The morning of January 7, 1974, dawned particularly dark for children heading to school in the Washington D.C. area. The sun wasn’t due to rise until 8:27 AM, but classes were starting much earlier, all thanks to a nationwide experiment: year-round daylight saving time (DST). Implemented across most of the United States on January 6th, this initiative was a response to the crippling energy crisis gripping the nation. As Florence Bauer from Springfield recounted to the Washington Post, it was “jet black” when her daughter had to leave for school, with some children even resorting to flashlights to navigate the morning darkness.
Steve Grossman of the Department of Transportation optimistically predicted long-term benefits. While acknowledging the potential for increased morning accidents due to the darker conditions, he argued that extending daylight into the evening would mitigate the dangers of evening commutes, citing “stress, anxiety, and many drivers have had a couple of drinks,” as contributing factors, according to the Post. However, not everyone embraced the change. Mayor Robert Yost of St. Francis, Kansas, voiced the sentiment of many, declaring his town council felt it was “time to put our foot down and stop this monkey business.”
With the concept of permanent daylight saving time once again gaining traction in political discussions, revisiting the 1974 experiment offers valuable insights into the complexities of time manipulation and its societal impact.
The decision to enact year-round daylight saving time was formalized on December 14, 1973, when Congress voted in favor of a two-year trial period. President Nixon swiftly signed the bill the following day. This wasn’t the first time the US had adopted permanent DST; it was previously implemented during World War II as a fuel-saving measure. Interestingly, this period also saw even more radical time-related proposals. Paul Mullinax, a geographer at the Pentagon, proposed a “USA Time” concept, advocating for a single time zone across the continental US from coast to coast. This, he argued, would eliminate jet lag and standardize television schedules. Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii even introduced a bill in Congress to support Mullinax’s idea. “The human being is a very adaptive animal,” Mullinax asserted, “There is no reason we have to be a slave to the sun.”
However, the adaptation to year-round DST proved challenging, particularly in the mornings. The early darkness quickly raised safety concerns, especially for children. Tragically, on January 7th, a 6-year-old girl in Alexandria was struck by a car on her way to Polk Elementary School, resulting in a broken leg. February saw two students in Prince George’s County injured in similar incidents. The situation was even more dire in Florida, where eight children were killed in traffic accidents in the weeks following the DST implementation. Florida Governor Reubin Askew urgently appealed to Congress to repeal the measure. Senator Dick Clark of Iowa echoed these concerns in a congressional speech on January 28, 1974, stating, “It’s time to recognize that we may well have made a mistake.” In the Washington area, some schools were forced to adjust their schedules, delaying start times to accommodate the darker mornings.
While the immediate perception was negative, the complete picture was more nuanced. The National Safety Council reported a slight increase in pre-sunrise fatalities, rising from 18 to 20 compared to the previous year. However, a letter to the Post in July from Roger Sant, then an assistant administrator-designate for the Federal Energy Administration, highlighted a positive aspect. Sant noted that the 1% energy saving attributed to DST translated to a significant reduction in coal consumption, estimating 20,000-30,000 tons of coal not burned daily. Furthermore, he pointed out that afternoon accidents had decreased.
Despite the energy savings, public sentiment continued to turn against the experiment. By August, against the backdrop of the escalating Watergate scandal and the Nixon administration’s decline, the nation’s appetite for clock adjustments waned. Public approval of year-round DST plummeted from 79% in December 1973 to just 42% three months later, as reported by the New York Times. Just days after President Nixon’s resignation, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas introduced an amendment in August to terminate the DST experiment. It garnered swift passage, followed by a similar bill in the House. By late September, Congress had passed legislation to restore standard time on October 27th. President Ford signed the repeal into law on October 5th. A House panel concluded that the minimal energy savings were “must be balanced against a majority of the public’s distaste for the observance of Daylight Saving Time.”
Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian senior editor and writer on daylight saving time history.
Ultimately, the 1974 year-round daylight saving time experiment serves as a compelling case study in the complexities of policy implementation and public acceptance. While driven by a pressing need to conserve energy during a national crisis, the experiment failed to account for the significant disruption to daily life and the public’s strong preference for aligning daylight hours with their natural routines. The swift repeal underscores the importance of considering not just potential benefits, but also the lived experiences and opinions of the population when enacting widespread societal changes.
