The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-01-17
WE ARE ALL IN A
PREDICAMENT

SOc1allStlc followers at Boise pro-
posed law known as tse workmen's
compensation law and got it intro
duced providing that it should be OPP
Grated by the state and not by pri-
vate companies as other insurance
was being handled. /
The workmen's compensation idea
was all right, but the proposition to
have the state 60 in to commercial
enterprise was another matter. This
bunch of newcomers who neither
employed labor nor paid taxes to any
appreciate extent, proposed to take
the taxpayers money to start great
| insurance association and to get the
support of the farmer representa-
tives in the legislature, they excepted
the farmers from carrying such in
surance altho farming is Hazardous
occupation. The employers of labor
pretty generally wanted the work
mems compensation law in some
form and the agricultural represent
tatives were all willing that it should
be launched by the state government.
It did not affect the farmers and
only applied to the soulless corpora
tons and individuals employing
labor for commercial purposes, not
including agricultural pursuits, and
having been told that everybody was
wrong, but the farmers, they easily
secured enough support to pass the
law.
Having provided for the state to
go into this commercial venture and
providing that the governor might
appoint the. manager to launch this
vast enterprise, it naturally followed
that some politician who didn't have
much else to do and was depending
on an appointment, some man who is
not practical enough to have de-
veloped a business of his own and
made it success, was looking for a
job. The man appointed to launch
this enterprise was Charles O..
Broken, newspaper writer, poll
tician and disturber. He knew
nothing about the insurance bust
ness, but he launched the biggest in
surance enterprise in the state, hav-
, ing the peoples money to pay the
! bills.
When people patronize this state
insurance association the first act
necessary is to pay in some money.
There were no old claims hanging
; over to be paid monthly so there was
plenty of money in the treasury
from the first, for the state appro-
priated big block of money and
then all the patrons Immediately be-
gan to pay in money. Therefore at
, the end of two years the commits
: sioner of insurance was able to make
| very fattering report to the COVER
: nor. By the time another two years
: had passed, Broken was tired of this
POLITICAL job and was ready to quit,
, there was change of administration
and another governor appointed an
' other insurance manager, in this
l case also selecting a man who knew
nothing at all about insurance. This
man was D. w. Church, a banker
of Pocatello and is still serving in
that capacity, learning perhaps,
something of his job as he goes
along, but learning it at the peoples
ovNense. Thus Encouragement of
oil oIdLS WCHt
into with far less justification than
the United States went into the rail-
road business during the war and
that was generally considered to
have been a rank failure, justified
only by the exigencies of war when
expenses did not count
Caught in Their Own Trap
During the years this insurance
business has been in effect, union
labor has taken hand in the affair
Of the state and where it had the
power it has dictated numerically
the conditions of labor or rather the
conditions of employment. It's rule
has been so autocratic and so de-
!tructive that it brought the con-
demnation of the public upon itself
so hard that it is now in bad repute.
Union labor is new directing affairs
~ poico f. oct he state insurance
law amended so that everybody en-
ploving labor has to patronize the
state insurance department and bar
ring private insurance companies
from doing any more business at all
in that line of insurance. They also
propose to extend the workmen's
compensation law. to the agricultural
pursuits arguing that they are also
hazardous They did not know that
when the law was enacted, they have
just discovered it in these recent
years. In other words, they use the
farmers to put the socialistic insur-
ance into effect with other people
and in the meantime a sentiment has
been worked up saying that agri-
cultural pursuits are as hazardous as
newspaper work or manufacturing
or clerking in store and that there
is no reason why the farmers should
not carry insurance like other peO-
pie, therefore these other people are
in favor of making the farmer stand
up and carry insurance, 50 union
labor is now using this other element
the employers of the state to put the
same institution into effect against
the farmer. The farmer is in the
same predicament now that these
other folks were when the law was
first proposed. 1t is another case of
whipping both ends against the mid
die. When private enterprise has to
cease it's activities in the state, when
everybody has to patronize the state
Nfw~