5. Our people want to be able to buy and sell and transact other business by telephone and telegraph with a minimum of confusion. We want to conduct business and commerce on an equitable time basis. 6. Our people, and our visitors, want to use and enjoy Minnesota's beautiful spring, summer, and fall climate to the maximum. 7. Our people want us (the legislature) to stop spending valuable legislative time on d.s.t. S. Minnesotans want an equitable solution to a problem which will eliminate any possible further misunderstanding between rural and urban population groups. 9. For those young Minnesotans in the early grades of elementary schools, our lack of uniform d.s.t. has made it understandably difficult to learn the meaning of time zones and to develop respect for laws such as those governing d.s.t. 10. Last, but not least, Minnesotans come next spring and fall want to know "what time is it?" Mr. Chairman, I would like to digress now from my prepared remarks and try to answer Mr. Moss' question that he brought up, if I may, relative to taking the whole loaf or going for the whole loaf instead of satisfying ourselves with three-quarters or one-half. We in Minnesota recognize the fact that universal daylight-saving time throughout the whole country would probably be the ideal situation. But Minnesota's problem really is the question of telling time right within the State. This uniform legislation before you now, uniform daylight-saving time bills, would go a long way in getting rid of the confusion that we suffer now in Minnesota. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your indulgence in my remarks and allowing me to appear before you today. Mr. FRIEDEL. I want to thank you, Mr. Anderson. I think it was very good of you to come here and testify with such a short, precise statement. Mr. ANDERSON. Thank you. Mr. NELSEN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Mr. Anderson for his statement. I have often wondered why the daylight-saving time changes are made as they are. Why do we not leave the clocks alone nationwide and open up an hour earlier within the States on a voluntary basis? Instead of going through all this problem of making new schedules to fit daylight saving, leave the standard time as it always has been in years past, and then, if we want to open office hours at 8 o'clock in the morning instead of 9, proceed on that basis rather than to go through this business of having such a confusion as you cite so well in your statement. I wonder if that has been given any thought. Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Nelsen reflects the rural viewpoint of Minnesota, I believe, in his statement. I can only say that it has been impossible to get everybody to go along to set their factory dates, their office times-not dates, but times-1 hour earlier and there, in effect, accomplish daylight saving. I think it has been a recognized fact throughout the whole country that daylight saving does give a great many people additional opportunities for leisure time to be spent in a more profitable way than it would be if it were darker. Mr. NELSEN. I may point out, Mr. Anderson, that I have no objection if they wish to open up earlier. But I mean the confusion of changing schedules and the cost of changing schedules as we do it seems to me the same opportunity for recreational time would be accomplished by simply setting up a new standard of official opening of office hours for schools or public places, rather than changing schedules and monkeying around with airline schedules, train schedules, you name it. They really have a problem, but I understand that this is not a simple area in which to legislate. I want also to point out that the statement you made about the various time zones in Minnesota very graphically illustrates the problem that we are faced with. I would agree that this would be a bill to move in the right direction. I want to thank the gentleman for coming to the snow city in the winter time. Thank you. Mr. ANDERSON. Thank you, Mr. Nelsen. Thank you, Mr. Chair man. Mr. PICKLE. I would like to ask Mr. Anderson his views on this legislation with respect to what he thinks he is going to do. We had an earlier witness who said it was his opinion that the States would support his legislation, or the majority of them, and would have no difficulty in agreeing. Apparently, Minnesota is more than somewhat divided. If this legislation or something similar to it were passed in the Congress, do you think this would be enough to influence your State to agree on it, or would you still have a great division? Mr. ANDERSON. Our State presently preempts any local area from setting their own time. The State law indicates what time it shall be in standard time, except for when it is daylight time. However, our State law with regard to daylight saving time does not conform with what is recognized as the uniform dates for beginning and ending daylight saving. Our greatest problem is not to be able to tell what time it is going to be in Wisconsin or North and South Dakota, our problem is in the State as to who is on daylight saving or who is not-not so much that, but in comparison with the other States and programs that emanate from other States and transportation sechedules that emanate from other States. Mr. PICKLE. Thank you. Mr. VAN DEERLIN (presiding). Mr. Gilligan? Our Tennessee colleague, Mr. Richard Fulton, is here with a very brief statement. STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD FULTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE Mr. FULTON. