DAYLIGHT SAVING. In the second year of the World War nearly every country in Europe adopted the device of putting the clock forward an hour during the spring, summer and autumn months. The motive was to get people to bed an hour earlier and out of bed an hour earlier, to save fuel for lighting and heating.
Great Britain.—In Great Britain, the idea itself did not arise out of the war. About 1907 it occurred to William Willett, a Chelsea builder, that civilization got up an hour or two too late in the summer months, and had a short evening for outdoor recreation, when it might have a long one. He devoted himself to a campaign for putting the clock on by 8o min. in the spring and summer months. He ran the campaign at his own expense, and succeeded so far that in 1908 Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Pearce introduced a bill in the House of Commons to put the clock on by law. The bill was sent to a select committee the f ollowing year. In 1916, the expert committee set up by the British Govern ment to study the question of fuel economy advised that the measure should be adopted. The scheme was simplified. Willett had proposed that the clock should be put on 8o minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each. The first select committee in 1908 had advocated one movement of the clock of one hour in the spring. This was the method adopted by the act which was passed on May 17, 1916, and put into operation the following Sunday, May 21. There was a good deal of opposition. Farmers objected to it because milkers would have to get up an hour earlier to do their work, which meant getting up in the dark during the greater part of the year. Hay and corn harvests could not be carried until the dew was dried off, which meant an hour during which labourers could do nothing. When put to the test of practice these difficulties proved to have been much exaggerated.
United States.—No public interest was developed in the project in the United States till after the outbreak of the World War, and it was not until 1916 that a nation-wide campaign was initiated in its support. Opinion was divided, but in 1917 Con gress passed an act, to take effect in 1918, whereby the standard time of the United States would be advanced one hour on the last Sunday in March and set back one hour on the last Sunday in October. The act was effective from March 31 till Oct. 27, 1918, and again on March 3o, 1919. Strenuous opposition developed, however, from the farmers and the law was repealed on Aug. 20, 1919, over the President's veto. Since then daylight legislation has been sporadic and intermittent. Daylight saving is observed (1928) in the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island by virtue of State laws, and by municipal ordinance in the New York Metropolitan district, Philadelphia, Chicago and a number of other cities and towns, but the movement as a whole has lost ground. Chicago is the most westerly city using the summer system. In Seattle the banks alone have adopted it. But west of the Mississippi and in the South daylight saving is prac tically unknown. While the system is widely used only in the North-east, it has, even there, found opposition, as in Con necticut, where it is a State offence to show any but Eastern stand ard time publicly. However, a number of the principal towns in this State observe daylight saving. An analogous State law is in force in Maine ; yet in the city of Portland daylight saving is observed by general consent.
Other Countries.—The daylight saving bills adopted during the World War in Germany, Austria, Italy and Scandinavia have not been revived. A permanent "summer time" bill was adopted in France, in 1923, and in 1928 summer time was being observed, April 14-15 to Oct. 6-7. Summer time bills were approved in Canada in 1924, in Holland and Belgium in 1925, in Spain and Portugal in 1926 and in New Zealand in 1927. Mexico observes "summer time" all the year round.