PEOCEEDINGS— APPENDIX A A-23 



.sent any reply. A brief commuiiicution lias been received from the 

 Secretary of State at Washington, simply stating "that the members of 

 the United States Naval Observatory are adverse to the Canadian 

 proposition,' " as they see fit to term it, and, at the same time, he sends a 

 copy of the adverse report. This is the only report of a negative 

 character which has been received, and it is the more surprising as this 

 report is entirely at variance with the position taken by the United 

 States throughout the movement for reforming the time- reckoning of 

 the world during the last fifteen years. The United States have, 

 indeed, taken a }»rominent part in the movement. Two societies, com- 

 prising in their ranks some of the most eminent scientists of the 

 country, have activel}^ promoted it from the commencement — the 

 American Meteorological Society and the American Societ}' of Civil 

 Engineers. Moreover, both Houses of Congress have taken joint action 

 in the matter. It was under the provision of an Act of Congress that 

 the President assembled the International Conference of 1884. At that 

 conference, it was the five distinguished delegates nominated by the 

 Government of the United States who introduced the proposal 

 respecting the Asti-onomical Day. a proposal which was carried without 

 a dissenting voice by the representatives of the twentj'-five nations 

 constituting the conference. It is to the United States we trace some 

 of the first steps taken to establish an acceptable system of reform in 

 the reckoning of time adaptable to the whole w^orld. It is certainly to 

 them that we owe the first national recognition of the movement and its 

 first application to every-day life, that is to say, the joint-resolution ]>assed 

 by Congress in July, 1882, and the action of the gathering of railway man- 

 agers in Chicago, which resulted in the Hour Zone system of time-reckon- 

 ing going into force throughout North America on November 18th, 188.^, 

 With all the facts before us, it is impossible to consider that the 

 adverse report signed by three officials of the United States Naval 

 Observatory, fairly represents the mind of the United States Govern- 

 ment, of Congress, or of the people of the United States. The object- 

 ions brought forward in this report are of old date and at various times 

 have been answered — by the Bureau des Longitudes of France in an 

 official report {vide Ccsnios, Februaiy 3rd, 1895) endorsed by the French 

 Government, May 6th, 1895 — by the reports of the Joint Committee of 

 April 21st. 1893, and May 10th, 1894, copies of which have been trans- 

 mitted to the Home Authorities ; by the Astronomer Eoyal in a rejjort 

 to the trustees of Greenwich Observatory which points out that the 

 proposal can be easily introduced and with decided advantage to obser- 

 vers ; b}' a former superintendent of the United States Naval Obser- 

 vatory. Commodore Franklin, December 11th, 1884, in a communication 

 transmitted to Congress with other documents by the Secretary of 

 State for the Navy, February 17th, 1885. 



