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68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
Some delay took place in summoning the International Conference 
by the President, in consequence of lengthy correspondence on the 
subject between the United States Government and the Governments 
of other countries. In the @ 
time a decision with respect to the 
regulation of local time had b “anticipated by the railway authori- 
tigs.in North America, who adopted the system of hour standards 
which Had been prominently brought forward as described. 
On Novembet 18th of last year (1883) the new system of regulat- 
ing railway time on this continent came into operation. There had 
been ‘Seyeral preliminary meetings of railway managers; the last 
meeting was-a Convention held in Chicago the previous October, 
and it was then determined immediately to carry out the change. 
Mr. W. F. Allen, the secretary of this Convention, who also took a 
prominent part in effecting the adoption of the change, has given a 
history of the events leading to it. Upon this gentleman mainly 
fell the labour of arranging details, and he executed the difficult 
=duties assigned to him with consummate ability. In the words of 
the” historian,the transition from the old to the new system “ was 
put into effeetawithout any appreciable jar, and without a single 
” 
accident occurring.” According to this authority the first newspaper 
to advocate some change was the Railroad Gazette for April 2, 1870, 
and it is claimed that as early as 1869 Prof. Charles F. Dowd, 
Principal of Temple Grove Ladies’ Seminary, Saratoga Springs, pro- 
posed a system of meridians based on the meridian of Washington at 
intervals of one hour, by which railways should be operated, and 
that an expression of his views was placed in the hands of the Presi- 
dent of the New York and Canada Railroad. The proposition ap- 
pears to have attracted attention in the Z’ravellers’ Official Guide of 
1872. In 1873 it was brought before the Railway Association of 
America, not now in existence. A committee was appointed to ex- 
amine into its merits; they failed to recognize its necessity, and 
recommended that the question of national standard time for use on 
railways be deferred until it more clearly appeared that the public 
interests called for it. 
Myr. Dowd’s efforts to introduce a national standard time to meet 
the difficulties which were being developed were at the time imper- 
fectly appreciated. He, however, has had the satisfaction of seeing 
a scheme unanimously accepted, and put in operation, which in 
essential features does not materially differ from that whichjhe ad- 
