Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 130, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1914 — SEEK EASTER DATE [ARTICLE]

SEEK EASTER DATE

Proposed That the World Adopt Fixed Day. International Chambers of Commerce Say Variable Time Causes Trade Complications—Would Regulate Time by the Sun. Brussels. —A proposal to have the world adopt a. fixed date for Easter will be discussed and acted upon at the biennial meeting of the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce, which is to meet in Paris next June. Such is the announcement made by the permanent committee of the congress, which met in Brussels to approve the program prepared for the Parib meeting. The fact that the variable date tor Easter causes much embarrassment and loss in certain lines of trade is responsible for the movement to have the festival celebrated on a fixed date. It is suggested by the supporters of the movement that the fixed date could be brought about by regulating Easter by the sun instead of- the moon.

The program prepared for the meeting of the congress shows that numerous other important subjects will be brought up for consideration. Postal money orders and checks, bills of lading for steam navigation, Insurance policies In International traffic, dock warrants, arbitral procedure and the utility of the proposed international action regarding unfair competition are among the questions that will receive attention.

A possible source of discussion relative to competltiion may be the opera-

tions of great combines such as the Standard and Russian Oil companies, the German syndicate which controls the trade In potash and other concerns whose fields Include the world. The British system of marine Insurance, evolved by centuries of experience, will be closely examined for models to Improve the phraseology of policies. The program as prepared by the committee indicates that American thought and practise have largely Influenced conditions under which trade and commerce are carried on. The United States and Great Britain, for example, have made the largest use of the postal money order and the bank check, and the congress may consider plans for broadening the service rendered by both and making them better understood. The need of-uniformity, or at least a better understanding, la illustrated by tiie fact that under article 16 of The Hague convention the death of a maker of a check has no influence upon the validity of the check, whereas, according to English law, the check became void on the death of the signer. One object of the coming meeting will be to constitute the congress as active Influence between the biennial meetings. The plans In this direction will be framed along the lines of the work accomplished by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, which is able to back up its resolutions with a permanent organization. It Is expected that the commerce and trade bodies of America will take an important part In the sessions In Paris. The international congress and Its work are well understood in the United States, since the last meeting of the organization was held in Boston in 1912. It is expected that the coming meeting will be attended by a large delegation of representative American manufacturers and business men.

The French government in cooperation with the business organizations of France, is preparing for the elaborate entertainment of the visitors. The delegates from abroad will be regarded as the guests of the republic, and the two weeks following the sessions of the congress will be given up to more or less formal visitations at Lypns, Grenoble, Valence, Dijon and other places of historic interest and industrial importance. Excursions also will be arranged to points in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and other countries.