Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, November 9, 1910, Page 2

THE BEMIDJI DAILY PIONEER =2 PUBLISHED EVERY AFTERNOON EXCEPT SUNDAY BY THE BEMIDJI PIONEER PUBLISHING CO. E. H. DENU. Q. E. CARSON. Enterad © the Postotfice mid]l, Miassola, s second class matter, SUBSCRIPTION---$5.00 PER YFAR '\ -DVANGE Oh, well, everyone couldn’t lose. But Mr. Gray succeed admirably As much or more might be said for Mr. Stimson of New York. A good many men won and many good men didn’t. John Dietz walked out of jail and then turned around and walked right in again. In Kentucky, up to the hour of going to press, Caleb Powers was still 1,770 bullets ahead. With Dr. Cook it is not so much a case of “can he come back” as it is a case of DARE he come back. If the adding machines do not wear out we hope to be able to an- nounce Judge Stanton’s majority within the next three weeks. almost as many votes for county treasurer as '‘Pussyfoot” Johmson might expect as a candidate for president of the Liquor Dealers Association. MR. DAY PLAYED THE GAME AND LOST. From every city, village, town and country precinct the returns are still piling up a plurality for Adolph Eberhart which will stand in history as an everlasting rebuke to the designing politicians who attempt to wheedle, under false colors and for the spoils of the game, public office. James Gray did not stand for the issues which the democratic party, as represented by its dele- gates in convention assembled, stood for, and he could not, there- tore, be taken as the nominee of the democratic party, He was the nominee of Frank Day who by leading the Minneapolis newspaper man to his slaughter, consummated about as open handed a political stunt in bossism as the state or country has ever seen _and his flagrant disregard for the desires of his party entitle him to the obliv- ion to which he has sunk. Mr. Day’s attempt to make the County Option issue a magnet to at- tract votes putsa severe crimp in his reputation for sagacity. When he turned Mr. Gray loose to parade the state for an issue entirely foreign to the democratic party he completed the most colossal blunder a cam- paign manager could make in Min- nesota. County option from a manager who so long has quenched his political thrist from the strong- boxes of the breweries, who has soaked his political soul in the wiskes of the liquor interests, who, with his garments still dripping trom the baptism of rum’s power ever the saloonkeeper’s slave when their gold was in sight; county option from such a source carried with it the order of the malt mill. How complete was the disgust of those who inhaled its fumes is shown by the avalanche of ballots cast for the republican nominee, who was honest and frank enough to go before the peo ple on the platform of his party. Mr. Day’s action in shaking his moist companions for a drier crowd were from the beginning obvious. He realized that his power was on the wane, He saw the interests which had been his backers waver and fall to take up their position on the side of the enemy. It is need- less to deny, and there is no reason why it should be denied, that a good many of the men who count who supported Day during the Johnson campaign lined up behind Eberhart, and some of these men Eberhart came far from giving a hearty wel- come. He would have won without their aid, but such indirect assist- ance as they did give need not mar his administration for he goes into office with a free hand, the prattling about Ed Smith to the contrary not- withstanding. The return of Minnesota to the ranks of the Republicans with so splendid a leader as has been chosen is a triumph of much import- ance. It means that after mearly a decade of discord, and worse, har- mony again prevails in the party o Minnesota’s onward march the cannon belching period of her birth through the years until she Has tiken her place as one of America’s greatest common- wedlths. The election of Governor Eber- hart is viewed with particular sat. isfaction by northern Minnesota for this part of the state looks for- ward to a renewal of the assistance which Governor Eberhart has given in the past, Let the returns continue to come in; therr fluttar is sweet music to our ears. | WHAT OTHER PAPERS. SAY ] May Not Live to Serve That Out; A boy in New Jersey is- liable to a sentence of 320 years, because of the numerous burglaries he has con - mitted. It isbelieved he can arrange with the judge to commute his sen- tence to life Imprisonment only.