EDITT@R[AL

Metrics Moke Sense

rnHE recentlv concluded series of National MetI ric Study 'Conf"r"rr"". sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards seems to be turning up a lot more enthusiasm for converting the nation's system of measuring to the metric system than anyone thought existed.

In 1968, Congress authorized a study to determine the feasibility of going metric and the cost that such a mammoth move would involve. W'e comrnented editorially that year that we thought it was a good idea, though we privately gave little hope that anything as easy and simple as metrics would ever be the standard measurement.

All oi a sudden it appears we may be closer to the switch from feet, pounds and pints to meters, kilograms and liters than anyone imagined. The National Aercnautics and Space Adminisuation has already converted and many involved in the NBS survey believe that later this year the Secretary of Commerce will strongly urge Congress to okay the changeover.

If a conversion is made, it will mean massive reeducation, billions spent on retooling and for awhile, inevitable problems. But we agree with those who feel the changeover, with all its inherent benefits, will far outweigh the problems and that the process of conversion will be far less painful than many fear.

The Construction Action Council says that those in the construction industry participating in the NBS conferences think U.S. conversion to the metric system is inevitable, though many were unenthusiastic about the changeover.

H. Leslie Simmons of the American Institute of Architects pointed out that if wallboard were made one meter by 2.5 meters (3'3" x 8'2") it could no longer be used in the single family home until 8,000 local and national codes change the 16" standard stud spacing. And this would first involve a revision of load tables and a probable change in the size of the stud, he ventured. A problem, yes, but hardly unsolvable. It just might be a good excuse to really clean up a lot of the nonsense and obsolete requirements of those codes, too.

In many respects, it is too bad the lumber industry didn't convert to metrics during its recent, painful size changeover. It would have killed two birds with one stone and given lumber a marketing jump on competitive substitute materials. But it probably would have added another ten years of unproductive intra.industry war{are over the change.

As business all over the world becomes more interdependent, America can no longer afiord to be the country that doesn't use metrics. Increas. ingly, world trade affects both big and small business in this country; the cost of being out of step with the rest of the world is a business burden that no longer makes economic or comrror s€rs€; Let's make the chanee to metrics before it becomes even more expensiv".

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