Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-06-20

WASHINGTON, D. c., June 14.-The in
wv surfing of crops not only against fire
and hail, but also against drouth,
insect pests and plant diseases, so that
when farmer plants a crop he will be as
sured of a certain financial return per acre,
is a project which is now engaging the at
tention of experts in and out of the gov
eminent
Crop insurance, as explained by it's ex-
ponents would be of the utmost Importance,
not only to farmers, but to the entire bust
ness and financial world. Nearly every
farming section of the United States has a
money crop" upon which the entire pros
perity of that section depends. In Kansas,
they watch the wheat crop as a mother
watches a sick child. Not only the farmers,
but the bankers, the merchants, and in
some degree, almost every other business
and financial interest, is dependent upon
the wheat crop. In the south, everyone S
hope of an easy winter and new car
hinges on how the cotton grows; in the mid
die west King Corn is the arbter of all des-
TIMES; and in the northwest hope wanes or
wakes with the apple yield.
When a money crop fails in a county or
a state, that county state suffers directly
and the whole country suffers Indirectly. 1t
is not the loss of a given amount of wheat
or cotton, which, perhaps could not be pre-
vented that does the harm. The most seri-
Gus result is that the hard-hit farmers are
they are unable to meet their obligations.
Thus the bankers and merchants suffer.
These scenes of crop failure, scattered all
over the country, are unsound spots in the
business texture of the country; they affect
business everywhere.
There is no reason why these stricken
sections should thus suffer, and cause the
rest of the country to suffer. The individual
farmers and business men affected cannot
stand the loss but the country as a whole
can stand it, and the country as. whole
should bear the burden.
Grain crops are now generally insured
against destruction by hail, and in some
sections they are insured against fire. But
the farmer has no protection against the
ravages of the hessian fly, for example, or
against the smut and none against drouth
or floods.
The experts say that protection by insur-
ance against all of these things is thoroughly
practicable Indeed, there's is scarcely any
thing which cannot be safely insured, If the
insuring organization is sstrong enough.
Lloyd's of London, which insures, among a
host of other things, the hands of musicians,
singers voices, and the sex of unborn chill
dren, has proved that
During the war a strong demand sprang
up for government crop insurance. Farmers
were being called upon by the government
to plant every possible acre in certain Sc
lected crops.
eff l am to risk everything I have in ex-
tending my operations" said the farmer to
the government, you must insure me
against loss" Many letters in this tenor
reached the department of agriculture sem
ators and congressman. The experts say
that if the war had continued another year,
the government would have been compelled
to offer crop insurance in order to get out
of the farmers the foodstuffs it needed
But with the ending of the war came a
strong reaction against governmental enter
prises, and a less immediate need for this