REFORMING THE CALENDAR 5S7 



westward their weeks are perforce lengthened to more than the standard 

 168 hours. Should they happen to go all the way around the world 

 they make their weeks so long as to be obliged to throw out a whole day 

 into the Pacific Ocean, thus giving them one 6-day week. If, on the 

 other hand, they travel eastward, their weeks are shortened, and by the 

 time they get home they must have endured one 8-day week. This 

 being the case, how can they logically object to a calendar reform which 

 would only have the same effect upon them, at certain long intervals, 

 as would an extended eastward journey. 



Whatever reform is made, one point especially should be insisted 

 upon (one that the calendar reformers seem to have neglected) and that 

 is to start the new year about the twenty-first of December instead of 

 ten days later, as we now do. Thus the calendar year and the solar year 

 would have a definite relation to each other — as they properly and 

 logically should have. Here again an objection might be offered that 

 when the change was made some certain two sabbaths would come too 

 near together, or too far apart, but as this would only happen once for 

 all (it is to be hoped for many thousand years) the difficulty would not 

 be a serious one. Even this could be avoided, however, simply by choos- 

 ing a suitable year for the grand change. 



To those persons who object to the first season (winter) beginning 

 21 days later than it does now, it may be pointed out that we of the 

 north temperate zone are apt to have many more cold and disagreeable 

 days in March than we do in November and that the early part of Sep- 

 tember is but a continuation of summer. The occasional frosts which 

 we have in June that so often "spoil the peach crop" (for the time 

 being!) may perhaps also give a hint that summer might just as well 

 commence a little later than it now does. To the thought that we 

 should logically place the middle of the cold season at the solstice, when 

 the earth receives the least sunshine, it may be replied that there is a 

 lag in meteorological phenomena which is the interval between certain 

 causes and the effects which follow. The retardation is due to a variety 

 of physical actions, as the retention of heat in the earth, water and air, 

 and so forth. The length of this lag is uncertain and irregular, but 

 probably a half-season is a near enough period to allow. All of our 

 weather is so variable that it is not feasible to attempt running it upon 

 an exact time-table. 



It should be understood that the word "season" is used herein 

 synonymously with "quarter." The latter is of course frequently used 

 in business matters as a division of a fiscal year. There is no reason, 

 however, why the commercial quarter-year should not be identical with 

 the climatological and sentimental unit. 



Incidental to this calendar reform, but not necessarily a part of it, 

 is the numbering of the hours of the day from 1 to 24 instead of by the 



