Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1921.
CROP INSURANCE TAKES
GAMBLE OUT OF FARMING
Big Firm To Begin Writing Policies This Year To
Protect Against Loss On Operations
For Season
No more crop losses for farmers
of Sumter county, regardless of
weather or market conditions.
At least that it what is promised
by Herbert Hawkins, local insur
ance agent, who announces that the
Hartford Fire Insurance company,
one of the oldest and biggest con
cerns in the world, will embark in
the crop insurance business in earn
est this year, after a trial period,
and that its benefits will be available
to all farmers who can comply with
the requirements—which means that
the company will be somewhat dis
criminating in accepting risks.
The policies, which will be written
after the crop is planted and through
the ground, and expire upon the ma
turing and marketing of the crop,
Will protect the holder against fi
nancial loss for his year’s operations,
reimbursing him to the amount of
the policy for the difference between
the cost of making his crop and the
amount the crop produced is actual
ly worth. This wil linclude fertilizer,
labor, seed, and other items enter
ing into that cost.
Takes Out Gamble.
It is something entirely new in
American farm operations, and
promises to be revolutionary in its
effects and benefits, removing farm
ing from a gamble to a certainty
either of making a profit or of break
ing each year. Last year experi-,
mental policies were written in vari
ous sections of Georgia. Because of!
climatic and market conditions, it is!
said, the company had to pay on ev-|
ery one. Sam Brown, a prominent!
farmer of Albany, collected SII,OOO
on his policy, it is said, and other
farmers were likewise reimbursed
for their losses.
It is expected that the crop insur
ance plan will appeal strongly to
bankers who finance planters, as it
will make the borrower who utilizes
it always able to pay his indebted
ness, regardless of his crop results.
This feature will appeal especially
this year, it is believed, following
an adverse season.
Rates to Be Announced.
The rates which will be charged
for this kind of insurance are not |
yet known here, but are expected
within two weeks, after which time
policies will be generally available.
Writing in the Atlanta Journal not
long ago of the crop insurance ex
periment last year, Ralph Smith said:
Returning to Atlanta, after an ab
sence of several days, Governor-elect
Thomas W. Hardwicck lamented to
friends upon the deplorable state of
his farm, in Washington county,
whence he had been to salvage what
he could.
I breedenT
I SOLD EVE RY WHERE
Sold By HOWELL’S PHARMACY
GIDDINGS’ RHEUMATIC
REMEDY.
Costs Nothing to Try, if Not Bene
sited. Sold bj
Murray’s Pharmacy
Carswell Drug Co.
Planters Seed and Drug Co.
AMERICUS CAMP, 202, WOOD
MEN OF THE WORLD.
" Meets every Wed
nesday night in the
W. 0. W. Hall. AU
visiting Sovereigns
are invited to meet with us.
C. J. CLARKE, C. C.
NAT LeMASTER, Clerk.
ja AMERICUS LODGE
/\\ NO. 13. F. &A. M.
Meets every second
and fourth Friday
v xnight at 7 o’clock.
E. J WITT, Worshipful Master.
S. L. HAMMOND, Sec’y.’
COMMANDERY MEETING.
DeMolay Conimandery. No. 5
Knights Templar, meets every third
Wednesday night at 8 o’clock. Al’
visiting Sir Knights have a cordial
invitation to ieet with us.
• W. F. SMITH. E. C.
FRANK J. PAYNE, Recorder.
M. B. COUNCIL LODGE, F. & A. M.
ga Meets . every first
and third Friday
nights. All visiting
brothers are invited
• X.',** * to attend.
HARMON SHUMAKE, W. M.
JOHN HARTZOG, Sec’y.
CHAPTER MEETING.
Wells Chapter. No. 42, Royal Arch
Masons, meets every first and third
Monday night at 7 o'clock. Visiting
companions will receive a cordial
welcome. „
WIBLE MARSHALL, H. P.
