CHANGE THE SCHEDULE

The student body will decide today whether the University time schedule is to be advanced an hour. Some undergraduates even now fail to see the advantages of this plan. The first reason for its adoption and the most essential at the present time, is the conservation of fuel. Although this will hardly be obtained through economizing heat, since college buildings are kept warm a definite part of the day under any circumstances, yet it can be secured by utilizing less artificial light. According to the proposed idea, everybody would rise one hour earlier, and therefore go to bed an hour earlier, for we do not believe anyone will keep to his accustomed habits if he loses sleep thereby. At the time the change is scheduled to go into effect, the sun will rise almost half an hour sooner than now. The man who gets up at 6.15 therefore, instead of 7.15, can dress himself by daylight. Certainly there will be no wasted electricity here. On the other end, hower, he goes to bed at 10 o'clock in place of 11, and so saves one hour of electricity. Although few students rise this early, yet the proposition is just as true for all who get up later. Surely such conservation of artificial light means less waste of fuel. By this proposition, which is practically a daylight-saving scheme, we can in fact reduce our coal consumption.

Besides this actual gain, there is the moral one which comes from enforcing a patriotic principle. Just as any one individual household saves little white flour by using graham twice a week, so we conserve only a relatively small amount of fuel by dimming out lights. But, as the household, because it has the spirit, helps materially to prevent waste, so the student body can check needless consumption. We shall back up an actual physical profit by the knowledge of having done as much as possible to preserve the vital supplies of the nation.

The student body has the opportunity to give an example of such spirit as is needed throughout the country. The very inconvenience that is likely to result helps rather than hinders, as we show thereby our willingness to do what we believe most patriotic. Certainly we would not urge a measure which entails so many minor difficulties unless we were convinced the end justified the trouble. By one such example, however, it is possible to inculcate especially in those affected some notion that they are citizens of a nation in arms. Few of us have really felt the "pinch of war," yet if we show ourselves willing to undergo a slight trouble for the sake of a principle most irrefutably correct, we begin to see our position. Everyone who is compelled to check waste on a large scale will voluntarily be more careful in small matters. Not only because of actual gain, but also because of the principle involved, vote for a change in the time schedule.