[COTSWORTH] THE NEED OF A "RATIONAL ALMANAC" 229 



There would be a distinct trade advantage in allowing time for the 

 monthly cash to circulate for the relief of the strain of quarterly pay- 

 ments. 



That is emphasized by the increasing tendency now shown all the 

 world over, to pay dividends on consols, bonds, stocks and shares in 

 railways and other industrial companies on various dates of the month 

 for financial convenience, though their accounts are nearly all made up 

 half-yearly. But whether accounted quarterly or half-yearly, those 

 ending with the week on Saturdays would be far more convenient to 

 all concerned than with the months now irregularly beginning and end- 

 ing with parts of weeks. 



Advocates of methods A, B, and C unitedly urge the advantages 

 to be derived by locating fixed week-days to dates in each three months, 

 but surely now that by our countless numbers of invoice and account 

 entries, and constant reference to dates on letters, newspapers, et<3., 

 we use the month many thousand of times more often tlian quarter years, 

 it is more than a thousand fold more practically important that we 

 should, if possible, end the month with the week, and always have the 

 same weeh-day name attached to the same, date in every month as pro- 

 posed in D. 



That immense advantage of D is of sncli supreme practical impor- 

 tance, that in view of the fact that D also provides all the other advan- 

 tages of A, B, and C (excepting the two quarters and one-half year 

 ending with the week 'instead of the month, — which D so conveniently 

 provides for), it directs our attention to D's complete plan as the 

 " Rational Almanac," which on the opposite page displays the thirteen 

 months of four weeks each, with the '' ]S!'ew Month " inserted between 

 June and July. 



" The Rational Almanac." 



This includes not only the arrangement of simpler months, but also 

 the fixing of the " Dies-non" and festival dates. 



The simplicity of the uniformly arranged four weeks per month 

 can be seen at a glance. The 24 work-days per month, as detailed in 

 the last column, are kept uniform in dates by the insertion of " Christ- 

 mas Day" between the Sunday and Monday of the last week of the 

 year, on the exact corresponding day to the present 25th of December, 

 both being seven days from the year's end. But if the International 

 Conference prefers the " Dies-non " to be located on " New Year's Eve " 

 as the 365th day of the year, that will just as well maintain the 24 

 work-days per month, though it would longer defer and make it more 

 difficult for China, Japan, etc., to adopt the simple almanac for universal 

 use. 



Throughout all the 365 days thus registered on the " Rational 

 Almanac," every present almanac date as it occurs in 1916 would be 



