The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 7, 1916, Page 6

R O AL BN mr e o = i i Wre—— The old gang will net stop at rulmng the. state ] credlt in order to discredlt an admlmstratlon chosen - by the whole people. When a servile daily press helps to conceal the real facts of outrageous conduct of L state officials, what remedy have the people? . ; 25582, available o spend between now and January 1. This is not taking into consideration the reduction in taxes just ordered by the board. . Probable expenditures,. if there is money to pay them, based on expendit- ures of former years, will be :$833,172, or over $150,000 more than the money gvailable, thus leaving a deficit of $150- 000 January 1 for the new administra- tion to face. In this figuring probable expenditures have been estimated as follows: Taking the actual expenditures for September; October, November and December last year, addmg the expendi- tures for this August, which are $220,- 000 in round numbers, and adding $200,- 000, the amount of the unpaid bills ecar- ried over from last year into 1915, mak- ing a total of $833,172. ; THIS YEAR'S DEFICIT HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR'S This way of figuring gives practically the same deficit for next January 1 as existed last January 1, when state offi- cials had a hard scramble to pay current bills. State Auditor Jorgenson admits that $200,000 in unpaid bills existed on January 1, 1916, because of depletion of the general fund. They could not be paid in the last ponths of 1915 and had to be carried over into 1916. But this method cf figuring ‘the ex- pected deficit, shwing it to be from $150,000 to "$200,000, is -believed to be too conservative. It does mnot include _the reduction just ordered by the board in taxes. This year building operations ' by the state have been heavy and these Bad Year for State (By Leader Staff Correspondent.) ISMARCK Sept. 2.—The state hail insurance department will pay only about 40 cents on the dollar this year. This kind of state hail insurance, given the farmers of North Dakota some years ago in place of real state hail insurance on a workable plan, this year has demonstrat- ed more forcibly than ever its inade- quacy. It could not stand up under the heavy hail losses that afflicted the state this year. It will pay less on the dollar than it ever has before. - The department paid 55 per cent of 1ts losses in 1912, which was the poorest it paid in its histozy until this year. The highest it ever paid was in 1918, when farmers who insured in it got 88 cents per dollar of their losses.. This year it will pay farmers who insured in it about . 40 cents on every dollar of their losses. The department is falling down this year despite the fact this is the biggest year it has had in the writing of policies. It wrote more policies than ever before, but they were written for farmers in. districts where the hail losses were the heaviest. The department insuréd 44 farmers 'in Benson county and 37 .of . them were hailed out. In Divide coun- ty every farmer insured reported a total A loss. Other counties have similar re- The total losses reported to date total about $65,000, and losses in the course of adjustment will add $20,000 to this. The total premiums received to, cover these losses of $85,000 are about $33;000. These are approximate figures. . The final report of the department may show some variation. NEW PLAN IS NEEDED TO PROTECT FARMERS This year’s experience has demon- strated ‘more forcibly than. ever the weaknesses of the voluntary plan of state hail insurance, given the state when a real system of compulsory hail msuranceontheCanadianplanwnsde— ‘manded by the farmers. - The experi- meeoughttobealeasontoleg:slators who give half-way measures: when real -reforms are demanded by the people. .-The kind of hail insurance the farm- _ers of North Dakota want is known as buildings will be completed and con- tractors paid the last months of this year, making this fall and winter’s ex- penditures greater than last year. Then the legislature meets in January, adding expenditures from $125,000 to $150,000 in thé early months:of 1917 that did not come up in 1916. Therefore Mr. Pack- ard's estimate of a deficit of over half a million dollars, by, March-1, 1917, in the general fund is not at all unhkely, espec- ially as tax collections next January and February are likely to be the smallest . in -years, due to the failure of the 1916 crop. - : This, in part, is the situation the farmers’ government will have to face. The new administration -will not be re- sponsible for it, but if the politicians can ‘get away with it they are going to use it ainst the men the .people’s “movement -has placed in office. As to appropriations for the next six months of 1917, fixed by the prior ad- ministration, there is also a serious. dif- ficulty. The last legislature appropri- ated, in round numbers, for the two years beginning.July 1,-1915, and ending Juiy 1, 1917, :$4,200,000. The expendi- - tures dunng the months covered by these appropriations, up until the first of this month (September), were $2,5628,- 000, leaving $1,672,000 remaining un- spent, available from now umtil July 1, 1917, for the expenses of ‘government. That is, this amount can be legally spent providing there is income sufficient between now and then to provide for. it. But indications -are that the expected revenue will not meet these appropri- _ations. The result is the new govern- ment will be hampered considerably, also with conditions not of making. Basing the expected revenue to meet these appropriations on -prior: years and the most liberal figuring gives only” $1,500,000 available for meeting appro- priations already made amounting - to- nearly $1,700,000, a deficiency of $200,000, not figuring the state board’s tax reduction. It is expected the rev- enue will be much less than the above estimate, making the deficiency much greater. . The conditions the new govemment will have to face are not new in kind. The state has pursued a hand to mouth policy. for years and' often the state treasury has been short, due to foelish™ financial ‘management. But while not new the conditions next spring promise to be more acute than ever before and. more fuss is expected to be made over them because the farmers’ men then will be in charge, instead of the politicians. Not mueh has been said of the: state’s deficits in- the past. The newspapers have not been: unfriendly to the politi- cians in charge of the government. But much promises: to -be said about these " conditions now that the administration