S. L. HAMMOND, Sec’y.
“It’s a total loss,” he said, and
■ might have completed the vernacular
| phrase had he not been interrupted
by John D. Little Little, his personal
I and political friend, who is also a
; farmer.
“My crops were insured, and I
haven’t lost a cent,” interposed Mr.
Little.
A look of incredulity that swept
the faces of the governor-elect and
others present gave way to one of
i interest, punctuated with admira
j tion for the speaker, as Mr. Little
enlightened them .with the statement
that he had been protected against
loss on hik plantations by a “crop in
vestment” policy in the Hartford Fire
Insurance company.
New Thing In U. S.
Mr Little’s complacent recitation
of how his crop insurance had re
lieved him of worrying during a trip
to Europe and protected him against
the vicissitudes of the weather and
the ravages of the boll weevil is the
Genesis of this story.
“Crop investment insurance” is a
new thing in America. Not one per
son in a thousand had dreamed of
such a thing in its practical aspects.
Not one in a million had the faintest
idea that in the state of Georgia,
throughout the South, and in fact, all
over the country today farmers are
cashing in on crop investment poli
cies they bought in the spring and
summer of 1920, when the skies were
bright and “everything was chicken.”
Hundreds of farmers in Georgia and
thousands scattered over the cotton
belt, from the lowlands of Texas and
Florida to the highlands of the Caro
linas, are realizing on crop insurance
they took out months ago when the
farmers were the favored class.
Among the relative few in widely
separated sections of the country who
are familiar with the Hartford’s ex
periment, the insurance is popularly
known by different names. In the
South, it is called “boll weevil insur
ance;” in the west, where wheat and
corn and oats are the money crops
and the grasshopper a pest, it is
known as “grasshopper insurance;”
and in the northwest, where long dry
spells are as common as they are
deadly to growing crops, they refer
to it as “drouth insurance.”
A* a matter of fact, it is neither
boll weevil, grasshopper, nor drouth
insurance at all. It is what the
Hartford calls it, and what its name
implies—crop investment insurance,
designed to protect farmers of a type
(modern, energetic and cosncien
tious) against the loss of labor and
investments in the soil by reason ot
the elements or the ravages of para
sites.
Others Protected.
The introduction of crop invest
ment insurance, a'l things considered,
in the year 1920, is iess remarkable
than the failure of some such loss
indemnifying insurance to make its
appearance years ago to guarantee
the creators of the nation’s wealth
against the uncertainty of their pur
suits. There has been for many
years fire, theft, burglar, plateglass,
amusement, automobile, live stock
and scores of other kinds of insur-
Kill That Cold With
CASCARA QUININE
FOR AND
Colds, Coughs La Grippe
w
Neglected Colds are Dangerous
Take no chances. Keep this standard remedy handy for the first sneeze.
Breaks up a cold in 24 hours Relieves
Grippe in 3 days—Excellent for Headache
Quinine in this form does not affect the head—Cascara is beet Tonic
Laxative —No Opiate in Hill’s.
ALL DRUGGISTS SELL IT
Farm Loans
Farm Loans in Any Amount Promptly Nego
tiated and Closed.
T. O. MARSHALL
36-38 PLANTERS BANK BLDG. AMERICUS. GEORGIA
We Are Now Prepared To Take On Some Realty Business. If You Rave At,
CITY PROPERTY OR FARM PROPERTY
w'or Sale list it with ua. We promise to get io behind it actively, and
roo service.
ALLISON REALTY COMPANY
123-124 Lamar Street Ground Floor Phone 2Ad er ># '
■•. • •
Polish Children Deeply Grateful
for Saving Gift of American Food
; 011HUK U_JKR ; -
j H SB?
