| The following column appeared in The River Reporter on April 2, 1998. |
By Bert S. Feldman
The Recusant Reporter
Thursday, April 2, 1998
For those of you planning to be in church on Palm Sunday, April 5, don’t arrive there an hour early – it’s daylight–saving time again! Actually it starts at two o’clock in the morning, but as we know, you can move the clock forward before you go to bed if you don’t tell anyone.
The first great advocate of the idea of advancing the clock after the vernal equinox (not to be confused with our neighbor over the Delaware River, Equinunk) was that man of many parts, Benjamin Franklin. During the American Revolution, while serving as America’s minister to France, thrifty old Ben wrote an article suggesting that an earlier opening and closing of places of business, such as shops, would save money by conserving the use of candles and whale oil lamps.
The idea lay dormant until about 1907, when William Willett of England began promoting the concept of daylight–saving time. Willett’s idea didn’t attract any attention until the coming of World War I, when it was realized that work in munitions plants would be enhanced by more daylight hours and that this idea would help farmers. Nations on either side of the battlefield trenches, England, France, Germany, and others adopted daylight-saving time.
When the United States entered the war in 1917, Robert Garland of Pittsburgh began a campaign pushing the idea of more daylight working hours. His urging inspired Congress to pass a bill establishing daylight-saving time in this country. President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law on March 31, 1918.
Dairy farmers in America generally didn’t go for daylight–saving time because it made it necessary for them to rise an hour earlier and, what’s more, disturbed the cows. In 1919, a year after the end of the war, the law was repealed.
In 1942, with the start of World War II, the value of this plan was appreciated, and daylight–saving time became a permanent feature in most parts of the United States. It was called War Time.
People who support daylight-saving time prefer it because it offers daylight hours for recreation, and thus promotes good health. It is much favored by those engaged in resort industries such as hotels, canoe raft rental, and other allied summer sports.
Dairymen, dependent on milk pickups, still aren’t too fond of it.
So push those hourly numbers an hour ahead, and on October 25, push them back again.
Look at it this way: the clock probably needed dusting anyway.
