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Below is some argument from a legal appeal read before the Supreme Court of 
the state of Georgia around 1889. Being a legal argument it exaggerates the 
significance of the issue to make points, but it does show both the emotional 
and legal issues involved when changing time standards.

"2. The only standard of time recognized by the law of Georgia is the meridian 
of the sun; and the fact that a judge runs the court by railroad or 
"standard" time, which is 22 minutes behind the sun time, will not make a 
verdict rendered at 2 minutes before 12 on Saturday night by railroad time, 
and 20 minutes after 12 by sun time, other than a Sunday verdict.
[...]

"2. The ninth and tenth grounds complain that the verdict was made and 
returned on Sunday. The judge ran the court by railroad or "standard" time, 
which was 22 minutes behind the sun time; the verdict being rendered at 2 
minutes before 12 by the railroad time, and 20 minutes after 12 by the sun 
time. It was contended in the argument before us that, as the railroad or 
"standard" time is now used in all the cities and towns along the line of the 
railroads, that time should be observed by the courts, instead of the 
meridian or sun time, and that the judge, in this case, having announced at 
the beginning of the term that he would run the court by the railroad or 
"standard" time, the verdict was received on Saturday, instead of Sunday. The 
trial judge, In his note to these grounds of the motion, seems to take this 
view of the law. We do not agree with him therein. The law, which is strict, 
and requires certainty where time enters into legal duty, fixes that time 
with reference to a certain, unvarying, and uniform standard, than which none 
could be more certain. The only standard of time in the computation of a day, 
or the hours of a day, recognized by the law of Georgia, is the meridian of 
the sun ; and a legal day begins and ends at midnight,-the mean time between 
meridian and meridian, or 12 o'clock P. M., (post meridian,) 12 hours after 
meridian. The Code, where it mentions the hours of a day, usually affixes 
"?." (meridian,) "A. M." and "P. M.," (before and after meridian,) to 
indicate this standard. [...] It seems idle to waste words'in saying that The 
standard of time fixed by persons in a certain line of business cannot be 
substituted at will, by persons in a certain locality, for the standard 
recognized by the statutes of the state, as well as the general law and usage 
of the country, especially when it is considered that such an arbitrary and 
artiflcal standard could as easily fix 5 o'clock for midnight as it could 20 
minutes past 12, as was done in this case. Legal custom cannot in this way 
change Sunday into Saturday. To expect courts of justice, officers of the 
law, and the public generally, especially that large class of the population 
who do not live in cities or at railroad stations, to go to the railroads for 
the time which is to guide them in the performance of their duties under the 
law, when they have In the heavens above them a certain standard by which to 
ascertain or regulate the time, or to permit them at will to follow two 
standards of time, would be highly impracticable, and would be productive of 
great uncertainty and confusion In the administration of the law. Thus, the 
legality of elections might be made to depend upon conflicting proof of local 
custom ; for what might be considered a legal election in one precinct might 
be regarded as illegal in the next precinct, because of the time of opening 
or closing the polls, or the people of a precinct might differ among 
themselves as to this. And so with regard to the enforcement of the criminal 
law. The law requires the railroads to cease running their freight trains bv 
8 o'clock on Sunday mornings. Code, �4578. To allow the railroads to fix the 
standard of time would be to allow them at pleasure to violate or defeat the 
law. Even in cities, where it in insisted the adoption of railroad time has 
become general, the same difficulties might exist; for instance, in the city 
of Augusta, in this state, which is at the dividing line of two railroad 
standards, the railroads which enter the city from the east have one standard 
of time, and the railroads which enter from the west another standard, an 
hour different, both differing considerably from the meridian or sun 
standard."

-FER


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