Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-10-28
INSURANCE ADJUSTMENT.
Important Condition Precedent 10 q
Correct Stand.
THINKS MANNING WAS H0ODEINKED

Review Of Effect to Wrest Insurance
Monopoly from Organization that !.
/ Using Wrongly Acquired Power fol
| Merciless Profiteering.,
] Mr.. J. s. Wannamaker, President
American Cotton Association. st
Matthews, S. C. <.
/ Ny dear sir: have your favor
I, of the 21st inst. and am glad to know
that you favor the development o!
the state warehouse system modelled
on the South Carolina p an -in every
state in the cotton belt AS soon az
II return from the conference with
Governor Dorsey will Prepare tne
articles giving concrete plans con.
Meeting the system with financing
1 institutions and the marketing fea-
ture. You have done a wonderful
work in arousing public sentiment
and you can depend on my doing any-
thing in my power to aid YOU 5,efore
writing these articles however, some
thing definite must be agreed upon
about the Insurance question. A stu
alton is brewing in the ipsurance field
In South Carolina which will have Q
tremendous effect one way, or other
| Insurance Is vital FACTOR In the f.
lnancing of cotton. We have reached
the point where the farmers must A.
nance and control the surplus in order
to get a fair price for the cotton crop
THE higher 1t goes the more surely
will this be the case, because at pre-
sent prices manufacturing concerns
cannot afford to carry large SUR
plus. and II middle men control the
surplus they viii use It as q club, and
continue to reap unreasonable profits
at the expense Of both producfr and
manufacturer, Ss. Z
1 A bank cannot afford to handle
warehouse receipts unless the insur-
ance is unguestioned. and the farm
er cannot afford to pay an exhorbitant
rate of insurance and interest charges
In order to hold his cotton. In es-
tablishing the state warehouse system,
the moment touched the Insurance. 1
stirred up hornet nest Had ! not
BEEN entirely free 10 make my own
arrangements outside of South Caro-
! line, the system could have never been
put in operation, nor can t be main
ltained effecfiyeiy Unddf & tiis prsssnt
insurance situation. So III
No man who has the true interest
OF the farmer at heart can advocate
a system which does not take care OF
the country storage. Cotton should be
kept as near the place Of productionas
possible and when 1t moves should go
straight to>the place Of manufacture,
even, IL Il is in>China or Japan. Every
time that cotton Is moved, 1t adds tc
it's primary cost. and whether the
grower pays It direct or not, tits at
his expense. found In 1914 that the
rates on country warehouses were
prohibitiye. The trust charged $3.50
per $1O0 while In a fourth class town
with exactly the same building the
rate was less than one half that
amount.
Experience has proved that safety
in insurance lies In the distribution Of
risk. / contend that If the surplus
cotton were distributed in warehouses
of 500 bales capacity scattered all
over the, belt, that so far as fire
risk was concerned II is the best in
the world and should be the cheapest.
The insurance companies paid more
loss in one fire in Augusta. Ca, than
they would in the next ten years on
Georgia cotton in country warehouses
such as / have described Yet they
give the Augusta warehouse a rate Of
15c and charge the country warehouse
$3.50 per 800. The remedy for that
is to provide system of state in
surance for warehouse cotton. To do
that, however will invite such con-
test with the insurance trust that 1t
will be necessary for each state to
have its own rating and inspection
bureau. We have. provision in our
constitution forbiding the formation
of trust and specifically directing
the legislature to pass laws for their
prevention. In 1917 the legislature Of
South Carolina, deliberately laid down
to the insurance trust and we are to-
day we'll nigh .powerless.
The passage of the Laney-Odom act
was the result of the fight made by the
trust to prevent the development Of
state warehouse system, South Caro-
lima has been selected by this trust as
proper field for the full development
of trust system with a view to Its
extension into other states. So that
if you are going into other states with
the cotton association, it will be nee
essary for you to take hand in this
fight.
After the passage of the Laney-
Odom act there was a wholesale with
drawal of insurance companies from
South Carolina in order to force its
repeal They failed to deprive this
state of Insurance, because Of the de-
velopment Of local companies and of
foreign companies who remained, be-
cause they saw it would be profit
ohla Rald 2y tho tip,a tho 1epiela ttIra