Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-12-29
In TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

every other country WHARF III.
metric system is. in business trans
actlons, either obligatory or permits
siFe Reasonably complete as
Summation viii take several genera
lions. Advocates of the met
system deceive themselves if thew
lhihk that new standards can he
esta olfshed among the masses by
statute or otherwise within a. few
years. The first result will be
not the abolition of confusion, but the
increase of confusion
y X r
IN letter in 1906. from the Chamber
OF commerce of Amiens, France. TO the
munster OF commerce, industry and Ia
DOT. this expression was given:
Inc chamber considers that in viau
OF tne customs adopted by certain trad
ers IL seems difficult to arrive at com
piele suppression of the actual condi-
ions; that moreover, such a radical and
,iliheoiate suppression would cause pro-
round disturbance in many indust rias
iet mat protest was written 112 wears
after the introduction of the metric
system, and after 20 years of the 1S37
second law OF compulsion in it's use.
X X :. *
In the bulletin announcing the n,ee+-
ing the Ail-American Standard cites
speech by Secretary of Commences
hoover advocating standardization:
IN oroer that international good will
may De maintained and the interests of
the individual and the public safegua I'd
ed, II Is necessary to establish standa -ds
or quality and quantity in such. coin
modities as enter into international
trade
Opponents Of the change to the metric
system retort by quoting Moses, who
said on Sinai:
I'VE shall do no unrishteousness in
Judgment, in mete-yard, in weight or i'm
measure. Just balances just weights a
just ephah and a just hin shall We have y
But, say the opponents, neither quota
tion Is an argument calling for adoption
or so complicated double standard as tho
metric system alongside of the "systerne
usuelle," in the countries-the United
states and Great Britain with all the
British possessions-which produce more
than three-quarters Of all the nroducts
OF skilled labor that are produced in the
world.
X x X x
The advocates of the decimal sys-
tenn argue that the metric system is
IN use In all countries other than
the British and American and that
our English" system derived from
the ancient Romans) is not under
stood in Latin countries, hence that
We lose trade because we do not
talk the language of their weights
and measures. Investigating this,
the American Institute of Weights
and Measures in 1920 sent a oues-
tionnaire to all the 5000 members
of the American Manufacturers Ex-
port Association and received replies
showing that they found no more
necessity Of adopting the metric
system for the exports to Latin
America than for teaching their lam
guage to the workers in their shops
On the bulletin. the all-American
Standard, there Is portrait of
Henry Ford among those of advo-
Gates of the proposed change, but in
answer to the QUESTIONABLE the Ford
Company replies:
Our cars for export trade are al
ways equipped with Americans size
tfres-not metric size"
Similar reports came from S or 10
other leading makers of automobiles
as well as from the others of the
1,445 exporters of all kinds of goods
In none of the Latin American coun-
tries, 1t is claimed. has the metric
system bssa put iuts Practice BY The