Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/224

 not in a condition to collect the only information which in the course of a century is helpful, is really useful. This cannot be. To collect these details—accurate ones and not conjectural, and not approximate—details like those furnished in regard to the number of the population in a one day's census, is possible.

Information is needed as to how much more than the ordinary amount of grain bought for the support of the Russian people must be furnished this year for the inhabitants of the famine-stricken localities, and how much grain there is in Russia.

Whether the answers to these questions are easy or difficult, they are indispensable for the prevention, not only of the panic,—that is, of that confusedly contagious terror of approaching misfortune in which men are now living,—but principally for the averting of the misfortune itself.

And not approximate, not haphazard, answers are required, but systematic ones; the matter is too serious for us to be able to do it merely sketching the head, in other words, to build this vault which we do, not knowing whether the stone will suffice to complete it.

These details the government may receive; the zemstvo may receive them on the spot, and more trustworthy than all, a private society constituted for this purpose may receive them. There is not a district where there would not be found, not merely one, but many men, who would be able and would willingly serve in this business.

It seems to me not excessively difficult. In a week's time, without much trouble, an active man can traverse a quarter or a fifth of a district, especially if he lives in it; and with a possibility of error of from ten to fifteen per cent can determine the amount of grain requisite for subsistence, and the amount on hand above and beyond that required by each person. I, at least, will undertake personally to furnish such information within a week's time regarding a quarter of the district in which I live. The. same is said and can be done by the majority of the country people with whom I have talked in regard to this. To organize a central bureau in which