The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1895-09-28

Upon the occasion Of couple of prin-
ting office fires two or three years ago.
members of the South Dakota Press AssO-


ting Office fires two or three years ago,
members of the South Dakota Press Ass0-
citation made up purse for the unfor-
tunates. Therefr0m came suggestion
for the organization of Publishers Re
lief association, which is now being
formed. The plan is for each member
Joining to pay IS, the plan being to limit
the membership to one hundred. or to
adjust the fee so as to have $500 in a
pool, which is all to be paid in case of
total loss, or drawn upon in case of par
tial loss. Only members of the Press
Association are eligible to the pool. G. r.
TInan, Of the Kimball GRAPHIC, is the
moving genius in the new organization,
and he has done his york we'll. There
is no salary snap nor rake-off in the
whole plan.-GrotOn Independent.
The newspaper boys have been very
kind in their notices of the scheme che
editor OF the GRAPHIC has been at work
On for some time, and which the fore
going sufficiently explains, and we want
to take this tins. to thank them for the
tiattering comments upon the work Of
the writer in connection with the plan
or course the matter is not Of interest
to the general reader-else we would
liked to have published these notices CT
the press. We reproduce what the
president Of the South Dakota Press asso-
citation has to say in the matter in that
he brings out two very important points.
First, that it has been customary to rely
wholly upon voluntary subscriptions
from the members of the S. D. P. A., in
the Gaze of loss by fire to one Of its mem
bers; and second, that there is no SNAP
nor rakc-off in the whole plan" Of the
proposed organization OF the Publishers
Relief association.
The idea is simply to collect these
voluntary contributions in advance. so
that any member will have q certainty
to rely upon instead of an uncertainty,
a fixed amount in lieu of a contributions
and beneficiary of a mutual organiza-
tion instead of the recipient of charity.
In short, the plan affords in everything
but name only a safe and practical IN
surance for small amount. And, per-
sOnally, we would rather take our
chances in recovering from such an Or
ganization as proposed than from nine
tenths OF the insurance companies, with
their red tape and hair-splitting techni-
calitiGs. Moreover, any assessment plan,
whether voluntary or compulsory, is un-
satisfactory and uncertain. There are
to be no salaries and the necessary ex-
penses will be too tritling to cut any
figure.
One of those to send his application
writes us that he is going into the scheme
but thinks that possibly he may get left
in the end, in that after paying few
membership fees into as many pools the
thing might fizzle out and then he would
get nothing for the money he put in. So
far as that is concerned, if the organiza-
tion should die slow death peter out
eventually-he could secure himself
against loss by regular insurance and be
no worse off than when he started, for
the very reason that during the time he
was a member and paying into the pools
he had an insurance proportional to the
sum paid, and, in fac5 much cheaper
rate Of premium than he would have
had he during that time been paying a
premium to regular insurance COM
pany. AS an illustrations: suppose that
the pnol was $500, and tho membership
fee was $40 on each pool, and there
should be two fires year for thl eey years,
and the association quit business. The
member would have paid in $50, which
would be the same as 4 per cent on an
insurance of $500 in regular insurance
company. 1t is very certain, however,
that no such number of loses would
occur with membership OF so. We
| think that the entire $50 printing offices
! in the state do not show that average Of
fires within the past ten years.
The writer has submitted the proposed
plan OF the Publishers Relief association
to a good many shrewd business men
outside Of the newspaper fraternity and
found not one but commended it.
Nevertheless. dispite this fact and the
encouragement OF the leading men,
bers of the South Dakota Press associa-
ti0n, the writer never has had much
hopes Of impressing the desirability OF
some such plan upon the members Of
the latter organization. as a whole. One
trouble lies in the general devil-may-
care way in which the business Of the
ordinary country newspaper is run; and
a more potent factor, perhaps, is the fact
that the average newspaper publisher
thinks he can run his own affairs better
than anyone else-and as to this last
more than likely the writer is as stub.
born and set In his ways as the next
man. However, a good many applica.
tons are already in, many Of them where
least expected, with the promise OF more
coming; and il enough come to the front
withing the next few weeks the thing
will be go; otherwise, Of course it wont
Anyway, neither the publisher of this
sheet nor any OF the others who have
helped the plan along have an ak Il
grind or any possible way of securing
from the scheme any more than pro
portional share Of its benefits. Further
more. We are in position to state thai
ii the proposed association materializes
and member is, through loss by fire
, entitled to its benefits, he will get his
money. He can bank on that.
Referring to the artesian wells
Throughout the state. II. W. Meserye
expert irrigator in charge of the cele'