FARMERS' MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANIES.

BY R. E. SAWYER, Tiro, O.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Galion, Crawford County, February 1 and 2, 1899.]

Mutual insurance companies have been organized to furnish protection to the farmers at actual cost and to protect them from the sometimes exhorbitant charges of joint stock companies.

The last report of the State Commissioner of Insurance shows over one hundred mutual companies now operating in this state, and that the cost of insurance in these companies has been much less than in stock companies. These mutual companies are now carrying in risks nearly one hundred and thirty-five million dollars worth of farm property and represent the property of thousands of farmsrs throughout the state. Careful estimates show a net saving to the farmers of about two hundred and eighty thousand dollars per year, when compared with cost of insurance in old line companies What a magnificent showing when we consider the fact that the first mutual company was organized less than twenty-five years ago, and many of them have been started within recent years. It is no longer an experiment; it is a success and has served as a lesson in economy.

The financial conditions through which the farmers have been passing, the success of the earliest formed mutual companies and the doubling of rates in stock companies have had much to do with the organization of our younger mutual companies. Statistics prove beyond a doubt that stock companies have been making plenty of money by insuring farm property, and by turning the tables the farmers can save plenty of money by protecting themselves.

Mutual companies have been so successful, securing the very best risks in the territories in which they are located, that some stock companies have abandoned farm risks and others are contemplating doing the same. And why? Simply because they are compelled to take the poorer classes of risks. They announce, however, that it is because of the isolation of farm property and the lack of facilities for putting out fires when such do occur, but, mind you, before mutual companies existed the isolation was the very reason they gave for taking desirable farm property. Their argument seems to be too flexible to have much weight. If there is any "doctrine of probabilities" that will apply to joint stock companies the same can be applied to mutual companies. If in order to secure certain profits, pay certain salaries and adjust an average of losses, it is necessary to fix a certain rate for every one hundred dollars insured, as a premium, then by reducing the salaries, throwing out the profits and securing payment for a small average of losses, you will find that the "probabilities" are that you are saving just about one-half of your money.

Following this doctrine mutual companies are managed with greater economy, the salaries and fees are paid more on a basis of farm wages and prices of staple farm products and the officers are just as honest and capable as any that are secured in stock companies.

Statistics further show that about two dollars out of every four dollars of premiums paid by members of stock companies go to agents, officers and as declared dividends on stock, while not more than two dollars out of every fifteen go to pay the running expenses of a mutual company.

No better example of a successful company can be given than the Crawford County Mutual. It was one of the first mutual companies organized in the State and stands third today with five million eight hundred and thirty thousand five hundred dollars at risk. The average annual assessment for the past twenty-one

years has been about one dollar and fifty cents for every one thousand dollars insured.

By careful estimates we find that fully one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been saved the members of this company, and while seeking insurance at cost we have also found insurance that insured; also insurance that gave no profits to any one and all money has been kept by the members until needed.

The time is past when individuals can afford to carry their own risks. To say the least, it would be a desperate piece of business, and when losses occur for such lucky-go-easy people, but little sympathy is felt by the general public. No farmer should stake the worth of his buildings, their contents, etc., in luck.. A person with ample means to rebuild in case of fire loss could easily carry insurance, and the farmer whose means are limited and who would not have the ready money to rebuild should lose no time in securing insurance in some good company.

-

We hold no grudge or personal animosity against any old line company the most of them are secure. They have accumulated vast sums of money and hence are doing a safe, sure business. But this we do find to be the facts: A better class of risks are secured in mutual companies, every officer is a member thereof and has the good of the company at heart, the risks are taken at a low estimate of three-fourths of their actual cash value, hence over-valuations are not of frequent occurrence; perpetual insurance with re-valuations every ten years saves much to the members in policy and premium fees; explicit confidence in the management is maintained throughout the entire membership' by a rigid enforcement of the rules and laws governing the same.

Members of mutual companies should ever strive to protect themselves as well as the companies from loss by fire or lightning. His own well being and protection is the first prerequisite of a good farmer. Recent reports show that lightning risks in the country are nearly six times larger than in cities and towns and the reason given is that a larger amount of metal roofing, spouting, iron pipe and electric wires are in cities and towns than in the country. A good argument then, fellow farmers, for metal roofs and lightning rods. For the better protection of mutual companies, farm life and property, the buildings should be well yet cheaply rodded. Metal strips, or even barbed or galvanized wire, passing over the roof of the house or barn and properly connected with moist earth make a good, safe, yet cheap conductor of lightning and one that any farmer can put on without the outlay of a single dollar. All the means at hand should be employed to provide protection for all life and property on the farm.

