484 HISTORY OF THF COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



the interests of labor and small business people in general are being 

 protected." Mosher added: 



This legislation is really needed and is deeply rooted in good, old-fashioned 

 American commonsense. * * * The movement toward conversion to the metric system 

 already has a tremendous momentum in this country and it is so imperative and so 

 necessary. Yet we must avoid a chaotic movement. We must have an orderly process. 



Fuqua, after praising Symington's long and dedicated efforts on 

 behalf of the metric bill, concluded: 



I am sure that without the leadership of the gentleman from Missouri this 

 measure would not be here today. 



Fuqua pointed out that industries like the automobile industry which 

 were converting to metric were obviously interested in profits, and 

 therefore "we must infer that each of them calculated that the benefits 

 to be reaped by going metric would exceed any costs entailed." He 

 added that in other instances costs had proven to be much less than 

 expected. He noted that speeding up conversion would actually reduce 

 costs in the long run. 



Hechler reminded the House that the narrowing list of nonmetric 

 nations had as of the day of the debate been reduced to South Yemen, 

 Burma, Liberia, and the United States. Because it was common knowl- 

 edge that Symington would be running for the U.S. Senate in 1976, 

 Hechler rounded out his praise for Symington with this thought: 



I trust also that passage of this legislation will add many centimeters to the 

 political stature of the gentleman. 



GOLDWATER AND EMERY DEPLORE LACK OF TARGET DATE 



Bell, Winn, Pickle, Goldwater, Lloyd, Frey, Emery, Myers, and 

 Dodd also made strong speeches of support for the metric conversion 

 bill. Both Goldwater and Emery, as they had in the markups, expressed 

 dismay that a target date of 10 years had not been set. As Goldwater 

 put it: 



Unless there is a time set definition, there will be no impetus, no reason for some 

 segment of the industry to go metric. * * * I do support the legislation, but I think it 

 has been weakened because the committee has not found fit to include this kind of 

 incentive, at least a point in time when all Americans can strive to become a metric 

 country. 



Emery added: 



It seems that it always takes as long to accomplish a task as there is time allotted 

 for it. * * * Without this date or guidepost, I am afraid that metrication will fall 

 victim to those who are unwilling to change. 



Surprisingly, there were no opposition statements by those want- 

 ing to delay or defeat the bill, and no amendments were offered. The 



