Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/261

10] (c) From the several average prices, so computed for 1920, and the quantities so listed for 1909 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Computing Bureau shall compute an ideal composite "goods-dollar" for reference purposes consisting of such quantities of the several selected commodities, proportional to the quantities so listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that their aggregate value, at the average prices so computed for 1920, shall equal one hundred cents. (This selection of the price level of 1920 as the base or par is, of course, merely illustrative. See Appendix I, §4.)

(d) From average wholesale prices computed from price quotations taken on the first Wednesday (or, if that day be a holiday, the next business day) of the months January, March, May, July, September, November of 1921 and each year thereafter, the Computing Bureau shall speedily compute the value, in cents, of the composite "goods-dollar," and such value in cents shall be the index number of prices for that date.

(e) The Computing Bureau shall compute the deviation from par of such index number by subtracting one hundred cents from said index number. Thus if the index number is $1.01 the deviation is 1 cent or 1% above par, and if the index number is $0.98 the deviation is 2 cents or 2% below par.

(Transmission Thereof to Bureau of the Mint) Sec. 3. The index number, deviation percentage, and all the data from which they are computed shall (unless delayed by unavoidable causes) be transmitted by the Computing Bureau to the Bureau of the Mint, within one week from the day to which the data relate.

(Calculation of the Correction of the Dollar's Weight) Sec. 4. That the Bureau of the Mint, upon receipt from the Computing Bureau of such percentage deviation, shall forthwith calculate a percentage correction or adjustment to be added to, or subtracted from, the