59° THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



To establish the new calender it would, of course, be necessary to 

 have uniform legislation agreed upon by all the principal civilized 

 nations of the world. They would then simply issue an edict that at a 

 specified future time, the first day of December was to be considered as 

 the tenth and that when the following January 1 arrived the new scheme 

 should commence and remain in foTce forevermore. Such a ten-day 

 shortening of a month should not frighten any one when it is remem- 

 bered that this identical proceeding was followed when the Gregorian 

 calendar was established, the change as it happened then also requiring 

 ten days. 



When England changed from O.S. to N.S., 170 years afterward, a 

 shortening of the year by eleven days occurred, and nobody seems to 

 have been scared. Of course it could easily be arranged by law that 

 notes and other financial promises and contracts would mature after an 

 expiration of the given number of days of intended duration when they 

 were dated. This little trouble would occur but once, and all things 

 would run smoothly ever after, with a vast improvement in the con- 

 venience of reckoning dates and days of all kinds, including our per- 

 sonal birthdays. 



The proposed civilization of the calendar might be decreed at any 

 time, but as it will doubtless take years to make the change popular, it 

 might be well to fix upon December, 1918, for a hoped-for performance 

 of the operation. In that year, Saturday falls upon the day of the 

 solstice, December 21. This, when the ten days shortening was made, 

 would be the thirty-first by the new scheme and consequently would be 

 " extra day," " Silvester," or whatever it might be called. The follow- 

 ing day being Sunday, would give the start as the first of the new year 

 by the new calendar. Thus, nobody could be prejudiced at the begin- 

 ning by putting any two Sundays further apart, or nearer together, as 

 would be the case in other years than 1912, 1918, 1924, etc. 



In regard to the practical promotion of calendar reform, it would 

 seem as if some of the large scientific bodies of this country should act 

 together, and get into close affiliation with the interested people in 

 Europe, who seem to be farther advanced in their ideas than we are. 

 Thus an influence might be brought to bear upon the various civilized 

 governments of the world which would some time result in victory. 

 Should not an international kalender society be formed in the near 

 future ? 



