On this date 100 years ago, Little Rock newspapers reported the results of an exciting election at Little Rock. Citizens were riled up.
They turned out to vote on May 8, 1922, in force and numbers that dwarfed civic engagement with six preceding city elections.
This was not so much an election or referendum as it was an opinion poll. Mayor Ben Brickhouse asked the people to weigh in on whether the City Council ought to adopt daylight saving time that summer.
People remembered daylight saving from the federal mandate during World War I. Although some large cities continued the practice after the war, most of the nation gladly let it go.
Railroads, of course, returned to their common standard time, which in 1918 had become most everybody's standard time ... which is not to say uniformly standard. Standard time was not really standardized until the Uniform Time Act of 1966. In 1922, people still had to consider "city time" and "railway time" (see arkansasonline.com/59time).
But I digress. Back to the May 8 ballot.
Analyzing returns, the Arkansas Gazette editorial page noted on May 11 that 7,786 citizens cast ballots — compared with 1,493 voters in a municipal election one month earlier.
The weather May 8 was much better than it had been for that less-attended April 4 poll; but among voters who made the effort in April were a lot of highly motivated Klansmen. They turned out to fulfill instructions delivered at two rallies: scratch out an unopposed alderman, E.L. Younger, and write in a railroad engineer, Charles R. Snodgrass. Younger's apparent defect was being a Catholic. (Old News wrote about Snodgrass in 2017 under the jocular headline "Out of the pest house and into City Hall"; see arkansasonline.com/59pox.)
Turnout in the five earlier city elections had been even smaller: 482 in 1917; 383 in 1918 (a mayoral election); 413 in 1919; 244 in 1920 (another mayoral vote); and 237 in 1921.
So, citizens of Little Rock were inconstant voters. But on May 8, they did not have to pay the usual poll tax; one year's residence was enough to qualify them to vote; and women as young as 18 could participate, even though they had to be 21 for regular elections. Men still had to be 21 years old. I can't find any published explanation for the difference in female age requirements but am nursing the suspicion this amounted to mild shenanigans.
Bankers, department store owners and the Gazette editorial page endorsed the switch to daylight saving time and backed a proposal to change the clocks from May through September. The city Board of Commerce at first endorsed "the scheme," followed quickly by the Lions Club. But as opposition arose, the Board of Commerce rescinded its endorsement and declared neutrality. The Rotary Club stayed neutral, too, as did the Arkansas Democrat.
[Gallery not showing? Click here to see photos of campaign ads: arkansasonline.com/59ads/]
Apparently well-funded advocates took out daily newspaper ads signed by the Employees Daylight Saving Committee. Routine ads for the department stores included boxed appeals from their employees.
Letters to the editor abounded in both papers.
IN FAVOR
◼️ George R. Wyman wrote: "The daylight saving plan takes from [workers] an hour at the time their bodies need the rest the least, but adds this hour to the end of the day when we feel most like enjoying it."
◼️ Democrat Reader wrote: "There are 16,000 folks in Little Rock who work through the hot summers in offices, stores, shops and banks who will be benefited by daylight saving. It will give them a more comfortable summer, multiply their pleasures many times, increase their efficiency and will be of immeasurable benefit to their health.
"A large proportion of these workers are girls and women. These are specially in danger of attacks from tuberculosis when working in stuffy rooms and shops in hot weather. Daylight saving gives them daily outdoors recreation and life in fresh air, great health builders.
"There are 14,000 mothers in this city with babies and young children. ... Mother gets her household duties done in the cooler part of the day, while the children are happy at play."
◼️ L.C. Holman, a banker, wrote:
"In our own bank, Daylight Saving will be of untold value to all our employees by giving them a long time out in the fresh air every day, giving them better health, more view and pleasure galore. Our girls especially want Daylight Saving, as it will give them time for picnics, tennis, hikes, ball games, auto rides and visits with neighbors in the long evenings."
OPPOSED
◼️ Pulaski Heights Subscriber wrote:
"Arkansas is not New England, the Atlantic seaboard nor the states bordering the Great Lakes. There is a vast difference in atmospheric conditions. During the summer months, from June until the close of September, the nights with but few exceptions are oppressively warm and do not admit of much sleep before midnight. For this reason every hour that can be obtained after midnight is of vital importance and to enact a measure depriving so many deserving workers of their lawful period of rest is nothing less than a despotic usurpation of their rights as citizens. Such an act would savor of feudalism and should not reflect credit in a great republic so recently made safe for democracy."
◼️ R.E. Shillcut of 1001 W. Markham St. wrote:
"The laborer, the mechanic, the streetcar man and the business man who must be at work from 4:30 to 7 o'clock will, of course, be compelled to get up an hour earlier while our pleasure-seeking friends are having pleasant dreams of what happened the night before."
◼️ H.S. Brevoort added:
"Then there are other equally good reasons why we should not pass a law which has the effect of 'kidding ourselves' into thinking it is an hour later than it really is. For instance, the trains will still be running on standard time. They pay no attention to freak local time laws. With our clocks showing an incorrect time just think of the confusion of those who travel, especially the stranger within our gates."
◼️ Observer wrote: "The system will not build up our Sunday School, churches or prayer meetings, but rather detract from them, as the minds of the people will be given over more to pleasure-seeking. ... It will surely promote dissipation."
◼️ Sen. Joe T. Robinson wrote:
"I am advised by an employee of one of the large business houses of the city that they have been notified that if the daylight saving plan is adopted, they will be compelled to work one hour longer each day. In other words, they will begin work by the new time, but instead of quitting at the usual time, they will work one hour longer to handle business with near-by towns, in the way of long distance orders, shipments, etc. This is only one instance where the work day will be made longer, and it is easily understood when one stops to consider that a large portion of the business done in the city is regulated by the train and mail service."
◼️ Mrs. Lippincott wrote: "We people who get up, year after year, winter or summer, at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning fail to see any reason in this foolishness about Daylight Saving. We get up without an ordinance to change the time, and any one who is not weak-minded can do the same."
THE OUTCOME?
The returns showed a landslide of opinion: 6 to 1 against it. The people of Little Rock saw the light, and they said, "No!"
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Gallery: Voting on time in 1922
