OCR Text |
Show TURKS ARE FACING A GENUINE FAMINE Food Prices in Land of the Sultan Soar to the Moon. Even if there are no recessions in prices of food In the United States for quite a long period, as predicted by Herbert Her-bert Hoover, national food administrator, the people of this country should be thankful that they do hot live In Turkey, according to news received at the local office of the food administration from Washington. The cost of living In Copenhagen, Copen-hagen, It Is reported, has Increased 1970 per cent and the coat of average foodstuffs food-stuffs about 3045 per cent. Rationing In Turkey began in March, 1917, it is stated, but the food card system has proved a failure and the bare necessities of life are scarcely to be had. The system of food control was haphazard and formulated formu-lated without anyknowledge of the stocks of grain on hand and without any established estab-lished census of the population. According to the information from Washington the food officials of Turkey are hopelessly corrupt and the food in the hands of speculators who sold it to Germany at high prices. Some attempt was made to fix maximum prices, but not until 200 or more profiteers had been arrested. The offenders were released, however, because it was found that there was no law under which they could be prosecuted. Food generally was reserved for the army leaving the civilian population popula-tion to fare as best It could. Brigandage and high taxes discouraged the farmers, and nearly 39,000 illiterate tax collectors swooped down on them, stealing their products. |