Last Sunday morning brought with it the rare luxury of some extra time. As the clocks went back for most people in the United States early on Sunday, they got a valuable hour added to their day. For some, it meant extra time to sleep; for others, it meant more time to prepare for the day's activities.

Whatever folks did with that extra hour, they have the relatively young institution of "daylight saving time" (DST) to thank for it.

Since it was originally dreamed up by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, the idea behind DST has been — as its name suggests — to make better use of daylight. By pushing the clock forward an hour during summertime, the Sun rises later and sets later, stretching the evening sunlight and giving people more daytime after working hours.

More time to work and play is not the only benefit listed by DST advocates, who also cite energy savings, reduced traffic fatalities, and reduced crime rates as happy outcomes of using DST.

Daylight saving time is not universally accepted, however. What are the arguments against it, both today and historically?

Indiana is one of the three states that has chosen not to apply DST across the board. A statement from the Indiana Farm Bureau explains, "Fields cannot be worked until they have dried out and DST would delay the time of day that field work could begin. This hour can be recaptured at the end of the day only if the farmer is willing to sacrifice opportunities to participate in civic, social, and church-related activities that occur 'after dinner.' Such activities can make it very difficult to find labor that is willing to work extended hours in the evening."

So, Indiana farmers are concerned that DST would force them to start work later in the day, but that workers would still want to go home at 5 o'clock. As a result, precious time is lost. Tillage farmers aren't the only ones who would be affected. Livestock farmers are dealing with herds who don't pay attention to the clock — their behavior is determined by sunrise and sunset. As a result, farmers would have to adjust their working hours to meet the needs of the herd.

• What complications might arise from having different time keeping practices in different states? Think about the industries mentioned above. Also, see if you can list any other industries that would be affected.
• Can you think of a compromise that would meet the needs of both agriculture and more "urban" industries?
• Would you consider a radical solution such as one standard world time? In such a system, we would rise when the Sun rises, and not when a particular hour falls. Do you think this kind of system would work? Why or why not?

• In favor of DST is the Hoosier Daylight Coalition, which names IBM, Fed Ex, and ATA among its supporters — evidence of the emphasis corporations place on uniform time keeping.
• Against DST is the Indiana Farm Bureau. In this site you'll find some interesting commentary on why farmers oppose DST.

One of the key milestones in its history was the passing of the Uniform Time Act in 1966. The purpose of the act was to bring a standard approach to time keeping in the United States. It was badly needed, as Linda Lawson of the U.S. Department of Transportation explains: before the act, "there was a crazy quilt system of time keeping in which you could drive less than 100 miles and change back and forth in time observance repeatedly."

This sort of confusion was detrimental to railroad systems, airlines, and broadcasters, which put pressure on the government to solve the problem. The Uniform Time Act was their solution, and in Lawson's words, "it provided national uniformity for the beginning and ending dates of daylight saving time."

Imagine you could turn back the clock not by an hour, but by 35 years or so, back to 1967. The Uniform Time Act has been passed. Pick up a copy of the New York Times, and you might stumble across this article:

Protests on daylight time persist
despite new federal law on uniformity

The uniform time law that Congress passed last year has muffled the annual uproar over daylight saving time, but rumblings of discontent are still heard in the backlands. Legislators are getting protests from farmers who object to doing chores in the morning darkness, from drive-in movie proprietors, from early-to-bed, early-to-rise communities, from the mothers of children who will not sleep until the Sun goes down, and from indignant defenders of "God's time." State Senator Bobby Rowan of Enigma, GA, rose recently in the Senate chamber and said: "Not since biblical times has there been a man who could change sunrise and sunset, but the bureaucrats are attempting to do it."