On the horizon in a few days will be an event some of us — along with some of our software, TV’s and DVD’s will be trying to also get used to — the advent the second Sunday in March of Daylight Savings. For it was only in 2007 that a federal law took effect that made the annual hour skipping event move so early on the calendar. Before that it didn’t occur until April. Sorting out the confusion is a bit easier, however, if one takes a look back in time to see how we arrived at the time regime in which we live today.

Though the change to Daylight Savings may seem a bit disorienting, it’s not as disruptive as the time system we once had. Before 1883, all time America kept was highly localized. Since solar rays arrived in Bangor four minutes before they do in Portland, the time observed at the present home of Stephen King would be that much ahead of the city where Longfellow learned to walk.

Emergence of railroad use in the l9th century forced a change to a more standard system. During the era of Grant and Garfield, millions of passengers, whether making the trip from Presque Isle to Lewiston or from St. Louis to San Francisco, had little way of accurately determining whether they would be late or on time, such was the impossibility of deciphering the complex schedules that attempted to sort out the minute by minute zones as they applied to arrival and departure times at each junction.

A railroad sponsored commission in November 1883 tried to bring order out of the chaos. It created the four zone U.S. zone system. Though not yet officially sanctioned by federal law, the new system won wide acceptance.

It was against this background that by the second decade of the 20th century, we first moved to Daylight Savings Time. Driven by a need to save on fuel and other energy costs and with the First World War as an additional impetus, America passed laws putting the clocks ahead during most of the year. Thus was born Daylight Savings Time or “DST.”

By 1919, after the end of the War, Congress then left it up to state and local governments to set the clocks and whether to observe Daylight Savings Time.

In 1925, the Maine Legislature officially put the state into the Eastern Standard Time zone. Popular consensus was difficult to achieve, however, and it was only by a 34,000 to 28,000 vote that the law survived a People’s Veto referendum move to override it. Many Mainers still wished to preserve some of their 19th century local autonomy on the issue. Some of the more religious also refused to change what they regarded as “God’s time.”

Between the two world wars, the issue of whether to “go on fast time,” as Daylight Savings was called, also became one of the most heated questions at some town meetings in Maine. Chief among those against the change then — as now — were farmers. They complained that the added evening daylight was offset by an hour of prolonged darkness in the morning, a key time for milking cows and other agricultural chores.

By the 1930s, most Maine localities favored the summer time change to Daylight Savings but there was still no consensus. A 1933 town meeting in Farmington favored the change to “Fast Time” by a mere four votes, 276 to 272.

Advent of another world war provoked further change when Congress mandated Daylight Savings throughout the year until the War’s end in 1945. After that, the nation reverted to the pre-war local option system. It wasn’t until 1966 that Congress came on the scene again and decreed national legislation that officially set a more uniform Daylight Savings observance.

After the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo Congress extended DST to ten months in 1974 and to eight in 1975. Opposition from farming states and abatement of the energy crisis led to repeal of these changes. School bus stop fatalities of children unaccustomed to the hazards of early morning darkness were also a factor in restoring standard time in winter months.

By 1986, Maine’s own George Mitchell successfully pushed for a change in DST that moved up its advent from the last Sunday in April to its first.

Congress put into effect the present system in 2007. That’s when the start of DST was moved up by another three weeks to the second Sunday in March and its end was extended by another week, from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November.

As in the 1920s, opposition to Daylight Savings is sometimes founded on religious precepts. In Israel, some Orthodox Jews have urged its repeal because of the impact it has on certain early morning prayers they recite during Elul, their last month of the year.

From a secular standpoint, the DST system is a trade-off that swaps a later start of the day for a later ending. It tends to synchronize daylight a bit more closely with most work place and personal schedules and thus tends to save energy costs. For commuting workers and most other travelers it does mean more daylight in the later afternoon, when they are most likely to be burdened with fatigue. But because the public education system has an earlier start and ending schedule than those of the workplace, too much DST is a threat to the early morning safety of commuting school children. It also disrupts agriculture.

Let’s hope we don’t extend it any further. Let’s keep more of the early morning hours ours.

Paul H. Mills is a Farmington attorney well known for his analyses and historical understanding of Maine’s political scene. He can be reached by e-mail: [email protected].