The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-09-28

surance companies in Montana were
$42200107. They have no investment
here at all. Johnnie is alarmed about
the decision of the supreme court.
That insurance is interstate COM
merce, and subject to national con-
troll; he fears these taxes may there
by be lost. National control for 100
years of railroads has not yet absolved
the railroads from paying state taxes
The insurance barons enjoy in Mon
tana near immunity from taxes. The
Montana Power company about whose
taxes there is much deserved COM
plant from the small rate payers, en-
/ joys nothing like the favored position
of insurance. The Power Company
does have SO millions of property In
the state The insurance companies
have probably $500 worth of blank
contracts here, printed elsewhere.
Whenever they lend any money here,
they get interest in addition to their
premium tribute. If the Power Com
which it was selling somthing for So
million dollars annually more than it
gave back to its customers, it would
feel lucky to escape with taxes of
SO million dollars the year. AS a
taxpayer in nine counties, | would
be glad if every insurance company
withdraw from the state tomorrow,
and never came back. Some years
ago the most enlightened country in
South America, Uruguay, nationalized
every insurance company, and has
been happier ever since.
In 1869, Walter Bageshot published
an essay Physics and Politics.. He
first announced that in politics Che
would now use the word 'economics)
scientific observation would reveal at
work laws Tor forces) almost as pre-
dictable of expected results as the
laws of mechanics or physics. Here
perhaps is the origin of planned econ
omy, now changing human means of
subsistence the world over. The fail
ure to follow planned economy" and
choose a correct one, inevitably leads
to over-production (lack of mass buy
ing power), business depression unem-
ployment, hunger, squalor, agrarian
and labor revolt, followed by Fascism,
the man on horseback dictatorship,
WAR Overproduction is of course a
1t never exists. There
never were more good things pro-
duced than the masses would have and
enjoy, IF THEY HAD THE PUR-
CHASING POWER
The entire public of Montana buys
insurance in some form. We are al
most all customers of that commodity.
For Sc years the life insurance BUSH
ness has grown to be more of an I'M
controlled racket in the United States
The 300 per cent surplus of intake
(premiums received) over outgo back
to customer in losses paid is about
the same for 35 years in which our
state has kept a record.
Their premium rates are based on
tables Sc years old; and
hese tables did not then show the
life expectancy of selected medically
examined men and women, as risks
These ancient obsolete tables were
BASED on statistics Of life and deaths.
If a cross-section OF New Workers for
he American table, of residents Of
Carlisle, Scotland, for the Carlisle
fable.
The average life Of men SO years
ago in New York was less than 3S
years.
Advance in medical curative and
knowledge in sc years is
indeed miraculous. Sc years ago
Pasteur and antiseptic surgery were
unheard Of In my memory he an
his cure for rabies. l re-
member before antitoxin whole fam
lies were wiped out frem diphtheria
have seen 900 cases of smallpox in
Butte in one winter.
Plumbers, steamfitters, good hous-
ng, warm clothes, good shoes, sani-
airy schools, pure water supplies, a
diet, fruit in midwinter, all
lave helped lengthen the span of hui
nan life. Now from SO years the
Lverage of life is about so for men
md women in the Temperate Zone
n America.
Frequently Montana is at the top in
human longevity; some years we have
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