238 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Soldiers, sailors, clerks, domestic servamts and the host of people 

 who receive and pay monthly would all be justly dealt with and much 

 tiresome trouble saved. 



In almanac reform the supreme need is for a " standard month " to 

 measure with the week. Just as we have fixed and even lengths of 

 eeconds, minutes and hours sub-dividing the day, so we need the standard 

 day week and month to measure the year and perfect our system of time. 



The longer the unit the more important it is to all concerned. That 

 being so, leads us to wonder why a standard month has not yet been 

 eartablished? Various causes retarded that, but the chief factor was that 

 the rigidly unequal months we/e fixed by the military rule of the C?^sars, 

 who stereotyped the almanac for Europe long before the seven days week 

 was introduced. Later, exclusive privileges and secret powers to derive 

 easily earned incomes and profits from almanac construction, became 

 vested in certain influential families and dignitaries in the various coun- 

 tries, who jealously conserved and mystified their profession until the 

 year 1828. Then the British monopoly to sell almanacs was taken from 

 the two family representatives who had inherited that privilege from 

 Queen Elizabeth's reign and other people were allowed to print them. 



Intercourse between nationalities was rare and united aation to 

 establish such a standard was impracticable because every nation was 

 bitterly jealous of its neighbours through almost incessant warfare. The 

 professional almanac makers who had to advise national rulers were 

 financially interested in preventing the introduction of any such simple 

 system as the four-week month. 



That would so easily have enabled their customers to make plain 

 wood permanent almanacs for themselves, by using a monthly board with 

 28 holes bored therein for record by a movable peg, that the costly en- 

 graved '' Clog Almanacs," in use before printing was invented, and ex- 

 pensive printed almanacs they later had to sell, would not have besn re- 

 quired. The bewildering moon wandering of Church Festivals and 

 lingering use of the moon for locating the drifting tides, together with 

 its changing phases and awe-inspiring features prevented men from 

 daring to think tha/t a " standard month " could be used. Nearly all^ 

 those drawbacks have ceased to operate and changed conditions now 

 prevail. The sub-division of the year is now entirely a matter for 

 governments to decide for public convenience. 



We of the 20th century should free ourselves from the irritating 

 fetters of shifting day-namc-links in the illogical chain of rugged months 

 which Augustus welded upon his slaves. Shall we not after two thou- 

 sand years of advance in civilization exercise the true spirit of liberty 

 to decide upon whatever course may prove to be best for our generation? 



