Icotsworth] the need OF A " RATIONAL ALMANAC " 22S 



by B end on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, respectively, 

 by C end on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, respectively, 

 by D end on Saturdays always. 

 A and C have the slight advantage over B of being more easily remem- 

 bered as alternate days, but A's advantage is merely nominal, as the 

 suggested Saturday holiday is practically a week-day, and other nations 

 would not add those extra public quarter-day holidays to the more 

 numerous holidays they have in Italy, Spain, etc., as they would make 

 those poor people poorer. 



D has the supreme advantage over the others of always ending the 

 month with the week on Saturdays, to give the fullest public convenience 

 by which we must always gauge the respective merits of the various 

 methods. 



The second test of usefulness is equality in the total number of 

 days in each month. B and C have equal merit, as the 31st of March 

 in B, is equated by the 31st of January in C. Here again A has the 

 nominal advantage of equal months of 30 days, plus the Saturday holi- 

 day, after March 30th, but D has the most valuable advantage over all, 

 of absolute equality in every month. 



The third, but very important practical consideration in business 

 matters, is the equality in the total number of worhing days the pro- 

 posed months respectively contain. They are as follows: — 



March 



26 days 



27 ' 



26 " 

 24 " 

 C and D have equality in each of their three months, as shown in italics. 



In this test B makes the most serious mistake of giving March two 

 more days than January, and as that would give March an inflation 

 of 8 per cent in earning time, and likewise inflate June, September and 

 December with double the disparity they now bear to their adjoining 

 months, whilst the object of reform is to remedy their present differ- 

 ences — that seems a fatal objection to B. 



Both A and B propose for January, April, July, and October, 

 one day or 4 per cent less earning time than the other months — a serious 

 disadvantage. 



That disadvantage was overcome by my preliminary method C, 

 which gave 26 working days to each month; but it had to give place 

 ±0 the superior advantages in D of 24 working days of exactly the same 

 total working value in every month of four working weeks and four 

 pay-days when practical experience so manifestly indicated the far 

 superior advantages to be derived from months of four weeks each. 



