Dear Editor,
In his column, The O'Hargan Factor, Will O'Hargan suggests that Indiana is 40 years too late in jumping on the daylight-saving time bandwagon. Actually, the citizens of the state observed DST more than 50 years ago, but it was Central DST. Indiana was, at that time, on Central Standard Time. If one observes where the good lord placed the meridians, Indiana belongs on CST. True Hoosiers refer to CST as God's time. Back then, in the summer, we moved our clocks ahead one hour and were on Central DST. However, our wise leaders in the state legislature, in order to keep us in favor with the good lord, decreed that all clocks in government institutions remain on CST. Therefore, Indiana officially remained on God's time. Because Ball State is a state institution, all the clocks ran on CST. However, all summer classes and events were on daylight time. If one took an eight o'clock class in the summer, the school clocks indicated seven o'clock when the class was to begin. On the face of each clock were the initials CST. One just added an hour to what the clocks on campus indicated during the summer months.
This system changed after Sen. Joseph McCarthy was censured by the U.S. Senate. With Sen. McCarthy no longer able to root out the communists for us, left-wing radicals took over the Indiana Legislature. They wanted us to be on the same time as our comrades in Ohio and other communist-block states to the east. Therefore, in the middle of the winter of 1954 we all had to go to Eastern Time here in Indiana. Thus, the state was no longer on God's time, and Hoosiers have been out of favor with the lord ever since. Throughout history, it has been the left-wingers who have advocated daylight time. Benjamin Franklin first proposed it. Franklin Roosevelt instituted daylight time during World War II. Lyndon Johnson, in 1966, signed off on the Uniform Time Act.
Fortunately, there is hope. The Indiana State Legislature is investing its energies in resolving the time issue, rather than wasting time on trivial issues such as funding of education in the state.
C. Van Nelson
Professor of Computer Science
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