Evening star., 1936-08-09
No World Standards
of Keeping Time.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

his hand or his eye on clock. 1t is a
little difficult for him to realize that
there are many places in the world
where time is of so little account that
no standard of time has been estab-
lished. True, every living thing on the
earth's surface is conscious Of time as
counted by sunrise and sunset diurnally
and by the wheel of the seasons, but
there are many men who do not bother
about minor divisions. They have no
timepieces, for the most part, and II
they did, would scarcely know how TO
set time. Like the red Indians of
North America, they note the full sun
power or, like the American farmer,
they note that the sun is, say. three
hours high. The nicer subdivisions,
however, have no import to them.
1t was only about half century ago
1884 to be Specific-when the world felt
the need for standardizing time. Before
that time had been a local affair.
People were not in such hurry. Inter-
national and intercity appointments
were not so precise. But in that year
an international conference met at
Washington and outlined plan for time
divisions of the world. There was no
1IllilCOAdIC dOOpGlOAL DhI 81 dh-
ualy most countries have accepted the
scheme. 1t lays down that there shall
be a change of one hour for every IS
degrees Of longitude based on the zero
of Greenwich.
The time zone divisions are somewhat
irregular, as they are warped out Of
exactneSS in order to meet the con-
venience Of commercial centers. In the
United States, the standard time zones
maped by the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, at the behest of Congress in
1918, are decidedly irregular, especially
as to the Western zones. For instance.
the Pacific time zone thinks nothing Of
taking a jump of a couple of hundred
miles. 1t is fixed, however. There is a
standard time And there is standard
time for most of the world. Incidentally,
an excellent way of presenting an idea
of the vast size Of the Soviet Union is to
state that while the United States,
broad as it is, has but four time zones,
Russia has IL.
The lazy man, the non-Rotarian, the
man with nothing to do till tomorrow is
interested in the lands where there is no
such thing as standard time. Let us
begin at the beginning Afghanistan
that great and savage kingdom which
lies between India and Russia. the
region where the man who would be
king" dwelt, has no standard time what
ever. He knows the Spring when the
trade of the Khyber breaks, but, so far
as the hours of the day in relation to
the hours of other peoples days are con-
cerned, he has no standard account.
Motor cars whisk over the desert Of
Arabia today and motor buSses take pill
grins to Mecca. but the camel caravan
still plods. keeping no standard time.
The contrast between the treeless desert
of Arabia and the luxuriant orchid
scented jungles of Borneo is sharp, but
there is one thing in common. The do
main of the Rajah Brooke has no more
standard time than the land of the
Prophet.
Some years ago a Chinese commercial
mission to the United States was being
shown the sights of New York by local
committee of typical hurrying New
Workers. They took a ride up town in
the subway. Having boarded O local
train, they rode a few minutes, then
were hustled out, across a platform and
into an express which took them on.
After regaining his breath on arrival.
one of the Chinese asked what the reason
for the change was. He was told that
by changing. they had saved three
minutes. What" asked the Chinese, r
ARE We going to do with them?" Per-
haps that Confucian tranquility may
account for the fact that, except for the
treaty ports, China has no standard
time. The most populous country on the
globe does not particularly care.
1t seems rather curious thing that,
with all the thousands upon thousands
of columns of newspaper space which a
while ago were devoted to the affairs of
the kingdom of Ethiopia, no corre-
spondent happened to mention that
there is no standard time in that land
The King of Kings and his people went
their own ways without regard to the
train schedules of the rest of the world
1t is likely that one of the blessings
which the enlightened Italians will bring
to their new subject people will be
standard time.
1t would be shame to apply standard
time to one place in this list. Every one
knows the story of the hare and the
tortoise. The hare was of the type that
carries watch marking split seconds;
the tortoise OF the type that doesn't
bother. The apotheosis of all tortoises
is found in the giant tortoises of Gala
pagos Island and Galapagos, right prop
erly enough, has no time. 1t drifts
along. &C.
Save for China, the largest territory
which has no standard time is one which.
most aSsuredly does not need it. That
is the vast expanse of Greenland. But
the six months night and the six months
day. in the northern part. enable the,
inhabitants to keep track. That is.
standard enough.
A surprising fact is that the Republic
of Guatemala, a country which has many
distinguished scientists and ranks high
among American republics, has no
standard time. To be sure, it is a small
country and the time changes are not
great Most of its people keep the stand
ard time of adjoining countries and some
keep local sun time to suit themselves
Perhaps, not to have an established
standard time gives one an always ready
explanation to extenuate broken en-.
gagements.
There are many islands which have
established no standard time, and there
are wild places of the world like parts of
the Niger country in Africa where there
is no need for such establishment.
II II N