174 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 501. 



simplicity that characterizes our system of 

 coinage, and in the remote future to attain 

 international unity of coinage, weights and 

 measures. Certain other people would lose 

 money and otherwise suffer much inconven- 

 ience by the change. No good can result from 

 calling the former doctrinaires or denoimcing 

 the latter as selfish. We have to consider the 

 practical question, is the game worth the 

 candle? If so, how can the transition be 

 made least burdensome? If not, how can the 

 existing system be improved with least incon- 

 venience? Each of these questions may re- 

 ceive a different answer, and none of them will 

 be fully answered during the twentieth cen- 

 tury. The present writer has elsewhere taken 

 part in the discussion and expressed the belief 

 that if the metric system is to be popularly 

 adopted at all by English-speaking nations it 

 must be through some sort of compromise. 

 Of his critics one scientific friend, a physicist 

 (Science, Vol. XIX., p. 860), prefers to avoid 

 compromise and believes that the American 

 people will soon do what the French and Ger- 

 mans have done. Another, an engineer (p. 

 Y67), opposes all change of standards and 

 thinks the proposed compromise ' might be a 

 good one if the English-speaking race were to 

 disappear from the earth.' The newspaper 

 press has manifested similar diversity in views 

 expressed. 



The scientific men are probably as devoted 

 to the metric system as the mechanical engi- 

 neers are to its opposite. In the scientific 

 laboratories no compromise whatever is now, 

 or will be, necessary. The metric system will 

 continue in use as the most convenient for 

 laboratoi-y purposes. But outside of the labo- 

 ratory there are a good many considerations 

 that can not be ignored. Even if intemper- 

 ately urged and exaggerated, as they are by 

 Mr. Halsey, they must be candidly recognized 

 by those who advocate metric reform among 

 the people, and allowance has to be made for 

 two very obstinate and omnipresent opponents, 

 conservatism and vested interests. 



Mr. Halsey devotes a large part of his book 

 to a presentation of statistical evidence in- 

 tended to show that in all of the countries 

 where the metric system has been made legal 



the people have held on to the old units to 

 which they were accustomed. Adoption by 

 statute is not a guarantee of adoption in prac- 

 tise. A century has not been sufficient to 

 cause the abolition of old names and units 

 among the common people in France, whether 

 in city or country, resort to them being usual 

 when no penalty is involved. The same is 

 true in Germany and Switzerland, and in 

 every other country where the metric system 

 is in business transactions either obligatory 

 or permissive. The fact is in no way remark- 

 able. There is no reason to expect within the 

 next century that conservatism will be so 

 diminished that the exclusive use of the 

 metric system will prevail even in France. 

 The progress already made is all that could be 

 reasonably expected. If the system be estab- 

 lished by legal statute in America no such law 

 can be enforced until the people generally shall 

 have forgotten old names and values. If old 

 names are retained and values but little 

 changed the task of assimilation is made 

 easier, but reasonably complete assimilation 

 will take several generations. Thus, while 

 our American coinage system is a model of 

 simplicity and convenience, the rural Virginian 

 persists in using the names ' shillings ' and 

 ' pence,' utterly superfluous as these may be. 

 Advocates of the metric system deceive them- 

 selves if they think that new standards can 

 be established among the masses, by statute 

 or otherwise, 'within a few years. The initi- 

 ative can be, and should be, taken by the cen- 

 tral government, and in the application of the 

 law all possible consideration should be ac- 

 corded, particularly at first, to those whose 

 large pecuniary interests are affected. The 

 first result will be, not the abolition of con- 

 fusion, but the increase of confusion by an 

 addition to the units and standards in use. 

 None of us to-day will live to see anything 

 better than good progress on the part of the 

 general public in getting accustomed to the 

 new standards and losing devotion to the old 

 ones. 



That fairly good progress has been made, 

 and will continue to be made, in the use of 

 the metric system for international commerce 

 may be inferred from the following extract. 



