Adoption of metric system discussed

The House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures opened hearings in Washington, March 4th, on a bill which proposes to make the metric system effective in this country after January 1935. While opposition as well as approval of the bill was expressed by representative men, it is generally contended that the ultimate good to be derived from the adoption of a universal unit of measure is obvious, in view of which the earlier it is put into effect the sooner will the whole situation be simplified. As Major Fred J. Miller, past-president of the A. S. M. E. expressed it, “A gram of prevention is worth a kilogram of cure.” Some of those opposing the bill were Luther D. Burlingame, chairman of the A. S. M. E. Committee on Standardization and Unification of Screw Threads, other representatives of the A. S. M. E. on the National Screw Threads Commission and C. C. Stutz, Secretary of the Institute of Weights and Measures, while the passage of the bill was supported by S. W. Stratton, Gano Dunn, Thomas A. Edison, General Pershing, Samuel Vauclain, and others of representative prominence.