will be in the hands of a people’s set of officials. HOLDING OVER DEBTS FROM YEAR TO YEAR ° The state for years has failed to levy enough taxes to meet the appropriations made by the legislature. This week a reduction in revenue was ordered in spite - Only Forty Per Cent to Be Paid On Lost Crops; Weakness of Plan Shown the compulsory plan. The state is di- vided into zones and a tax levied on all agricultural land in each zone accordmg to the risk of hail loss in the various zones. Zonmes where hail” losses are small over a period of years will pay a less tax than zones where the losses average heavy. The tax will be just big enough to create:a fund sufficient to pay all ‘hail losses suffered, dollar for dollar. The insured hail losses in .the state total on the average probably $2,000,000 a year. If two-thirds of all the losses are insured the total losses would be $3,000,-- 000 and it is believed that sum raised annually by taxes would be mioré than sufficient to cover all hail losses in the state. This $3,000,000 could be raised by a tax of a few cents an acre on agri- cultural land. Land whether cultivated or not would pay the tax, so that per- sons not farming but holding land for speculation would not. escape. . The Canada law levies four cents an acre for the hail insurance fund and experience probably would-show that this or a fig- uré very near it would be sufficient in North Dakota. LEGISLATURE PURPOSELY ENACTED A WEAK LAW - In\place of this kind of insurance, de- manded by the famers and a part of the Nonpartisan - program, voluntary plan, and it costs them 80 cents an acre and has never paid out in full, dollar for ‘dollar. . Those who: framed the law seem to have been care- “ful that as many restrictions and poor business methods as possible were graft- ed on the plan, so that it-is not even a’ good voluntary state insurance plan. PRAISE FOR ARTIST BAER J. M. Baer has resigned as postmaster at Beach and will de- vote his entire time to cartoon work. : himself in the last campaign by drawing cartoons for the Nonpar- |- carboonsdxda.smuchasanyone i bring about the overturning of the late campaign and putting in tisan Leader. Mr. Baer distinguished thing, . the League tandidates. - The cartoons made the Leader- interest- ing and illustrated in -a very telling way, the points they wished to make. ' Two years ago, when we wanted to oust the gang in - Mountrail Gounty, we employed Mr. Baer and we are certain that . it 'was largely due to them that we won out. Iti 1s one of the most effective ways of showing up grafters there is. - We look to see | cartooms Mr. Baer gam natxonp.l prommence ag a PUBLIC OPINION Bxsmarck. GIVE FARMERS VOICE « = . So far as can be learned’ the candi- d&besareallworthy. Annmberotthe‘ candidates a.re fannm, mdorsed by the Nonpatfisau Leu.guerwhuh will: give tht mm! eommumty 8 voice in the afl’urs ofmwandth&tlsonegoodreasonfor ?AGE SII appravng of : the mdxdaws. The fann- ers: are entxtled to ‘a_ voice in stato affairs and will get it after Janua.ry 1st, wlnchwmutxxtythemandmflweam mswtofthepmxnmpmposeflforfie"’ ensmng two years‘not one of our fax~ payers wlll be: lmrmed.—HAZEN STAR. its. own - ¢/ gnd past administrations and past leg- 1 : although the hail risk is only about half the- farmers have state hail insurance on the: © tends to keep' the sta s-’rlskg m - being: spread out and prevents it paying 1 more expensive that it ought to be. The of a deficit in sight. Consequently the ' state in the past had to hold over ob- : ligations due till the next tax levy. Thus, last year $200,000 in bills could not ba * met out of the tax levy supposed to : tover them and’ they had to be paid out of the next tax levy. The same will be . " & true: this' year, with the amount of bills ¢ held over to come out of the neéxt tax levy even greater.. This policy -means mortgaging the future to a greater ex- tent each year. .It is like a man with an income - of $1000 a year who contracts ¢ bills of $1200. Of course he has to pay ~ x the extra $200 -out of his next.year's in< - W come of -$1000, leaving: bim only $800 to g spend that year.” Then he again con- tracts debts of -$1200, but this time he has only $400-instead of $200 to square L] up: This policy. has. been going on for™ years. Some state admiistration will' == | have to face the matter squarely. It | can not go on forever. It is probable { the farmers’ administration 'will have to face the music when it sets about its - i first taxmaking in' the fall of 1917, 7 Whatever administration ° looks it sy squarely in the face will have to cor- - rect the accumulated effect of years of- foolish financial pohcy. The present - - islatures "have boasted of economy meas~ {7 T ures put through. Often, as at the: = | present time, this has meant merely cut- ting the tax levy without cutting the ex- penditures, resulting in not encugh tax being levied to meet the expenditures: and making it necessary to cut into the - tax levied for future years to pay bills + contracted in the past. 3 The rate is the same for all the stats, : in the eastern part of the state what it is in the western. - The old line hail insurance rate is 10 per cent in the western part of North Dakota and tapers down to 6% per cent in’ the Red River valley, so that the pres- ent state insurance at 30 cents an acre, or about 4 per cent, appeals more to farmers in the western part of the state, where the losses are heavy and the old: =~ line rates high. The result is that most it of the state department’s insurance is nght in the heavy hail loss districts. ¢ l Counting the fact that the: state de- partment has never paid dollar for dollar =~ - ° 3 for losses, its payments ranging from 40 - . X ‘ i l‘ to 88 per cent of the hail damage suffer- ed by those it insures, the state depart- ment rate of 4 per cent is practically as lngh as the old line rate of 6% per cent: in the eastern part of the state, so that. there is no ‘inducement for farmers in. that district to take it, confining : the state’s risks and losses to the heavxest hail dxstncts. : SOME SERIOUS WEAKN OF THE PBESENT LAWESSES " From the fact that the la that the insurance must bewta%:;u:: when the assessor-ealls around in the- early spring, when the farmer does not know how much insurance he wants, and out at 100 per cent. There are many other abuses in’ the present law that make it even a poor plan of voluntary state insurance. The loss adjustment plan is wrong and much insurance depal-fment has instances of its costing $24 to-adjust a '$12 hail Toss. In fact the whole law, besides bemg a half- way- measire to take th