Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1917-08-22
sailors return from the war and re-
sumo the responsibility.

We have drawn the sword to yindi-
cate Americas violated rights, to re-
store peace and justice, and to secure
the progress OF civilization. We can
not permit our soldiers while they
hold the front, to be stabbed in the
back by uncertainty as to what is be-
Ing done for their loved ones at home.
Our tomorrows are in their hands
theirs IN ours. The national con-
science will not permit Americas SOL
diers and their dependents to go un-
provided with everything that just,
generous and noble people can do to
compensate them for the sufferings
and sacrifices they make to serve
their country.
Aside from the care and protection
OF their dependents while the soldier
Is alive, the proposed war insurance
act provides for definite compensa-
ton for his dependents in case of
death, for definite and adequate in
IDENTITIES in case of total or partial
disability, and for re-education of the
MANNED and disabled man, so that he
may take up new occupation and
make himself useful member Of So
clety. We must restore their eff
cheney and adjust their still available
faculties and functions to suitable
trades and yocations, which the in
juries of the battlefield have not
wholly destroyed. The heavy deple-
tons in man-power resulting from
this conflict, which Is without prece-
dent in history or Imagination, will
place new and greater values upon
all forms and degrees Of human en-
ersy' and demand as first duty Of
intelligent government that every
remaining useful sense and limb of
the blind and crippled shall be re-
claimed under the benevolent pro-
cession Of education and reapplied to
economic uses for the benefit Of So
ciety. The millions we shall be called
upon to spend to support the depend
ents Of the soldiers while they are in
the fghting-line, for indemnities and
for re-education Of the crippled, are
In the last analysis Investments Of
the best sort; they are sums of can't
tai advanced by the nation to pro-
mote utility, self-respect and eco
nomic development. More than all,
they are essentially humanitarian and
IN the highest sense discharge by
the government Of an essential duty
to society.
Military service Is now obligatory:
those who imperil themselves have
no election. The insurance compa-
MES do not and cannot permit this
fact to affect their calculations. They
must protect themselves by charging
premiums so high that they are Sc
cured against loss no matter how Sc
we're 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 rea-
son be able to secure the most favor
able insurance rate In peace time, are
denied, as soldiers, the necessary life
insurance to enable them to protect
their families and dependents. The
tremendous rates charged by pri-
vate insurance companies to protect
them against the extra-hazardous
risks of war put insurance entirely
beyond the reach of the conscripted
soldier.
Military necessity has, therefore.
subjected the most fit subjects for
insurance to an insurmountable dis
elimination unless the government
iself supplies insurance at cost and
upon a peace basis. 1t would, in
fact, be dastardly and undemooratic
If the government should penalize the
soldier who Is forced to render the
highest duty of the citizen by its fail
ure to provide war insurance upon
peace terms and at net cost, first, be-
cause the pay Of the enlisted men in
the army and navy 10 less than the
wages and salaries generally earned
in private life, which reduces their
investing capacity; and, second, be-
cause government insurance Is an es
sential war and emergency 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.