Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval “An Act Making Appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1920"

THE WHITE HOUSE, July 12, 1919.

To the House of Representatives:

I take the liberty of returning H.R. 3157, "An act making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920," without my signature.

I realize, of course, the grave inconvenience which may arise from the postponement of the legislation at this time, but feel obliged to withhold my signature because of the clause which provides that "at and after two o'clock A.M. on Sunday, October 26, 1919, next, the act entitled 'An Act to save daylight and to provide standard time for the United States approved March 19, 1918, be, and the same hereby is, repealed."

I believe that the repeal of the act referred to would be of very great inconvenience to the country, and I think that I am justified in saying that it would constitute something more than an inconvenience. It would involve a serious economic loss. The act of March 19, 1918, "to save daylight," resulted not only from a careful study of industrial conditions by competent men familiar with the business operations of the country, but also from observation of the happy and beneficial consequences of similar legislation in other countries where legislation of this character has been for some time in operation and where it has resulted, as the act of March 19, 1918 has resulted in the United States, in substantial economies. That act was intended to place the chief business activities of the country as nearly as might be within the limits of daylight throughout the year. It resulted in very great economies of fuel and a substantial economy of energy because of the very different effects of work done in the daylight and work done by artificial light.

It, moreover, served the daily convenience of the many communities of the country in a way which gave all but universal satisfaction, and the overwhelming testimony of its value which has come to me convinces me that I should not be justified in acquiescing in its repeal.

WOODROW WILSON.