the machine would have to be discarded and new ones substituted in order to work in metric dimensions.

There were about 3 million machine tools in operation in 1963. They cost some $30 billion when installed. These figures give an idea of the magnitude of the problem.

In remeasuring instruments, practically all measuring devices involving mass, length, and temperature, ranging from grocery scales and fever thermometers to gage blocks and screw measuring machines in the United States are designed to work only in terms of customary units.

The conversion of these measuring devices, some of which are extremely expensive, from one system of measurement to another may be exceedingly costly.

In some cases, this conversion may be accomplished simply by replacing recording paper charts or indicating scales, as in the case of thermometers or of machines measuring surface finish and roundness. In other cases, the entire device or machine would require replacement to accommodate to the metric system.

It is not my intent to prejudge the effectiveness, cost, and practicability of the various possible steps which can be taken to solve this problem. A study such as proposed in S. 774 should be undertaken to arrive at such judgments.

Among others, there seem to be several courses of action which could be recommended after such a study. The purpose of the study would be to assess the consequences of these and other alternative courses of action:

1. General adoption of the metric system by legislation.

2. Voluntary extension of metric usage industry by industry. 3. Regulated partial conversion, segment by segment in identified areas over an extended period, with plans for handling the resulting coexistence of mixed systems.

4. Solutions other than adoption of the metric system, to mitigate the crucial problems without forced conversion by law.

5. A system of financial incentives to those who voluntarily con

vert.

The study would explore these problems in depth and evaluate appropriate courses of action. There may be many others in addition to those I have mentioned.

The study would ascertain to what extent the general welfare would be improved by encouraging or discouraging more widespread use of metric units in the United States and the effects of such action on our economic and technological development.

The study would not only look at immediate actions and their immediate effects but at actions which could be taken over the next few decades and the effects of these actions on future economic development and growth.

Another aspect of the study would be an assessment of the prospects for international usage of existing U.S. standards. If a large number of American standards and sizes will be used, we can proceed with much of our present manufacture using existing machines.

When agreement is reached on sizes, expression of the dimensions in customary or metric units is a matter of paperwork. Thus, some of the impact of metric usage on our industry can be mitigated when

ever we achieve international acceptance of U.S. sizes and standards. The important point here I want to make is that the acceptance of the metric system doesn't necessarily mean the acceptance of the dimensions of sizes employed in some other countries.

There are two problems. One that has to do with the acceptance of U.S. standards with respect to sizes and the other has to do with the units in which you express those sizes.

They are two separable problems. We may be able to make the problem easier by prosecuting the acceptance of U.S. sizes throughout the world and express those sizes in terms of metric units. This is different from what measurement system we use.

Senator MCGEE. Would you be inclined to agree with the Senator from Rhode Island in terms of the time interval that would be required for such a transition? I think he estimated 30 or 40 years. Mr. HOLLOMON. As Senator Pell says, I know you understand one of the things that will determine this is how we go about such a conversion. And I would think that if we did decide to make a general conversion or a sector by sector conversion, several decades would be involved for such a project.

Senator MCGEE. The reference in the British announcement was they were going sector by sector. Do you know whether they have made a preliminary study similar to the study proposed here?

Mr. HOLLOMON. Not to my knowledge. There have been some preliminary studies on their part. We have a list, by the way, you may wish to put it in the record, of the studies that have been made that we know about with respect to the metric system.

Senator MCGEE. It would be useful to have that as part of the record. It will be included.

Mr. HOLLOMON. We have such.

(The list of studies follows:)

PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF METRIC SYSTEM

Metric Study Task Force: Appointed by Director of NBS in accordance with memorandum of April 12, 1960, from Under Secretary Philip A. Ray in his capacity as Chairman of Commerce Science Committee. Issued report March 16, 1961.

Department of Interior: Bureau of Reclamation report issued June 1962. Decimal Coinage and Metric System-Should Britain Change? Report issued 1960.

American Geophysical Union: Committee for the Study of the Metric System in the United States-1958-59 questionnaire survey.

American Standards Association: Tenth National Conference on Standards, October 1959. Conference devoted to question of metric adoption in American industry.

American Association for the Advancement of Science Symposium: Presented December 29-30, 1958. District of Columbia.

Survey by Headquarters, Air Research and Development, Andrews AFB, March 25, 1960. Unpublished.

International Civil Aviation Organization: 1963 survey of member states to determine possibility of implementing 1961 ICAO amendment on use of metric units in civil aviation.

Stanford Research Institute: 1962 report entitled "Implications of U.S. Conversion to the Metric System." Proprietary.

General Electric Co.: 1962 questionnaire distributed within General Electric by W. A. McAdams, manager, industry standards. Apparently, no report compiled.

Mr. HOLLOMON. I don't know of a detailed study by the British. The British Board of Trade has a study indicating what they believe the consequences would be, but I don't know of a detailed sector-bysector study.

Senator MCGEE. What you have just said simply accentuates the need for our launching such a study to determine the magnitude of the problems of conversion.

Mr. HOLLOMON. I believe that's correct.

One of the points, I think, that should be made is that there are various alternatives, or ways, of going about this problem. One aspect of the problem which I think is important, as has been pointed out by others, is that the machine tool business of this country, the capital equipment business is such that many of our machine tools already are not very modern. They are going to have to be replaced in any event, so the way that one proceeds to do this will have an important effect on the whole capital goods economy of this country.

There are many individual opinions on all of these matters, but these opinions are based upon limited knowledge of the entire problem, although in many cases a very intimate association with specialized aspects of the problem are strongly reflected.

There is not at present enough information available on either the immediate or long-term aspects of the whole problem to evaluate or arrive at well-founded courses of action.

As I have indicated, we do not wish to prejudice whether or not there should be a conversion to the metric system. So while we support S. 774, there are some desirable drafting changes which would make this intent clear.

The changes are mainly in section 1 and the language which we suggest for that section is as follows the reason we make this suggestion is to make clear that there is no intent of the Congress or those of us who are to study the problem that we have arrived at preliminary conclusions as to what should happen at the end of the study. This is the primary reason for making these suggestions.

We suggest that the language with respect to section 1 should be as follows:

That the Secretary of Commerce is hereby authorized and directed to conduct a program of investigation, research, and survey to determine the impact of increased worldwide use of the metric system on the United States; to ap praise the desirability and practicability of increased use of metric weights and measures in the United States; and to evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action which may be feasible for the United States.

For consistency, the term "increased use" should be substituted generally for "conversion" throughout section 2. The intent of the Department's proposed alternative language is simply to provide the Secretary of Commerce with a clear charter to study the problem created by the differing systems of measurement and to recommend the best means for dealing with this problem without establishing any preconceived notion of what the recommendations might be.

If this bill is enacted into law we would need and it is our intention to seek the best possible advice from representatives from American commerce, industry, engineering, science, labor, consumers, and government.

Broadly based advisory committees will permit this wide participation, for the results of this study could well affect the future of every American.

Mr. Chairman, a study of the metric system's impact and what we might do about it is long overdue. I hope my statement has clarified some of the issues and approaches concerning this problem. We would like to see the study get underway as soon as possible. We, therefore, urge this committee to take prompt and favorable action on S. 774 with our suggested changes in language.

(The aforementioned tables I and II follow :)

TABLE I.-U.S. exports to selected metric and nonmetric countries