Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-15
METRIC SYSTEM URGED
FOR b. S. AND ENGLAND
Only Two Civilized Nations Retaining Ancient
and Cumbersome Weights
and Measures.
By SHELDON $. CLINE.

By SHELDON $. CLINE.
A DETERMINED campaign has
~ been started in Great Britain.
~ and has been taken up by foreign
trade and other commercial or
CARNATIONS in this country, to bring
about the adoption by the two great
English speaking nations of the metric
system Of weights and measures. The
British empire and the United States
are the only civilized nations in the
world which have not adopted it.
The metric system has only four
principal units-the dollar. for measuring
money: the meter, for measuring length
or distance: the liter. for measuring
mass or bulk. and the gram. for
vised by James Watt, the great Eng
lish engineer. in 1888. When the Ameri-
can Congress in 1886 established the
United States coinage 1t adopted the
dollar, thus leading the world in metric
money. but neglected to provide for the
other units-the meter, liter and gram.
Use Not Then General.
1t is not difficult to understand why
Congress failed at that time to extend
the metric system to weights and meas
ures. 1t was under the necessity of es-
tablishing new coinage and there was
no obstacle in the way of taking adj
vantage of the new science of decimal
measuring, but the weights and meas
brought over by the colonists from
England. AS practically every country
in the world then had it's own distinct
system Of weights and measures there
appeared no advantage in abandoning
the English system for one which had
no support in general usage.
But other countries saw in the metric
system advantages which the United
States and England failed to appreciate.
Talleyrand, the great French statesman.
grapsed it's immense practical value, its
simplicity and uniformity. and visioned
it as a world standard. He caused it
to be adopted in France. and France
was soon followed by thirty three other
nations. Since then as new nations have
metric system.
Lesson Of World War.
It remained for the world war to drive
home to England and America the lesson
they had been 50 long in learning. Both
tha British and American armies were
forced to adopt metrics for military
work in France and on other fronts. A
tAneral order 6f the American War De-
partment, issued January 2. 1918. said:
1.-THE metric system has been adopted
for use in France for all firing data for
artillery and machine guns. in the
Of operation orders and in
map construction The IS and 1856
millimeter guns have been adopted by
made in this country.
As the relations between nations be-
come closer and more intimate the need
Of uniformity in vehicles of expression
comes to be more clearly recognized.
All the civilized world has adopted the
alphabet Of letters for written express
sion, each people in its own language.
Arabic numerals for it's mathematical
And all the civilized
world has adopted the metric units to
express its weights and measures with
the single exception Of the two English
speaking peoples.
Dollar. meter. liter. gram are simply
names to indicate whether the compu-
weight.
We may use the same terms to ex-
press meters, liters and grams as we do
to express dollars.
LII is expressed as one dollar, one
10 cent, one cent, one mill.
LII is expressed as one meter, one
one centi-meter, one mill
meter.
I'LL is expressed as one liter. one
deci-liter, one centi-liter, one milli-liter.
ILL is expressed as one gram, one
Telegram. one centi-gram, one MILL
gram.
System Easy to Learn.
The average child Of ten, who knows
the metric decimal dollar and it's decimal
can learn in ten minutes
as much Of the metric system as 80 per
cent Of all the people ever have occa- |
sion to use.
Tor 1000, hectic is Greek for 100, deka is
Greek for 10. That is all.
These terms are used by others-we |
need not use them. In practical work. |
we may speak of 1000 or 10000 meters |!
,r 10000, 900 Hters in the anne way that |
we speak of 10000 or 10000, 900 dollars. !
Sometimes the popularity of an in |
valuable necessity is long deferred by |
Is name. The metric system is the |
,ictim of terms-not the name metric"
perhaps. although even that may seem |
formidable But the Latin and Greek |
,refixes confuse the mind, and obscure !
he Watt simplicity Of the system. SO ss |
o delay it's adoption in English speak
ng countries.
This objection, however. can be dis
,osed of as inconsequent. America does
aot use these ter1ns-that is. not exact
yin the metric decimal money sys-
EN-, the unit of which is the dollar.
Superiority Not Denied.
No one ever has attempted to deny
hat the metric system is superior to
he present British American system Of
Weights and measures. About the only |
argument ever advanced against it's