Show I THIRTEEN HOURS FROM MANILA Difference of Time From Washington Based On Greenwich Meridian Baltlmor American In view of recent and expected happenings = I hap-penings in the Philippine Islands the following statement reprinted from the Star of May 7 last concerning the time difference between Washington and Manila will be of interest at present Manila is both east and west of Washington Longitudinally It is east In actual distance it is to be considered consid-ered as west The computation Of relative rela-tive time depends solely upon which of these directions is to be adopted I Washington says the Star of that city were permitted to count geographical distances from the basis of its own meridian me-ridian of longitude Manila would reckon reck-on her time a we see the case later than Washington Therefore I would be about 1 oclock last night In Manila when i was 9 oclock this morning here But happily for the sanity of the dwellers on earth civilized man has devised a plan for preventing each locality from considering itself the center of the world and has provided that the nations agree upon some fixed spot as the commencement of all calculations cal-culations Greenwich England is this point which is now recognized by most nations in computing time differences The rapid development of the worlds wildernesses ha made some such device de-vice absolutely essential Thus Washington Wash-ington relinquishes her right to regard Manila as lying west and as taking her time from the Washington basis ler tme qnd consents to consider her as lying east and taking her time from the Greenwich basis On this foundation oclock in Manila when it Is 10 oclock tonight lanla it is 9 oclock this morning here the difference being approximately thirteen hours Of course there comes a place on the globe where the days do not adjust themselves to the arbitrary schedule adopted by the moderns Naturally Greenwich or this lies exactly opposite longitude ISO west or east according to the point of view I is the only meridian that can be called both west and east When that line is reached travelers must reorganize their calendars calen-dars Fortunately this line falls In midocean throughout its length only striking one of the FIJI Islands and perhaps per-haps a few other mal projections from the surface of the Pacific Hence the annoyance of the mlsadjustment is reduced to a minimum and confronts only the transoceanic travelers who Journey over this imaginary boundary Going west it is necessary to drop a day out of the week the month and the year Going east it is just as necessary neces-sary to add a day Thus the westbound west-bound tourist finds himself minus a Sunday or a Thursday according as he encounters fhe line Coming eastward east-ward he doubles the length of the day on which the meridian is crossed On reaching shore he picks up the routine of civilization once more and proceeds without confusion A curious fact Is recorded concerning I the time difference as i affects the Philippine islands now so pointedly the center of worldwide interest Those Islands were discovered by Spanish Span-ish voyagers sailing westward around Cape Horn Borneo a short distance tp the west was discovered by the Portuguese Por-tuguese going around Cape of Good Hope eastward Consequently for many years these two regions so close in actual ac-tual distance and yet separated by almost most the circumference of the globe as regards time had different schedules sched-ules and the Philippine Islanders held their Sunday on the day that was Monday Mon-day tothe Inhabitants of Borneo Recently Re-cently this error was corrected and these two contiguous countries are now on the same basis Were it not for this correction the battle of Manila would have been fought last Saturday instead In-stead of Sunday the Islands thus lying longitudinally as well as geographically geographical-ly I west of Washington |