The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1895-01-11

y
1893, premiums to foreign insurance
companies doing business in the state
as follows:
Lie insurance. ......-..............1 293, 81
Accident insurance, etc. .. rs ,5S1 IL
Total. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. So. Isl ,7O5 70
During the same period the losses in
Cured by foreign companies in the
state were as follows:
Fire .sI0ss, 444 70
Accident, etc. Observation-Disclosures. 1888. 10
Total losses incurred 81 $40, i11.4o
Excess Of premiums over losses in
CURED. 81 III 1881
Some comparisons may aid us to I'M
derstand what these figures really
mean. The excess of premiums over
losses incurred, not paid merely, would
entirely pay for the construction Of
the state house as it now stands in a
little less than one year and two
months. 1t exceeds by more than %
per cent. the total state tax levy for
1894. 1t exceeds by $500, 900 the aggre-
gate of appropriations for the fiscal year
1894. 1t exceeds by more than $780,
600 double the amount of the entire
bonded debt of the state at this time.
Suppose this large surplus were re-
tanned in the state by the encourage
ment of home companies, would it mean
nothing to the people? And the report
of the commissioner shows that the
excess of premiums over losses has
been substantially the same annual
ly for period of eight years;
SO that, during the period since
1886 we have sent out Of the state for
insurance more than S13, 900 more
has come back for losses. While we
paid to foreign companies So, 351, 606. 40
in 1898, the total income of home
mutual fire insurance companies was
1914, 094.9l; and the premiums paid the
Kansas company for life insurance
aggregated S139, 565,17; total paid to
home companies, S234, 660.O3.
Prohibition.
1.-THE old notions as to dealing with
the liquor traffic are not applica BILE to
the prevailing state of things. The
people have no longer the isolated
saloon to combat, but must grapple
with gigantic whisky trust Nor is
this all. The public sentiment which
in our principal cities nullifes the pro-
hibitory law is not the sentiment of the
dissolute, as those who denounce the
laws non-enforcement are so prone to
assume. 1t is the sentiment of the
men of property, and, therefore, of in
fuence in their communities.
'But the prohibitory amendment
will remain part of our constitution
till superseded by naturalization of
the liquor traffic. The determination
to control this business is stronger
to-day than ever before; and eventual
ly the traffic will be forced to submit
to the popular will. Whose thinks
otherwise mistakes the sentiment of
the people. The whisky trust is but
an integral part of that yet more mon
strous trust-the organization of CEN
tralized wealth whose aim is to make
artificial property more sacred than
life or liberty. The people are awaken
ing to the danger that threatens them
and will overcome that monster, and,
with it, will overcome the liquor traffic,
too.
Agriculture.
''The executive renews his recon-
mendation of two years ago that a bu-
reau or department of agriculture be
created, to which shall be referred all
agricultural and kindred interests, I'M
der the supervision of an officer who
should be appointed by the governor
or elected by the PEOPLE and be fur
nished by the state with all necessary
assistants and supplies.
IRRIGATION.
1.-THE Importance of irrigation is too
generally conceded to require it's dis
cussion here. The only debatable
enacted concerning this urgent neces-
sity of western farmers. Control of
the husbandman's water supply APP
proaches in importance, control of the
air he breathes, and it would be scarce
ly less cruel in the former case
than in the latter. to subject him
to the almost certain extortions
and determinations of pri-
vate monopoly. Fortunately, this has
not become theme for heated partisan
discussions SO as to make men obsti-
nate adherents of any particulal plan;
and none but those selfishly seeking to
virtually make merchandise of the very
rains and dews of heaven, will approach
the consideration of the subject with
blasted minds. What you do at this
session in this enterprise, you do
not for a day, but for many years
to come. Should the control
of husbandry be given over to
private corporations, our hands will
have become tied by the federal consti-
tuition, and no matter how badly the
experiment may turn out, nor how
oppressive may be the conduct of those
who shall have been made the masters
of agriculture, we shall be utterly
powerless for years to remedy the error
to free the people from the grasp of
the monster our own folly will have
evoked
Municipal Indebtedness.
1.-The municipal Indebtedness of the
state, shown by the returns of the state
auditors Office, aggregated July 1, 1894,
So, GIG, TITO, a decrease of S2O1, O37 80
since the biennial report of 1892.
Labor.
ssYour attention is called to pam
phiet put forth by the labor bureau
on convict labor. 1t is a most able and
exhaustive discussion of 4 subject of
pressing Importance, and no more brief
statement here of its contents could do
Justice to the mastery treatment of
the theme to be found in the report
itself. The system of letting contracts
for public work has been largely
abolished in England. the public au-