Holiday or “play day" to school boys
.nd girls in Poland means marching in
procession and carrying an American
lag. Because they receive a daily meal
f good hot American food at their
noon recess, these children want to
how their gratitude to their bene fac
ers, and so they laboriously make our
dag to carry in a public march. They
have placed the stars in the wrong cor
ner an J they probably do not know the
good old traditions about our thirteen
colonies for which the stripes stand,
ance that have protected merchants
and manufacturers against the haz
ards of business. But the farmers,
whose labors feed and clothe the
world and whose pursuits ever have
been subjected to the uncertainty of
the elements, have of necessity risk
ed their all year after year, without
a scintilla of protection.
But the ice is broken. The business
of crop insurance is an uncharted
sea, but the Hartford’s initial experi
ment admittedly has opened up a
field of underwriting enterprise of
limitless possibikcies and potentiali
ties that cannot be estimated.
The success of crop insurance in
America will forever indemnify the
farmers of the nation against the
loss of their labor and investments
and will relegate to oblivion rhe sug
gestion of government guarantees on
the price of staple products. The talk
of a moratorium in rural districts
in such times of distress as are now
being experienced will be as absurd
as its suggestion «pven now is pre
posterous.
The Hartford Fire Insurnace com
pany embarked in the business of
crop insurance without ostentation.
No public announcement was made
of the new enterprise. No campaign
for business was inaugurated. It
was obvious to the insurance com
pany, as it may be to every thinking
person, that in a country whose crops
approximate in value $16,000,000,-
000 and embrace everything that will
grow in the ground, it would be fool
hardy to engage either generally or
extensively in a business whose re
sults had not been established by ex-
THE AMERICUS
but they are clear on the question of
who is their friend.
They have gone—a million of them in
all parts of Poland, day after day and
week after week since the Armistice—
to the kitchens of the American Relief
Administration European Children’s
Fund, and have been fed. They still
face starvation without their daily ra
tion of nourishing soup and cocoa from
the kitchens, but the resources availa
ble to the European Children’s Fund
will *'furnish the child feeding sta
tions with supplies only until January.
perience and the law of averages.
Began Cautiously
The Hartford, therefore, began its
experiment cautiously, and during
the first year has felt its way. The
company has met and mastered many
unforseen obstacles, and, on the
whole its experiences has strength
ened its belief in the practicability
of crop insurance. During the first
year, the company curbed its agents’
desire to write crop insurancce pro
miscuously and limited its indemnify
ing activities to certain seasons, cer
tain'erops and certain sections. Sev
eral thousand policies were written
in the South, of which several hun
dred were scattered throughout
Georgia. These policies, in the main,
insured the investments in cotton
crops, though in some instances, not
ably in Florida, the policies protect
ed vegetables.
Crop failures are general through
out the country, so that it would
seem, at first blush, bthat the Hart
ford selected an unfortunate time for
beginning its experiment in crop in
vestment insurance. Viewed solely
in a mercenary light, such probably
was the case but the dist cessing sea
son in the farming districts has de
veloped unforseen contingencies that
will prove invaluable in the perfect
ion of the business. It is the view
of persons familiar with inside de
tails that the exp?r ; enee of these
lessons more than compensates for
the money indemnities that have
been paid out.
In the South, during the first
stages of the experiment, the Ha-t
--ford wrote policies igatnst the cost
of the several operations essential to
the cultivation of cotton, with an al
lowance for the rental value of th'
land planted in cotton. The deprecia
tions of the boll weevil as a destruc
tive force and the influence of un
favorable elemental conditions on the
crop, all contributed to emphasize
the value of the cron investment pol
icies to the forehanded farmers who
paid the premiums and indemnified
themselves against loss.
Law of Averages.
The Hartford Firt* Insurance com
pany did not jump headlong into the
business of crop investment insur
ance. It began to blaze its trail as
a pioneer in the business only’ after
years of study and investigation by
experts. The company is one of the
largest-and most conservative insti
tutions in America. The law of av
erages is the con+rol’ing influence
in the insurance business, and the
law of averages, as apnlied to coHon
and other crons, was the comtrolling
factor in the Hartford’s experiment.
