The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-11-19

washington. d. c., Nov 1S.-The
trials OF saying Thirty days hath
September" ana then counting la
borioIsly on your fingers to find
OCT on what day of the week Christ
mas or pay day comes, will be
ended if a bill by Representative
Thomas Schall of Minnesota be-
comes Law.
Representative Schall says that
in Minnesota business men are urg-
ing a change in the calendar sys-
tenn. Business men," he points
out. ARE every day giving their
promissory notes without knowing
whether they will come due on
Sunday or on some day of the week
on which they have engagements
at distant points. The amount due
an employee who works by the
month is often in dispute if he
quits at the end of any week pre-
vious to the end of the month. be-
cause the week is not an integral
part OF the month.
Millions of our people work by
the month, and yet we have no such
thing as standard month"; We
have standardized everything else
except our measure of time-the
very thing we use the most. We
need a simple, well planned calen-
dar, so that we would no longer
have to consult an almanac or en-
gage in tiresome calculations every
time we plan an engagement or
sign paper"
The business men who feel most
CT II rE
our present time-reckoning system
have organized into the Liberty
Calendar Association of America.
One OF them, Joseph Barnes of Min
neapoliS. has evolved a liberty cal
endar. which has been approved by
experts on higher mathematics and
by the Chamber of Commerce.
This calendar is the one which
Mr.. Schall has submitted to con-
gress. 1t would divide the year
into Is months of four even weeks.
Every week and every month would
begin on the same Monday
as the bill stands. And every quar-
ter of Is weeks would always be-
gin on the same week day. which
would be a great convenience to
business men.
A New Month.
The extra month was originally
to be called Liberty, but this does
not exactly harmonic with the
names OF the - months as they
stand. so Vern, meaning spring,
has been suggested. Vern would
fall between February and March.
The irregularities necessary to
keep a calendar accurate are pro-
vided for by the inventor OF the
liberty calendar Thirteen months
of four weeks each would provide
364 days to a year The 365th day.
or rather the first, is made New
Years day. and a holiday 1t would
have no status as a day of the week
except that every seventh year it
would be observed as Sunday.
Our leap year system is changed
somewhat by the liberty calendar
February still has only % days,
but so have the other months. so
that there is no special need TO
give it the extra day. Instead, leap
year day is placed between the
2Sth of June and the first of July,
and made a legal holiday. 1t oc-
ours. as at present, every four
years, except once in four centur-
les.
The calendar bill provides that
Nov. IL. which would always fall
on Thursday, would be observed as
Peace and Thanksgiving day. there
by killing two birds with one stone.
Other generally observed holidays
would remain about as at precent.
The liberty calendar would solve
one problem for the benefit of the
Easter Sunday would al
ways fall on the 14th of March
This obviates the difficulty of fixing
the date each year by the eccIesi-
astical moon and an intricate for
mule.
The present method of determin-
ing Easter has long been regarded
as unnecessarily troublesome. Eu-
ropean astronomers are now plan