Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1898-12-22

there will be passed, It Is now prac-
tically assured, a measure that has
been quietly yet surely winning ITS
way through long years. With hardly
doubt the metric system, debated in
these halls for quarter of q century
and taken up Low by nearly every 9TH
er country, will be formally adopted by
the United States. In the touch and go
of more spectacular matters little has
been heard of this proposition. Tho
fight for IT, however, has been none the
less active. How far the battle has
progressed may be judged from the fact
that In the last session q bill for its
Establishing was defeated by but three
votes.
Not the last vesuges of opposition,
perhaps, but enough to make the pass
ing of such a measure possible have
been overcome ny now. Unless the un-
foreseen happens the metric system
will be the established system for
weights and measures in America with
in n few months. Thus will be ended
a campaign that started just after the
close of the civil war. When the hour
Of adoption arrives Great Britain aud
Russia will be the only great nations
In the world that still hold on to their
historic measuring and weighing. And
Great Britain only stands aloof in part,
for the metric system has been adopt
ed in British India, and 1t is legalized
in England itself, the curious incon-
sistency being that British tradesmcn
are not permitted TO keep metric
weights and measures in their shops,
nor merchants to use them in actual
commerce.
In the United States, since in 1866,
practically the same state of affairs
prevails. The metric system was in
that year legalized and could even now
lawfully be used. Save in certain of
the sciences, however, 1t is an unknown
system. What the new bill proposes is
the abolishment, at single sweep, suf-
ficient time being allowed for adjust
ment, of course, of all the historic old
measures and weights, many of which
are curious survivals, many of which
differ in different sections and states,
just as they do in the counties of Eng
land. In fact net few, the bulk, were
imported directly from England, and
continue in force there.
1t is for the sake of uniformity and
the simplifying of transactions between
American and abroad and between the
various sections of the country as we'll
that the adoption of this decimal sys-
tenn has been urged. Weight is lent
to the argument when it Is stated that
the metric system has already been
adopted by more than half the civilized
and Christian world. Very nearly 5oO,-
100000 people nre using it, even semi
barbarlc Turkey having fallen into line.
On the continent of Europe the thou
sand and one quaint and complicated
systems, distinct for very nearly every
section and city, handed down from
feudal times, have all been superseded
IN the great betterment of commerce
Not to bark back too greatly into an
cient history, the metric system was
devised, strangely enough, in the first
white heat of the turmoil of the French
revolution. How amid these scenes
scientists found time and opportunity
to work out such plan is not record
ed, but at oil events, on August 1, 1898,
the metric system was established in
France and the French possessions.
Nor did the bloodshed of the years that
followed, the changing of the map of
Europe by Napoleon l., the making and
the unmaking of great empire shake
it. BY 1880 the system was in use in
Holland and Belgium as we'll; In 1898
the early confederation of German
states adopted 1t and In 1885 Greece.
When the question of q new and uni
form system of weights and measures
was being talked of in France, Prince
Talleyrand suggested the length of the
pendulum beating seconds in latitude
As degrees as the unit of length. 1t was
seen that there must be some scientific
measure that could not be lost. The
old measures of length, raised and curl
Gus, had been taken from the length
of the forearm, the breadth of the
thumb, an average step or pace, three
barley corns round and dry, laid end
to end. These, absurd as they appear
as accurate measures, are yet in use
as the basis of the foot and inch and
mile as used In England and America
to-day, and formerly in vogue all over
the continent.
Prince Tallyrand's proposition was
never adopted. The scientists of that
era found what they thought better
plan. They chose as the lenear unit one
ten-millionth of the quadrant of ter
reBtriGl meridian. Seven years were
employed in getting the precise length
of this, the meter, and this was found
to be the present 30.37O12 inches.
Text books and works of reference
abound that give the metric system In
full detail, and it need not, therefore,
be further touched upon here. Far
more interesting is some account of
what Is not the metric system, the
weights and measures still in use in
England and America, especially in
England, their strange absurdities and
odd inconsistencies.
England still clings, with her his
toric conservatism, to her established
systems, one county and one shire fire.
quently differing greatly from that inn
mediately adjoining. Weights and
measures in existence for hundreds of
years yet continue. The British inch
of three barleycorns ranged end to end.
as mentioned above. still prevails in
certain places. This has come down 4
from 1924.
In this country just as marked curl
osities and barbarisms prevail. There
are, for example, 32 gallons in barrel