STANDARDS YEARBOOK, 1930

I. GOVERNMENT INTEREST IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF SIMPLIFICATION AND STANDARDIZATION

By RAY M. HUDSON, Assistant Director, Commercial Standardization Group, Bureau of Standards

A government by direct popular consent learns that any policy or method can be maintained only if it meet the test of public scrutiny and approval. Such a government does well to apply this experience to its other plans and programs, which, while nonpolitical, nevertheless, have a primary effect on the daily lives of its citizens.

Electrical energy transmission, often referred to as "power," is the greatest agent of production. Hence it is a great servant of the people, and government may well have a deep and abiding interest in the activities and conduct of that servant.

Governments must participate to a considerable extent in the control of those industries which produce and sell electrical energy, because such industries are, as a rule, deliberately clothed with the security of monopoly. Hence, neither the industry nor the public disputes the necessity of full control of rates, service, and finance by federal authority. In recent years this active federal interest has been increased by technical improvements in energy transmission. In the United States we have witnessed a consolidation which has resulted in the creation of larger companies covering the "power districts" which surround central generating plants. By intercorrelation between districts, the ebb and flow of seasonal or daily surplus of electricity moves from one district to another, creating greater economy in production and equipment. One expression of our Government's interest in that industry has been an active cooperation in the development of national standards.

The modern technique is to apply regulation through the policy of self-government and self-regulation by the industry concerned. Cooperation is supplanting destructive competition. The new force making for self-government in American business is an enlightened self-interest which accelerates the adoption of those methods, procedures, or codes of conduct that develop service, build good will, and advance the national welfare.

The spread of self-government is advanced by a study of standardization. Conversely, increased study of standardization as an art and a science proves to be a liberal education in the meaning, purpose, and value of government, and an influence toward more effective self-government.

Probably the most important contribution by the United States Government has been in advancing the technique of standardization methods. It is obvious that standards are of value only as they are constantly and widely applied. The necessity of promotional

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service and periodic audits to determine the degree of application is being recognized by nongovernmental standardizing bodies in the United States. Government interest in the advancement of standardization is a public service fully warranted on economic and social grounds, and fully consonant with Government's chief reason for its existence.

The greater consideration of the public interest; the finer regard for the rights of the individual; the eagerness to treat all fairly, equitably, and generously, may be summed up as the outward evidence of the force in American business, viz, self-government.

The attention of our business leaders was directed to existing opportunities for self-government by Mr. Hoover when he became our Secretary of Commerce in 1921. Since then many examples of the operation of this new force furnish a record of its success and value to our people.

The interest of the Government extends into the development, custody, and maintenance of certain basic or fundamental standards, the recognition and use of which are vital to the production and maintenance of "power" as a service in the daily life of the Nation. On this point, Henry Ford recently said:

The ultimate development (of American industry) requires providing power so lavishly it will be cheaper to use it than not. This can be done by giving more and more electricity for less and less money, and by teaching how these greater quantities can be used profitably, and with benefit, in every direction.

That his view is shared by others is evidenced in the tremendous plants recently built, and others building; in the extension of service lines through interconnection; and in the constant effort toward the better coordination of energy demands and generation capacities.

The bridge between the technical problem of low production cost and the economic problem of widest usage is standardization.

It is a recognized function of government to supervise weights and measures. The government in various countries is impelled to exercise that function because nonuniformity in the weights and measures used within its boundaries threatens the stability of foreign commerce. In Biblical times, when Moses called all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep and do them," he urged uniformity and honesty in weights and measures, saying: "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and a just weight, a perfect and a just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." (Deuteronomy 25: 13-15.)

That the importance of the standardization of weights and measures was appreciated by the early American Colonies is shown by the fact that at the representative legislature assembly which met at James City, Va., March 5, 1623-24, there was enacted a law reading, “That there be no weights nor measures used but such as shall be sealed by officers appointed for that purpose.'

One of the first recommendations which George Washington as first President of the United States made to the Congress in January, 1790, reads: "Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an object of great importance and will, I am

persuaded, be duly attended to." The establishment and maintenance of such standards is now universally recognized as a primary responsibility of government.

