J. D. B. News Letter

The United States State Department yesterday issued an official announcement calling attention to the report of the National Committee on Calendar Simplification stating it has been forwarded to the Secretary General of the League of Nations for his information and for such use as he may wish to make of it. The State Department also announced that it is distributing copies of the report to newspaper correspondents. The announcement also makes public endorsements of calendar reform received by the State Department from Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, Secretary of War Good; Acting Secretary of the Navy Hughes, Secretary of the Interior Wilbur, Secretary of Commerce Lamont, Secretary of Labor Davis, Comptroller General McCarl and E. I. Lewis, Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Secretary of the Treasury Mellon stated: “The report appears to be quite comprehensive and the treasury does not have any further information which would be of use to the League of Nations in its study of this question. Nor does it desire to offer any comments or suggestions other than those contained in my letters of October 16, 1922, and June 2, 1924, in which the question of calendar reform is reviewed from the standpoint of its effect on treasury operations.”

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hughes: “I have caused the report of the National Committee on Calendar Simplification for the United States to be examined critically at the Navy observatory and have myself considered its outstanding features.

“The recommendations set forth in the Department’s letter of December 2. 1927 continue to represent the views of the Navy Department in the premises. The report in its present form satisfactorily meets these recommendations.

“It is the desire of this Department to be represented, either directly or in an advisory capacity, in any international conference that may be convened for Calendar modifications. On account of the intimate connection of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac with calendarization.”

Secretary of War Good: “With reference to your letter of August 3, 1929 in which you request information as to whether there is any objection, from the point of view of the War Department, to the transmission of the report prepared by the National Committee on calendar Simplication to the League of Nations, I am pleased to advise you that there is no objection on the part of the War Department to such action.”

Secretary of the Interior Wilbur: “The report of this committee has now been received. The committee seems to have conducted its investigation in a thorough and impartial manner and to have established clearly that widespread interest exists that is based upon business and social considerations of importance. This interest would, in my opinion, appear to justify participation by the United States in an international conference upon the subject, if such a conference is called.”

Secretary of Commerce Lamont: “This Department endorses the report of the committee and considers that the chairman of the committee, George Eastman, and his associates have done a very creditable piece of work in bringing to a focus opinions from various national groups and interests widely concerned with questions relating to the calendar.”

Secretary of Labor Davis: “The report of this committee impresses me as a comprehensive survey of the public sentiment in the United States on the subject of reform of the calendar. I believe that the efforts of the Department of Labor to perform its functions in the field of statistics, labor statistics in particular, will be materially promoted and facilitated under a better calendar than the one now in use, and it is my opinion that the United States is justified in participating in an international effort to bring about an adoption of an intelligent simplified calendar.”

Chairman E. I. Lewis of the Interstate Commerce Commission: “Although the Interstate Commerce Commission as a whole has not acted on this report, I personally am impressed by the comprehensive survey that has been made of the sentiment in the United States on the subject of calendar simplification and hope it may lead to an international conference to consider the subject. Without at this time expressing a view as to the details of any particular plan, I believe that in the matter of revising a calendar, in daily use by million of persons, a thorough discussion of international scope seems eminently advisable.”

Comptroller General McCarol: “I have to advise that as the report is understood to be submitted primarily for the purpose of increasing interest in the simplification of the calendar and to suggest an international conference for that purpose, without finally recommending any definite form or method of simplification, there would appear to be no reason why this office should offer any objection to its transmission to the League of Nations as proposed. This office heretofore has expressed the view that Plan I as designated in the report, contemplating a year of thirteen equal months of twenty-eight (Continued on Page 4)

Jewish bodies opposing the proposed blank day calendar advocated by the National Committee on Calendar Simplification were evidently caught napping in connection with the report that committee made public, it was pointed out here in quarters interested in the calendar reform question. Acceptance of the report by the State Department as its answer to the questionnaire of the League of Nations regarding calendar reform in effect places the American government’s stamp of approval on this report, which strongly favors the blank day plan, so long and vigorously espoused by George Eastman of Rochester, Chairman of the Committee. Curiosity was expressed here whether any of the Jewish bodies interested in this question made any representations to the State Department prior to the issuance of the report with the object of at least causing a declaration by the State Department freeing itself of any commitment to the blank day plan. It is pointed out that it is not yet too late for representations to be made to the State Department with this end in view in order that the impression may not be given to the world that the United States government is backing the blank day plan.