Unpacking the century-long beef over daylight saving time

On Nov. 5, most Americans will turn their clocks backward by one hour as the country begins its controversial annual fall shift.

At 2 a.m. Sunday, clocks in most of North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand will fall back an hour until the the return of daylight saving time March 10, 2024.

The impact of shifting more sunlight earlier into the evening on public health and safety has been the subject of debate in recent years in light of efforts in Congress to make daylight saving permanent, but why do we change our clocks forward or backyard in the first place? And how was daylight saving discussed when it was enacted more than a century ago? 

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First daylight savings time 

Daylight saving time was a byproduct of the First World War and an effort by the United States to follow the lead of several European countries who had adopted the measure to save on fuel costs during the war by adding an extra hour of sunlight to the day, according to the Library of Congress. 

Common misconceptions about daylight saving time

On March 19, 1918,  President Woodrow Wilson signed the Standard Time Act, a new law which established a standard time and gave the federal government the authority to establish five different time zones across the county.

"Following many of the other belligerent countries, the United States adopted daylight saving time on March 31, 1918, as a means to conserve electricity during wartime, not, as commonly believed, to allow farmers to work longer in the fields," the Library of Congress states. "In fact, the agriculture industry fervently opposed the measure because farming schedules are based on sunrise and sunset not the clock."

According to the Library of Congress, changing clocks was "far more popular in urban areas, where wartime gardeners cultivated a host of available spaces, and with retailers, including the United Cigar Store Company."

Newspapers at the time reported that European countries had seen considerable savings in coal consumption.

After the end of World War I, the U.S. no longer saw the financial need for what became known as “war time” and abandoned daylight saving time at the federal level, according to a Congressional Research Service report. States that wanted to continue observing daylight saving locally had the option to do so.

When did daylight saving time start?

The federal law that dictates daylight saving time as we know it today is the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which implemented a uniform time and date all states forward their clocks to observe daylight saving time.

Most of Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time year-round. 

To learn more about where the debate over daylight saving time in the U.S. stands today, read here.

Contributing: Orlando Mayorquin