The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-06-18
Take the Risk Out Of Farming.
BY FREDERIC J. HAskN

insurance. and has repeatedly intro
duced bills providing for bureau Of
crop insurance In the department OF
agriculture. But Secretary Houston.
who always keeps keen political ear
70 the ground. heard the rumble OF the
approaching reaction, against govern
mental enterprise. and did not advocate
| the measure. IL never got beyond a
| committee room.
None the-less, some OF the experts
say that crop Insurance is properly a
| government function. II would be ex-
pensive, they admit, and this expense
could best be reduced by one big or
ganization serving the whole country.
Naturally. the larger the territory
served. the more losses IN. one section
would tend TO be counterbalanced by
| gains In others.
Again. crop Insurance, like boiler in
surance and health Insurance. would be
| dependent upon expert inspection for
Its success. and this expert inspection.
| which would. improve methods OF agri-
valuable feature of the thing. Thus, It
would be impossible to insure a man
against his own ignorance. He could
not be paid insurance on u wheat crop
DESTROYED by smut which. he might have
prevented by treating the seed before
planting. But there should be an in
spector who would see that the wheat
was treated properly before the insur-
ance was written. Such corps of in
spectors could easily be put into the
which already has an organization of
trained agriculturalists reaching into
almost every county in the United
States. For private company to build
up such an organisation would be
tremendous undertaking. There are
others. however. who believe that our
great insurance companies should UNI
dertake the work, and think that this
method would be better than the pa
ternalistic" one Of having the govern
ment insure the crops.
Comprehensive crop insurance was
offered about two years ago by three
companies I'm the west, and was not
complete success. They insured against
drouth, among other things. and when
a ,,a big drouth came ann along Tn they were
that bad management was responsible
for this partial failure. In the first
place, the companies should have linn
tied the amount of risks they would
take in any given section say the ex-
perts. In the second place they. in
trusted the selling OF policies TO local
bankers. These bankers, being more
concerned about the financial conditions
In their own sections than about the
prosperity of the insurance companies,
sold drouth insurance after the drouth
had started. This was like insuring a |
house against fire after ii was In flames. |
Crop Insurance as a state function !
has also been tried. In the Dakotas, |
Montana. Nebraska and Oklahoma. the |
state governments offer to insure farm |
ers against loss by hail. As private |
companies offer the same insurance in |
these regions, and canvass for policies. |
while the state governments do not, the |
state insurance has not as yet been .
widely taken. Nevertheless. in at least /
one of these states the insurance COM
missioner Is convinced that this state
crop insurance could safely be extended
to afford protection against drouth.
against hail.
Crop insurance seems clearly to be a
thing needed in this country and one
which either private capital or the gov
must offer.