AT OUR BEST.

BY MRS. IMOGENE C. PLUMLY, Little Hocking, O.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Coolville, Athens County, November 30 and December 1, 1898.]

Living is the principal thing man does while passing through this earthly existence; yet, strange to say, many do not even approach to the possibilities that life offers, comparatively few are at their best, physically, mentally, morally. The farmer's occupation is supposed to be a healthful one, as he receives plenty of exercise in the open air, and exercise and air we know are essentials to health; but the farmer and his family spend a great part of their time indoors and hence they often err by not having good ventilation. There are miles of pure air

FARMERS' MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANIES.

BY R. E. SAWYER, Tiro, O.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Galion, Crawford County, February 1 and 2, 1899.]

Mutual insurance companies have been organized to furnish protection to the farmers at actual cost and to protect them from the sometimes exhorbitant charges of joint stock companies.

The last report of the State Commissioner of Insurance shows over one hundred mutual companies now operating in this state, and that the cost of insurance in these companies has been much less than in stock companies. These mutual companies are now carrying in risks nearly one hundred and thirty-five million dollars worth of farm property and represent the property of thousands of farmsrs throughout the state. Careful estimates show a net saving to the farmers of about two hundred and eighty thousand dollars per year, when compared with cost of insurance in old line companies What a magnificent showing when we consider the fact that the first mutual company was organized less than twenty-five years ago, and many of them have been started within recent years. It is no longer an experiment; it is a success and has served as a lesson in economy.

The financial conditions through which the farmers have been passing, the success of the earliest formed mutual companies and the doubling of rates in stock companies have had much to do with the organization of our younger mutual companies. Statistics prove beyond a doubt that stock companies have been making plenty of money by insuring farm property, and by turning the tables the farmers can save plenty of money by protecting themselves.

Mutual companies have been so successful, securing the very best risks in the territories in which they are located, that some stock companies have abandoned farm risks and others are contemplating doing the same. And why? Simply because they are compelled to take the poorer classes of risks. They announce, however, that it is because of the isolation of farm property and the lack of facilities for putting out fires when such do occur, but, mind you, before mutual companies existed the isolation was the very reason they gave for taking desirable farm property. Their argument seems to be too flexible to have much weight. If there is any "doctrine of probabilities" that will apply to joint stock companies the same can be applied to mutual companies. If in order to secure certain profits, pay certain salaries and adjust an average of losses, it is necessary to fix a certain rate for every one hundred dollars insured, as a premium, then by reducing the salaries, throwing out the profits and securing payment for a small average of losses, you will find that the "probabilities" are that you are saving just about one-half of your money.

Following this doctrine mutual companies are managed with greater economy, the salaries and fees are paid more on a basis of farm wages and prices of staple farm products and the officers are just as honest and capable as any that are secured in stock companies.

Statistics further show that about two dollars out of every four dollars of premiums paid by members of stock companies go to agents, officers and as declared dividends on stock, while not more than two dollars out of every fifteen go to pay the running expenses of a mutual company.

No better example of a successful company can be given than the Crawford County Mutual. It was one of the first mutual companies organized in the State and stands third today with five million eight hundred and thirty thousand five hundred dollars at risk. The average annual assessment for the past twenty-one

years has been about one dollar and fifty cents for every one thousand dollars insured.

By careful estimates we find that fully one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been saved the members of this company, and while seeking insurance at cost we have also found insurance that insured; also insurance that gave no profits to any one and all money has been kept by the members until needed.

The time is past when individuals can afford to carry their own risks. To say the least, it would be a desperate piece of business, and when losses occur for such lucky-go-easy people, but little sympathy is felt by the general public. No farmer should stake the worth of his buildings, their contents, etc., in luck.. A person with ample means to rebuild in case of fire loss could easily carry insurance, and the farmer whose means are limited and who would not have the ready money to rebuild should lose no time in securing insurance in some good company.

We hold no grudge or personal animosity against any old line company- the most of them are secure. They have accumulated vast sums of money and hence are doing a safe, sure business. But this we do find to be the facts: A better class of risks are secured in mutual companies, every officer is a member thereof and has the good of the company at heart, the risks are taken at a low estimate of three-fourths of their actual cash value, hence over-valuations are not of frequent occurrence; perpetual insurance with re-valuations every ten years saves much to the members in policy and premium fees; explicit confidence in the management is maintained throughout the entire membership' by a rigid enforcement of the rules and laws governing the same.

