96 COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
the date of the basic quotations. As far as is known, the
same procedure has been followed consistently since the
inception of the number. Whenever the commission loses
the cooperation of a firm which had furnished information!
another dealer of the same type is selected to take his place.
Food
Food prices “are taken weekly from market quotations
and collected by questionnaires sent or personal visits to
individual dealers about the fifteenth of each month.” The
regular list of places covered includes Attleboro, Belmont,
Metropolitan Boston, Brockton, Brookline, Cambridge,
Fall River, Fitchburg, Gardiner, Greenfield, Haverhill,
Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Melrose, New Bedford,
North Adams, Northampton, Pittsfield, Salem, Springfield,
Somerville, Taunton, Wakefield, Woburn and Worcester.
About 100 quotations are secured for each item, but these
are independent from month to month, in that the previous
month’s quotation is not filled in on the questionnaire each
time. Specification is made of the grade for those goods
about which some doubt might arise as to quality; when
prices are received which seem out of line they are made the
subject of special study.
The commission has no difficulty in securing cooperation
from dealers in getting these prices, since it has the power of
summons to obtain necessary facts. The sources of infor-
mation throughout the state are distributed in a general
way on the basis of population. All quotations secured for
each item are averaged and the average price on the current
date is divided by the average price in 1913, the base date,
to get the percentage relationship. Each of these relatives
is then multiplied by its respective weight, and the sum of
the products divided by the sum of the weights gives the
current index number.
Shelter
The rent index of the Massachusetts Commission on the
Necessaries of Life is in the nature of a general estimate
. 1 This would happen usually only when the cooperating firm goes out of business,
since the commission has power to secure the facts it requires.
