Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-10-17

carriers in every compensation area,
but according to the last report of
the insurance department which was
compiled before my assumption of
office. such is not the case in Maine,
due to several causes.
My whole address was based ex-
clusively upon this theme: If insur-
ance carriers were getting barely
enough to paw losses from present
rates. with a twenty per centuIn in
crease. what could they do in the
future when adjusted to Debated
schedules.
No fully sane individual expects
that wages will always be maintain
ed at $3.50 or $3.50 per day.
Such conditions mean under
production and a low purchasing
power for money itself. c.-...
If 1t be true, as recently stated IN
the American Press. that able-bodied
men are working in Germany for
less than $1.00 in gold per week. it
| behooves all good Americans to be-
stir themselves or Europe will more
than supply the shortage.
Congress NAV build tariff walls
about the country at every session,
but 1t cannot withhold the importa-
ton of goods made abroad at one
fiftieth of their cost here.
In 1887 carpenters in Maine re.
ceived $50 per day IN Continental
currency. but they could not get 1t
ficult to believe that cheap money
was ever an advantage.
Recently in Germany 100000
marks were refused in payment for
"a single bushel of potatoes. When
provisions are high and wages are
high the whole family must work or
starve.
II unemployment should develop
today throughout our country, how
long could its people exist on the
present scale Of prices for neces-
stiles?
1t is only reasonable to expect and
prepare for deRation sometime and
it must be admitted that it only took
a small part of 100 years for carpen-
ters' wages to fall from $50 to 81 per
day.
Therefore, I stated that compensa =
ton insurance carriers must antici-
nate the future. for If banking pro-
fits are inadequate, under existing
compensation requirements and leg
islative tendencies, they could hardly
hope for any increased underwriting
proceeds from anything but Increased
imitation.
AS far as the literal statement that
81 did not know where the cost-plus
contract was invented-unless it was
in He'll" 1 still believe the subject
justified the emphatic use of this
term.
1t was adopted to attract especial
attention TO a serious phase IN IN
dustry, indicative of imitation.
20, III n
the human race has striven to find
all that is best in religion, in morals,
in law. and in business-and only
in comparatively modern times has it
resurrected the cost-plus idea.
| do not wish to be misunderstood
or misquoted.
There are some true men in this
world who will do an honest day s
work without watching. There are
honest contractors who want to be
fair. But this cost-plus form of con-
tract. in my opinion, opens the door
to inactivity. dishonesty and graft.
1t suggests a premium for delay
and unnecessary material and lg-
nores the whole merit feature of eff
ficiency.
Rarely, If ever does the individual
resort to it in his private undertake
ings.
There is the opportunity in this UNI
valued and unlimited compact. which
some may not take but others can
not resist. to crafty the inherent
avarice of the human heart.
SO much for what / intended to
say. I suppose Mark Twain would
have remarked: ut is easier to mean
what you say than to say what you
mean"
A great English poet in perpetual
ing an ancient Saxon axiom said:
and he who strives to touch star,
oft stumbles at a straw"
Without criticism of the views of
Mayor Mclean or of his administra-
ton. am pleased with this privilege
of condemning the cost-plus plan in
singulo eft toto.
WILLIAM d. SPENCER.
Bangor, Me, Oct. 10, 1928.