THE PROBLEM OF TURKEY 225 



work was over, the farmer would take much of his surplus to the 

 warehouse. He would not need to pay any commission to a 

 middleman, nor to pay expensive transportation charges. With 

 his own beasts he could easily travel fifty miles if necessary. So 

 much grain would go to the warehouses that the price would not 

 fall so low as is now the case at such times. The next year the 

 crop might be moderate. Little would be deposited in the ware- 

 houses and little taken away. Then would come a poor year. 

 Some people would draw on the warehouses for their own con- 

 sumption and others in order to sell. Prices would not go up 

 much, for the presence of a large stock in the warehouses would 

 hold them down. If a series of good years filled the warehouses 

 to overflowing, it would be easy to sell to foreign markets. If a 

 series of bad years depleted the stock, the government could buy 

 from abroad. 



Such a plan of state insurance is not easy to inaugurate. It 

 would require much time for its full development. It would neces- 

 sarily have to go hand in hand with the building of roads and 

 railroads. The people, too, would need to be educated up to it. 

 Yet there is nothing insuperably difficult about it. Once its 

 benefits were understood, it would find rapid favor among a simple 

 people like those of Turkey. The prime necessity would be con- 

 fidence in the government. If the people once became convinced 

 that the administration was absolutely impartial and was in the 

 interests of the general public and not of the rulers, success would 

 be assured. England in many of her colonies has gained that 

 kind of confidence. The Turks themselves could never gain it. 

 Perhaps the day may come when they will change so much that 

 they can administer such an enterprise, but it is far distant. 

 In all such backward countries as Turkey, it seems probable that 

 the races from the more stimulating climates will have to be the 

 administrators for an indefinite period. 



The situation in respect to health is as hopeful — and as diffi- 

 cult — as in respect to economics. Within a generation we have 



