At their annual meeting in Manhattan last week, officials of the Amateur Athletic Union decided unanimously to take a step that they have been talking about for 25 years: to abolish yards, feet and inches for measuring distances at U. S. track and field competitions, use meters instead, starting Jan. 1, 1933.
The meter39.37 in.represents a distance very close to null of a line around the earth passing through its poles. The yard is an arbitrary unit of unknown derivation. These were not the reasons for the A. A.U.'s step. Athletes of all nations except the U. S. and the...
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