Omaha daily bee., 1914-07-20
Where We Are Silly
by EDGAR LUCEN LARKIN.

Thomas jefferson. one OF the fifty-one
Of the leaders OF men and one OF natures
masterpieces. wrote these words In July
1890. lie proposed TO congress TO reduce
every branch of the decimal ratio al
ready established for coins. and thus
bring the calculation of the principal af-
fairs or life within the arithmetic Of
every mnn who can multiply and divide "
After n lapse Of l2i years the Amerl-
can people do the very obstinate thing Of
refusing, our nHtlon. the leading people
or the earth with an obduracy inexplic-
able stll use pounds, ounces. grains.
Inches, feet. yards and miles
People that will say ten mills make one
cent, ten cents one dime ten dimes one
dollar, win with the impulses OF a mule.
say 4S7if grains make one ounce. avoir.
dupois; sixteen ounces make one pound.
100 pounds one hundredweight, twenty
hundredwelght one ton.
Here Is a mix OF 437ia and sixteen with
| true declmals-1O 20, 100. No explanation
has ever been offered. And here is a
table OF vagaries:
| Pounds. Ounces Drachms. Scruples Grains.
! I equals 70 a6 2SS 57G0
| ] equals 16 25G .. 1000
The first line is apothecaries' weight
and the second avordupois.
The standard troy weight, now author
ICED by the laws Of England ana copied
in our laws. agrees with the apothecaries'
weight in pounds. ounces and grains. but
differs In divisions Of the ounce. which
by the former scale contains twenty
pennywelghts OF twenty-tour grains each
Thus. the troy and apothecaries' weight
] "a, pAa M m T60 NJ n
but the avoirdupois pound contains 7,o0'
grains; but they are troy grains. this
vagary having no grains Of It's own,
In lengths, volumes and areas the con-
fusion Is greater than in the units ot
mass or weight here given. So great hai
been the trouble that the government Of
the United States has at great expense
employed hundreds Of experts TO work
out and publish these thousands OF com
parlsons But had the congress in 17s
passed as law the recommendation Of tn,
wise jefferson at least l94 years OF brain
harassing labor would have been avoided
one would think that the custom house
! exchange and mint people would rise anC
demand plain common sense" In weigh
! ing and measuring. Thus: The metric
. unit OF weight Is the ldlogram; OF length
the fnetoft ana OF capacity, tne HNei
4 These are divided by tenths. hundredth
ana thousandths, and multiplied by tens
j hundreds and thousands, in your heads
and no pencil and paper are needed Like
8 wise prices and 80 much per
3 Incalcuabio work could he entirely dis
+ pensed with by the adoption OF th
r decimal system by the entire world
Many nations have so adopted by Law
n The good United States OF America
= one OF the few that have so enacted, bu
n the people still refuse to use the system
i This singular fact has been commente
s upon by mentalists, and the only eS
'e planation ,s the fearful curse-habi
u Ancient habits and customs are exce'
II sively hard TO overcome. Note this fac
of law without a penalty; for II tn
is United states had law of imprisonmeI
p for all persons refusing 20 use the metr
Is system, then an era almost new In n
"a history OF human progress would be he'
al right away.
Il. Go TO, now. and use sixteen sixteenth
ID make one inch. twelve inches make OF