The Daily Alaska empire., 1931-06-05
CONSIDERING CALENDAR REFORM.

Invitations have just been issued by the League of Nations for the next big international gathering to be held in June for the preliminary discussion of calendar reform Official and unofficial organiza- tions in all countries asked to attend
 Beginning on June 8, Preparatory Commit tee' appointed by the League of Nations will listen to all who wish to be heard From the suggestions which they submit the Committee will prepare program for General Conference" which is to open at Geneva four months later, on october 26
 Delegates will be sent from the United States by advocates of two rival plans of calendar reform; the National Committee on Calendar Smplificatlon, which favors adoption of a 13-month year; and The World Calendar Association, which advocates less radical reform whereby the present 12-months sys- tenn will be retained with adjustments in lengths of the various months to equaze the various quar- ters
 Religious questions will be barred from the Ge- neva meeting for the official announcement, receiv- ed from the League of Nations, states: All ques- tions of purely religious nature which might arise in discussion of the calendar must be left to the religious authorities concerned. The function of the conference will be only to coordinate ana give authority to the views expressed by civil bodies and to express the opinion of the various governments from the economic and social point of view. In order that the various religious authorities may be kept informed the discussions of the conference,
 
 wish to do so But it is clear that if final liberty of the religious authorities be reserved, the inquiry may be pursued solely from an economic and social point of view and may be kept quite independent of religious consideration"
 Several religious bodies however, have expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement to exclude them from participation in the conference.
 Expressions of opinion and resolutions in favor of calendar reform have been adopted during recent years by several hundred international organizations The number of different schemes of reform exam ined by the League of Nations Special Committee has reached total of nearly 200 Many of these were found to be merely minor variations of few general types. while considerable number of pro- posals were regarded useless impracticable. The Committee therefore decided to direct attention of this years meetings exclusively to two main groups of reform
 Both of these proposals based the appli- cation of a principle, which adopts 364 days as the basis for the calendar, and completes the year with 365th day which is either considered as a blank day" without weekend designation, as a double Saturday" By the adoption of this "spe- cial day" a perpetual invariabe calendar would be established Any given date would fall nvari- ably every year the day of the week.
 Alexander Philip learned lawyer of Brechin Scotland leader for calendar reform, has suggest ed that the simple transference of day from Aug ust to February, in addition to making the last day of December a blank day would equalize the calen- dar into four equal quarters twelve equal months and fifty-two equal weeks Another suggestion k that day be taken from March also and attach il to February which would conform to the Philir objective and remove variabeness from the length. of the separate months. It would not only give the quarters thirteen weeks each, but it would gvt each of the months thirty days except January May, July and October one in each quarter, which would have thrty-one days each.
 Until the international meeting in October thu League of Nations will not pronounce in favor O any of the various reform schemes It has thus fa merely stated that reform desirable, at tn same time recognizing that any modification of tn