The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 10, 1919, Page 4

L BRSO | B8 | t i [ H 28 | » e § i £ ' fo) ¥ ] i PYL T T o ¢ R A Sl S B A S i _,._._‘._.‘.__...A R et S New Insurance Laws for North Dakota Hail Risks, Workmen’s Compensation and Fire Risks on Public Buildings to Be Carried by State—W:ill Save Big Operation Expenses ’ BY E. B. FUSSELL VER since_the farmers of North Dakota organized the Nonpar- tisan league, in 1915, they have been fought by the organized insurance men. The organized insurance men have fought the organized farmers by speeches, interviews, pamphlets, political ; influence and every other means at their command. They have spent thousands, if not millions, of dollars in ealling the farmers “Socialists,” “free-lovers,” “I. W. W.,” “Bolsheviki” and similar pet names. Just why the organized insurance men were so particularly vicious in j their attempt to keep the farmers ¢ from organizing was hard to under- § stand at first. The farmers of North Dakota proposed to go into the busi- ness of building terminal elevators and flour mills, which could not pos- sibly hurt the insurance companies. In fact, it promised them new busi- fess. The farmers had no -intention of going into the insurance business, except incidentally to the extent of providing state hail insurance. But the ‘insurance companies were spending thousands of dollars to de- feat the organized farmers in their program, The farmers wondered why. It Jooked suspicious. It looked as if there must be a nigger in the wood- pile. The farmers looked into the woodpile. They found the colored gentleman. The nigger in the woodpile is EXPENSE. It is ex- pense that means the waste of millions of dollars; waste that amounts to graft, pure and simple. BIG EXPENSES OF INSURANCE COMPANIES Because their suspicions were aroused by the opposition of the in- surance companies, and because the farmers discovered the graft in insur- ance, the North Dakota legislators now propose to go far beyond the first early program of the farmers, which called only for hail insurance. The New York -investigations of TGO i - The opposition to the organized farmers in the North Dakota legislature is Cartoonist Morris here illustrates the reason It would take an X-ray to find the canary, As described in the story on this page the farmer legislature of that state also plans to eat up most of that gratuitous insurance trust opposition. several years ago showed that the great insurance companies were giving up millions of dollars belonging to policyholders to politicians to conduct political campaigns. But, when the - farmers looked into it, they found that this was only a small part of the insurance graft. Casualty companies handling compensation insurance, it was found, had spent in “ex- penses” and in fighting the claims of injured workmen from 55 cents to 70 cents out of every dollar collected. / Fire insurance companies, it was discovered, averaged the expenditure of 40 cents of every dollar collected in “expenses,” leaving just 60 cents to pay fire losses. And yet the insur- ance agents worried themselves half to death, to judge from their own state- ments, because a small part of the $16 paid for League member- - ships went to organizers! A committee of the Massachusetts legislature, reporting in 1917, said that private companies took a toll of 67 cents for every dollar collected from the employer and passed through to the injured workman. With bales of figures on hand to substantiate the graft annually taken from the American people by the in- surance companies, North Dakota has turned to state insurance for relief, just as the national government was com- pelled to turn to national life insur- ance when war broke out and private - companies refused to insure soldiers. The hail insurance bill is one of the why. strangely silent these days. most important measures, from the farmers’ stand- point, on the League insurance program. North Dakota’s annual hail loss is estimated to average about $5,000,000. To pay hailed-out farmers an average of $7 per acre, about the cost of putting the crop in, will take approximately $3,000,000 a year. At present, with a possible recovery of $10 to $12 per acre, the farmers pay rates ranging from 70 cents to $1.10 per acre. The new law provides a flat tax of 3 cents an acre on all tillable land in North Dakota - THE CAT AND THE CANARY (ébout 30,000,000 acres) which will raise close to $1,000,000." This will compel unused land, held for speculation, to bear its share in the cost. The other $2,000,000 necessary to pay $7 per acre to hailed-out farmers, will be provided by a pro rata acreage assessment upon all holders of cropped land who desire the state insurance. Up to June 25 each year any farmer can with- draw from the plan. Any farmer who does not withdraw will report his lesses, will receive From the very beginning the insurance trust has waged a bit- ter fight on the Nonpartisan league farmers. nothing in the farmers’ program except state hail insurance, a very small matter, which affected them. It was a case of “the wicked flee when no man pursues.” terests were afraid of popular government because they had so much to hide. The farmer legislators have been doing a little investigating as to why the insurance interests were fighting so hard over nothing apparently, and they didn’t have to go far to smell the graft. Now they are going to insure more things than the risk from hail. publicly insured and workmen’s compensation will be man- aged by the state. The insurance companies now may have something to fight about, but they can’t fight any harder than they have. Yet there was The insurance in- State property will be payment to a maximum of $7 per acre 'gnd, when all losses are reported, an assessment just high enough to meet the cost will be made. Both the flat tax of 3 cents per acre and the as- sessment necessary to provide the rest of the money will be collected together with taxes. It is-esti- mated that in an average year the North Dakota farmer will be able to get his tax protection for about 25 cents an acre. This, of course, is high treason from the standpoint of the private insur- ance companies, besides being socialism, bolshevism and several other things too numerous to mention. Mention was made in the Leader before that the workmen’s compensa- tion fund, for the relief of injured workmen, will be state administered, instead of handing the business over to private insurance companies. This follows the experience of Ohio and Washington, which adopted the state insurance system and would not change to any other. STATES SAVE ON - WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION In this connection it is interesting to note that Ohio and New York pay the same amounts to injured work- men. Ohio has state insurance; New York hands the business over to pri- vate companies. New York rates are nearly double paid to injured workmen is the same. A statement issued by the Ohio in- dustrial commission shows that in tht\a last year Ohio employers waid into the insurance fund $9,442,000. If the New York rates had been in effect they would have had to pay $16,224,000! Ohio hands all this saving back to the employers. North Dakota, . under its plan of state adminis- tration of its industrial insurance _ funds, can hand part of the sav- ing back to employers in lower rates, and part of it on to the in- jured workmen-in increased com- pensation. As the result of a bill passed by the present legislature, North Dakota will in future insure all public buildings, except schoolhouses in rural com- munities. This will inclide state buildings, courthouses, city halls, col- lege buildings and city schools. _ The reason that rural schools will not be coveted at the present time is that the cost of visiting all these schools and determining upon a fair rate for each one would be too great. On the other hand, the classes of buildings which the state intends to insure all have rates already established for them by the insurance companies. .To prevent the state insurance fund from being wiped out, in its infancy, by any single loss, the law provides that in the case of any building which is to be carried for more than $100,000, the insur- able amount above $100,000 is to be reinsured in some private company. : The public buildings are to be insured at present at the same rates that they are being carried by the private insurance companies. As the state builds up a reserve the in- surance commissioner is to be given apthority to take over the larger risks and finally to reduce rates to an absolute cost basis. The present North Dakota legisla- ture also has written amendments in the law by which the state bonds pub- lic officials, so that this law will cover all public officials, state as well as county, city and school district offi- cials, required by law to carry bonds. The bill, like the fire insurance bill, provides that the rates shall be main- tained the same’ as the rates that woq)d be paid to private companies until a reserve shall have been estab- lished thal will amount to $200- (Continued on page 22) those of Ohio, although the amount