44 UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



The year 1912 showed a large increase of business over 1911 ; 2,205 

 poUcies were written; the total revenue received amounted to §64,840 and 

 the disbursements to § 63,164, leaving a balance of S 3, 175 in the State 

 treasury for future contingencies. The fees obtained were distributed as 

 follows : 



Paid deferred losses of 1911 $358,40 



Agents adjusting losses during 1912 2,447,62 



Ivosses for 1912 57)936,69 



Clerk hire 2,160,00 



Postage 43,00 



Printing 103,40 



Advertising 9,95 



1912 was an exceptionally hard year for hail insurance, and the losses 

 from this source were probably unprecedented in North Dakota. The State 

 Insurance department was therefore only able to pay fifty five cents on the 

 dollar for losses incurred but the adjustments were made on a very liberal 

 basis. 



It was then that it became apparent that the rate of 20 cents per acre 

 insured was an inadequate premium, and it was urged that the charge should 

 be raised to 30 cents, which was done when the Act was amended in 1913. 

 An alternative to raising the premium suggested in the report for 1912 was 

 that the legislature should fix a minimum rate of five cents or less per acre, 

 and levy a general tax on all real estate in accordance therewith, thus 

 covering insurance for all, and making a rate so low and satisfactory^ that 

 hail insurance would not be a burden to any ; but, as we have seen, the 

 advocates of a higher premium rate won the day. 



The second biennial report, issued in December 1914, sums up the four 

 years' work then accomplished as follows: the losses incurred in 1911 were 

 settled on the basis of seventy cents on the dollar ; in 1912 fifty-five cents 

 on the dollar ; in 1913 eighty-eight cents ; and in 1914 sixty-five cents 

 on the dollar. 



These results must be considered as decidedly unfavourable, for if 

 appHed to a mutual hail insurance company they would mean that members 

 would be required to pa}^ in addition to the regular premium, extra assess- 

 ments respectively of 30 %, 45 %, 12 %, and 35 %, and by that time, 

 as the report points out, members would probably have had quite enough 

 of mutual insurance. 



But in analysing the results of this venture into the realm of State hail 

 insurance certain facts and factors must be taken into account. 



During the years 1911 and 1912 the rate charged by the State was 

 twenty cents per acre, or 2 ^ per cent on the dollar ; at the same time 



