The Washington times., 1924-07-14
OPPOSE LEAGUE
Of NATIONS
CALENDAR
American Experts See No Bet
torment in 1t Over Pope
Gregory's System
BY III. X. REYNOLDS,
International News Service.

The Gregorian calendar. which
has been in use for nearly $50 years
and which is now recognized
throughout the world, has come
under the critical eye of the League
Of Nations, which proposes to abol-
ish 1t as soon as possible and estab-
fish a new system of reckoning the
passage Of time.
When Pope Gregory XIII de-
signed his calendar. in 1882. to
take the place of the calendar in
vented by Julius Caesar in 45 B. c.,
he figured the length Of the year
at S65 days 5 hours 40 minutes and
IL seconds. which would make an
error Of about twenty-four hours
every 5000 years.
This was a vast Improvement over
Caesars Julian calendar, which
placed the length of the year at
1854 days, thus accommodating three
extra days every 400 years, due to
the fact that the length Of the year
was slightly inaccurate.
Pope Gregory's calculations were
more exact than those of Caesar,
and the change from the Julian to
the Gregorian calendar was made
by moving up several days, whereas
Caesar had changed the beginning
of the year from March to Jan
uary. where 1t has remained ever
! since.
Start Year Anew.
Now the League OF Nations pro-
poses to put its new calendar into
operation by letting December %
be the first day of the year. which
| a.
days or move them up nearly a
year.
The League of Nations, further
more, wants to establish a per
petual calendar" keeping fifty
two weeks plus one or two days.
The 364 days IN the year would be
divided into four periods of 81
days each-that is, TWO months of
30 days and one Of 81 days, with
out excluding an auxiliary division
into periods Of IA and % days.
Through the State Department,
the League of Nations has sub.
mitted to the United States Gov.
eminent a tentative draft of the
proposed changes in the calendar.
Experts of the Naval Observatory
went over the plan, and their YER
dict was that the plan was i'm
practical because it would Intro.
duce compilations analogous to
those now existing in the transla-
ton of dates by the Julian Calendar
to dates by the Gregorian Calendar.
with subsequent confusion in bust
ness, legal, historical and scientific
matters"
u. s. Experts Object.
The American EXPERTS are on
posed to any number Of changes in
the number of days in the wear.
and are also opposed to dropping
out or duplicating any days. Other
proposed changes, they say, are nm
important from an astronomical and
scientific standpoint and should,
they feel, be finally decided by an
international conference by those
representing commercial business
and ecclesiastical interests.
Discussing the proposed changes
Secretary of the Navy Wilbur saws.
THE ordinary years should con.
| sist of fifty-two weeks and one
blank day, or 365 days; the lean
year should consist Of fifty-two
weeks and two blank days, or 36s
! days.
No days should be omitted or
inserted in order to make the year
begin otherwise than on January
first, as under the present system.
While the beginning of the year at
the winter solstice might possess
certain advantages, it is believed
| that the resultant confusion in his
torical and scientific matters would
impose amending disadvantages.
Whatever changes might be