— {Stillwater. Gazette. Cost of Forest Fires. It bas been demonstrated that forest fires originating in unpatrolled regions have in a single year cost more than the United States forest service in the whole time of its exist- ence. And is has been estimated, by comparative statistics, that the prevention of fires in the public domain by the forest service has saved the cost of the service many Universal Heaters Are Guaranteed to SAVE FUEL It’s in the flues -and the general. construction of a heater that makes it an economical stove in the use of fuel. Universal Heat- ers are built to give last- ing satisfaction.” When a dealer tells you that the stove he’s trying to sell is “as good as the Universal” then, of course, ‘you know he honestly thinks the Uni- versal stove is the best stove made. - GIVEN HARDWARE €0, smpERiaL uNfvERSAL TWO HOUSES 'FOR RENT GOOD LOCATION Call or Phone My Office H. E. REYNOLDS Building Contractor and Real Estate Broker Room 9, O’Leary-Bowser Building i Office Phone 23 House-Phone 316, - Bemidji, Minn. Man: SAS. GASOLNE ant STLl E MANGERS, SHAFTING, CLUTCHES TRANSMICSION SUPPLIES, ciract te the consumer Largest Machine Shop in the West MINNEAPGLIS STEEL AND MACHINEPY CO. ©” MINNEAPOL(S. MINN William C, Klein Real Estate Insurance times over. And yet, with the hazard of timber fires, not ouly as to property, but also as to lives, there is still gross neglect in many parts of the country as to the simplest pre- cautions against this danger. The federal forest service needs to be enlarged and the several states must make more generous provision tor the protecting of their own timber lands. It is an especially discreditable commentary on the progressive State of Minnesota that at this late date whole villages should be de- stroyed and many lives lost through forest fires. For a state has power not only to have its own forests patrolled, but also to enforce the patrolling of private timber tracts and the proper precautions in the lumbering business, such as clearing the forests of slash and burning the waste under proper regulations. Not to take these precautions is to in- vite death and the destruction of property.—Kansas City Star., * Come to Northern Minnesota. In the early part of March, 1855, a native of Ireland arrived in New York with eight dollars in his pocket. He struck off into the country, ask- ing atevery farm for a steady job and paying for a meal and night’s lodging with a few hours’ work. He finally found a place at fifteen dol- lars a month, board with the far- mer’s family, and a room in the gar- ret. Out of his pay, in the course of time, he bought a hundred acres of land at a hundred dollars an acre. It was practically new land. He built a house with his own hands, a a barn with the timber on the land, and, with the help of his neighbors, dug the ditches and built the fences. He raised nine useful sons and daughters and led a happy life. To- day any man can get twice the wages and buy the farm, with all its im- provements, at half the price: only one-fourth the period of saving and waiting is required of the man who makes the effort today. What com- parison is there between that Irish farmer’s corn-fields, the cattle on the hills, his peaceful Sunday afternoons, and the harried life of the underfed city workman? No laws helped the immigrant except harsh ones which caused an economic situation that pushed him from his home and put him upon his own initiative and self- help.—Collier’s Weekly. DULUTH ORPHANAGE ABLAZE' Children Rushed Out of Building and Flames Subdued. Duluth, Nov. 9.—The Catholic. or- phanage on the outskirts of Woodland was threatened with destruction by fire. The sleeping children were wakened and taken out safely and the fire was later controlled. There .were 100 children in the or- phanage. The damage will not ex- ceed $2,000. Backed by Great Norihern. Pierre, S. D., Nov. 9.—The Missour River and Northern Railway company way commission showing its surveyed route. While there is a question as to what power is back of the move it §s generally credited to be a. plan of the Great Northern system. Up to the present the whole plan is that of local people so far as surface indications show. lowa Banker Drops Dead. Mason City, Ia., Nov. 9.