Volume 12 , Issue 45

1918 Standard Time Act

Standard time in time zones was not established in U.S. Law until the Act of March 19, 1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act (a.k.a. Calder Act, (15 USC 264)). The act also established daylight saving time, itself a contentious idea.

Daylight saving time was established by the Act of March 19, 1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act. The Act was intended to save electricity for seven months of the year, during World War I. DST was repealed in 1919, though, but standard time in time zones remained in law, with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) having the authority over time zone boundaries. Daylight time became a local matter.

Original U.S. law, 40 Stat. 450 & 56 Stat. 9, The first two acts establishing DST in the United States.

40 Stat. 450 & 56 Stat. 9 -- What does that mean? 40 Stat. 450 is the Statutes at Large citation: 40 is the volume, and 450 is the beginning page number. These are the published laws from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

An Act To save daylight and to provide standard time, for the United States reads as follows:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the purpose of establishing the standard time of the United States, the territory of continental United States shall be divided into five zones in the manner hereinafter provided. The standard time of the first zone shall be based on the mean astronomical time of the seventy-fifth degree of longitude west from Greenwich; that of the second zone on the ninetieth degree; that of the third zone on the one hundred and fifth degree; that of the fourth zone on the one hundred and twentieth degree; and that of the fifth zone, which shall include only Alaska, on the one hundred and fiftieth degree. That the limits of each zone shall be defined by an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, having regard for the convenience of commerce and the existing, junction points and division points of common carriers engaged in commerce between the several States and with foreign nations, and such order may be modified from time to time."

During World War II, Congress enacted the War Time Act (56 Stat. 9) on January 20, 1942. Year-round DST was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve energy resources. This remained in effect until after the end of the war.

The Amendment to the War Time Act (59 Stat. 537), enacted September 25, 1945, ended DST as of September 30, 1945. During this period, the official designation War Time was used for year-round DST.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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