SPARE THE ROD

"In every country save. England and New Zealand the traffic goes on the wrong side of the road." This statement is a slight exaggeration, because Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island still "keep to the left", although New Brunswick and British Columbia have recently passed laws requiring that all vehicles adopt the right turn. But the English still prefer the old method of traffic regulation, even though they have to learn to drive all over again whenever they "visit the continent" or come to America.

By this same process of reasoning, all countries save England and the United States have adopted "that at absurd system of grams and meters". Even in our own territory of the Philippines the metric system has been prescribed by law and is used in all commerce and business. From the point of view of the outsider, only the two most conservative nations of the world still measure distances in terms of miles and feet and inches, and liquids in terms of pints and quarts and gallons--no one of which measurements bear any decimal relation to another. Even between these two countries the "gallon" does not mean the same for Americans use the "Queen Anne's Wine Gallon", being the equivalent of 4.5 litres, while Englishmen use the "Imperial Gallon" of 3.5 litres, and the Stotch and Canadians follow them.

The United States government has already taken steps for the adoption of the metric system, and now conducts all surveys and map work by it. The familiar "Buffalo Nickel" has the standard weight of five grams. The foot and the "lb." are, by law, expressed as fractions of the meter and kilogram. And beyond this, in the field of electrical engineering, all measurements are based on the "centimeter, gram, second" system; while many prominent manufacturing concerns have already adopted it. Only the force of inertia always present in the "great American public" has prevented its general acceptance.

Five centuries ago the decimal system of Arabic numerals was struggling for recognition. In 1400 it was generally known through out Europe, and used in most scientific and astronomical work, but many tradesmen continued to keep their accounts in Roman numerals until about 1550, and monasteries and colleges till about 1650.

It is the inconvenience of uprooting a firmly established "system" and installing a new one in its stead, that causes the difficulty. In British Columbia with the change from left to right it has been found necessary to set up new sign-posts over three thousand miles of road, and the introduction of the meter to America would cause a great many minor changes.--but like Arabic numerals, the metric system is sure to be universally accepted sooner or later.