yearly calendar, and place in their
| stead an insignificant little bunch
| of only twenty-eigh squares Not
content with this, these people pre-
| tend to say that this little Liberty
Calendar of only twenty-eight
squares will not have to be printed
| new every year, but that a person
might simply cut QUIT above very
i simple form, paste it on a card, and
use it all the rest of his natural
life. Indeed, these men claim that
after a few months experience un-
der this Liberty Calendar, everyone
would have it memorrized, and
thereafter all printed calendars of
every sort might be thrown into the
waste basket for good and all. In
cidentally, this would mean a saw
ing of SIS, 5,000,000,00O a year now
spent for printed calendars.
The people referred to are the
fifty Minneapolis business and pro-
feSsional men who q few months
since organized the American EQUAL
Month Calendar Association and are
now seeding down" the whole
country with their pet calendar idea.
Strange to say, the organizers of
this association do not belong to
the ancient and accepted order of
cranks, but they are hard headed,
practical businessmen. In fact,
among them are bankers, lawyers,
merchants and manufacturers, while
four of the six officers of the as
sociation are officers of banks or
other leading corporations. The ten
directors are all business or profess
sional men of high standing in the
community.
In framing the calendar, only
three slight changes were made in
the present form. First, New Years
Day was made an independent legal
holiday. 1t is placed between the
last day of December and the first
day of January, but it is not in
cluded in any week or month. Then.
the remaining 364 days are divided
into thirteen months of exactly four
weeks each, every month commence
ing with Monday. This is certainly
simplicity itself,
or course, the extra day in Leap
Years also had to be provided for,
but the same unique plan was again
followed. and another independent
day called Correction Day" is placed
at the end of each fourth wear be-
tween the last day of December and
New Years Day of the following
year. These two independent days