The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-09-26
GREENFIELD To-
PROBE LIVING COST
Prices for Necessities Declared Excess
sive-Farmers' Market Did
Not Prove Success.

GREENFIELD, Mass, Sept Go A
feeling has been current that the cost
OF living in Greenfield has been eNces
sive, that it costs more to live here
than in the neighboring towns, and that
the cost Of food stuffs are at least "a
high, if not higher, than in the very
large cities. To determine whether this
Is so, the Greenfield chamber OF com
merce has appointed a special commit
tee to investigate and make general
survey of the living conditions IN tins
town, as compared with those of other
communities in this vicinity.
The committee intends to make the
investigation as thorough as possible.
Prices viii be secured from the United
States labor bureau : list, of a number
of commodities. The committee APP
pointed for this purpose consists OF
| Leon NJ. Lamb, chairman, Howard &.
! CARSON. Charles L. Coates, Walter :.
! FIutchns, William b. Keith, John }.
/ Reed, George A. Roberts. John ".
Smead, Allen Z. Warner and ]. y.
Nhitbeck.
I Something is wrong with the living
conditions here. The cost OF living is
/ almost prohibitiVe. II il almost impos
! sible to rent tenement with modern
/ facilities in a good locality, for less
! than $50 to so q month. An investiga
/ ton shows that on one street, one pays
( S<}5 for six rooms, another pays $40 per
4
pays $50 per month for a seven room
/ cottage. that, with its lot, did not cost
A more than $500. These tenements are
\ all occupied ~ peopl,- working for Il
weekly wage. The prices OF fuel gas
at 1920 per 1000 cube feet, and coal
at slI5 and SIC per ton, together with
the high rents, certainly make prob
lem for the wage Garner to exist, let
IalOue live.
According to the market list of farm
produce. published in Boston and New
York, the cost is as great, if not
!, greater, in Greenfield, in the heart OF
la prosperous farming community
4 About four years ago, the town started
: a community market in the hope that
the farmer might be induced to sell ms
produce at Il reasonable profit. but the
venture did not prove successful, few
!, Farmers took advantage of the opDOrtu
, nifty. and those who did wanted as
much for their produce as the merchant
, on the street, with his overhead and
= other expenses.
During the past month apples were
! retailing at from 60 cents to 81 per peck
What must they have been in New
: J ork and in Boston. with cost of trans
rortation. commissions, etc, at this
= ratPZ
? During the past few years, number
eff small markets have been started IN
various sections of town. This compe
P tItiOn has had a tendency to reduce the
t cost of some of the principal items OF
| living. meats and provisions, as demon
! strated by the Saturday morning bar
e gain prices of these componcnts of the
, ration
One subject TO which the committee
might well give its attention is the cost
Of food in restaurants and lunch rooms
Much complaint rs heard on that score
from those who are comDelled to pa
tronize pnblic eating places. One res
taurant keeper recentv told one, of his
heal patrons that he hoped to make a
substantial reduction, as soon as the
tourist season was over. All indications
Point to the fact that the Investigation
is praiseworthy. and that the commit
tee viii find much to comment on. and
It is hoped that it will be productive OF
good results.