Posted a few minutes ago: "James R. Frysinger" wrote: > > Dear Mr. Wheeler, > > The single largest reason that the very public and federally driven > metrication effort in the United States "failed" in the latter part of > the twentieth century was that U.S. law makers and other political > leaders were afraid they would not get re-elected if they continued this > effort. They did not feel the electorate was sufficiently strong in > their support of this movement. Such leaders measure the pulse of the > country not only by the mail they receive but by listening to industrial > leaders, lobbyists, and private organizations of concerned citizens. The > political leaders did not feel that pulse beating sufficiently > "metrically". To put it in plain English, they chickened out. > Fortunately, the industries and the private citizens in America who see > the benefit of metrication did not chicken out. > > That is why the U.S. Metric Association is a grass-roots organization > that works at garnering industry support. The public meeting on > metric-only labeling held in Washington, DC last November was a positive > sign that there is a lot of support out there. The question that must be > answered in lawmakers' minds is, "Is there sufficient support that I can > push for this and still get re-elected?" > > Let me clear up what may be some questions or confusions here. Your > daughter's teachers were perhaps referring to the events in the > presidency of Thomas Jefferson. This was the time frame in which > Napolean abolished the metric system in France, which went back to the > metric system a couple of decades later. The vascillation by the French > unnerved our Congress and to some extent Jefferson who then hesitated to > commit to a young, new system of measurement of questionable > survivability. > > U.S. manufacturers do not produce metrically only for foreign markets; > they do so for us as well. Many, many domestic products sold in the U.S. > are designed, produced, packaged, and sold in the U.S. in metric units. > Taking some items from our Metric Moments page, these include pencil > leads, medicines, floppy disks, CDs, mini-CDs, automobiles, etc. The SI > is not French, it is international. We use the SI not just for foreign > commerce but also for our internal business affairs. Many U.S. > corporations are entirely metric; besides the automobile manufacturers > these include Xerox and a large welding machine manufacturer upstate in > South Carolina --- just to cover the gamut from large to small. Again, > all federal buildings being designed and built today are metrically > dimensioned. The workers use metric tools. The parts and products going > into those buildings are metrially designed and built. > > I again urge you to visit the pages of the U.S. Metric Association via > the link > http://www.metric.org/ > and see for yourself how America is metricating even faster than it was > in the '70s even though it is doing so with much less fanfare and public > attention. I further urge you to write to all of your congressional and > state legislature representatives urging them to support metrication > efforts. > > regards, > Jim Frysinger > > You wrote in your reply on Mon, 25 Aug 2003 19:41:20 -0700 (PDT): > Yes, sir, I understand that a lot of US companies are already using the > metric system with foreign companies, but this question boiled down to > exactly > "why" we never completely switched over to the metric system. That is, > "if there is any one reason." Her teacher mentioned something about the > US > and France, but I really am not sure what she was getting at. I know > years ago, they started selling gasoline by the liter in my hometown in > Georgia. > But, what would be the single most reason that the US has not done it? > Thanks a bunch!!! > > -- > Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" > James R. Frysinger, LCAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ > 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Charleston, SC 29407 phone: 843.225.6789
-- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, LCAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone: 843.225.6789
