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over-refined and over-complicated pattern that doesn't really mean anything. The price of certain kosher products might go up when there was war, and certainly the price of macaroni products made with semolina would go up any time there was war. I thought we should price basic corn and wheat products, some of which would be made into macaroni, but not fuss about semolina macaroni as against the kind of macaroni made by the Muellers, who use just common flour.

I was very strong for abandoning our split-up pricing base and returning to what had been the earliest form of statistics in this country and what was then the English form—a list of commodities. It wouldn't be for me to say how many commodities, or which ones, but there are certainly certain basic commodities. We had a conference on that. I'm certainly no technical statistician, and, although I thought my view were sound as a practical matter, the technical statisticians decided against me. I since have realized that they just love it this way. The more refined the figures, the more detailed it is, the better they like it. They all rose to it. Even Stuart Rice, who was for a long time head of the Bureau of the Census, a very distinguished statistician, came around to agree that it was better to price a large number of items.