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And the
President spoke out on measurement
. . . The
sixth President, that is, - - - John Quincy Adams!
In a report to Congress in 182, prior to his presidency, Adams
had this to say about the necessity and pervasiveness of measurement:
"Weights and Measures may be ranked among the necessaries of life
to every individual of human society. They enter into the economical
arrangements and daily concerns of every family. They are necessary
to every occupation of human industry; to the distribution and
security of every species of property; to every transaction of
trade and commerce; to the labors of the husbandman; to the ingenuity
of the artificer; to the studies of the philosopher; to the researches
of the antiquarian; to the navigation of the mariner; and the
marches of the soldier; to all the exchanges of peace, and all
the operations of war. The knowledge of them, as in established
use, is among the first elements of education, and is often learned
by those who learn nothing else, not even to read and write. This
knowledge is riveted in the memory by the habitual application
of it to the employments of men throughout life."
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