Members of mutual companies should ever strive to protect themselves as well as the companies from loss by fire or lightning. His own well being and protection is the first prerequisite of a good farmer. Recent reports show that lightning risks in the country are nearly six times larger than in cities and towns and the reason given is that a larger amount of metal roofing, spouting, iron pipe and electric wires are in cities and towns than in the country. A good argument then, fellow farmers, for metal roofs and lightning rods. For the better protection of mutual companies, farm life and property, the buildings should be well yet cheaply rodded. Metal strips, or even barbed or galvanized wire, passing over the roof of the house or barn and properly connected with moist earth make a good, safe, yet cheap conductor of lightning and one that any farmer can put on without the outlay of a single dollar. All the means at hand should be employed to provide protection for all life and property on the farm.

AT OUR BEST.

BY MRS. IMOGENE C. PLUMLY, Little Hocking, O.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Coolville, Athens County, November 30 and December 1, 1898.]

Living is the principal thing man does while passing through this earthly existence; yet, strange to say, many do not even approach to the possibilities that life offers, comparatively few are at their best, physically, mentally, morally. The farmer's occupation is supposed to be a healthful one, as he receives plenty of exercise in the open air, and exercise and air we know are essentials to health; but the farmer and his family spend a great part of their time indoors and hence they often err by not having good ventilation. There are miles of pure air

surrounding our earth, yet our houses are closed so carefully we are often compelled to breathe vitiated atmosphere. In the sick room, often, every door and window is shut, and one going in can tell in a moment that the oxygen is in a great measure consumed, making it much harder for the patient to battle with disease by excluding that life-giving element.

In buildings where many people are gathered together, unless there is fresh air constantly pouring in, we breathe the same again and again and it is this poison taken into our lungs that causes the headaches, fainting, colds and heartfailures so frequently developed in such assemblies. Our Creator has made laws to govern our physical as well as our moral and mental natures and has endowed us with a sense of pain to warn us instantly when we transgress many of them; but others, like the breathing of impure air, it takes longer to recognize, although they may be as detrimental to the health. In our houses, night and day, in the churches, in all places of meeting, care should be taken that at no time we lack for that one thing which no man can buy or sell, which is free to all, and without which we can not exist pure air.

Colonel Roosevelt was so delicate when a child that he could not be sent to the public schools. His great desire was to be strong, to be able to endure. He spent much of his time out of doors, took long walks by the seashore, tented on the plains and climbed the mountains of the west, fitting himself physically as well as mentally to be a pride to the American Republic. All that has been told of him shows him to be a man at his best in every sense, honest, moral and fearless.

Physical culture should be taught in the schools. To sit, stand and walk properly, to breathe the pure air, will develop many a dull and puny child into a strong and intelligent adult. I have seen young people acquire the habit of not standing at their full height and persist in it until they became round shouldered, because they were taller than their playfellows. Better stand erect, boys and girls, and let yourselves develop in whatever direction nature intended if you become as tall as Og, king of Bashan.

Man is not the strongest animal on the earth, yet he is the dominating power because brain surpasses mere strength; but the brain needs strengthening and developing as well as the body, and will brighten like good tools by constant use.

In an address to the farmers not long ago a certain speaker stated that we as a class are not represented in the legislatures and congress as we should be; that where there are four or five farmers, lawyers are numbered by the hundreds. That is one side of the question. On the other hand you will acknowledge that it takes men of education to fill an able place in our legislative bodies where laws are made, and one who has studied law is particularly adapted for the position. Again, where do the country boys who get an education go? Do they all stay on the farms?

If a young man attends a college of letters, arts or sciences, he generally enters one of the professions. If he takes a course in a business college he enters into mercantile life; a medical college, he becomes a doctor; if he studies dentistry, his vocation thereafter is filling and extracting teeth. Why, even let a boy attend the district school until he can pass a county examination, and he will spend more time in teaching than in working on a farm. Many a boy does not get even the benefit of our common schools. When he becomes old enough to help on the farm, instead of starting him to school at the beginning of the fall term, he is kept at home until the wheat is in, corn husked, and fall work generally done; by this time he has lost two. or three months of school besides in a measure his interest. Then in the spring he must stay at home to help get in the crops. Two or three years like this and the boy leaves