The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1944-05-05
|C0-0PERAT
| VS.. OLD Line
INSURANCE
BY PAUL FOUTCH

saying to many men, You work an
earn bread, and we will Leaf it, -
Lincoln
That is still the one essential prol
leme before all farmers and all worl
ers and their families. Both group
lproduce in goods and services all tn
needs of living the full life for every
one in our nation. but many mi
lions of them never get their shar
because a small number of our cit
zens separate the cream of our grea
productive power and only return t,
us the skim-milk
How is this possible in a great de
mocracy? Lincoln also said, "a gov
eminent of the people, by the people
and for the people," But this grea
political democracy is now dominated
and controlled by an economic dig
archy.
i Let's examine two branches of this
loligarchy and attempt to find some
remedies for our predicament The
life insurance system and the banking
system Shall we bring these prob
lens to our own locality. :. +. to Mon
tana?
Quoting from Lowndes Maury's arti
Gle in the December 3, 1943 Peoples
Voice, taken from Montana State In.
surance Report: "The citizens of this
state in the years 1888 to 1912 inclu-
sive paid lin those five years to out
| of state insurance companies) premi-
ums amounting to more than forty-two
and one half million dollars In the
same five years we received back not
quite sixteen million dollars. That
leaves a balance of almost twenty-six
and three quarters million dollars
(paid out in just five years. of our
money that has not returned to us. It
probably never will because one of
our great supreme court justices made
this statement: 1.-THE life insurance
reserves are the greatest menace to
this country" He made this state
ment after a long and exhaustive
study of the standard life insurance
system of this country and he made
it twenty-eight years ago. Our TWEEN
ty-six and three quarters million in
five years are now added to our pre-
since the above statement was made.
Mr.. Maury made a further statement
that adds sharp thorn to our crown
of thorns. 1t is ''That no standard
life insurance company in 20 years
has paid any current (annual) losses
out of reserves.
Quoting from the North Dakota F.
U. Service Association pamphlet 60
operative Insurance and Credit I'm
IONS" we find that these reserves are
invested first in mortgage notes, in
dustrial transportation, utility bonds,
and U. S. government bonds. Look
ing further in this pamphlet we find
five companies out of three hundred
and sixty-fiye standard companies con-
troll more than half of all the assets
of all of these companies. These five
boards of directors have one hundred
and thirty-five individuals. These
same 1875 men are on the boards of |
more than 100 other insurance COM
panies, 145 big banks, and 534 indus !
rial, transportation, utility, real
estate, and other corporations. This |
means that these 1875 men are using
our money to finance and control |
all of the basic industries
which in turn exact further tribute
rom us every hour of our lives. We
said "our money" but we mean twas |
,ur money" because we do not own
,r control any of this vast system.
The largest insurance company is
'wning and operating over 1000 farms
n the U. S. We find that 1870 of
I'll insurance sold in the u S. lapses.
There are many more proofs, but
ct us see what we can do:
/. We have organized our own CO.
operative national legal reserve COM
'any :. where we can get our needed
insurance at actual cost
g. Let us continue to pay the same
mount of money for premiums that
70 nave DCCu Out VI lue Sldle
but let us take our share that we
ave ben donating to the big reserves
nd put it into credit unions that we
rganize in every community. This
vay we can keep this money at home
here we can borrow it from our COM
ION pool Credit union) pay our in
crest payments to ourselves to help
lcrease this common fund instead of
ending both the principal and in
crest out where we can never use it
gain.
We are successfully doing business
)r ourselves in other branches of
ldustry and commerce, such as our
Il stations, grain elevators, livestock
These are the result of
omplete democracy, political and eco
omic. They are, of, by and for the
sople. We must follow through and
lid our insurance programs and our
nding agencies in the same way and
the same time. We have built them
r others. Now we must build our
vn else the insurance companies and
inks that we have donated to 1876
en- will be used to completely en-
ave us and establish fascism right
IRE.
What could the twenty-six and three
larters million dollars that we sent
it of the state in five years have
me for us as operating capital, had
2 kept it here in our own credit
lions? Would that amount available
borrow from have helped US any
lring 1880 to 1886? How many