THE FARMERS IN CONTROL 



one kind or another, and it was the disap- 

 pearance of these and of the methods they had 

 naturally introduced that made the change 

 remarked by such witnesses. 



H. The Release of Co-operative Societies 

 from the unfair and oppressive conditions 

 that formerly all but strangled them was to 

 a great extent effected by the Fifteenth legis- 

 lature, partly controlled by the League. The 

 acts for the furtherance of co-operation passed 

 by that legislature have been enthusiastically 

 called the best in the world. To these were 

 added by the Sixteenth legislature the laws 

 regulating the grain traffic and railroad rates, 

 all of which helped co-operation. 



/. State Hail Insurance. Senate Bill No. 

 47, approved March 1, 1919, completes the 

 steps toward this needed reform begun by 

 the Fifteenth legislature. There is created in 

 the state insurance commissioner's office a 

 hail insurance department, under the com- 

 missioner's control. A flat tax of three cents 

 an acre is levied on all tillable land in the state 

 to provide the general working fund. On 

 October 10th of each year the commissioner 

 is to make an estimate of the amount of dam- 

 age likely to be caused by hail to the growing 

 crops the next year, with all the expenses of 

 the department, and then is to levy an in- 

 demnity tax on all actually cultivated and 

 crop land, except hay and meadow land, not 



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