MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION INDEX 95 
1; gas, 2; electricity, 2. These weightings are said to be 
based on a study of such data concerning family expenditures 
as was available in 1919;! the type of family is that of wage 
earners throughout the state? Domestic size anthracite is 
the only kind of coal used in computing the index for that 
item. 
Sundries 
The commission points out consistently that the sundries 
item is the most difficult of any of which to measure cost 
changes, because expenditures for this miscellaneous group 
of goods and services are dependent entirely on the tastes 
and resources of the individual family. To represent 
average changes in the cost of sundries the commission has 
adopted the list used by the National Industrial Conference 
Board in its first investigation of the actual minimum cost 
of living, except for ice and organization dues.* The weights 
therefor are adjusted to take account of the difference. The 
list follows: 
lee........ 
Carfare........ 
Entertainment. . . 
Medicine. ........... 
Insurance........... 
Church. ......oviiivinnnnnn... 
Tobacco,etec. oo. vive... 
Reading. ....................... 
House furnishings. ........ 
Organizations. . 
Total 
WeieHT 
a 
’ 
. ed 
ann 
METHOD OF CoLLECTING AND CoMBINING CURRENT PRICES 
The Massachusetts Commission on the Necessaries of 
Life collects its current price information partly by special 
agents, partly by mail and partly from trade quotations. 
These are assembled on or about the fifteenth of each month 
and the index numbers are published about one month after 
No details regarding this are available. 
? Commission on the Necessaries of Life, Report, 1923, op. cit., p. 250. 
* Research Report No. 22, op. cit., p. 11. 
* Although not stated in the reports, these are undoubtedly supposed to represent 
expenditure weights.