Then as now, there were mixed views.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 first instituted the regular annual switch from Standard to Daylight Savings and back — prior to that, Daylight Savings had been implemented only periodically and temporarily, primarily as a means to conserve energy in wartime. DST was year-round during most of World War II, for example, before being eliminated after 1945.
In 1974, the US tried year-round DST once again. It does make for some dark early mornings in December and January, especially in more northern latitudes. There were reports of increased accidents involving children commuting to school, sometimes by flashlight. These gained a lot of media attention.
The increase in early morning accidents was actually quite slight. It was less robustly reported that evening commute accidents decreased on balance, and that there were small but significant household energy savings nationwide thanks to the extended evening sunshine. This is not at all to make light (bad pun) of children being hit by cars, but statistically it wasn't all grim. It's just that the bad news got all the attention. What have we done? Et cetera. It was not exactly a sober assessment, but nonetheless the decision was made to repeal the change.
How people feel about year-round Daylight Savings depends on their personalities and their personal circumstances, of course; it's one of those things in which you'll never be able to please everyone. Personally, I'm all for it. My dread of the 5 p.m. dusk is visceral. But some friends and colleagues have serious reservations about the dark mornings — mostly folks who, unlike me, don't seem to get outdoors much after five o'clock but may be out and about before 7 a.m. Everybody's different.
