6 May 1918: Time Changes for the Streetcar Schedule

On this day in 1918, the Athens Daily Herald published the "slight adjustment of schedules" by the Athens Railway & Electric Company "to meet present conditions." The new schedule was published daily for a week.

From 5:15 a. m., city time, or 6:15 a. m., government time, a half-hour schedule will be operated for one hour, making all connections for the early trains.

From 10:50 p.m., city time, or 11:50 p. m., government time, a half hour schedule will be operated on the Milledge and Lumpkin belt, the M. and L. cars alternating every fifteen minutes from downtown, M. car 10:50 p.m., 11:20 p.m., and 11:50 p.m., and L. car 11:05 p.m., and 11:35 p.m., city time.

"Government time" refers to the first institution of Daylight Saving Time by the United States, though it had been used in Europe since 1916. Congress passed the law establishing the use of Daylight Saving Time on March 19, 1918, as a way to conserve energy during the First World War.

The law went into effect on March 31, 1918, and also established the first official time zones in the United States. The time change was unpopular, and was repealed in 1919. President Franklin D. Roosevelt re-established the use of Daylight Saving Time in 1942, using the moniker "war time."

After the end of the Second World War, the shift to Daylight Saving Time was considered a local issue, but the inconsistencies caused enough problems that in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act. States could choose to opt out by passing a bill in their legislature. Today, only Arizona and Hawaii do not observe Daylight Saving Time.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Jan. 1918 - Jun. 1918 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Time Changes in the U.S.A. by Doris Chase Doane in the Reference collection.
• Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time in the general collection.
• A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently by Robert Levine in the general collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Buses, Trolleys, and Trams by Charles Stuart Dunbar in the general collection.
• America Enters the World: A People's History of the Progressive Era and World War I by Page Smith in the general collection.
• Time Exhibit links from the Time.gov website.