On these grounds I feel justified in respectfully asking the consideration of the Conference to the series of recommendations which I venture to submit.

The matter is undoubtedly one in which every civilized nation is interested.  Indeed, it may be said that, more or less, every human being is concerned in it.  The problem is of universal importance, and its solution can alone be found in the general adoption of a system grounded on principles recognized as incontrovertible.

Such principles are embodied in the recommendations which I am permitted to place before the Conference.  They involve, as an essential requirement, the determination of a unit of measurement, and it is obvious that such a unit must have its origin in the motion of the heavenly bodies.  No motion is more uniform than the motion of the earth on its axis.  This diurnal revolution admits of the most delicate measurement, and, in all respects, is the most available for a unit measure.  It furnishes a division of time definite and precise, and one which, without difficulty, can be made plain and manifest.

A revolution of the earth, denoted by the mean solar passage at the Prime or Anti-prime Meridian, will be recognizable by the whole world as a period of time common to all.  By general agreement this period may be regarded as the common unit by which time may be everywhere measured for every purpose in science, in commerce, and in every-day life.

The scheme set forth in the recommendations has in view three principal objects, viz: 

1.  To define and establish an universal day for securing chronological accuracy in dates common to the whole world.

2.  To obtain a system of universal time on a basis acceptable to all nations, by which, everywhere, at the same time, the same instant may be observed.

3.  To establish a sound and rational system of reckoning time which may eventually be adopted for civil purposes everywhere, and thus secure uniformity and accuracy throughout the globe.

But, in the inauguration of a scheme affecting so many individuals, it is desirable not to interfere with prevailing customs more than necessary.  Such influences as arise from habit are powerful and cannot be ignored.  The fact must be recognized that it will be difficult to change immediately the usages to which the mass of men have been accustomed.  In daily life we are in the habit of eating, sleeping, and following the routine of our existence at certain periods of the day.  We are familiar with the numbers of the hours by which these periods are known, and, doubtless, there will be many who will see little reason in any attempt to alter their nomenclature, especially those who take little note of cause and effect, and who, with difficulty, understand the necessity of a remedy to some marked irregularity which, however generally objectionable, does not bear heavily upon them individually.

For the present, therefore, we must adapt a new system, as best we are able, to the habits of men and women as we find them.  Provision for such adaptation is made in the recommendations by which, while local reckoning would be based on the principles laid down, the hours and their numbers need not appreciably vary from those with which we are familiar.  Thus, time-reckoning in all ordinary affairs in every locality may be made to harmonize with the general system.