Daylight Saving Time Ok'd | Ann Arbor District Library

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Michigan voters decided yesterday that the state will go on daylight saving time during the warm months each year. As a result, Michigan will join 4iy2 other states on so-called "fast time" from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October beginning next year. Four years ago the issue had been voted down by less than 500 votes. OPPONENTS CONTEND that Michigan gets late sunsets anyway and that bringing the sun up later in the morning - as happens on daylight saving time - causes problems for farmers andothers who depend on an early start. But Michigan golfers, gardeners, sailors and city-dwellmg do-it-yourselfers, amöng uthers, have wanted an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. Detroit-based business and manufacturers and those that are subsidiaries of eastern firms have been pushing for daylight saving time because being out of pace with the East Coast means the loss of interstate dealings at the beginning of the day, during the Eastern daylight time lunch hour, during the Eastern standard time lunch huur and at the end of the day. THE CHRYSLER CORP. with manufacturtng operations in Windsor (which observes daylight saving time) has trouble scheduling deliveries, and firms that a're linked by computer with out-of-state offices find themselves out of step. The Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce C. of C. led a petition drive to put the issue back on the balloïafter its narrow'defeat in 1968 (490 votes out of 2.8 million cast). In addition to the recreational, business and tourist benefits, C. of C. argued, there are ecological and sociological benefits. With more businesses staying open late in the evenings, they said, an extra hour of dayhght can have a major impact on the amount of electricity used throughout the state - reducing demands and Iessening the chance of "brovvnouts." Street crime flourishes during the dark evemng hours meaning an hour later start on darkness in cities reduces the crime potential by one hour, the C. of C. argued. Since darkness is often a factor in traffic accidents, more daylight during evening travel times means safer streets and highways, it was argued. NOEL F. DUNCAN, a Detroit public relations executive who headed a coalition group called Citizens for Standard Time argued against daylight saving time, saying late sunnses in September and October would mean "children would be sent to school before dawn, in dangerous darkness. "Daylight saving time would take the light away from our children in the morning and tag it on the end of the day," he said. "The state death rate (from traffic accidents) was at an all-time low for the past two years - without daylight saving time. "Crime is down in Detroit and in Michigan and the Michigan tourist industry is having its biggest year in history . . . without daylight time, ' Duncan argued. MICHIGAN'S TIME TROUBLES starled sometime after 1913 when the world was vided into 24 time zones. The center of the Eastern standard time zone is the 75th Meridïan - which runs through Philadelphia. The center of the Central time zone is the 90th Meridian - which runs through central Illinois - and Ironwood, at the extreme west end of Michigan's Upper Península. (Meridians are the north-south lines on globes and maps.) The dividing line is half way between those two - or just west of Port Huron. Thus, Michigan's problem was which time zone to adopt. Detroit got itself admitted to the Eastern time zone and the rest of the state gradually followed. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which put the entire nation on daylight time - unless states specifically exempted themselves. Michigan went on daylight time for part of 1967 and during the summer of 1968, but citizens yoted to exempt the state in 1968. Arizona and Hawaii also are exempt, and Indiana allows local option. A MICHIGAN STATE University astronomer, Robert Victor, said next June 27, under day hght saving time, the 9:58 p.m. sunset at Ironwood will be the latest in the continental United States - except for the extreme northwest corner of North Dakota, where the sun sets at.l0:05 p.m. Central daylight time. In Detroit, under daylight savings time, the sun will set as late as 9: 14 p.m.," he added. Farmers find it increasingly difficult to eet workers to harvest crops. Hay, for example, must be cut toward the end of the day, after it has had a chance to dry, but workers don't want to be working when the clock says its evening.

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