[coTswoRTH] THE NEED OF A "RATIONAL ALMANAC" 233 



Disadvantages or ti£e Proposed Thirteen Months. 



1. Yearly salary, rents, etc., divided by 12=.083 per dollar, whereas 

 division by 13=.077, and though both are .003 from the simple eight 

 cents per month, 13 is more difficult to divide. The priniting of the 

 simple QuotieQt Table (as on page 51 of the Rational Almanac) with 

 future almanacs would make divisions by 13 easier than we now divide 

 by 12. 



The natural result would be the adoption' of simpler rates for the 

 many times more frequently used months, hosed on the most easily divisi- 

 ble 2-1 working days which would prove a far larger saving. 



2. The 1st, 2nd and ord quarters and 1st half year would not end 

 with the month, — but they would gain the better convenience of ending 

 with the week, and so save split abstracting and adjustments, as periods 

 of earnings and weekly expenses would coincide. 



3. The slight inconvenience during the initial year in which the 13 

 months may be introduced. — That ivould easily be overcome by suitable 

 provisions in the Act of Parliament by tvhich the change would be brought 

 into effect, and by the printed almanacs wherein 13 cycles of the per- 

 manent month would prove so highly useful that these minor disadvan- 

 tages would scarcely be felt, as they would fall subservient to the merits 

 of the smooth working and efficient month of four weeks that most com- 

 pletely solves our almanac difficulties. 



These disadvantages sink into insignificance when compared with 

 the before-niemtioned advantages and the world-wide gain in facilitating 

 international commerce and intercourse. 



The few people who superstitiously regard the number 13 as unlucky 

 are answered by the fact that v/e have already 13 weeks per quarter year, 

 and that we could gain so many more useful facilities by 13 equal months 

 per year. 



Advantages of the Proposed Change. 



The advantages in favour of a '' Rational Almanac " are so numerous 

 and obvious that beyond the removal of the many existing anomalies and 

 inconveniences recorded on page 8, I need only allude to the International 

 benefits which would result from this refonn, by promoting harmony 

 and good-will between the world's greatest populations in Asia and other 

 nations. Upon the cultivation of mutual respect the peace and happiness 

 of the bulk of humanity will assuredly depend during years to comie, and 

 never more than in the next few years. 



However, earnest a missionary may be, he cannot impress a cultured 

 Chinaman that our ways are right when we record time as say 10.0 a.m. 

 on the 27th ^lay, 1908, when the Chinese know that the year should be 



