The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-02-27

from individual interest and fairness
following study of the subject.
What / want to have us do now
is to make a study of things in our
state and county governments that
are new and different, and which may
or may not be safe to follow. shall
not criticise the work of any political
party prefer to criticise whatever
seems wrong, regardless of what
party is responsible for it. If my
own party goes wrong on anything,
and it does, pelt them harder than
any other party, because l am more
sensitive about their blunders and
if they are sincere in their preten-
sions | know they will get right
when they see their mistakes, and II
they are not sincere l. want to pelt
all the pretense out of them and get
down to real merit if there is any real
merit left in them, and | am sure
there is.
An Upheaval Coming
There is going to be great up
heaval in Idaho this year due to ad-
justments following the war. The
upheaval in the campaign of 1918
had it's restraints because of the war
being still in progress, but that re-
straint is removed now, and every
body with a crouch will feel free to
thrash it out. Everybody with lie
to tell will feel free to tell it, and
everybody that likes to believe rough
stuff in preference to believing some
| thing reasonable and sensible, will
have his opportunity to soak himself
full of it. What people need is some
means of finding out a few things
and knowing whether they are true
or false, and there are ways of doing
this. For example, there are people
in the capitol building at Boise who
advocate having the state go into the
accident insurance business in COM
petition with private companies, and
take the name of the state to operate
a department of insurance in COM
petition with private enterprises, but
without any guaranty by the state;
| had also heard that some of these
same people were in favor of enact
| ing laws that would forbid anybody
from taking accident insurance in
any private company, thus forcing
everybody to patroniZe the state in
surance bureau and thereby make 1t
a monopoly, but not guaranteed by
the state. | had heard too, that they
were in favor of compelling people to
take accident insurance whether they
wanted to or not, and not allowing
them any choice as to where they
shall get it or who they will rely upon
for such service.
Did Not Believe 1t
| did not quite believe that. |
thought there must be some mistake
about it, and | went to see. | hunted
up the department of insurance and
sought out the chief, Mr.. D. w.
Church for many years resident and
banker of Pocatello. | asked Mr.
Church if he believed it was right
for the state to engage in the insur-
ance business, and he said he thought
it was. | asked him if he was in
favor of making it monopoly and
barring private companies from the
field and making them stop doing in
surance business in Idaho, and he re-
piled that he was. | asked him if he
was in favor of making every en-
ployer carry accident insurance for
himself and his employees whether he
wanted to or not, and compelling him
to buy it of the state when he wanted
to buy it of some reliable private
company, and he said he was. He
said he wanted to see the state have
a complete monopoly and stop all
the others from doing business.
Found it Was True
| was a good deal surprised at that |
and told him so. He sat in his big |
swivel chair and rested his feet on
the deck of his desk, and smoked a |
very strong pipe. / told him that if |
| had spent the best years of my life
learning the insurance business, and
building up service that was af-
fording protection to the public, |
would resent having the state legis-
late me out of business, and tell me
to close up my office and go out and
learn some other trade while they ex-
perimented in running my business
for me in the name of the state.
Then I asked him if he thought it
was fair, or if he thought 1t was car
wing out the spirit of American in
'titutions, and he said that whatever
t was he was in favor of it.
l told him that If the state has a
light to destroy a mans insurance
business and take it over for itself,
t has the right to destroy mans
newspaper business and taking it
way from him. If the state has
light to tell man what insurance
o buy and where to buy, it has an
qual RICH to- tell him what news
'apers to subscribe for and tell him
where to send his subscription
money. I said I hoped that if the
lay ever came when he could tell
ne where to buy insurance l would
re able to compel him to subscribe
or my newspaper whether he wanted
or not. He might get more good
ut Of some other paper, and he
night be much better satisfied with
ONE other mans newspaper service,
ut wanted the privilege Of making