Evening star., 1922-01-01
OF ASTRONOMERS CALLED
TO WORK OUT PLAN FOR NEW CALENDAR

Which they did. Do you get New
Year presents? Do you?
+ i X \
NOW you know how you were rob-
bed before you were born. On March
q. 1865, in France. and later in other
lands. all feudal retainers. children,
grown-up nephews and nieces. en-
gagged girls and faithful wives, not to
mention the more timid employees Of
commerce, were raising Cain.
Heads of households were in grave
distress.
BY April I. to gain peace, many had
begun to compromise with tardy gifts
of some real value. But children Of
mean, tight-wad parents sent each
other pathetic little packages with
nothing in them. poor things! These
became the origin of all April fools.
Because they reformed the calendar.
Now, listen. you children. you will
new change of the calendar. The
nameless holiday to precede New
Year will be a little bit of albright
for you.
Observe that the nameless holiday
will not be either day OF December
of the week. either. It will not make
us a day older-time will simply
stand still. The nameless holiday
will just come in between Sunday
(Which will always be the last day
on the old year, and Monday (Which
will always be the first day of the
new year,. So, then, here you have
three perfectly good holidays all in
a bunch together-Sunday, nameless
and New Year day.
Another bit Of all to the good will
be the fact that Christmas day, In
this reform Of the calendar. will al
ways fall (like New Year) on = Mon
day. Here you have another pair OF
holidays which nobody can take from
you.
A third little bit Of goodness gra-
cious will be found in tho use made
Of the extra day Of leap year. Now.
it is tho 29th Of February-just an
other day to work or go to school It
won't be so when the calendar is
Strengthened out. 1t, too, will be q
nameless holiday stuck in between
the last day OF June and the first day
Of July. Time will stand still for 1t,
too. No employer will be able to make
any use of it He would not know
how to credit or debit 1t on his books
because it will be neither June nor
July. nor Sunday, Monday. Tuesday.
Wednesday. Thursday, Friday or a
Saturday either. And the reason for
1t will be this-to give every year
exactly fifty-two weeks, every guar
ter exactly thirteen weeks mako
a fixed day and every holiday become
a fixed day of the week and month.
Will the various countries adopt it7
The authorities Of the Anglican
Church have recently shown a desire
to accept a rational reform OF tho
calendar which will provide for fixed
instead of movable holidays. and now
that the Church Of Rome has inaugu-
rated q definite move in that direc-
ton there is reason to expect q sue
cessful issue to the work OF the COM
ing conference.
In all probability the Vatican will
invite the other churches interested
to be represented at the conference
including the Greek Orthodox. which
still adheres to the Julian calendar
and is now thirteen days behind the
rest OF civilization.
So the work can go rapidly. There
Is reason for a prompt decision. II
an arrangement among governments
can be reached for the year 1929, q
considerable advantage will be gained,
because the year 1923 commences nat
urally on Monday. So every subse-
quent New Year day can be q Monday
without any change Of habits. And
so we will fall into the new regularity
as easy as OF log.