Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/782

762 countries which have not so adopted it, and would introduce detrimental confusion, in particular in its commercial relations with Great Britain and other countries where the system of weights and measures is the same as that of the United States, with which countries the bulk of our foreign commerce is at present carried on.

2. That should the obligatory use of the metrical system in governmental transactions be enacted, two years' preliminary notice of the change would suffice to bring the system into harmonious and uniform use in this department and its dependencies abroad.

3. That the Department of State does not seem to the Secretary of State to be in a position to express an authoritative opinion as to the obligatory adoption of the metrical system in all transactions between individuals, inasmuch as its relations directly with the people of the United States are not of a character to be either beneficially or injuriously affected by the suggested change. He ventures to remark, however, that even in those countries, like France, where the system has been obligatory beyond the memory of the present generation, the tradition of the old system clings among the people and defies complete eradication; and that in other countries, like Spain, where the metrical system is adopted in governmental transactions and legalized for those of individuals, the innovation is practically disregarded by the people and but partially conformed to by the Government, which is compelled to recognize the validity of the old standards, in which the continuing transactions of the nation, such as the registration of landed property, the assessment of industrial taxation, etc., are still, and must be of necessity for many years, recorded. While recognizing that the proposed measure is one mainly affecting the people, and therefore properly to be legislated upon by the popular representatives, the Department of State, being called upon for a specific opinion on the subject, is, on the whole, indisposed to recommend the obligatory use of the metrical system in all transactions between individuals.

4. That should its obligatory use as between individuals be enacted, a period of not less than five years should be allowed to elapse before the act takes effect; and that even then provision should be made for the recognition of the legal validity of transactions according to the present lawful systems of weights and measures.

The Secretary of the Navy reports: "If it were desired to make the metrical system of weights and measures obligatory in all government transactions, the Navy Department perceives no objection to it except in so far as it regards the soundings given on charts. If it were applied to these, it would probably involve a total loss of all charts and chart plates now in use. The alteration of these would give them no increased value: and as lone: as English charts remain in fathoms and feet it would be in fact prejudicial, and prevent that free use and interchange of charts which seem essential to navigators.

"So far as this department is concerned, no longer notice would be