With the aid and co-oneration of the
Federal departmen*- of agriculture
statlst’cians of the Hartford worked,
out the law cf averages relating to
practieal’y every crop that is raised
on the fawns of America, not only
with regnect to the country as a
whole hut concerning the soil and
nroduri’vit’y of every county in the
United States that ’s devoted to ag
riculture. The nrobab’lit’es of *he
cotton cron in Putts county, for in
stance, and without the ravages
of the weevils, had worked out
to precision before *he comnany -mnd.i
its rot" card’ and embarked ca”tious
’y on. th° entnnnrise of writing crop
in\—serpent policies.
The bnrine«s is ’n -its infancy, and
this is <r’ly annreciated .-by Hart
fnrd. which reaii’es that *hn fin'd is
plenty onouck for eyery insur
anno eomn’ny. When exnnrimgnts
and experience hove e«nb!"d the p'-m
--ranv fullv to standardize its -nolicics
and fixe its rat»s in ncoord«nc' > , it is
nnd/'refood the Hartford furnish
policy forms and rpte cards to such
For the means to cafry on the work
after that date Herbert Hoover ap
peals to American generosity. Mr.
Hoover is chairman of the European
Children’s Fund, which is a branch of
the American Relief Administration,
of which he is head. The Fund gives
one meal a day to a million children in
Poland and a million and a half in the
Baltic States, Czecho-Slovakia and
Austria. The gift of $23,000,000 from
the American people will mean the
continuance of the child welfare work
until next summer. Without the gift
the children will starve.
other insurance companies as may
desire to engage in the business of
crop insurance.
The Hartford purposes to continue 1
its crop insurance but this doesn’t I
mean that it is gofng to take any
and every risk that is offered. Its
agenis will be restricted as to the
number of applicants that will be
considered in his immediate terri- ■
tory, and there will be restrictions,
also, as to the character and classes
of crops that will be insured.
Careful Selection.
Moreover, the company will select;
its risks with care, and only farmers
who have adopted the most modern
methods will be extended protection.
Indeed, the character, reputation and
capacity of an applicant, for insur
ance, will influence the attitude of
the company with respect to the is- I
suance of policies.
No policies will be written in the
South, or elsewhere, before the crop
has taken sprout and snown itself
*
twenty
-a -aw ■
111
"ONE-ELEVEN”
Ggarettesiy
European purchasing
in this country slackened.
I High-grade tobacco formerly
shipped abroad accumulated.
We bought it.
<3 This is the unusual condi-
don which enabled us to pro-
v ducesuchaquality cigarette as
|jp One-Eleven at so low a price. ‘
- Finally-
- CT fry them !
• j zl
I HI @
L-Wfa 181 ’\ 1 1* r
v ■ j/M’BiMi.jH I ©f)
</azz
—which means that if you don’t tike “111” Cigarettes, you can get your
money back from the dealer. ' ■
® ■ ' ■ • .
A
above the soil and no policies will
be issued after the crop has matur-j
"d beyond a certain pdint. Some
idea of the care that the company
exercises in writing insurance may I
be gathered from the character of
questions that the company pro- 1
pounded to applicants last season, of i
wh'ch the following are a specimen:'
How many acres have been seeded
in stubble? How many times was !
land disced? State month and year
when last plowed. How many and
what kinds of crops have been rais
ed on this land since it was last
nlowed? Bo you own or operate a
tractor? How much of this land, if
any. is subject to overflow or so lo- ;
rated as to retain and harbor stand-;
ing water? Is land level or rolling?
What is the average sale value of !
land? How many total or partial
crop failures have occurred on this
land in past five years? What was;
the cause of such failures? Do you
own the land? What portion of
crops do you own? Is any part of ;
these crons seeded for ensilage, sod-;
der, or roughage only? If so, which
acreage? Hew far is this land from'
vour residence? Are you interested
in other like crops not shown in this j
appFcation? Have crops on this;
land been damaged by insects or'
d’sease in past two years? If so,
state fully kind and what has been
done to prevent recurrence. State!
dote when crops were seeded. Is thel
stand uniform or spotted? Is it in I
a healthy and growing condition?
