TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 183 



Mr. Curtin: And they said the manager of our mutual insur- 

 ance company is a member of the board of supervisors, and he said 

 it was a different thing than farm property ; that it was a fair ground 

 and that should be in a different class, and they wouldn't look at us 

 at all, and then the agents heard we had been flirting with the mutual 

 company and now we have to pay about twice what we had to pay 

 before we talked to them. We did everything but pray, and I think 

 we'll try that next. 



The Chairman : I think most of the mutual companies will ac- 

 cept your insurance. I tried the same thing down in Webster 

 county, and the mutual man said : "We can't take your fair ground 

 property, the law will not permit us to," and I said : "Oh, yes, it 

 will," and he said: "No, it don't," and I said: "All right, then, 

 if you don't take my word on the law for it, you'll have to learn 

 somewhere else," and he has since been down to the convention of 

 the mutual companies here and they passed favorably upon it. By 

 the way, there was a resolution spread upon the records two weeks 

 ago here in Des Moines in which they recommended all mutual so- 

 cieties take over fair ground properties. Some of these farmer 

 agents think that they are a little bit selfish ; they think that the 

 mutual companies were formed exclusively and particularly for the 

 farmers, and I think they were, for that matter, but the fair asso- 

 ciation is something that a farmer is interested in. It is advertis- 

 ing the farmers business, it is not the town fellow's business. I 

 think you will have no trouble if you go back after it. I think the 

 mutuals have tornado policies too. 



J. A. Benson (O'Brien) : I just arose on this insurance ques- 

 tion. I am interested in a mutual company and your difficulty 

 with your county fair insurance is that there are vacant buildings on 

 the grounds which are often occupied by tramps, and they are really 

 more hazardous. I think there is no windstorm company will re- 

 fuse them if they are closed. I am president of an insurance com- 

 pany that insures such property all over the state and while I wasn't 

 at the convention when that resolution was passed, I think you will 

 find mutual associations unwilling to take your insurance on the 

 county fairs. Some of them will and some of them won't; it is 

 more hazardous, there's no question about it. At our fair we have 

 something like ten or twelve thousand dollars worth of buildings, 

 and it is impossible to keep tramps out of them. They break the 

 locks and sleep in the straw, and because of their smoking it is more 

 hazardous. Here is a question I want to ask, and it is concerning 



