European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 20, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Doily Magazine metro Cattoor. America Outfield Marker in feel and meters. By Ralph Blumenthal. New York times v scotch comes in liners film in Millimetres drugs in Grams and cubic centimetres and some temperature reports in celsius can the metric packaging of milk bread and butter and other common food products be for be Hind in the u.s.? maybe. Two and a half years after the enact ment of the voluntary metric conversion act to align the United states with the rest of the world the nation is lurching toward metrication in some areas while Stum bling against legislative and bureaucratic impediments and lingering Public suspicion and hostility in others. At stake proponents say. Is the ability of the nation to keep up with its Industrial competitors All of which have already switched to metrics or Are Well into converting to the system developed by the French nearly two centuries ago. At present officials say. The sole non metric countries Are Borneo. Brunei line Ria and South Yemen we were not in a very fast said Sydney d. Andrews a Florida markets official and representative in the new 17-member United states metric Board while the Board Hunts for office space in Washington and prepares to double and triple its staff by adding a second and third employee under a temporary $220.000 fed eral allocation the metrication process re Mains partially frustrated by state and Federal Laws that prohibit some of the very metric packaging that the government Board and business groups Are trying to Foster specifically most states have adopted a common weights and Mea sores statute that requires certain food Staples such As milk cheese bread butter and flour to be sold in conventional quart or Pound Mea sures Only. In addition the Federal fair packaging and Labelling act of 1966 forbids the description of products by metric measure Only. The problem was confronted recent in Washington at the annual National Confer ence on weights and measures sponsored by the Commerce department s National Bureau of standards. Meanwhile the fretful lumbering shift to metrics goes on. Hailed and condemned visible and invisible to Consumers. Industry has made great great Prog said Malcolm e. O Hagan. The newly hired executive director of the metric Ard its first employee and former president of the business sponsored Amer ican National metric Council which will continue to Aid commercial conversion programs. The alcohol and soft drink bottlers have become the first major Ameri can industries to go hard metric putting their products into new metric sizes geared to the liter rather than merely keeping the conventional sizes and converting the contents to metrics on the Label. Pharmaceuticals and film have Long been measured in metric units and Many other non consumer goods such Asma Chinery and engineering products have also routinely gone metric. According to the metric Council by now roughly a third of the nation s businesses has devised some conversion program through private sector planning commit tees. Assuming appropriate changes Are made in the Law. The food Industry is expected to be Well into metrics by 1985 and the Auto Industry 50 percent metric by 1983. Grade school arithmetic has already substantially shifted to a metric base in Many states Public scepticism and hostility. However remain Rife. A Gallup poll last october found 45 per cent of the american Public opposed to conversion and an additional 26 percent simply unaware of the metric system much of the criticism followed the changeover beginning in 1975. In the wine and liquor Industry. The metric version of the half gallon became the 1.75-liter bottle. But although the new Container held 8 percent less the Price was not proportionately reduced. The Industry contended that it was due for a Price increase but the metric Council and others said the timing excited fears of deception and gave con version a bad name. Similarly. O Hagan and others have criticized what he termed a half baked pro Gram by the Federal Highway administration last year to change Road signs from Miles to Kilometres. Surprised state Highway officials were enraged the Public deluged the Agency with protest mail and the Federal program was hastily abandoned. Increasingly however signs with dual mile Kilometre markings Are springing up around the country the chairman of the a salaried metric Board. Or. Lewis k. Polk a retired vice president of the Bendix corp. Look note of some of the Public s concern when he pledged at the recent weights and Mea sures conference that the panel would do its Best to avoid being part of of what is termed the great National Ripoff " in the end. Officials say. Far less May change than uneasy american now you la still buy the hunk of meat that looks right regardless of pounds or Kio Roger k. Travis a member of the metric Board. The Day will stay 21 hours and there will still be 12 eggs not 10 to the dozen " dispensing Gas from a pump calibrated in liners metric conversion Chart eases the changeover. Sunday August 20. 1978 the stars and stripes Page 9
