CHAPTER XIII 

 MUTUAL INSURANCE 



THE cooperative method of conducting business is 

 applied extensively to rural insurance. The mutual 

 insurance companies sometimes cover a state, but more 

 often are confined to a county or township. There were 

 fifteen hundred town and mutual companies in the United 

 States in 1911. The mutual companies are formed by 

 groups of farmers or property-owners to insure themselves 

 against fire and lightning, tornadoes, cyclones, wind- 

 storms, hailstorms, and against the loss of stock, the 

 insurance to be done at actual cost. In Europe the in- 

 surance of cattle against death from diseases and the 

 insurance of persons engaged in agricultural work have 

 developed into large undertakings. The expenses of these 

 companies are low. They pay comparatively small sala- 

 ries to the management, the rents for quarters are low, 

 and all of the operations are conducted economically. 

 The stock corporation companies, on the other hand, are 

 conducted on a much more elaborate and expensive scale, 

 and the farmer who insures his property through them 

 therefore pays a relatively higher insurance rate, the 

 premiums generally amounting to three or four times as 

 much as the premiums or assessments charged by the 

 mutual companies. The farmers of Minnesota, for ex- 

 ample, according to Mr. Valgren, through their mutual 



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