The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-03-21
MIR. OLSNESS1 =
EXPLANATION
Commissioner of Insurance Olsness
Gives a Resume of the Work Per-
formed in His Office During the
Past Year-GrOwth of Business. =.
sO-CALLED CROP INSURANCE

oO"OAAALD SIlOI NoONA4NSL
Last Years Experience Shows the
Absolute Necessity of Placing Crop
Insurance Under the State-Where
1t Properly Belongs.
We live in an age of criticism and
publicity. Every citizen feels that he
is responsible for the veal or woe of
the commonwealth, more than any
time in history. Hence the greater
demand, by the public, for publicity
and efficiency with respect to public
officers or servants. This is as it
should be. It makes for true democ-
racy, and is the fruit of the teachings
of the Nonpartisan League, which has
awakened the people in general, and
the farmers in this state in particu-
lar, to keener and fuller sense Of
responsibility of their citizenship.
In view of this, I shall try to give
to the public an accounting or resume
of my work, as Commissioner Of In
surance, during the first year Of ad-
ministration.
It was with more or less trembling
and apprehension that I undertook
to'supervise the inSr-ar'e business as
it appertains TO this office for the
great state of North Dakota. But,
owing to the efficiency and ready CO.
operation of former Deputy w. D.
Austin, whom I retained in office, all
came out we'll, even beyond expecta-
tion, as far as the technical or routine
work was concerned. (Mr. Austin
resigned on Aug. list, 1919
My First Task.
1t may not be generally known, that
our insurance laws provide, that all
foreign (out of the state) insurance
companies must publish in some news
paper of general circulation, at least
three times, in each judicial district
of the state, where such company has
maintained an agency, statement Of
the business done each year. The
state and county mutual insurance
companies need only publish in one
newspaper, selected by themselves.
There being 1888 companies Of all
kinds, one will readily see the magni-
tude Of this patronage when the aver
age cost Of publication for each state
ment is about $25.OO. The newspap-
ers of the state, thus reap a harvest
of from $4,000 to $4,000 annually
from this source. Quite a powerful
factor indeed to be left with the Com
missioner, politically speaking. Some
doubt exists as to the worth of this
kind Of publicity, but unless some plan
is devised by which this money could
revert back to the purchaser Of in
surance, by way of cheaper premiums,
it is far better to distribute same
amongst the papers of the, state than
to allow it to escape with the rest Of
the enormous sums we pay out every
year for insurance to eastern concerns.
/ have been criticized by both sides
for the way I handled this distribu-
tion of insurance statements, Of
course. Some Of the papers in oppo-
sition to the administration accuse me
of favoring the League press and my
Leaugue friends think have been too
liberal with the enemy press. There
you are! Anyone, who has had any
experience with humanity knows that
it is impossible to suit everybody. The
Lord Himself, failed dismally at such
q task-so, why not L?
/ have striven to be fair however,
and considered the rights accorded the
insurance companies under this law,
as we'll as to observe the real intent
of the law, namely publicity. It has
been the custom Of my predecessors
to allot to the big dailies five or ten
times the number Of statements the
small weekly would get. This, I be-
leve, was wrong, even from the view
of publicity, because Of the duplica-
tions ensuing, as thousands of homes
are reached through the small home
paper, only.
So-Called Crop Insurance.
It is not my purpose to burden my
readers with a detailed description Of
this new phase of insuring growing
crops. Suffice to say that the plan
proposes to guaranty the insured re-
turn Of $500 per acre for the prem
ium Of 10 per cent, against practically
everything except flood, fire and bad
husbandry.
Only two companies, namely, The
Bankers Insurance Company, Helena,
Montana, and the National Union
Fire Insurance Co., Of Pittsburgh, Pa,
offered to write this kind Of a con-
tract in the state during the past sea-
son. While it is q unique departure
from the ordinary hail insurance, I
believe it commendable in that it elim-
mates the speculative feature Of the
latter, and more nearly approaches
the plan Of fire underwriting, insur-
ing the actual investment, instead Of
the prospect, or profit.
Having seen some general crop
failures during. my 81 years Of resi-
dence IN the state, ! was somewhat
skepticaI . 70 the ability q the COM