Do you agree to cultivate, harvest,
and gather the crops herein describ
ed to the best of your ability and in
s he manner usual to the best farm
ing methods in your neighborhod?
n
reg
re?
NEW ERA.
Mrs. E. W Parker and Miss Della
Parker -were visitors at the home of
Mrs M. C. Veal Wednesday.
, Mrs. S. J. Bradley, Mrs. Maggie
; Bradley and little Wade Bradley
spent Friday afternoon with Mrs. S.
M. Parker
Mrs. B. J. McNeal was a visitor at
| the home of Mrs. E. W. Parker Fri
( day afternoon.
I Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Murphy, Misses
' Lucille and Flossie Parker, Messrs.
Steve Roach, Joel Roach and Perry
Parker were visitors at the home of
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bradley Satur
day evening.
! Messrs. H. R. Fenn and D. C
Bray, of Cordele, were visitors at the
| home of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. O. Bray
| Saturday afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Veal, Nathan
- and Cortez Veal were visitors at the
home of Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Parker
Saturday evening.
Little Hugh Bray spent Saturday
afternoon with Everette and Wilmot
Parker
j Grady Duckworth spent the week
; end here with Charlie Griffin.
Mrs. E. W. Parker, Miss Ethel
Parker, Fort and Marshall Parker,
were visitors at the home of Mr. and
PAGE THREE
Mrs. W. T. O. Bray Saturday even
ing.
Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Grant, Misa
Bessie Autry and Dan Autry were
Sunday visitors at the home of their
grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. L. M.
Mercer.
Mr. and Mrs. Alex Harden spent
Sunday at the home of Mr and Mrs.
E. W. Parker.
Miss Della Parker was a visitor at
the home of Mrs. M. C. Veal Mon
day.
Mr. and Mrs. B. S. Parker were
Sunday visitors at the home of Mr.
and Mrs. B. J. Lane.
Mrs. W. A. Parker, Mrs R. p.
Parker and Mrs. IL A. Parker spent
Monday afternoon with Mr. and
Mrs. W. A. Bray.
Mrs. E. W. Parker and Mrs. D.
C. Griffin were visitors at the home
of Mrs. S. S Ledger Monday after
noon.
Mrs. Simmons is a visitor at the
home of her grandson, Mr. Ross Mc-
Gill.
Legion Memorial Is
Favorably Received
INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 3. The
American Legion has received more
than a hundred favorable answers
to its memorial calling attention to
the situation which surrounds the
rehabilitation of disabled world war
veterans, according to F. W. Gal
braith, Jr., national commander of
the Legion. The memorial was pre
sented to the president, president
elect and congress.
According to Galbraith, practical
ly all of the letters from the secre
tary to the president, from senators,
representatives and heads of various
reaus stated that the writer was
government departments and bu
tional plan of rehabilitation,
squarely behind the Legion’s na- <
The memorial outlined the situa
tion in regard to the disabled, sug
gested a remedy and urged the sup
port of the president and congress,
Copies of the memorial are being
distributed to all departments of the
Legion and to patriotic and civic or
ganizations in 1,500 cities
Letters of approval received at
national headquarters of the Legion
here including those from Senators /
William S. Kenyon, Robert M. La-
Follette, Medill McCormick, Harry
S. New and T. J. Walsh.
Wilson And Hardin**
Toasted In Chile
SANTIAGO, Chili, Feb. 3. Ad
miral Hugh Rodman and higher of
ficials of the United States Pacific
flet, which is at anchor at Valparaiso,
were guests of honor at a banouet
given here last night by President #
Alessandri, of Chili. The function
marked the close of a busy day of re
ceptions and calls of ceremony by
Americus officers.
During the dinner toasts to Wil
son and Harding were proposed.