Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval “An Act for the Repeal of the Daylight-Saving Law"

To the House of Representatives:

I return this bill, H.R. 3854, "An Act for the repeal of the daylight-saving law," without my signature, but do so with the utmost reluctance. I realize the very considerable and in some respects very serious inconveniences to which the daylight-saving law subjects the farmers of the country, to whom we owe the greatest consideration and who have distinguished themselves during these recent years of war and want by patriotic endeavours worthy of all praise. But I have been obliged to balance one set of disadvantages against another and to venture a judgment as to which were the more serious for the country. The immediate and pressing need of the country is production, increased and increasing production, in all lines of industry. The disorganization and dislocation caused by the war have told nowhere so heavily as at the industrial centres,- in manufacture and in the many industries to which the country and the whole world must look to supply needs which cannot be ignored or postponed. It is to these that the daylight-saving law is of most service. It ministers to economy and to efficiency. And the interest of the farmer is not in all respects separated from these interests. He needs what the factories produce along with the rest of the world. He is profited by the prosperity which their success brings about. His own life and methods are more easily adjusted, I venture to think, than are those of the manufacturer and the merchant.

These are the considerations which have led me to withhold my signature from this repeal. I hope that they are considerations which will appeals to the thoughtful judgment of the House and in the long run to the thoughtful judgment of the farmers of the country, who have always shown an admirable public spirit.

WOODROW WILSON

The White House,
15 August, 1919.