CHAPTER 1V
INDEX NUMBERS OF THE COST OF LIVING, BY
THE MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION ON THE
NECESSARIES OF LIFE
Y THE summer of 1919 prices had advanced so far
and conditions attendant thereon were so unsatis-
factory that at an extra session of the legislature in
Massachusetts in July, 1919, the appointment of a special
Commission on the Necessaries of Life was authorized for
one year “to study and investigate the circumstances affect-
ing the prices of the commodities which are necessaries of
life.” The commission was given authority “to inquire into
all matters relating to the production, transportation, dis-
tribution and sale of said commodities . . . and to study
and investigate the circumstances affecting the charges for
rent of property used for living quarters or for the production
of the necessaries of life.” The commission was also given
authority to hold hearings, administer oaths, require atten-
dance and testimony of witnesses, to compel, the production
of books, documents and other papers and to employ
counsel.! Although the commission is primarily a fact find-
ing agency and not a price fixing board,? its functions have
been largely administrative, with such research as was car
ried on directed toward ascertaining conditions for the pur-
pose of controlling them.® This circumstance should be
borne in mind in considering the commission’s index number
of the cost of living, which tends to run consistently lower
than other indexes with which it may be compared. The
commission itself was of the opinion that its activities had
been of material service in keeping down prices in Massachu-
settg 4
' Report of the Commission on the Necessaties of Life, 1920, 0p. cit., pp. 9-10.
* Ibid. 1925, p. 10.
? This has been accomplished through the publication of fair prices, adjustment
of rents between tenants and landlords, securing supplies of necessities such as coal,
jugar, etc., when scarcity sent competitive prices soaring. See, for example, 74id.,
1920, pp. 13-19,
* Sce, for example, i4id., 1920, op. cit., pp. 15-18; ibid., 1921, p. 15; itid., 1922,
op. 16, 19, 20, 23; ibid., 1924, pp. 11, 14, 15, 16; ibid., 1925, pp. 11, 12, 13, 37.
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