Page images
PDF
EPUB

going to be a stimulating and worthwhile session. We wish you well in all of your important endeavors at this Conference. Thanks sincerely for your contribution, for what I sincerely believe to be one of the vital people services of government and industry in assuring effective, accurate weights and measures. "Measures for Progress" is appropriately your theme.

ADDRESS OF THE CONFERENCE PRESIDENT

by Dr. RICHARD W. ROBERTS, Director, National Bureau of Standards

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

It is a pleasure to be making my first appearance before you as your Conference President. I must admit that I was unaware of this honor when I accepted the position as Director of the National Bureau of Standards.

One of the first things I heard about when I joined NBS was the Office of Weights and Measures, and attending this Conference is an important part of my orientation as a new Director. Although when I told someone that I

was on my way to Minneapolis for total immersion they thought I was appearing at the Aquatennial.

I have found the history of weights and measures fascinating. I think most of you know that at the turn of the century there were five legal definitions of the foot in the Borough of Brooklyn. Trying to be a sprightly conversationalist at a party one night, I mentioned this to someone. He happened to be a baseball fan and was unimpressed. He said that when the Dodgers were there they once had six different feet all on third base.

Seriously, I am impressed by the purposes of the National Conference on Weights and Measures and even more impressed by the way you have accomplished your purposes over the years. I was reminded, when I began to learn about you, of a line from "A Man for All Seasons. In that play, a boatman says of the fares fixed by law for transporting people on the river, “Chelsea to Hampton downstream a penny ha penny, Hampton to Chelsea upstream a penny ha penny; whoever makes the regulations doesn't row a boat."

I think it is true in virtually all fields. The men who make regulations and the men who enforce them are not the ones who row the boats. It is true in your field too. But here in this room together are men who make regulations, men who enforce them and the men who row. There is more communication among those groups in weights and measures administration than in any other field I know.

NBS Directors have taken various views of what to tell the Con

[graphic]
[merged small][ocr errors]

ference in this ritual appearance. I would like to propose some new

ideas to you.

Before I begin to talk of new ideas, let me assure you that I am well aware of the traditional needs of the weights and measures community, and of the National Bureau of Standards' traditional role in meeting those needs. Bud Wollin and Karl Willenbrock will get a sympathetic hearing from me in any effort to improve the Bureau's support of your work.

But, as a neophyte member here, I have the natural prerogative of making some suggestions of ways in which the Conference and the Bureau might improve the lot of the working weights and measures man. For example, I think it would be worth while for the Conference to develop a comprehensive blueprint for building an effective weights and measures enforcement program. Already there exist many basic tools that the Conference has developed. The model laws and handbooks 44 and 67 are essential to your everyday work. But there is no similar reference to guide the weights and measures supervisor in planning his operating program.

I can see some other ways that NBS could aid you in formulating and implementing your weights and measures programs at the state and local levels.

I think we could increase our assistance to you in five areas. First. there is a critical need for an overall look at the resources that you currently expend on weights and measures enforcement. To my knowledge, the Bureau has never attempted to document the total weights and measures effort in this country. Such information is crucial to us if we are to meet your needs. It is also vital to you in your own attempts to evaluate program efforts and to secure additional program resources. To this end, the Office of Weights and Measures recently forwarded to the states survey questionnaires designed to provide us with the first complete census of weights and measures officials. I urge that each one of you give careful attention to the census. It is the first step of a planned national survey covering all facets of weights and measures administration.

This effort is another example of our mutual cooperation. The Conference provided the leadership and the impetus to get this survey underway; NBS is supplying the expertise and follow-through necessary to bring this information together.

Second, it is important that we work together in the development of performance criteria with which you can measure your program output. It is difficult to comprehend how you or I can increase our program resources until we can demonstrate the importance and usefulness of what we are doing. The Office of Weights and Measures has made some important progress in finding ways for you to make such

[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

evaluations. Two speeches later in the Conference will detail these efforts for you.

Third, keeping abreast of changing market conditions and changes in weighing and measuring devices and systems necessitates a continuing education program. You must look to sharing that responsibility with us by developing or expanding your own in-house training capability. We, in turn, can step up efforts to generate training materials and visual aids that can greatly assist you in this training effort. We will also continue to conduct training in jurisdictions as necessary as part of our ongoing education program.

Fourth, I am also aware that there are pressing engineering problems relating to commercial measurement being faced in most state and local jurisdictions. New technological developments such as the computerized checkstand weighing system or the electronic railway inmotion weighing system pose measurement problems that must be resolved. These are not the only measurement problems you face. There is currently no moisture measuring device on the market that can be (lepended upon to give accurate results at all times. The result is that there is no efficient method for testing grain moisture meters. Also, there is a need for solving similar problems in meters used to measure liquid feeds. This has been a long-standing problem and we are placing high priority on its solution.

Last, many of you would like to update your programs through revision to existing laws, regulations, and operating procedures. Many of these changes require some assistance, either through the analysis of existing laws and regulations or through appearance by experts before legislative hearings. The Bureau is willing to provide whatever assistance the Office of Weights and Measures can give.

