Fsa 6, 18S5.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



109 



fully fifty million people regulate their business affairs by 

 standard time. 



While a few, and for the most part unimportant, com- 

 munities, and some railway companies, did not make the 

 change immediately, so large a majority adopted the system 

 on Nov. 18, 1883, that that date may be fairly be taken as 

 the one upon which the reform took effect. Several New 

 England railroads, the Central Vermont Railroad being 

 the most important, commenced to run their trains by 

 "Eastern" standard on Oct. 7, 1883. The Central and 

 Soutliem Pacific Railroads west of Ogden and Deming, and 

 their branch lines, are the only railroads in the United 

 States or Canada which do not now use standard time, if 

 we except two purely local roads in Pennsjlvania, aggre- 

 gating less than twenty miles in length. The last to adopt 

 the system were the Union Pacific Railway and the city of 

 Omaha, on May 1, 1884. 



The legality of the use of standard time was established 

 by the decision of Judge Holmes, of Massachusetts, that 

 whatever time was in ordinary use by the people of any 

 community was lawful time ; and his decision is not likely 

 to be reversed. From an economic standpoint it is diffi- 

 cult to perceive what difference it makes to a labouring- 

 man whether he commences work at a time nominally 

 called seven o'clock or half-past seven, so long as he receives 

 full wages for a full day's work. 



Some of the objections raised to the use of standard 

 time as a substitute for local time are as amusing as the 

 famous declaration of the Rev. John Jasper, of Richmond, 

 Virginia. It is urged that the sun was divinely s-et to 

 rule the day, and therefore to use any but solar tirpe ia 

 akin to, if not actually, in)moral conduct. As the moon 

 was also set to rule the night, such persons, if logical, 

 should obey that portiou ot the divine command hIso. The 

 fact is, that solar time was necessarily abandoned when 

 clocks came into general u-p, and time based upon one or 

 another arbitrary standard has governed the civilised world 



ever since. The present system, with its widely extended 

 uniformity, simjily conforms to the principle of securing the 

 greatest good to the greatest number, a principle which 

 must everywhere in the end prevail. 



Cliitorial (gos(sf(p. 



If I may judge from the details of some rather remark- 

 able proceeding", reproduced from the American report in 

 our contemporary the riiotofirapltic Nevs, Trade Unions 

 are, in the United States, by no means confined to artificers. 

 From this account I learn that the meeting of the Chicago 

 photographers was held on Friday evening, Dec. 19, at the 

 studio of Mr. Melander, 208, Ohio-street, in answer to a 

 special call to take action against Mr. Felt. The charge 

 against him was that he had hung out a sign offering to- 

 give a coloured panel worth two dollars as a premium lo 

 any one who ordered a dozen cabinets of him. "A coloured 

 panel " rather reads as though the peccant photographer 

 had been seeking to oppose the house-decorators, but 1 

 suppose that it is the technical term for some particular 

 form of portrait. The numerous speakers at the meeting, 

 one and all, insisted on the necessity of "keeping np 

 prices," Mr. Melander announcing "himself as an advocate 

 for the highest prices that could be obtained"; and, having 

 thus formulated what may be regarded as the Chicago 

 ethics of professional photography, proceeded to action ; for, 

 after some further discussion, "a committee was appo:ntecl 

 to take down the sign. They proceeded immediately to the 

 performance of their duty, and after the culprit had warned 

 his wife not to be alarmed at any unusual sounds down 

 stairs, the obnoxious sign was hauled down, and soon 

 reduced to an unsightly mass of kindling wood and rags. 

 The affair was taken in the most good-natured way, though 

 it might have easily resulttd in u.uch bad feeling but Sor 



