The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-01-10

FTI 3
checking UP rates and 1T seems to me M &
that this statute, as il stands, affords
complete protect ion to sthe insured,
wrote the Senator. The lew Y ork
! Fire Insurance Exchange fixes rates
west Of Bronx {; !; Riyer, the east section
being fixed by the Suburban Fire Ex-
change, where the 1907 figures have
never been changed, Il in spite Of the
fact that additional fire protection has
been given, the Bureau Of Fire Pre-
yenti0n created, 4 additional water
lines installed with additional police
protection, all Of which decrease the
fire hazard, and it is only fair that
property owners who paid for the adj I
dltional fire protection should get a
rebate in their premiums
Chairman a.. w. Warner, of the
insurance Committee of the Building
iMsanagers' Association, reported at
tha monthly meeting that rates on
both office buildings and apartments
shouid pc lowered at once"
My conclusions are:
1st. There are too many insurance
agents in South Carolina for all to
make living out of the business,
hence the cost of 43 per cent for
merely placing business in the office.
End. Taking the City Of Columbia
ms an example and Mr.. McMaster's
tigures,> the greater monthly loss be-
fore the passage of the Laney.O Odom
Act evidences that this law saved
fire loss by thousands. 81 ~ IS
3rd. That the first step toward
cheaper rates is to prevent burning
of property in order to get the insuf-
ance. " & -
The financial distress of 1915 induc
ed incendiary fires to collect insur-
ance, and so long as collusion between
the agent and the insurer is permit
ted to continue, the companies will,
by exorbtant rates, shift the loss
from the incendiary to the honest cit
lzen who takes out policy for real
fire protection and not as an invest
ment.
AS the business was being conduct
ed in South Carolina, It was not pro-
lection from fire by Insurance, but
armed piracy on the part of both
insurer and insured. 1t offered re-
ward to the agent to over-insure and
tempted the property owner to arson,
which was so common as to consti,
tute menace to every town in South
Carolina. With the power offxing
the rate and the valuation left en-
tlrely to the agent to increase his fees
by giving the property owner all of
, the insurance he could induce him to
pay for, there was practically noth-
ing between the public and the fire
bug. In one night, between midnight
and day, within radius of few
blocks, ! heard five alarms of fire in
unoccupied houses during the hard
times of the winter of 1916.
Government Must Protect Producers.
The war after the present war will
be trade war, with the rest of the
world arayed against North and
South America, for the reason that
che accumulated wealth of centuries
IN the balance of the world has been
i destroyed or driven to this bemis
phere. Already we hear of PROPOSE
tlons in Congress to modify the Ser
man Act SO rs rot to maAc IL apply
TO combinations III restraint If tiat. .
where it is for the development of
means further consolidation of
manufacturing Industries, railroads
and PUBLIC utilities. The formation of
trusts will proceed on a scale never
known before, and through these, fav-
orcd classes will pile up undreamed
wealth to the prejudice of the aver
age man. Under present conditions,
with all other interests consolidated
into trusts and fixing the price of
products, and with labor thoroughly
organized, the producer of raw mate
rails will be mercilessly plundered
unless he is protected by the strong
arm of the State.
Our whole scheme of national gov
ernment revolves around protection
to banking, manufacturing and trans
portation. 1t is only within The past
four years that the national govern
ment has become aroused at the con-
sequences of the neglect of agricul-
ture. What chance have the unor-
Ganized millions scattered through
the rural districts against corporate
greed backede by expert financial
strategy and unlimited capital? Co.
operation is as easy in one case as
II Is impossible in the other; there
lore. SO long as present conditions
continue all property must pravitate
towards the already rich, until by agi-
tation and education the farmers are
hnally taught that their only relief
Is to go to the. ballot box and. by
asserting themselves there, establish
Tor their calling the principle of asso
ciauon, which is now only for the
favored classes.
This war will bring civilization tn
It's climax; tremendous transitions are
upon us: 1t is terrible price to paw:
SIX million dead, fourteen million
wounded, mountains of debt, an in
mite ocean of human sorrow, with
mighty nations vanishing like sunset
shadows and fruitful fields piven over