The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-03-12
CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER V.
The matter of state accident in
surance opens up larger and more
disgraceful as one pursues the stu,
dy. 1t has been recommended and
ushered in by men who were neither
familiar with such insurance nor in
any way responsible for results after
it was set to working. Politicians
seeking positions have created in
surance bureaus and then used the
funds and offices of the bureau to
stump the state in support OF the
bureau and to conduct press-agent
campaigns to exploit the particular
iy favorable cases which the bureau
had dealt with to the advantage of
injured workmen.
State of Washington Loses.
In the state of Washington they
enacted a law giving the state a
monopoly and barring out the COM
mercial companies. 1t was as if they
had enacted a law telling all farmers
to turn over their livestock business
to state board, but that they could
60 on raising grain, potatoes and hay.
The insurance companies were in
that situation. They had to drop
one branch Of their business and de-
pend upon the other branch. That
is introducing socialism on the in
stallment plan. At the end of five
years of state monopoly the state
auditor made//an examination into
the condition of the business of the
bureau and found that it was insol-
vent, owing half a million dollars.
Bureau Needed Investigating.
1t seems preposterous that state
be allowed to go on for so long
time without any investigation to
protect the insured. If it had been
a private company it would have had
to submit it's books to an examination
annually or oftener, if desired, to
make sure that it was solvent and
laying up funds with which to meet
f,,f do do in nf icnc 70.
When the auditor made his report
he recommended that provision be
made to cover the shortage for PEN
sions," which meant that the taxpay-
ers would be called upon to cover the
loss. He also recommended that
new system be adopted for calculat-
ing reserves SO that they will be suf
ficient to care for each claim with
out assessing future contributors to
the fund" That means that the
rate they had been Dragging about
was too low and that new and high
er rate would have to be charged or
the widows and orphans would have
to lose. During the six years ending
1918, $50 claims for injuries were
filed against the state that were alb
solutely rejected and no payments
were made on them. That was six
per cent of the claims filed. During
that period 1,S44 fatal accidents oc-
Cured, and in only 81 per cent of
those cases were payments made to
dependents. These figures are said
to be very high as compared with
the business of other states, and it all
indicates that the state of Washing
ton must have been very busy con-
testing claims-the very thing that
commercial companies had been &C
cused of doing, and that was one of
the main reasons assigned for enact
ing the law for the state insurance.
Now it appears that the state mana
ger of insurance has spent much of
his time and money campaigning the
state to tell the people what great
thing state insurance is, and while
he was doing this, the accidents were
happening, the. claims were being
filed, and only part of them were be-
ing attended to. In nearly all the
states where such laws are passed,
large appropriations were made
from the state tax money to pay the
expense of operating the insurance
bureau from two to five years. 1t is
as if Bingham county should stake
somebody in the insurance business
for this county, Harvey Alfred, for
instance, and take enough money out
of the county taxes to pay his operat-
ing expenses for few years, and
then turn him loose without any SUI
pervision, to try out his insurance
scheme If we found him broke in
five years and possessing no money
to pay the widows and orphans in
families where the breadwinners had
been killed in accidents, then it
would be up to the people of the
county to levy a tax to put these
same widows and orphans on the