—L. E. Pad- den, president of two banks at Fred- which has been the guiding ericksburg, Ia., dled suddenly of heart failure. 3 has filed its plat with the state rail-| ALVAH EASTMAN, St. Cloud, L L Exlcgs&n& Copyright 1910 by K. Neutson. ‘THIS FEDERATION 1S 'NOT WE STAND FOR LESS FIRE WASTE AND LOWER FIRE TAX ASSESSMENTS AN _INSURANCE COMPANY. 304 NORTHWESTERN BUILDING MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. GOVERNING BOARD: J. M. JACOBSON, Hills, General Merchandise. W, J, uwxsbs-;pu.. General Merchandise President Journal-Press Co. *rhief River. Falls, Clothing Merchant DALL, Northome, Hotel and Real Estate BOET. HARRISON, St. Cloud, Dry Goads M el . SAYLOR, Buffalo, Publisher K. NEUTSON, Secretary BULLETIN NO. 15 ‘Property Owners Federation N, Brandon, Mo K O: SANB UM, Briesive Pebiiaber The Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Asserts that Property Owners have been Eliminated from the Fire Insurance Business. While this is True,-We Need-Not' Remain “Eliminated.” Minnesota’s Annual Fire Tax Assessments of Over $9,000,000 Can be Materially Reduced LET US GET BUSY!. The Hon. J. A. Hartigan, Minneso- ta’s able Insurance Commissioner, has emphatically declared against the high expense incurred by the Stock fire insurance companies and adds:” “If the companies are unable to re- duce the commissions to a reason- able figure, it would seem that itcan be done only by legislative enactment, and this may prove to be necessary in the very near future.” Commissioner Hardison of Massa- chusetts makes the same suggestion and_affixes the following: “That 40 cents out of every $1.00 in premium should go to an agent for his commission in placing a policy seems a rather large amount when compared with the 60 cents which goes to the company for paying losses and all the other expenses. To be sure, not all premiums are subject to so large a commission, but the tendency is in that directicn. Commissions have advanced on the preferred class of business to 40 per cent in some cases at the present time, with a tendency still upward.” . The Massachusetts commissioner further states that the increase in agents’ commissions now amounts to about seven and one-half million dol- lars ($7,500,000) more, annually, than on the lower commission basis- of ten years ago, Then he goes on rec- ord ‘with the following terse conclu- sion. ‘The black type is ours: _ “Now, this is ail a very natural outgrowth of the method of carrying on the business on a commission basis, The companies want the business and their demand works up the commis- sion instead of lowering the premiums. Were the husiness done direct with the customer, the natural way for the companies to get it in competition would be by reducing the premiums and thus the competition would inure to the insured’s benefit. But as the usiness is done through agents, who have come to control it, the competi- tion for it must be in form attractive to ;E:e. agent. The assured is elimin- ated.” THE LOCAL AGENTS’ POSITION. The Stock companies are endeavor- ing to reduce the agents’ commissions but as an illustration of their utter helplessness in this matter we cite the action of he Nebraska Local Fire In- surance Agents’ Association which re- cently notified the “Union”. fire in- surance companies that any reduction whatsoever in agents’ commissions would be opposed. All local agzats are unanimous in support of the posi- tion of the Nebraska Agents. Through their invincible position in State and National organizations they dictate terms to the companies when it comes to commissions. On this subject the Insurance Post (a stock company organ), makes the| following significant editorial com- ment: “The agents realize the strength of their position as the pro- ducers of the business, and mean to make the most of it. They know how' to play one company against another. If it comes to an issue and they make 2 fight the agents are apt to win.” These are conditions well under- stood in ‘the inner circles of fire u derwriting, but the Massachusetts com- missioner has only told half the story. This “elimination” of the assured as'a factor