Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE METRIC SYSTEM IN EXPORT TRADE The renewal of the agitation for the adoption of the metric system, because of the speciously plausible assumption that it is necessary in the interest of foreign trade, has made necessary the investigation which is herein summarized. This assumption is known to be untrue by manufacturers and others who are in touch with export trade. Those who are properly informed know perfectly well that our standard system of weights and measures is not, and never has been, an obstacle to the sale of our products abroad. In normal times, we import large numbers of high-class French clocks, and, similarly, we export tens of thousands of cheap clocks to all parts of the world. It would be absurd for an American purchaser to object to a French clock because it was made to the metric system, and equally absurd .to suppose that a foreign purchaser would object to our clocks because they are made to the English system. To come still nearer home, American watches are made to both the English and the metric systems, but not one watch owner in a thousand knows or cares to which system his watch was made. You, gentle reader, do not know and never gave the matter a thought. Again, in former days, when France led in the automobile industry, large numbers—for those days—of French machines were imported into this country regardless of the fact that they were made to the metric system. Today the situation is reversed. The American automobile industry has conquered the markets of the world, its products selling in metric and non-metnc countries alike and regardless of the fact that they are made to the English system. In the broader view, in normal times we import vast quantities of goods from metric countries which we buy without thought or question ...