Part 14 (1/2)
The PRESIDENT:
The Chair begs leave to announce that, in the regular order of business, the first matter before the Conference to-day would have been the proposition of the Delegate of Great Britain, Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, that a committee be appointed to consider a report upon the resolution offered by him yesterday. The Chair understood, however, from Mr. FLEMING this morning that he had no desire to press that proposition, and, therefore, it may be considered as withdrawn.
The question then would be upon the amendment offered by the Delegate of Spain, Mr. JUAN PASTORIN, and if that amendment be withdrawn upon the amendment offered by the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT. The Chair understands that both of those gentlemen desire to withdraw their propositions temporarily, and, in that event, the first action to be taken will be upon the resolution offered by the Delegate of the United States, Mr. RUTHERFURD.
Mr. RUSTEM EFFENDI, Delegate of Turkey. In voting yesterday in favor of the resolutions proposed by the Hon. Delegate of the United States, I wish to have it well understood that my vote does not bind my Government. I am, indeed, obliged to vote against any proposition which would tend to bind it in any way, for I desire to leave it free to act in the matter.
I engage to submit to my Government the result of our deliberations and to recommend their adoption, but that is all. In other words, I have only voted ”_ad referendum_,” and I ask that my statement be entered in the protocol.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair would inform the Delegate who has just spoken that the same statement was made by several delegates at a former meeting of the Conference.
M. JANSSEN, Delegate of France. I believe that the very correct doctrine just enunciated by the Delegate of Turkey, Mr. RUSTEM EFFENDI, is the one adopted by all the members of the Congress, and that we have all voted ”_ad referendum_.”
The PRESIDENT. The Chair so understood the general sense of the Conference as expressed at one of our former meetings, when many of the delegates made the same declaration.
Mr. ANTONIO BATRES, Delegate of Salvador. Mr. President, I could not be present yesterday, on account of illness, and I now request permission to register my name in favor of the resolution adopting the meridian of Greenwich as the prime meridian.
The PRESIDENT. The Delegate of Salvador, Mr. BATRES, informs the Chair that he was not able to be present yesterday, on account of illness, and he desires that his name may be recorded as voting for the meridian of Greenwich. If there be no objection to the request of the Delegate to Salvador, his vote will be so entered.
No objection being made, the President instructed the Secretary to make the proper entry in the protocol.
The PRESIDENT. The Delegate of Spain, Mr. PASTORIN, has withdrawn his amendment, and the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT, has also withdrawn the amendment which he offered to the resolution of the Delegate of the United States, Mr. RUTHERFURD. The resolution originally offered will now be read.
The Secretary then read the resolution, as follows:
”_Resolved_, That from this meridian [_i.e._, the meridian of Greenwich] longitude shall be counted in two directions up to 180 degrees, east longitude being plus, and west longitude minus.”
Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, Delegate of Great Britain, representing the Dominion of Canada. I wish to offer some observations on the resolution before the Conference, but I am unable to separate the particular question from the general question. To my mind, longitude and time are so related that they are practically inseparable, and when I consider longitude, my thoughts naturally revert to time, by which it is measured. I trust, therefore, I may be permitted to extend my remarks somewhat beyond the immediate scope of the resolution. I agree with those who think that longitude should be reckoned in one direction only, and I am disposed to favor a mode of notation differing in other respects from that commonly followed.
If a system of universal time be brought into use, advantages would result from having the system of time and the system of terrestrial longitude in complete harmony. The pa.s.sage of time is continuous, and, therefore, I think longitude should be reckoned continuously. To convey my meaning fully, however, it is necessary that I should enter into explanations at some length.
Ten days back I ventured informally to place my views, with a series of recommendations on this subject, before the delegates. I hope I may now be permitted to submit them to the Conference.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair would inquire of the Conference whether the recommendations and remarks which were sent in print to the Delegates a few days ago by Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, the Delegate of Great Britain, may be entered upon the protocol as presented to-day. Each member was, it is understood, furnished with a copy of these papers.
Mr. TUPPER, Delegate of Chili. The Delegates of Chili have not received them.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair will take care that they are sent.
No objection was made to the request of the Delegate of Great Britain, Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, who continued as follows:
The adoption of a Prime Meridian, common to all nations, admits of the establishment of a system of reckoning time equally satisfactory to our reason and our necessities.
At present we are without such a system. The mode of notation followed by common usage from time immemorial, whatever its applicability to limited areas, when extended to a vast continent, with a net-work of lines of railway and telegraph, has led to confusion and created many difficulties. Further, it is insufficient for the purposes of scientific investigation, so marked a feature of modern inquiry.
Taking the globe as a whole, it is not now possible precisely to define when a year or a month or a week begins. There is no such interval of time as the commonly defined day everywhere and invariable. By our accepted definition, a day is local; it is limited to a single meridian. At some point on the earth's surface one day is always at its commencement and another always ending. Thus, while the earth makes one diurnal revolution, we have continually many days in different stages of progress on our planet.
Necessarily the hours and minutes partake of this normal irregularity.
Clocks, the most perfect in mechanism, disagree if they differ in longitude. Indeed, if clocks are set to true time, as it is now designated, they must, at least in theory, vary not only in the same State or county, but to some extent in the same city.
As we contemplate the general advance in knowledge, we cannot but feel surprised that these ambiguities and anomalies should be found, especially as they have been so long known and felt. In the early conditions of the human race, when existence was free from the complications which civilization has led to; in the days when tribes followed pastoral pursuits and each community was isolated from the other; when commerce was confined to few cities, and intercommunication between distant countries rare and difficult; in those days there was no requirement for a common system of uniform time. No inconvenience was felt in each locality having its own separate and distinct reckoning. But the conditions under which we live are no longer the same. The application of science to the means of locomotion and to the instantaneous transmission of thought and speech have gradually contracted s.p.a.ce and annihilated distance. The whole world is drawn into immediate neighborhood and near relations.h.i.+p, and we have now become sensible to inconveniences and to many disturbing influences in our reckoning of time utterly unknown and even unthought of a few generations back. It is also quite manifest that, as civilization advances, such evils must greatly increase rather than be lessened, and that the true remedy lies in changing our traditional usages in respect to the notation of days and hours, whatever shock it may give to old customs and the prejudices engendered by them.