March 10, 1936: COUNCIL VOTES FAST TIME CITY TO MOVE UP CLOCKS ONE HOUR SUNDAY

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 10, 1936.

COUNCIL VOTES FAST TIME

CITY TO MOVE UP CLOCKS ONE HOUR SUNDAY

Action Merely Adopts Fast Time at Earlier Date for Summer, Not For Year Around.

WOMEN CRITICIZE TIME TINKERING

Valparaisos will switch to daylight saving time next Sunday at 1 a.m.

The city council in regular session Monday night by unanimous vote adopted an ordinance advancing the time for changing from central standard to fast time from April 26 to March 15.

Beginning Tuesday, March 17, and continuing every night thereafterーexcepting Sundaysーlocal tavern proprietors will benefit by the advancement of the daylight saving time by the city council, which will permit them to remain open until 2 a.m., on week days and 3 a.m. on Sundays. State laws, operating on central standard time, permit the extra hour of trade Sunday at 1 a.m. at which time cloaks will be turned to 2 a.m. After Sunday taverns will benefit an extra hour by the change.

Previous to voting the council staged a forty-five minute caucus in which the matter was threshed out and all members agreed to vote for the ordinance on first reading making it effective next Sunday.

Councilman Schuyler C. Leffler explaining the ordinance pointed out that the council was not adopting eastern standard time throughout the year, but merely was getting an earlier start on daylight saving.

“I am voting aye on the ordinance, but I want it distinctly understood that it is not a yes vote for eastern standard time, except as a stop gap between March 15 and April 26, when daylight saving times starts,” Councilman Leffler said.

Council members were content to leave advance time on a temporary basis until September in the hope that the controversy in Chicago (which has adopted eastern standard time) will have been adjusted during the interim.

Mayor C.L. Bartholomew in commenting on the ordinance referred to it as a gesture of recognition of a fine element of the city’s populace who are dependent upon the Chicago and Calumet districts for their living.

“We are simply marking time through the ordinance,” he said.

“The council is not bound by it, and if Chicago continues eastern time the proposition can be submitted to a vote of the people and the question of eastern time the year round decided.”

Mayor Bartholomew pointed out that a large number of Valparaiso citizens depend upon their living on the Chicago and Calumet districts. These people, he said, have not arbitrarily asked for the ordinance. They have been told when to come to work and when to quit. They lose two hours under the new arrangement. The council is only trying to be fair and advance the time to help them out.

Mayor Bartholomew and members of the council asserted they were not sold on the eastern standard time setup, but felt that it was no more than fair to cater to desires of the commuters, who it is said, represent one-sixth of the city’s population.

A booster for the time change comprised a delegation of valparaiso university students, headed by Kenneth Wunsch, editor of the Torch, school publication.

Mr. Wunsch stated that in a recent poll of university students and faculty, 251 voted in favor of the change and 51 against.

One of the main reasons advanced by the student body for the new time was the inconvenience caused to a large number of students who commute back and forth between Gary, Michigan City and other towns, and go to Chicago on week-ends.

Another salient reason for the advanced time is that the students will have an additional hour for their athletic activities, Editor Wunsch said.

Bitter criticism of the time change was voiced by two women who attended the council session. They were Mrs. Bayard Wycoff and Mrs. Niles Fisher.

Said Mrs. Wyckoff: “I cannot see where any advantage is to be gained by this step. Is it necessary for the rest of the citizenry to get ip and see them (the commuters) off? It has been stated that Valparaiso will lose trade if it does not adopt the new time. I think it is the other way around.”

Said Mrs. Fisher: “It looks like the council is inconveniencing the majority of the people of Valparaiso for the benefit of the commuters, a small part of the population.”

Mayor Bartholomew explained that the ordinance carries no penal clause and those who do not care to observe it are at liberty to do so.

The city is scheduled to go on daylight saving time on April 26, anyway, so that the new ordinance only provides for a six-weeks’ period of observance before the regular fast time ordinance adopted on March 22, 1929, is effective, he added.

March 4, 1936: Chesterton High Senior Is Meningitis Victim; Town To Shift Clocks On Thursday

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 4, 1936.

Chesterton High Senior Is Meningitis Victim; Town To Shift Clocks On Thursday

(BY ROBERT ALLETT)

CHESTERTON, Mar. 4ーLast Friday Bernard Wiseman, senior in the Chesterton high school, developed a tooth infection. Last night he was at the point of death in Mercy hospital, Gary, with the dreaded disease, spinal meningitis. “Bernie” was taken to Gary Saturday on the advice of Dr. W.M. Parkinson, of the Parkinson hospital, when he developed a high fever, which, according to a report yesterday, reached a temperature of 107 degrees. Saturday he was believed to be suffering a streptococcus infection. The complications all arose from a sinus ailment. “Bernie” is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wiseman.

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Whether they like it or not, local residents will make an hour time jump Thursday by order of the town board which Monday held a special meeting to decide the Eastern Standard time issue. The step was held necessary because of the great here. The Gary steel industry is on fast time now.

It may be a slight exaggeration but housewives insist they are getting up at 3:30 these mornings to see their husbands off on the early train to Gary. And according to statistician Frank Gavagan, who has it all figured out, workmen will not see daylight when they get up in the morning until sometime near the middle of June.

It is reported that a straw vote taken among citizens by the Tribune to be released Thursday, will reveal that about a 10 to 1 percentage were against going on fast time.

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August Wiseman, roller in the Gary steel mills, has been taking it on the chin this winter. Just before Thanksgiving he broke his left leg while working in the mills. He was not able to return to work until around Christmas time. A few days later while returning home one night in an auto with four neighbor employees, he was thrown through the car roof when the machine skidded on an icy pavement and his collar bone was broken. None of the other passengers were hurt. After another long period of convalescence, Wisemann once more reported for duty at the mills. One week ago yesterday three fingers on his right hand were severed by the machine on which he works. He is now in the mill hospital receiving treatment.

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Oscar “Scotty” Rosetti, Chesterton high school ‘32, is renewing old friendships this week after having been absent from the old home town for two years. He returned last Monday for a week’s visit from Gulfport, Mississippi, where he is employed as a mortician’s assistant. Scotty was brought home via auto by Clayton Nelson and Delmar Borg who visited in Mississippi. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Rosetti. Father John is famous for the very good wine he makes and the very big tomatoes he raises.

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Another visitor is Frank Williams, Chesterton H.S. ‘33, who came up from Bloomington for a short stay, Frank is a junior at Indiana university.

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Word was received today of the death of Charles Siebert, former Chesterton resident, at the time of his death Tuesday afternoon, a New York Central dispatcher at Miller, Siebert died of a paralytic stroke. He is survived by his wife, Ellen, and a daughter, Dolores.

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Also dead is Mrs. Ellen Smith, 82, of Porter, who succumbed Monday night at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Herman Olson, Chicago Death was attributed to pneumonia. Another daughter, Mrs. Charles Olson, also of Chicago, and Roy and Allen, both of Porter, survive.

Memorial services were held today at Flynn’s chapel, at 1:30 o’clock, with the Rev. L. Vance, Chicago, assisted by Rev. Paul Young, Porter officiating. Burial took place in the Chesterton cemetery.

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At Parkinson hospital Monday two daughters were born to Chesterton mothers. One, named Mary Louis, was born in the morning to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon L. Tierney: the other, named Cecelia Maria, was born at night to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Edman.