As business develops and scientific research opens new fields, and more and more of the forces of nature are harnessed for the benefit of man, the necessity for standards steadily increases. Likewise, as civilization advances, and manufacturers and merchants discard "Let the buyer beware" and adopt "I serve" as their motto, they become greatly interested in the usefulness and value of standards. This interest is not entirely altruistic, but rather is "enlightened self-interest." Nevertheless, it is broadly significant in its influence toward the establishment of more and better standards. The greater willingness to conduct their operations according to standards mutually agreed upon is being translated into action by the groups themselves, and without waiting for Government to act in the matter. Some may say that this enlarging interest in standards is due to a fear that Government will take hold and do the job if industry and business do not put their house in order, but this is by no means the sole reason for the present trend toward self-government in business.

I believe it is far more a most important result of constant research and study devoted to finding the one best way to a specific objective, to a maximum result, and to highest efficiency of service in production and distribution.

The recognition of problems common to all members of a group; the understanding of the losses and wastes which unsolved problems impose; the "coming together" to seek a solution; and the consequent effort to arrive at a mutually acceptable standard are natural concomitants of advancement in thinking, in understanding, and in wisdom.

Coincident with this advance there has developed a new consciousness of man's ability to govern himself; a broader realization of his obligations to his family, his community, and his Nation; and a corresponding diminution in his desire to leave all his problems to his Government for settlement. He wants more of a voice in the conduct of all affairs or matters that affect the conditions under which he "lives, moves, and has his being."

Broadly speaking, government itself is a form of standardization, and conversely standardization tends to establish a certain regulation, control, or government over the matters to which it is applied. Nature herself standardizes her products and we define them as "species," whether "genus homo" or "sequoia sempervirens.”

The continuing struggle to be free-politically, economically, and socially-throws larger and larger responsibilities on the individual to govern himself in a manner not inimical to the better interests of himself, his community, his state or nation. He thus finds himself called upon constantly to measure his conduct, his actions, his efforts. Thus he is impelled to seek and to establish standards.

Thus the advancement of self-government induces the advancement of standardization. Conversely, increased attention to the study of standardization as an art and a science proves to be a liberal education in the meaning, purpose, and value of government, and an influence toward more effective self-government.

In the establishment and maintenance of standard grades for many commodities the United States Department of Agriculture

takes an active part. Under authority conferred upon it by several acts of Congress the department has established grades for cotton, grain, wool, tobacco, meat, and various other agricultural and food products, and has promulgated certain "mandatory" and "permissive" standards for these commodities.

A "mandatory standard" of the Department of Agriculture is an official standard the use of which is compulsory in the conditions specified by the law under which that standard is promulgated; for instance, the "official grain standards of the United States" for wheat are compulsory for grain shipped by grade in interstate commerce, according to the United States grain standards act. A "permissive standard" is a standard which has been worked out and recommended officially for optional use. Such permissive standards are used by the United States Department of Agriculture in such lines of work as inspection and market news. Permissive standards are often adopted by the States as mandatory under certain conditions. The story of the United States Government's interest in standardization in the electrical industry, for example, is indeed a long one. It includes an unbroken sequence from the fundamental primary standards of the volt and the ampere clear through to size, dimension, and fit of the connector or attachment plug that attaches the wire to the smoothing iron used by a farmer's wife at the far end of some rural power-service line.

Through its National Bureau of Standards, the Department of Commerce of our Government is constantly cooperating with the designers and builders of electrical generating equipment, of distribution or transmission facilities, and of power utilizing equipment or apparatus.

Our bureau works on problems connected with the establishment and maintenance of the fundamental standards upon which electrical measurements are based and the development and improvement of subsidiary and derived standards. This includes, of course, the intercomparison of standards research in the methods of measurement of the various electrical properties-electromotive force, resistance, current, conductivity, etc.-and the determination of electrical and magnetic properties for different substances. The bureau tests electrical instruments and apparatus, such as lamps, batteries, and transformers, and works on improvements in their design and construction. It also deals in the same way with telephone, radio, and photometric apparatus. It serves as a clearing house for service standards for telephone and electric companies, public utility commissions, and municipalities. It has formulated a safety code intended to be adopted by States and municipalities for the proper safe-guarding of the operation of electrical public utilities.

Our Bureau of Standards cooperates with the American Standards Association in a majority of the projects and activities of the latter body. The bureau is acting as sole or joint sponsor for 14 projects, and is officially cooperating through representatives on sectional committees on 77 projects.

Through its own agency, namely, its commercial standardization group, the bureau is working with many trade associations in simplification and standardization. Arrangements have been made with the American Standards Association whereby certain commercial standards developed by various industries, through the services of