The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-08-01
Insurance for Farmers.

In d circular letter to the Farmers
Alliance State Lecturer Ignatius
DOnnelly has this to say on the sub
! iect Of Insurance for farmers:
There is another very important
subject upon which these lecturers
can talk to you,and one of the utmost
cons equeHces to your pocketbOoks.
If you will go down into many New
England towns and cities, us l have
done, and inquire how the people who
are living in idlenesS in such hand
some houses and carriages. obtain
their incomes, you will be told, as
was, that they hold stock in fire and
life insurance companies. If you ask
whether those insurance companies
do business in New England alone,
you will be told, "Oh no. principally
in the West" These people, there
fore, are able to live in idleness in
Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Vermont. New York, ETC., because n
lot of poor fools are working for their
benefit III Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
etc, Your brains are not half as
fertile as your fields. Go to st. Paul,
Minneapolis, and in fact to all the
great cities of the United States, and
YOU will see magnificent. gorgeous
palaces, six, eight, ten stories high,
built 10y the great insurance compa'
MES. Where did they get the mil
lions to erect all these costly struct'
ures! The answer is, out OF the
people who insured, of course. 1t is
another instance of watered stock;
the people furnish the business,
provide the money, do everything;
the company takes the salaries and
pockets the profits.
Now the State Farmers Alliance
proposes that the money which has
heretofore gone from the pockets of
the farmers, to build up the wealth
of the East shall be kept at home, to
build up Minnesota, and so they have
taken steps, which will be explained
to you in detail, to give you insur,
ance, Qife. fire, hail and cyclone,) at
figures away below those charged to
you by the foreign corporations. Is
it not worth five or ten cents to be
posted on these important questions!
In Dakota the farmers have estab-
lished wonderful organization, the
Farmers Alliance of Dakota" 1t is
under the management of every able
man. They have created in connection
with itan insurance department,as we
have done. They now do one. I'd of
the insurance business of the Terri
tory. In the Hail department they
have during the past three years
assessed but Is cts. an acre, and col.
lected on an average but II 1'2 cts.
per acre; and even for the 25 cts. they
took notes until the crop matured.
On the other hand the old companies
demanded from ~ to ~ cts per acre
cash; in advance; and even at these
rates the continental" of New York
has withdrawn from the field, and
the est. Paul Fire and Marine" have
refused to pay many of their losses,
and are now litigating in the courts.
On the other hand the Dakota Alliance
company has never had any trouble
with the insured, has promptly paid
all losses, and has collected but Il 1'2
cts per acre is against 40 and 60.
These figures show how in this little
matter alone the farmers have been
robbed.
In this state the Hail Insurance De-
partment has been established about
two months, but in that time it has
made rapid Roadway and has done a
large business.