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I am appreciative of the opportunity to appear before you once again in support of uniform daylight saving time. It was my privilege, in 1964, to appear before the committee in support of H.R. 76, which is a bill similar to some 15 others which have been introduced. I will not delay the committee members this morning by reading my entire statement. I believe each of you have a copy, so with your permission, I would like to ask that it be inserted in the record. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Very good. (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD FULTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin this morning by expressing my profoundest appreciation for these hearings. As the new chairman you have undertaken the study of the perplexing problem of this Nation's crazy quilt pattern of time observance as one of the first matters you have chosen to bring to the attention of this committee. To my mind, Mr. Chairman, this priority serves to underscore dramatically the importance of this problem and the urgent need for relief-relief that will bring order out of what is today costly and needless confusion. Over the years there has been a growing concern over this Nation's time observance problem and an increasing expression of hope and sentiment that the Congress will do something about it under the powers vested to it in the weights and measures clause of the Constitution. As evidence to support this growing concern I would cite the 16 bills before this committee for consideration this morning. And each year the number grows. For years the States have wrestled with this problem of time. In the process there has grown in this country a pattern of observance of horse-and-buggy antiquity which is almost beyond comprehension in this age of rockets, jets, and computers. The States, by their failure to establish any logical pattern of uniformity have led to the assertion that the United States is the "*** world's worst timekeeper." I might add that it is indeed fortunate that the time observance regulations established by the States or localities under local option do not extend above them into space. For, if they did, can you imagine our astronauts changing their clocks every few seconds as they fly through the heavens at 18,000 miles an hour? The chairman of this committee knows full well to what extreme this problem can evolve. In his own State of West Virginia lies that now famous 35-mile stretch of highway between Moundsville, W. Va., and Steubenville, Ohio, where the traveler could actually change his watch seven times to conform to local time observance. The people of West Virginia, of course, have now eliminated this problem through their legislature. The point is to be made, however, that there is no law, regulation, or even custom to prevent this same situation arising again not only in West Virginia as an isolated case but in 48 other States simultaneously. I say 48 other States because it could not possibly happen in my State of Tennessee for there we have an act of the Tennessee General Assembly which prohibits observance of any time but standard time. Even so, we observe two times in my State, eastern standard and central standard, because that demarcation line runs through the middle-eastern portion of Tennessee. Mr. Chairman, it is becoming more and more apparent that something must be done to alleviate if not end entirely this annual time confusion. It is my further belief that more and more Americans are turning to this view each year. Where is daylight time observed? It is observed from coast to coast; from the northern Canadian border to the Caribbean. But it is observed without uniformity. The latest figures in my possession (these figures may be outdated because the State legislatures annually make alteration in State and local observance) show that on the last Sunday of April this year in 25 States clocks will be advanced 1 hour. Later during the spring, clocks will be moved ahead 1 hour in six more States. Then from Labor Day through the last Sunday in October these 31 States, on varying dates, will return to standard time. In the meantime, consider that the lives of over 100 million Americans will have been affected directly while the lives of almost every American will be affected indirectly. Consider the hundreds of millions of dollars will be lost to American business and commerce through confusion and inconvenience. It is estimated that the reprinting schedules to conform to these time changes cost our Nation's motorbus operators $250.000 each year while our railroads estimate these same costs total over $1 million for them and our broadcasters estimate that taping costs necessitated by the time change each year are more than $1.6 million. Consider also the business that is lost, the contracts not fulfilled or made. agreements never consummated and the immeasurable business which is not transacted because of the lack of uniformity in the observance in time throughout the Nation. I live in Nashville, Tenn., which is some 500 miles from our eastern seaboard. Yet there is a 2-hour time differential between Nashville and the eastern commercial centers each spring, summer, and fall. Consider businessman A in Nashville who wishes to conduct business by phone with businessman B in the East. While A is enjoying his 7:30 coffee in Nashville, B has been on the job 30 minutes if he arrived at his office at 9. By the time A gets to his office he has an hour to go over his mail and talk with B before B goes to lunch. If A observes a strict 12-to1 lunch schedule it will still be 3 p.m. B's time before they can talk. B has now spent 5 hours in his office, only 2 of which have been mutually convenient for business purposes as far as A is concerned. I believe that this suffices to illustrate my point here. But I might add that A could conduct business with C in some portions of the neighboring State of Missouri to the west and still lose an hour because portions of that