in fire insurance not only gives free rein to-agents’ commissions but the incendiary peculator is treated by the public with courteous indifference. INCENDIARISM. No doubt over one-half of the fire losses are due to incendiarism for gain. hen public sentiment reduces the fire bug to the social status of the horse thief; classifying him in the public eye with other atrocious criminals, we will have a decided re- duction in fire losses. A fire bug does not “sell out” to the insurance com- panies but to the community. - - The Hon. Gifford Pinchot, chairman of the National Conservation Commis- s_ion, suggests the following line of ac- tion: o % : “That the public should be brought to understand that property destroyed by fire is gone forever, and is not re- placed by the distribution of insurance, 'which is a tax collected for that pur ose.” “That the States severally establish and maintain at the expense of the State an official or officials who' shall be reqgired to investigate the cause and origin of all fires, and who, when crime has been committed, shall sub- mit the facts to the grand jury or proper indicting body. Such officials shall have conferred upon them the lawful right and power to enter pre- mises to examine under oath and to make arrests.” In the matter of our country’s fire waste we are the most profligate peo- ple on the face of the earth. ; Our an- nual ash heap represents abour $250,~ 000000 of annihilated taxable value, which, so far as the nation’s resources are concerned, is like dumping so much gold into the ocean. No other nation would stand such an outrageous waste and perhaps no other nation. could Our annual fire loss per capita is $2.50. Italy’s, 12 cents; .France’s, 30 cents; Germany’s, 49 cents; general average of Europe, 48 cents. Comparing the fire waste of this country with that of Europe we have over $150,000,000 an- nually to our debit on the per capita basis. ._The self interest created. by mutual insurance is the most available force for minimizing incendiarism. MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE. A large majority of retail hardware and lumber dealers, also mill and grain men will tell you that for ten to twen- ty years they have been, and are now saving 50 per cent or more of their fire tax by patronizing Mutual companies. Other Mutual companies of this state are paying less dividends owing to slight patronage and proportion- ately higher expense. There is no rea- son why Minnesota should not attzin to the enviable New England Mutual record. THE RHODE ISLAND.RECORD. The following is copy of a.letter from the Insurance Commissioner of Rhode Island to the Secretary of the Property Owners Federation ‘of Min- nesota: My Dear Sir: Rerlying to your in- quiry, I give you below the data re- quested : Amount paid to all the Stock Insprance companies - by policyholders in Rhode Island in 1909........... o~ $1,536,543 Amount paid to all the Mu-~ tual Fire Insurance compa- nies by olicyholders in Rhode Island in 1909..... Cash dividends paid to pol- icyholders by Mutual com- %10:191:5 in Rhode Island in 8644936 Admitted assets of all the Mutual = Fire Insurance companies transacting busi- {l;osqs in Rhode Island in 2696729 3 Respectfully yours, (Signed) CHARLES C. AY, Insurance Commissioner. A CREAMERY CANNOT MAKE BUTTER FROM SKIMMED . MILK In Rhode Island the public Mutual companies “cream.” ok at the dividends. Same is. true in the west with the " Mill Mutuals, - also Grain, Lumber, Hardware and Farm Mé;)ui:ls. ther Minnesota property owners have given: the General Mercantile Mutuals mostly “skimmed milk” and have received “skimmed milk” divi- dends in return. Mutual fire dnsurance is of the peo- ple, by the people, for the people. Its success is measured by. the sunport and oversicht the public_bestows on this system of fire taxation and dis- tribution. i STOCK AND MUTUAL ASSESS- MENTS. ve the "There is no legal Yimit to-the asteses managers ments the stock companies may levy on their policyholders and theoe T gers anc panies combine to enforce extra 2s- sessments against the smaller prop- crty interests, applying the excess tax to large city conflagration losses (a lazard to which smaller communities are not exposed), also discrimination in favor of millionaire risks. The - McCormick