Of course, I realize that new ideas usually have a price. One of my main interests will be to work with our Institute for Applied Technology to develop optimum allocations of their resources for the solution of these problems. I know that the National Conference will do its best to carry out its share of the effort. I think we can make progress if we will all think progressively.

Before presenting one more new idea, let me digress a minute on the interpretation of words. Men are too often confined by the way they explain the words used to explain their responsibilities. For example, I think the Department of Commerce, because of a misinterpretation of the word commerce, is known as the agency of business. But commerce is not synonymous with business. Commerce is an ecology, a tenuous balance of manufacturers, entrepreneurs, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. No one part of that ecology is more important than the others; no part is more worthy of representation than the others; it is the balance that represents the health of commerce.

So it is up to the Department of Commerce to see that equity pre

I

9

[ocr errors]

vails in this delicate ecology. And that brings me to the function of the weights and measures official. Your function depends as much o the definition of the word equity as the function of my Departmen depends on the definition of commerce. The last thought I would lik to leave you would be an expanded idea of what equity in the marketplace is. I think you will find out that the times demand a new definition and that you will eventually have to accept it. If you begin thinking about it now, you will be that far ahead.

Equity. I have heard it said that a weights and measures officia cannot assure equity in the marketplace by being neutral. Neutrality actually is bias against the consumer, because he is the most powerless participant. That concept jarred my thinking and I began to reconsider my own definitions of equity.

It occurred to me: Doesn't real equity require that the consumer have sa fe products? Doesn't real equity require that the consumer be protected from environmental pollution? Doesn't real equity demand that the consumer be protected against power and energy shortages!

I think so. And I think it is important for the weights and measures official to become an activist in these areas. You will not necessarily have direct responsibility. In most cases the State and local agencies which look after these matters are separate from the weights and measures operation. But you must be prepared to provide measurement support to them just as we at NBS are gearing up to help them.

In some cases you may have direct responsibility. I understand that one county in California has its weights and measures people checking noise pollution. Certainly you are into public safety when you check the accuracy of a service station air tower.

For the most part, you must play a supporting role, as you do in so many areas. But as State and local efforts expand rapidly in these fields, you must gear up to provide necessary services. If you do not have the broad view of equity and your responsibilities it is possible you will not be ready when the call comes.

At NBS we have seen this effect--this increased emphasis on consumer rights in the marketplace—and I think we have done a good job of staying with the trends. You are all familiar with your fair packaging program, and many of you have been an integral part of it.

But beyond this, consider product safety. NBS has been a leader for years in the determination of fabric flammability. The flammable fabrics laws grow stricter all the time as the Congress responds to the people's demand for protection. NBS has worked hard to keep the technical base for enforcing the laws up to the increasing levels of stringency.

It is not an easy job. It has been said that we know more about the surface of the moon than we know about why and how things burn. One of our fire scientists said that the reason there are more nuclear

[ocr errors]

physicists than combustion physicists is that nuclear physics is easier.

Also in product safety, consider the project NBS has been conducting to develop ways for measuring the danger of sharp points and edges in children's toys. Several simple and portable devices have been developed to enable inspectors in the field to aid manufacturers in assuring the safety of products.

The point is this: How many of you are familiar with measurement problems in fabric flammability or in sharp points and edges on toys? I think you should be. I think you should not only be ready to help other state and local officials with such problems, I think you should be seeking them out and telling them that you can help them. That is what I mean by taking an activist role in assuring equity.

I could easily turn this into an NBS commercial by listing all the measurement technology we are developing to combat air, water, and noise pollution and the like, but time does not permit. I could run down the list of things we are doing to aid in energy conservation. Incidentally, I think I will mention one of those. We are developing a voluntary labeling system for declaring the energy requirements of major household appliances. This system would enable consumers to select the most efficient appliances and thereby encourage manufacturers to produce more efficient appliances. Now I don't think I need to emphasize to this audience the measurement requirements for developing and operating any labeling system. What I want to emphasize is that I suspect very few of you are aware of this new program or equipped to aid local industries on it if you are requested to do so.

So this is my message. Equity is a very comprehensive and very complex concept. I think that we have not fully appreciated it and that we have not fully prepared for it. If the public demands for real equity are not to descend on your heads unexpected and unwanted, you must understand the full concept of equity and take positive action to meet it.

I pledge that the National Bureau of Standards will provide you full access to its work in all fields of public concern. I ask only that you begin to look at what it is that the public really wants from the marketplace and then to see to it that you are prepared to help them achieve it. If you can accomplish this, then equity will indeed prevail.

It is now my privilege to announce the appointment of individuals to serve on the four Conference standing committees. I am sure you are Well aware how important the work and accomplishments of these committees are to the success of the Conference and to weights and measures administration throughout the nation.

In behalf of the Conference, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all committee members for their valuable contributions over the year. To outgoing committee members I offer my special thanks for their loyal service to the Conference.

« PreviousContinue »