458 HISTORY OF Till COMMITTEE ON S< II N( E AND TIC HNOLOGY 



The sentiment in the committee was bolstered by the fact that 

 in 1965, Great Britain decided to convert to the metric system over a 

 10-year period. 



JUDGE SMITH AND THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE 



On September 9, 1965, Chairman Miller appeared before the 

 House Committee on Rules in an attempt to get clearance for a special 

 resolution on the metric study. Those were the days when the Rules 

 Committee members sat around a long, green-felt-covered table, the 

 Republicans with their backs to the windows, and the Democrats 

 on the other side of the table with their backs to the door. Far at the 

 end of one narrow side of the table sat its 82-year-old chairman, Judge 

 Howard W. Smith, peering from under his shaggy eyebrows at the 

 witness at the opposite end of the table. 



Miller presented his case in a light and conversational tone, 

 regaling the Rules Committee with historical background, such as 

 the fact that the "yard" constituted the distance from King Edgar's 

 nose to the tip of his fingers, and the "inch" was Charlemagne's 

 thumb. Finally, Judge Smith pronounced his death sentence on what 

 he called the "mee-tric" bill: 



I got my education in a one-room red schoolhouse. We took our degrees in the 

 three R's. Just to make an honest confession, I don't know what the metric system is. 



Miller tried hard to recover some lost ground. He mentioned 

 that Gina Lollobrigida's measurements would become 93-71-89. 



Judge Smith seemed unimpressed: "Are you talking about meters 

 or inches?" 



"Centimeters," Miller responded. 



Representative H. Allen Smith (Republican of California) then 

 added: 



Is that one of the fields the Committee on Science and Astronautics is studying? 

 No wonder so many members are trying to get on that committee. 



Needless to say, the Rules Committee acted unfavorably on the 

 metric study bill in 1965, denying the House a chance to debate it on 

 the floor under procedures allowing a majority vote for passage. 



SENATOR PELL LEADS SENATE FIGHT 1966 



Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate was acting along parallel lines, 

 thanks to the leadership of Senator Claiborne Pell (Democrat of 

 Rhode Island). Early in 1966, the Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics took up a metric study bill which had been passed by the 

 Senate, and had a one-day hearing on January 18, 1966. Since it was now- 

 apparent that Committee Chairman Howard W. Smith had enough 