reaper works, wkhich ‘probably carries $15,000,000 in- surance, with its woodworking, paint shops, -blacksmith and blast fwrnaces znd with the average carciessmess of many thousand employees; is assessed $3.00 per $1000. Scars-Roebwek Coi's warehouse $2.60 per $1,0C0. This con- cern carries about $12000000 insur- ance. Montgomery Ward & Co.'s main warchouse is assessed $2.50 per $1,000. The assessment or the Mar- chall Field warchouses on Polk street, is $2.10.per $1,000. Quoting the Western Underwriter on: this point: “The rich, who best could afford tc pay a legitingte rate, have secured unreasomahle conces- sions. The small merchunt and others have paid their own fair premiums a:d plartqoi those of their rich neighbors also. ; St. Cloud Journal-Press statez, “It is the sarae old Standard Oil meth - ods applied to fire inswgrance instead of freight rates.” . The extra assessments, or increase in ‘premium rates by the stock com- panies; may be collected at any time, Lut as a rule are_collected on re- val of policy, ard the increase usu- y continues year after year. Mutual company extra assessments are sup€rvised by the Insurance Com- oner and-limited to the icom- p:mgs immediate needs, not to ex- ceed one’ additional premium. Cther ‘utual ‘companies are not allowed to join in: the increase as are the Stock cofipames. i H any people are now °paying the Stock companies more thas: double the ate of former yeass, which i equiva- lent to a full [utual assessment an- plied every year. It is beramse of these heavy Stock company assess- ‘ments that’ Mutnal compunies fm this state, collecting the sanve rate, are enabled to pay from 20 to 50 per cent ennual/dividends to-policyhiolders and muchlarger mutual dividends are paid in some” Eastern states, where the Mutuals are more substantially patron- ized and expcnses thereby reduced. “NIGHT RIDERS'” CAMPAIGN Stock company managers, assisted by their local agents, have perverted and - prejudiced- the public mind to a 1 ous degree against co-operative insurance. ‘These companies depend on their local ageats to sow tares in the Mutual field. Anouymous circulars, with distorted | facts, "have been secretly and openk distributed, magnifying. the “Dangers | of Mutual Insurance.” tual Fire Insurance? It is their only weapon, The Minnesota field, like that of Rhode Island, would be lost to the Stock companies were it not for _the humbugability of their representatives and the gullability of the public. The Mutual Fire Insurance Com- parties and individual Underwriters li- censed to tr:msnat Fusmc‘ss in th;s state are possessed of assets amount- ing to ngafly $9,000,000, of which about one-half is surplus above all lia- Lility. These companies are from ten to thirty years old, never made an extra assessment and have paid their policyholders millions of dollars in dividends. These companies have been the main factor in preventing further asscssment by the Stock com- panies, while the pullic is giving some of these Mutuals very lean and meagre patronage in return for this important and effective service. THE SAFEST INDEMNITY. It requires no argument to make it very clear that the Stock companies wi.ich carry the risks of the congested Ji-tricts of the large cities (a class of risks the Mutuals avoid) are running close to the line of failure. Twenty-three stock companies met their “Waterloo” in the recent con- flagration at San Francisco, fourteen Wweze killed by the Baltimore fire, the Chicago and Boston fires were the graveyards for about one hundred stock companies, and many of these companies_were of the large million- ~ireclass. During these disastrous times the Matual co nies, avoiding such lLazards and ning on less expenses, continned paying substantial dividends to their policy holders. There are instances where young 2{utval companies have been starved to death in the cradle and extra as- sessments have been necessary but that is largely the fault of the public. When conflagrations occur in the congested districts of Philadelphia, New Orleans, St. Louis or_similar cit- ies, where 6ld buildings still remain, it will ‘undoubtedly carry off one-third or more of the stock: companies now in_existence. If ‘the '$9,000,000 -annual fire tax of this state is to be reduced it is a fore- gone conclusion