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Show Time For U. S. To Go Metric? President Reagan has proposed prop-osed to halt funding of the seven year old Metric Board, an independent agency working work-ing to educate the public in metric numbers. The two million mil-lion dollar cost of the board was part of the voluntary effort of recent years to convert from inches, pounds, etc.. to the metric system. ALREADY MANY large corporations and producers have converted. Many use both systems on labels and parts. Some still stick with the old English-American system (which the English abandoned when they entered the European Euro-pean Common Market). Opponents of the presi dent's proposal to stop funding of the voluntary effort say this will delay conversion. The Reagan Administration says, the board has done its job and familiarized Americans with the metric system and that conversion will now continue as the market place and the people dictate. WHATEVER THE result in Congress in 1982, the U.S. conversion is well underway. General Motors, for instance, will complete its total conversion conver-sion in another year. But for some small businesses, conversion con-version is a real problem and a financial one. And all agree conversion should be voluntary, volun-tary, not mandatory. |
