MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION INDEX 97 
based on a considerable breadth of experience. The com- 
mission describes its sources of information as follows: 
“Under the law the commission is required to study and investigate 
the circumstances affecting the charges for rent of property used for 
living quarters. The commission is also required to investigate all 
complaints made to it. From three hundred to five hundred com- 
plaints are received by it monthly in regard to rent and housing 
matters. In Boston a local committee created to cooperate with the 
commission receives about the same number of complaints each 
month. In Worcester, Lawrence, Brockton, and other cities through- 
out the state where housing conditions warrant, representatives of the 
commission are designated by the local authorities. The information 
secured from this administrative function of the commission is of 
tremendous value in connection with the preparation of its shelter 
index. 
“Special surveys are made from time to time in the principal com- 
munities of the commonwealth. Police and local officials, real estate 
agents, and other interested parties, as well as personal investigations 
of rents charged by landlords and paid by tenants are the principal 
methods used in obtaining information in regard to rents. Records 
of property transfers, foreclosures, mortgages, and building costs are 
currently studied in connection with general housing conditions. 
“Rents do not change as frequently or as violently as other items 
of the family budget. Real estate values are usually the last to go 
up in a rising market and the last to come down in a falling market. 
“ . . . Most tenants in the state pay rent on a monthly basis, 
with the exception of some of our industrial centers where many 
tenants pay rent on a weekly basis. However, Massachusetts has 
emergency housing laws which provide that tenants should be given 
a minimum notice of 30 days in which to vacate property, except for 
non-payment of rent. If the tenant is unable to find other suitable 
quarters at the expiration of 30 days, he may receive an extension of 
time in which to vacate at the discretion of the court for not exceeding 
six months. Therefore, in compiling data on which to base its shelter 
index, the commission usually covers a period of about four months. 
“The commission is kept in close touch with housing conditions 
throughout the state by its activities in investigating and adjusting 
thousands of individual housing cases, and consequently it has been 
able to obtain much material on which to base its shelter index.” 1 
Clothing 
Although 11 articles are listed in the men’s clothing budget 
and 15 in the women’s, as a matter of fact prices are se- 
. * Commission on the Necessaries of Life, letter to the National Industrial Con- 
terence Board, November 8. 1924.