The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-20
AN rrNovArror NOT NEEDED.

AN INNOVATION NOT NEEDED. The Advertiser has more than once
 spoken. and always with dsapproval, of the proposition in Congress to revoiu-
 tionize our system of weights and
 measures and substitute the metric sys-
 tenn. Just why there should be de-
 sire for such s change we are unable to understand. but there is and has been | for some time a determined effort to
 bring it about. In recent issue of that excellent Atlanta publication "Dixie.' we
 find an article from which we copy at some length. because it sets forth in good
 shape some of the objections to the pro-
 posed innovation. The article says: In popular article in The Pittisburg Gazette. Professor Chapman truly says that the proposition now before Congress . Is certainly not well understood by the people or a protest would go up that would call a halt to such a proceeding. This proposition contemplates the aboli- tfon of our entire system of weights and measures and the substitution of another of which the very terms are so long and difficult as to be startling. The old familiar inch, foot, mile, etc., are to dis dpltc<tAp duu plhCtS Wc arc tO have the meter. mllimeter. centimeter, dekameter. kilometer: instead of the old- time bushel, peck, quart, etc., we shall buy and sell by the liter, centiliter, dekaliter, etc; and instead of ton, pound. | ounce. etc, we shall deal in grams. milli- grams, Kilograms, quintals, tonneaus, etc.
 To most refiecting minds this invasion of our English language by a host of foreign words and the displacement of the terms familiar from our childhood by string of difficult words of Latin, Greek and French origin is very distasteful. Apart from mere sentiment. however,
 there are very grave objections of prac- tical character. For one thing, to all suc- ceeding generations all our present litera-
 ture and science would be largely un-
 meaning, or at least difficult to be un-
 derstood. Every line of poetry in which
 any term of distance, weight, or measure
 occurs would have to be reconstructed. To every present book glossary of
 obsolete terms would have to be added.
 Just as the ancient terms homer, hin.
 and cubit, used occasionally in our trans
 lation of the Bible. are indefinite or un- meaning to the average reader, so only on an infinitely greater scale. would be all the terms now used in millions of inatances in our present literature. Another objection is that all our ap- pliances for determining weights and measurements would be rendered useless. All our scales. yardsticks. quart meas ures and so on. would have to go to the junk heap Millions of dollars would be required to replace them with stan dards of the new system. These are considerations that one would think ought to give our legislators reason to pause. Yet men of whom one would have expected wiser counsel have been using their influence to have this enormi- ty imposed upon the people. and the Con- gressional committee having this matter in charge has gone so far as to sanc- tion bill to this end.
 The inconvenience of this system for practical purposes is appalling. An inch Is 254 centimeters; an acre is .4s47 of a hektare. A peck of beans is .0ss1 of a hektoliter. Shylock's pound of flesh" be- comes a demand for .4o36 of kilo. The area of Pennsylvania expands into ter ritory of 11g,140 square kilometers. From Carnegie to Pittsburg is 12.S7A kilometers. Does all this add any clearness to our ideas of size and distance? Milton's fal- len angel drops plump down not 'lO.OOO fathoms deep'' but distance of 1 myria- meter 8 kilometers hektometers deka-
 meters and meters. Only think of it! These are only few specimen beauties | of the proposed scheme.
 But Dixie does not give all the | objections to the change. That change
 would necessitate the discarding of every | text book now used in our schools and other educational institutions. All books relating to arthmetical science, including l algebra, geometry, surveying. astronomy, ax.l cine-all must go. In fact, every school book or reference book which has any reference to measures of time, weight.
 capacity. length, breadth and depth as
 well as all books which in any manner
 refer in any way to measurements of
 tangible or intangible subjects must be
 set aside and new books provided.
 But that isn't the worst of it. As the
 paper from which we have quoted in-
 inmates. there is an educational side to it.
 Every person who has already been
 educated in our schools and colleges
 would have to unlearn all that has been
 acquired and set to work to learn all the
 meanings and terms of the new system.
 We should have to forget all the short
 and easy words. most of them mono
 syllable, which express the value of
 weights and measures. and of time. and
 in their place learn an almost endless lot
 of long and intricate words. built up
 from different languages, and all distaste-
 full to the American tongue and the
 American desire for brevity. Congress
 might, with as much propriety and
 Justice enact laws making French the
 language of the country.
 The money cost of discarding all the
 text books now in use and substituting others, and of doing away all our weights
 and measures of every kind and providing the new ones, would be almost incalcula- ble, but that would be but a trifle com pared with the worry and confusion and trouble of unlearning what we now know and learning what would be required of us And we can see no possible need for the change. Let foreign countries
 retain their measuring systems, as they
 retain their languages. and let us do the
 same.
 A FALSE IDEA OF JOURNALISM. A writer in a recent issue of the At Iantic Monthly virtually takes the posi- ton that d newspaper should have no Arnn nt hnp