INCHING TOWARD THE METRH SYSTEM, 195 453 



bill was similar to the Brooks bill of the prior Congress, except that the 

 study was to be done by the Secretary of Commerce instead of the 

 National Bureau of Standards. Roosevelt's bill, H.R. 269, was followed 

 In Congressman Miller's, H.R. 2049. Miller was joined the same day 

 h\ Fulton with House Concurrent Resolution 44 which duplicated the 

 Fulton resolution of 1959. Miller's bill was identical with the bill 

 Chairman Brooks had sponsored in 1959, authorizing a study to be 

 made by the National Bureau of Standards. 



Miller gradually emerged as the chief spokesman for the metric 

 system, supporting a study as the technique to move toward future 

 adoption of the system. He argued that as a World War I soldier in 

 France the doughboys were exposed to the logic of the system, as 

 well as the necessity of getting used to the 37-, 75-, and 155-millimeter 

 guns and being guided by kilometers on the road signs throughout 

 the countryside. Miller loved to tell the story of the head of an engi- 

 neering firm in Alameda, Calif., who used to berate him for 

 "monkeying around with this metric system" and who later did 

 a 180-degrce reversal and asked one day: 



When in the hell are you going to get the metric system adopted? 



When Miller kidded him for changing his mind, the same man con- 

 fessed that he had a contract with an Amsterdam concern to design 

 a huge crane and it cost him $40,000 to redraw the plans into metric 

 terms in order to fill the contract. 



During June and July of 1961, Miller, who was then the chairman 

 of "Subcommittee No. 1," held the first hearings on the metric system. 

 The widespread use of metric measurements by the pharmaceutical 

 and film industries; the demands of space-age industry for greater 

 precision of measurement; the stimulus for international trade, with 

 over 90 percent of the world's population using the metric system — 

 all these factors spurred a renewed interest in persuading the United 

 States to join the rest of the world's simplified measuring system. 

 The committee agreed that a study was a necessary prerequisite to 

 any action, which would otherwise be considered as too precipitous. 



COMMITTEE MEMBERS TAKE SIDES 



Miller, Fulton, and Mosher spoke out for the metric system. 

 Mosher observed: 



My inclination is to agree with what evidently all of us believe, that the metric 

 system should be adopted. 



Fulton wanted to move faster, by directing the President to 

 enlist the aid of educators, scientists, and others to implement a plan 



