The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1917-08-23

ty as to what is being done for their
loved ones at home. Our tomorrows
are in their hands-theirs in ours.
The national conscience will not
permit America s soldiers and
their dependents to go unprovided
with everything that just, gen
erous and noble people can do TO
compensate them for the suffer-
lngs and sacrifices they make to
serve their country.
Aside from the care and protec-
tion of their dependents while the
soldier is alive, the proposed war
insurance act provides for definite
compensation for his dependents
in case of death, for definite and
adequate indeminities i'm case Of
total or partial disability, and for
re-ed''cation of the manned and
disabled man, so that he may take
up new occupation and make
himself a useful member of society.
We must restore their efficiency
and adjust their still available
faculties and functions to suitable
trades and vocations, which the ill-
jurirs Of the battlefield have moi
wholly destroyed. The heavy de-
pIctlons i'll man-power resulting
from this conflict, which is with
ou1 precedent in history or imag-
nation, will place new and greater
values upon all forms and degrees
Of human energy. and demand as
first duty of intelligent govern
ment that every demaining useful
sense and limb of the blind and
crippled shall be reclaimed under
the benevolent processes of educa-
ton and reapplied to economic
uses for the benefit of society. The
millions we shall be called upon to
spend to support the dependents
Of the soldiers while they are in the
fighting-line, for indeminities and
for re-education Of the crippled,
are in the last analysis investments
of the best sort; they are sums Of
capital advanced by the Nation to
promote utility, self-respect and
economic development. More than
all, they are essentially humanitar-
ian and in the highest sense dis
charge by the Gov rnmcnt cr an
essential duty to society.
Military service is now obligat-
ory; those who imperil themselves
have 10 election. The insurance
companies do not and cannot per-
nit this fact to affect their calcula-
tions. They must protect them
selves by charming premiums so
high that they are secured against
loss no matter how severe the rate
of mortality may be. Consequently
the very men who are called into
the service because their physical
condition is of the best and who as
civilians would for that reason be
able to secure the most favorably
insurance rate in peace time, are
denied as soldiers the necessary
life insurance to enable them 10
protect their families and depend
ents. The tremendous rates
charged by private insurance COM
panies to protect them against the
extra-hazardous risks of war put
insurance entirely beyond the reac;
of the conscripted soldier.
Military necessity has, therefore,
subjected the most fit subjects for
insurance to an insurmountabie
discrimination unless the Govern
ment itself supplies insurance at
cost and upon peace basis. 1t
would, intact, be dastardly and
undemocratic if the Government
should penalize the soldier who is
forced to render the highest duty
of the citizen by it's failure to pro-
vide war insurance upon peace
terms and at net cost. first, because
the pay of the enlisted men in the
Army and Navy is less than the
wages and salaries generally earn
ed in private life, which reduces
their investing capacity; and. see
ond. because Government insur-
ance is an essential war and EN-.
ergency measure. inaugurated for
the specific benefit Of our military
forces. and cannot and should not
be conducted for profit.
Such overhead charges as
agents commissions. advertising.
promotion, local rentals, etc, are
eliminated. The Government must
assume the cost of administering
this benevolent agency, just as it
bears the cost of administering
all other Government agencies
established for the benefit of the
people.
This legislation will be a grea-
step forward in the recognition Of
the Republics duty to it's heroes. ]
consider it the most significant and
measure presented to