THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 697 



but decide once for all that you will go whenever you can and you gen- 

 erally can. I have often wondered what the farm boy is thinking of as he 

 goes back and forth across the field all day long. Surely there is nothing 

 better for him to think of than the sermon he has heard on Sunday, or the 

 Christian Endeavor and Sunday school lessons. 



Fathers and mothers, do not neglect the highest interests of your 

 children, for whom you are living and toiling. What doth it profit if your 

 clover fields are fragrant with an abundant crop and your stock brings 

 the highest market price if you have not provided for the eternal welfare 

 of your children? 



MUTUAL INSURANCE. 



M. Z. Bailey, before the Ringgold County Farmers' Institute. 



Mutual insurance has passed the experimental stage. During the 

 thirty-seven years that the farmers' mutuals have been in existence, there 

 has been a gradual growth and development of these companies until now 

 we find 137 such companies doing business in the state. They have mil- 

 lions of dollars of insurance written and hundreds of millions behind them 

 in the best farmers of Iowa. 



Thirty-seven years ago the state grange of Iowa organized the first 

 farm mutual company in the state. It comprised two townships in John- 

 son county. Starting with $10,000 written it now has $500,000 or one- 

 half million. That little company is a monument to the old state grange, 

 that will stand for years. It has saved the patrons over fifty per cent of 

 what it would have cost them to have carried insurance in a stock com- 

 pany, and it is a monument that we farmers can well afford to pattern after. 



When the farm mutual was first organized, its promoters were pay- 

 ing to the stock companies §y. 2 and 6 per cent for combined insurance. At 

 first the mutuals were made light of, but as they developed strength the 

 stock companies began to cut on their rates, first from 6 to 5 per cent, then 

 from 4 to 3^2 and finally down to 2% per cent. But the 2% rate was too 

 near the danger point. It was too small to allow the agents and officers 

 their usual large salaries. A convention was called by the stock com- 

 panies and rates placed at two per cent for fire and lightning insurance 

 and three per cent for combined insurance. This made four mills on the 

 dollar for fire and lightning and six mills for the combined insurance, 

 payment in advance or your note at six per cent, making five mills every 

 year. The farm mutuals have averaged 2~y 2 per cent yearly, making a 

 difference of one-half mill in favor of the latter. 



Our county mutual has been in existence seventeen years, with nearly 

 all of the charter members still living. Starting with fifty thousand dol- 

 lars written it now has nearly one million, or more accurately, $920,700. 

 Economy has had a great part in making our record cheap insurance; not 

 by litigation and trying to beat our patrons out of their losses, but by the 

 45 