State observe saving time unless there has been a recent change in law there of which I am not aware. Mr. Chairman, the crux of this problem is uniformity, or rather the lack of it. The States could do the job but have, for varying reasons been unable or unwilling to. In addition there seems little likelihood that they will. Even if they should, under existing conditions with a total lack of any requirement that uniformity be maintained, there is nothing to indicate that uniformity once achieved would prevail. I appear here today in behalf of H.R. 76 which would provide total and enduring uniformity. The bill requires that daylight saving time will be observed nationwide 6 months each year commencing the last Sunday in April and ending the last Sunday in October. A substantial majority of the States, 31 at last count, observe saving time in some form or other. I firmly believe that the majority of the people of this Nation want daylight saving time if only for the negative reason of having grown weary of the confusion which results from our annual springtime scramble. Mr. Chairman I would like to close by saying that I will support any measure this committee may report which will lead to uniformity. In this regard you have before you today the Senate-passed Cotton bill which, while to my thinking is inadequate, is a first step. However, I would direct your attention to what I believe to be a serious defect in this bill. It has no enforcement clause. The sections which would have permitted sanctions were stricken from the bill. Passage of any bill without enforcement provisions is an open invitation to flagrant flounting of the law and the will of the Congress. I urge that any bill reported by this committee contain these enforcement provisions; not stringent but adequate to assure compliance. I urge even more strongly your favorable consideration of H.R. 76 and close by again offering my profound thanks to you for the privilege of appearing before you today and for your consideration of this most important matter. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Mr. Younger? Mr. YOUNGER. No questions. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Mr. Pickle? Mr. PICKLE. No questions. I am delighted to see the gentleman from Tennessee. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Mr. Nelsen? Mr. NELSEN. No questions. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Mr. Gilligan? Mr. GILLIGAN. No questions, thank you. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Our next three witnesses are from Washington, D.C. The first is Mr. Jack M. Slichter. STATEMENT OF JACK M. SLICHTER, ON BEHALF OF AIR Mr. SLICHTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My statement is a brief one and I would like, with your permission, to read it. My name is Jack M. Slichter. I am vice president of the Air Transport Association. On behalf of the scheduled certificated air carriers who make up our association, I should like to comment on a number of bills considered by this committee, all of them relating, in one way or another, to the establishment of uniform time standards. At the outset I should like to express our appreciation for the opportunity to express our views on these bills. And, more than that, I should like to convey our gratitude to the committee for concerning itself with this problem-with the confusing and sometimes costly practices which have evolved since the Standard Time Act was adopted in 1918. In addition to conveniencing the traveling public and the common carriers who provide transportation throughout the country, we believe that orderly regulation of time, based on clearly defined boundaries and geared to the tempo of the 1960's, will benefit the Nation as a whole. From the airlines' point of view, there are three primary areas of concern: (1) the present lack of uniformity of dates for changing to and from daylight saving time; (2) the need for time uniformity within urban areas comprising major transportation and business hubs; and (3) the necessity for the airlines to continue to apply Greenwich time to air traffic control and, in some cases, within an individual company for operational purposes. Airline public timetables are published in terms of local timeeither daylight saving time or standard time, whichever prevails at the city concerned. This practice was started several years ago to eliminate some of the difficulties and confusion in informing the public which cities observed daylight time and which observed standard time and it has worked quite well, particularly for flight schedules to and from communities adhering to a standard conversion date. In such cases schedules can be computed and timetables issued at a minimum of expense to the airlines and with a maximum degree of assurance that the public will be correctly informed. Unfortunately, however, all of the sections of the country observing daylight saving time do not adhere to a uniform conversion date. So, in order to present correct and current information to the public, the airlines are obliged to recompute and reissue timetables or to include extensive and complicated footnotes each time another community changes over to or from daylight time. The exact costs attributable to these practices are difficult to compute, since the airlines may use such occasions to make other adjustments to schedules. But there is no doubt that a uniform changeover date would permit a reduction of costs. Of immediate importance to the public is the fact that there are times when the airlines find it impossible to adjust schedules to accommodate nonuniform time changes without adversely affecting the public in other cities. When such situations arise, the airlines must choose the course which would offer the best service to the maximum 58-797-66-8 |