The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-10
SYSTEM
 ADVOCATES BUSY
Resolutions Passed Gall Up on Government to Adopt
 New Currency

London. Nov. 10.-Advocates of the adoption of a decimal system of coin age have resumed activity and at meeting ol the Decimal Association a letter was read from former Chance1- Tor of the EXcheQuer Reginald Me Kenna, chairman of the London. Joint City and Midland Bank expressing sympathy with the objects of the association.
 The meeting was presided over by the Lord Mayor (Sir Horace Brooks Marshall, Bart.), who, in the course of his opening remarks, said he was very certain that the spirit prevailing in our country today was one of far greater freedom. from mere prejudice or unwillingness to consider change than had ever existed before. There were few things which more closely touched our economic life than the proposal that British currency should be brought into conformity with the principle almost universally adopted elsewhere. But he had asked himself whether a period of profound eco- homie unsettlement like the present both nationally and internationally, would be favorable for the introduce tion of this reform, or whether a time l in which prices had found a level of i international exchange, and were re- ! stored to a more suitable basis, was i not required for the initiation of such a change in the coinage as that pro- i posed. It seemed to him, however, g. matter for practical consideration. i The letter from MT. McKenna said: ''In my opinion such a system would : greatly simplify and consequently eco- | nomize labor in account keeping of 1 every description. It would be of a.s- | sistance to internal commerce, and, 1 by making our values more easily | convertible into their equivalent in 1 foreign currencies, would be helpful l in the development of our external trade A change could be effected 1 with minimum of disturbance and 1 inconvenience to the country.
 ''The adoption of the metric system l of weights and measures in this coun- l try would also increase the efficiency of manufacturing processes and fa- ! cilitate the calculations involved in the marketing and distribution of goods If it were esta blished 1t would be of great advantage to us in our | trade relations with other manufac- 1 turing countries, all of which, with
 the sole exception of the United 1 States of America, already use thls l system. But I fear it cannot be said | that it could be introduced without 1 considerable dislocation Of existing l arrangements
 E. c. Barton, formerly a member of the Legislative Assembly al Queensland. Australia, said that Aus
 traIia, which wanted the decimal sys-
 tenn, could not move until Great
 Britain moved. They would never | again have the cheap clerk, and | therefore they must pay for ma 1 chimes as well as men in order to give
 the higher wages necessary today
 Machinery could not be obtained ii
 they did not have methods adapted to machinery.
 | The whole world, with the excep- | ton of Great Britain, reckoned 1T l tens, and 1t was time we abandoned
 he fetish of the penny, which was
 the only coin which would be dis.
 turbed by the adoption of the decima system: The coinage was going tc
 have less purchasing power in the l future. He advocated the adoption of the pound-mill and it's division into
 a thousand parts and expressed the
 opinion that until we had a League
 of Nations financially and an inter.
 national bank which guaranteed the
 whole coinage international coinage
 was out of the question. He moved
 a resolution expressing the opinioT
 that the time is now ripe for the
 Government to take active steps to-
 ward. the production of decimal cur,
 rency in the United Kingdom on the lines suggested by the Association o1 l Chambers of Commerce, the Institute
 of Bankers, and the Decimal Asso-
 citation.
 ly.