The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-03-02

" collect in case Of fire, and a ma
who carried insurance general
, looked upon the investment as a dea
~ loss il the policy expired without hi
y having a fire. The modern way O
y looking at 1t is to consider that tn
n premium paid for the policy went t
% pay losses of other people who ha
d fires. and that without having a vas
y number of people carrying insuranc
Is none could have the protection an,
IS the security which a policy affords
d 1t used to be considered that tn
It young man who took life insurance
# was losing his money and ought Il
= wait till he was middle-aged whel
It there was more prospect of death
n They forgot that his annual pre-
S miums went to pay death claims il
e other homes, and that by taking on
|, insurance when he was young he no
s only had insurance all thru his career
n but secured it at much lower rate
: than if he waited and started at mid
d die life. Insurance companies vie
a with each other now days in seeing
how quickly they can pay claims, and
by serving their clients generously
: they build up good will and increase
their business.
Coming Closer
Home
Ten or twelve years ago mutual
insurance company was organized in
Bingham county for the purpose of
writing fire insurance for farmers
and, none other. The considered that
if they carried policies on large
number of buildings in a town or
village, one fire might wipe out all
of them and make heavy loss that
would bankrupt little company, but
that by combining their operations en-
tirely to farm property, the risk of
having two or more places wiped out
| by one fire at one time was slight.
Small losses like the burning of
single farm house and barn, could
be met by the mutual company as
they occurred, and no great risk
| would be taken, which seems correct
reasoning.
But the business manager of this
company in his enthusiasm to do
good job without putting much cap
ital into the enterprise, went to I'M
fair and unreasonable limits. If he
had some printing done, he would
appeal to the priter to do the job
for him at as low a price as possible,
because this was mutual company
and was not operating for profit, but
merely for mutual benefit If at the
end of year he wanted to let the |
public know what a successful year
they had had, he would prepare his
annual financial report and 60 to a
newspaper in his home town and ask
him to publish his report free of
charge and as a news item, to tell
the people what it was possible to
achieve in mutual insurance. The
publisher, always anxious to perform
good service and to place a fell
low-tOwnsman, would consent and !
thereby the company would get free
advertising such as would cost a COM
mercial company perhaps $500 to
get published. The manager of the !
mutual company would then go to |
each of the other publishers in his
own town and get a similar service |
because the other publisher had |
given the free service. Then he
would send marked copies to publish
ers in other towns up and down the
line and ask them to give space to
the report because all the papers in
his own town had done so-it being
such worthy cause.
For a number of years this plan
worked, and hundreds of dollars
worth of free advertising was OBJ
tanned for the mutual company that
was not operating for profit, but
merely for what help the policy hold
ers could be to one another. In other
words they were getting fire insur-
ance for low rate because of the
donations made by the printers and
and perhaps the livery
man and every other firm that rend-
cred service for him was prevailed
upon to donate something for the
same reasons that were put up to the
printers and publishers. Then they
got hoggish and began to ask the
publishers to give them editorial
comment to further boost their bust
less and when the managers of COM
nercial insurance companies began
o reply to the one-sided comments,
he latter were charged commercial
ates for the space they used, and
he manager of the mutual company
.sked, as usual, to be allowed space
rec. That set the publishers to
linking, with the result that they
nalyzed the whole one-sided affair
nd quit giving free advertising to
ne firm and making competitors pay
or the same kind of service. When
he mutual insurance company goes
lto the open market and pays for
s goods and service the same as :
ther people, they have to put up
heir rates to create an income to pay
heir honest bills just about like
Their people. There isn't any good
easOn why a bunch Of any class of
eople should combine and 60 out
skiing for free goods or free service
lst because they want to save money
the expense of somebody else.
nybody could make a good showing
low expenses and make it appear
lat others charged too much, il
ley could carry on their work or
lsiness for year or a few years
n charity service and then make
leir report show that the expenses
that period were the only legiti-
ate and necessary expenses charge