that ‘substantial pub- Iic support to the co-operative system must be applied. WHY SEND MONEY FROM HOME? ‘The Property Owners Federation nas arranged with the Mutual Fire Insur- ance Commpanies that write a general business to give each community the se of its Tax Fund by deposit- ing in Local Banks a large share of Is it mot very ‘appaient that stock company agents try to alarm the pub- lic_as to the liability of Mutual policy- holders, i order that their stecihold- ers-may take the same liability and reap the profits? Stock = contpan: -sharehclders and Mutual policyficld- ers each have similar limited Lickil ity, except that Mutual policglollers avoid the liability of large city ‘won- flagrations, which are the graverards for- Stock companies. These large city conflagratiars have ruined a' majority of tke Stack panies that carry such risks, while t! survivors combine to raise the rate generally, placing unfair burdens or groperty that is not exposed to suck a_i_ahrds. : e gain in net surplus to. the New Yorkvsgtaock fire insmr',a.nve r~-1panies last year was over $1100000. The pet: surplus’ gain to the other Stock comnanies .in thai TJ, .S, was cver $12,000000 in 1999. ‘Over $9,000,000 'was sent across the Atlwntie last yeor to “the foreign companies. . An’ol scure Russian comnany recefved Teaf- v $500,000 last year from the United States -affer’ paying lesses and ex- penses. Is it any -wender that the of these conmanies will take ng chancps on. shady efforts_ ~oison the public mimd against Mu- Premiunis and surplus, on annual cer- cates of deoosit at usual rates of interest. The object of this bank deposit plan, in addition to giving each community the use cof these funds, is to create a direct sclf-interest in: suppressing in- cendiarism. A firebug would meet awith vigorous local opposition when pressing a fraud claim against the sur- plus fi which policyholders draw their dividends, especially if that sur- -lus is deposited in the policyholders’ own ban! The dollars in sight al- ways receive the best protection, ¢ of your resnective communities | civine ?your local bank the use of this write os indicating ‘their wifiingnm to co-onerate. No time like the Do it mow.™ Respectfully submitted, ?ROPERE%;? ERS - K. Neutson, Secretary. Narthwestern Bufin& | Minneapolis, Minn, The premium fund turned over to the Stock companies is largely sent to our Eastern money centers or to Tero-e, at the close of each month. Why not aid the commercial interests RATION. * Real Estate & Farm Lyans 0’Leary=-Bowser Bldg. Phone 19 WOOD! Leave your orders for seasoned Birch, Tam- arack or Jack Pine Wood with S.P.HAYTH Telephone 11 e —————————————) Raw Furs Raw Furs Furs Repaired Highest market price paid for Mink, Skunk, Coon and Musk- rats and all kinds of Raw Furs. Ship direct to us and Save Fur Dealer’s profit. We use our own skins that's why we can fpa\y the Highest Market price for your skins. Send us your horse and cow hides to be made into Coats and Robes. One trial shipment of Raw Furs will convince. PIONEER 'FUR CO. 1183 Beech 8t:18t. Paul, Minn. Expert]Fur Repairing Reasonable Price e——————————————————————————————— 250,000 10-cent packages: of Sebastian Kneipp,s CORN and BUNION Plasters have been sold in the last ten days in the state of Minnesota. WHY! Because this wonderful Father Sebastian Kneipp’s Corn and Bun- ion Plaster cured and relieved all pain in six hours or one night. For sale in the city of Bemidji, Minn. Up-to-date Shoes at BEMIDJI SHOE HOUSE JAMES VAN PELT, Prop. Wholesale and Retail Father FACGIAL | Defects QuicKLY | CORRECTED : * The chief surgeon of the Plastic i Surgery Institute quickly rights + all wrongs with the human face 1 or features without knife or pain to the entire satisfaction and de- i light of every patient. The work is as lasting as lifeitself. Ifyou have a facial irregularity of any kind write Plastic Surgery Institute Corner Sixth and Hennepin @ MINNEAPOL’S, MINN. Our Ice Service like our ice, gives universal satisfaction. Every custo- mer is pleased at receivirg each day a full weight of hard,clean and clear water in the solid state. Itis all important to have what can be used for Summer drinks witheut hesitation. Our sup- ply was harvested from ‘an ‘uncontaminated body of SMART & GETCHELL Phone 12.