INCHING TOWARD THE METRIC SYSTEM. 1959-79 



473 



As Chairman of the Veterans* Affairs Committee, Teague was 

 accustomed to winning victories for his legislation by big margins. 

 Increasingly in his latter years as Chairman of the Science Committee, 

 he decided to bite the bullet on issues where there was powerful opposi- 

 tion but where he felt the committee was on the right track. This 

 prompted Chairman Teague on April 24, 1974 to ask Speaker Albert to 

 take up the metric conversion bill at the first opportunity, under 

 "suspension of the rules" procedure requiring a two-thirds majority. 

 Teague was strongly opposed to a Federal subsidy for tools and the 

 Matsunaga amendment. In the two weeks prior to consideration of 

 the bill by the House on May 7, the lobbying and jockeying for position 

 was intense. Not long before the House debate opened, Teague was 

 given a very simple and attractive metric ruler fashioned by the 

 National Bureau of Standards. The ruler was marked "For Good 

 Measure", and it made the metric system look very easy and clear. So 

 Teague picked up the phone and called Secretary of Commerce Frederick 

 B. Dent to ask him to furnish 500 rulers to send out with a "Dear 

 Colleague" letter which he was preparing jointly with Mosher. The 

 rulers made quite a hit, even though they did not succeed in swinging 

 enough votes for the legislation. 



*Joz Cfced Wleaaute 



from the 



12 



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14 



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National Bureau of Standards 



Washington, D. C. 20234 



1 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 li li i ( 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ilil i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 Mi I ■ 1 1 [■ 1 1 1 1 1 ■ ihlil ilihhl 



6 



Small plastic rulers, simplifying small metric measurements, which Chairman Teague 

 distributed to every Member of the House of Representatives prior to the debate on the metric 

 bill in 1974. 



The Teague-Mosher letter listed recent movements in American 

 industries and the school system toward the metric system and 

 argued : 



All indications are that this trend will continue, although in an uncoordinated, 

 uneconomical way, rather than through an orderly, efficient transition period. * * * 

 The conversion to the Metric system under this bill would be entirely voluntary. 



Again, on May 2, Teague and Mosher dispatched a "Dear 

 Colleague" letter, enclosing an explanatory pamphlet prepared by 

 the State of Ohio, and urging that the Board "can reduce the total 

 conversion time and cost." Sending favorable letters to Members of 

 the House were the American Institute of Architects, Transportation 

 Association of America, and the National Education Association, 

 while opposition letters were sent out by the United Brotherhood of 

 Carpenters and Joiners of America and the International Brotherhood 



