The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-05-13
WASHINGTON TRIES
MORE DAYLIGHT
All Government Offices to
Open at Eight Instead of
Nine Next Monday
PRESIDENT ORDERS
CHANGE OF HOURS
Congress Would Not Pass Daylight Saw
ing Ordinance Feared Rural Voters
at HOme-MOvies Discussing Earlier
HOur-Senate and House Puzzled.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE

BY DAVID LAW RLNNE
Especial Despatch to The Reformer)
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON, May l3.-The ma
tional capital is about to try unique
experiment. Perhaps it viii show the
fallacy of moving the clock forward III
daylight saving and perhaps it will not,
President Harding is the author OF the
scheme and if it succeeds in Washington,
it may solve the confusing problem of
daylight saving elsewhere.
The city of Washington being gov
erned directly by congress has had no
means of getting a daylight saving or
dinance adopted except by act OF the
senate and house. To vote in favor of
daylight saving here is but TO place
one 5 self on record on the subject as a
whole Members of congress who know
the sentiment of the rural districts
against daylight saving have been un-
: willing to vote for daylight saving any
where MIR. Harding, who has had the
farm bloc to deal with on matters much
more important than daylight saving
has not wished to antagonize the agrl-
culturalists by fayoring either a national
statute or law for the district. But the
people of Washington who suffered no
| Inconvenience when daylight saving
was adopted during the war have leaned
! fayorabIy toward the same idea. Gov
| eminent clerks wanted the advantage
of the late afternoon hours for exercise.
| Merchants favored it, so did the banks
! and business concerns generally. 1here
| seemed no way of getting a bill through
| congress because of the objections inter
| woven with the situation in many rural
| districts. from which so many members
/ of congress hail.
| Presidents Solution.
The President, however. has offered a
| novel solution. Believing that to move
| the hands of the clock forward Is spe-
cies of self deception he has insisted
! that the same object can be attained
| by asking everybody to get up an hour
| earlier and by having places OF business
| and schools function an hour sooner
An order to the government depart
ments makes it necessary for them to
/ open at clock next Monday morning
! instead of o. Banks will open an hour
sooner Some institutions will compro-
| mise bv opening a half hour earlier, but
| generally speaking stores and other
| places of business will regard the eight
/ O clock as nine clock in the normal
routine OF the day. This means that the
day will end at instead of and in
! the government departments desks will
| be cleared at $50 in the afternoon in
| stead of $50 as heretofore. This pro
! cess will be carried throughout the life
of the citv. Members of congress are
wondering how to adapt themselves to
i the new schedule. The hour of meeting
! for the senate and house is arbitrary.
anyway, and is fixed from day to day
| but if the government departments are
J to be opened at s O'Clock, senators and
/ representatives who are in the habit OF
/ visiting the departments on matters OF
| interest to their constituents VIII have
| to call earlier. Clerks in congress will
1 10
| callers in executive branches of the gov
| eminent. Mr. Harding's fiat of daylight
/ saving without moving the hands OF the
| clock forward will therefore become
| citywide One business compels action
| by another with which 1t Is lnterrelated.
| One group of employees wants the adyan-
| tages which the other has and so on.
/ Theatre managers are deIbeTatlng
| whether to open at 100 or ) o clock.
! This is serious matter for them
! because the people VINO must be at work
| at s o clock in the morinE and who are
accustomed to eight hours sleC0 will not
wish to STAY up until II clock and
| then try to get up at seven or earlier so
/ as to be in time for duty at nine. II
| the theatres close at 10 instead OF ii
there will be time enough for sleep.
Much Interest i'm Experiment.
| The effects of the experiment will be
/ closlv watched Here is Il city OF nearly
I a half million people Suddenly most
| everybody decides to get up an hour ear
/ lier Can habit be so easily broken next
/ autumn when the DAYS are shorter? The
| system in other cities provides for a
| simple change in the hands of the clock
and individual habits do not change
| Either the national capital will become
| famous for its early risers all the year
/ round or the hands of the clock will be
| moved back and the experiment aban-
| doned next year. The President IS conf
| dent the test will work out. and the
earnest cooperation of government of.
| ficials IS being given the plan so that II
4 Lo1-o go tTial