INCHING TOWARD THE METRIC SYSTEM, 1959-79 497 



decide. McCormack tangled with Crane on their differing interpreta- 

 tions of the 1975 law, as follows: 



Mr. Crane. I just want to remind the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McCor- 

 mack) of the operative language, "The policy of the United States shall be to co- 

 ordinate the voluntary conversion to the metric system." That is the policy. 



Mr. McCormack. That is correct. The responsibilities of the Board include 

 coordination of voluntary activities by any individual or entity, as this country 

 converts to the metric system, under its policy as established by the law. 



Mr. Crane. The policy is voluntary conversion. 



Mr. McCormack. The word voluntary applies only to individuals and corpora- 

 tions. The policy of the Nation is to convert to the metric system. 



Mr. Crane. What is the Nation? The Nation is all of us individuals. 



Mr. McCormack. The policy of the Government is to convert to the metric sys- 

 tem. That is the law. 



Ertel, Ritter, and Goldwater also spoke against the efforts of 

 Crane to reduce the metric appropriation to zero. But Crane succeeded 

 in increasing his vote from the 75 he received in 1978 to 122 in 1979, 

 despite his amendment losing by 280-122. Voting with Crane were 

 the following committee members: Carney, Hance, Kramer, Roth, 

 Walgren, Walker, and Watkins. Even though the Senate voted the full 

 amount asked in the President's budget, and the White House publicly 

 encouraged a strong interpretation of the 1975 legislation, it was 

 evident that there was considerable educational work needed by the 

 advocates of the metric system. The conference committee in 1979 com- 

 promised on $2,474,000 for the metric appropriation — exactly halfway 

 between the House and Senate figures. Clearly, the metric system still 

 faced a rocky road ahead. 



