Willmar tribune., 1914-05-06

"Th1s Is importan- <ef,> Sc, of the
one billion four hundl> million of
fire insurance in force, all except for
ty-two million Of which is carried by
the general and class mutual and
about three hundred thirty-three mill
ion which is carried by our township
mutual companies. An individual con-
sidering himself Disseminated against
or oppressed by the rates made by
right to appeal to the state insurance
commissioner or some other state Of
fetal to have his grievance aired and
his rate corrected il wrong.
''The legislature of Minnesota has
no greater problem before it than
that of seeing to .. that our people
are given this kind of a right to ap-
peal. Last year the stock companies
doing business in Minnesota collected
approximately eight and a half mill
ion dollars in premiums from our peo-
pie. On this amount less than half
has been returned on account of loss
es, the balance has gone to the CON-
panies about as follows: 20 per cent
to agents, AZ per cent to field men,
21 per cent for taxes, 13 per cent Of
the premiums collected to the home
company Offices, approximately per
cent of which has been used for ex-
penses in running the companies, the
balance has been underwriting profit.
From this analysis it will be seen
that the companies cannot be partic-
ularly censored for making too much
money. The entire system, however,
is expensive. The way to reduce rates
is first to lower our fire losses; Sec
ond, give to citizen or community
the right to have rate corrected by
the state where made incorrectly or
believed to be made incorrectly by the
rating bureau. That there is discrim-
inati0n in rates in Minnesota can be
seen from the experience in the state
in the past twenty years.
I'm the three large cities, Minneap.
oils, St. Paul and Duluth, these stock
fire insurance companies have had a
loss ratio of fifty-nine per cent. The
other towns in the state combined,
which have fire protection, have had
a loss ratio of fifty-five per cent. The
balance of the state, taking in the un.
protected villages and farming COM
munities have had loss ratio of thir.
'ty nine per cent. Thus you will see
that there has been gross discrimina-
tion in favor of the cities and against
the country.
"The township mutual fire insur-
ance companies which insure only
farm properties, have during the past
thirty-five years had a most remark
able history. They have furnished in
surance to our farmers at rate on
an average of fifteen cents per hun
dred. The stock companies have
charged from sixty to seventy cents
per hundred.
"The township mutuals have col
lected in the neighborhood Of six and
one-half million dollars from our far.
mers and if they had not been in ex'
istence and this insurance had been
carried by our stock companies, 1t
would have cost our farmers sixty
cents hundred or about twenty eight
million dollars. In other words, the
township mutuals have saved to our
farmers during the period of their ex
istence, in the neighborhood Of TWEEN
ty-one million dollars"
The business OF the Club transacted
Included the appointment of a com
mittee composed of E. C. Wellin, Jos
o. Estrem and V. E. Lawson to act in
CONJUNCTION with the local members OF
the State Swine Breeders Association
in arranging for the annual conven
ton to be held at Willmar June 18th
and 18th.
The local improvement committee
by Mr.. Welln reported progress in the
matter of tree planting on boulevards
in the city, the removal of unsightly
trees, and other improvements.
The committee on the home gar
den contest reported thru Supt. Foster
very encouraging outlook.
Hon. J. N. Johnson of Candy, wht
was present, was called on and re
sponded briefly.
LONG LAKE,