Mower County transcript., 1903-12-09

sent it ont once, twice, thrice. The
last letter and circular said, 1--WE have
sent you three different times for in
formation which is indispensable to
the Board of Directors and we take it
from your continued silence that you
have ignored their request and do not
propose to conform to their petition.
They, therefore, direct me to inform
you that unless you send in the report
asked for within one week, your pol
icy of insurance will be cancelled in
this company
Well Brother Furlong, will not un-
dertake to repeat the threats that this
last circular brcu yht out. Some re-
fused to report; some dared US to
make the cancellations, while the
agents all around joined the mob and
shouted with them against the con-
templated action of the Board.
But we kept up vigorous fight
along the line and the fellows who
saw that they could not bulldoze the
Board came around 0. k. and the re-
suit is that we did not lose per cent
of our live stock members and inside
of three months after starting our plan
to reform live stock insurance, we got
SO, SOC, 900 value instead of as before
we only got 100000 true value to
assess.
We have been reducing the cost of
our insurance every year and writing
more live stock than ever. You see,
I made tables and went through our
business from beginning to end and
got every man who had live stock in
sured, and what amount. Our expert
ence was both humorous and serious.
We found several cattle buyers who
owned 1900 head of cattle and only
carried $500 insurance on the whole
bunch. From this you can see that
these fellows we're paying only on Is
cents per head valuation. Is cents
valuation per head at 40 cents per $10O
insurance per year would be 16 cents
x4ocents per 800 equals 6-1o of cent
In order that you may get your
pores opened and the perspiration
freely started, just contemplate this
problem above shown and ask your
self bow many head of cattle we would
have to have insured if each herd only
produced 6-l0 cents; but let US say
that each herd would bring in / cent,
then when you paid for COW killed
by lightning and valued at 1856 90 you
would have $500 cattle to assess. This
same man lost from 5 to 10 head each
year and only paid4n $500 as his as
sessmeqt on $500 and thereby had his
1900 head of cattle insured.
Now, take in contrast his neighbor
across the street who owns 20 head of
cattle on which he carries $500 insur-
ance or $500 per head. The mali who
has the 1000 head costs the company
1880 times as much as does the man
! with only 20 head and he carries the
same insurance. :~
Hundreds of cases come to our no
tice where one man had 100 head while
his neighbor owned only one fourth
as many and yet in many insta noes
they both paid the same assessment. Is
it fair, is it just, is it mutual that two
men living in the same neighborhood
should pay the same price for insur-
ance and one receive several times
more benefits from the company than
the other?
In a thunderstorm each head OF
stock is a separate and distinct risk
lust as much as if it was house or a
barn, of course not so large. Two
men live side by side and each man
takes out live stock insurance, say
$500 in each case, neither expects a
loss and in consequence he has only
taken out little. One side of fhe
road is forty acre lot. In it::are to
be seen 20 head of cattle to be scatter
ed here and there. Just across the
road Is another 40 acre field and in it
can be counted 80 head of cattle.
There is severe thunder and electric
storm on. Now, as an individual in
vestment, which lot would you insure
if both lots brought you the same
price? The lot containing the 20
head, of course, and in doing2so you
would only stand one chance in four
of being struck as compared with the
field in which there were 80 head. +.
Our plan of insuring live stock is
that every man insure his stock cat
tie and horses for the amount he
expects to receive in case they are
killed. Just the same as on barn,
house and granary. You make your