STATE INSURANCE A SUCCESS
Evjue, William T.
State Insurance a Success Efforts of Special Interests to Wipe Out Progressive Law in Wisconsin Meet With fmilura BY WILLIAM T. EVJUE (Member of the Wisconsin Legislature) STATE INSURANCB Is a...
...Not in Wisconsin's history has there been a ten year period that has been so prolific of state fire losses as the last ten years...
...Their activities were supplemented by the bevy of insurance agents who had been elected to the legislature...
...That is a perfectly good text which you will find in the Bible if you know where to look...
...Phllipp and a reactionary legislature...
...Anthrax is a serious workmen's hazard...
...A determined band of progressives, however, proposed to make a fight to save the fund...
...In prevention the United States has been lax...
...Anthrax is one of the most difficult infections to combat...
...Many counties availed themselves of this opportunity to get cheaper insurance than could he obtained from private companies...
...It has now reached a position where the combined efforts of insurance companies and a reactionary ad» ministration cannot tear It down...
...The state fire insurance fund Is now safe from the assaults of the private stock companies and there la little to fear from future legislative action...
...It may even withstand processes of manufacture...
...Serious attacks are marked by fever, weakness and pain and often delirium...
...Local influences were put at work on county boards and because of the propaganda that has been eon-ducted by local insurance agenta several counties left the fund...
...The case against anthrax is clear...
...The fight was marked by the absence of the horde of insurance lobbyists and the fight was left to insurance agent members of the legislature...
...Promptness of discovery and treatment is the best assurance of cure...
...They're bitted and ridden to their death even as the horee is driven whither and why he knows not Why do all the poor boobs of this world more docilely along doing the will and pleasure of a few clever ones...
...The insu* anca people were not quite so crude thifl time, bo»» ever...
...The spore is so resistant that it is used as a test object for standardizing germicides...
...The state fire insurance fund is another testimonial to the progressive movement in Wisconsin...
...A lucrative business,—a business which at one time nearly brought about a state scandal,-was taken from taem...
...This showing, of course, has been very disconcerting to the private stock companies and their A Menace To Workers THE STORY of anthrax is the newest story of this nation's backwardness in the prevention of occupational diseases...
...Then somebody introduced an amendment providing that the state fire Insurance fund should be wiped out but that tho state should carry no Insurance...
...They turned a flock of lobbyists, summoned all the way from New York to Chicago, into the state house...
...What would you do if they were to get together sometime and come at you...
...In Europe an energetic campaign against anthrax has been waged by both private and public forces...
...Answer again: Bits...
...And then the insurance men overreached themselves...
...From 1903 to 1917 the state fire losses aggregated $524,966.33...
...Only the other day the newspapers reported widely a fatal case in a New York hospital...
...Here, too, the fund met with the machinations of Insurance lobbyists...
...Its victims Include hide and skin handlers and other tannery employees, longshoremen, wool-sorters, hair-workers, brush-makers, paper makers, veterinarians, stock raisers and farmers...
...What makes anthrax especially dreaded and difficult of control is the fact that the germ is so resistant that it may be carried about on hair, hides, or other materials for as long as seventeen years, before finding favorable entrance into human blood...
...State Insurance a Success Efforts of Special Interests to Wipe Out Progressive Law in Wisconsin Meet With fmilura BY WILLIAM T. EVJUE (Member of the Wisconsin Legislature) STATE INSURANCB Is a success in "Wisconsin...
...These facts, appearing in an illustrated bulletin of 155 pages, Anthrax A3 An Occupational Disease, by Dr...
...Sometimes the germs are inhaled or swallowed with food, causing internal infections...
...He cannot get the bit out of his mouth...
...While laws and regulations for suppressing animal anthrax have been enacted in all the large stock-raising sections, still the prevention of anthrax among industrial workers has received little attention...
...Do you know why...
...He said to the keeper: "I should think your position here would be dangerous...
...In amended form the bill passed the assembly...
...Frank Cbane ''BEHOLD, we put bits in the horses' mouths...
...legtBtotora...
...Published by pei> mission of Associated Newspapers...
...In 1911 the law was amended so that county property could also be Insured in the state fund...
...This was followed by fires at the Superior and Oshkosh Normal schools and another serious fire in Main hall at the University of Wisconsin...
...One thing now appears certain, however...
...And his friend the keeper replied: "If they knew enough to get together they wouldn't be here...
...Anthrax is primarily a disease of animals such as cattle and sheep...
...A man once went to see a friend of hia who had recently got a job in an insane asylum as keeper, iie found him out on the farm of the institution oveiv seeing a gang of some dozen insane patients, strong, husky fellows, cutting grass...
...Cases have been caused by bites of insects and of pet animals which have fed on diseased materials, and even by spores on the bristles of a shaving brush...
...The unearned premiums are about $S,136.29 leaving a net balance of $47,042.78...
...Inaugurated by a progressive legislature Jn 1903, has weathered tho opposition of two reactionary legislatures and today stands with a healthy surplus to its credit...
...And why do the loafers give orders and the workers obey them...
...It's marvelously suggestive...
...One of the arguments they had been advancing against the fund was that the cost of administration by the state was excessive...
...In spite of the assaults of the special interests In the shape of private stock insurance companies, the Wisconsin fire insurance fund...
...derpaid, underfed, cowed, and dumb, while a few favored ones eat pie and dress in purple and fine linen...
...Tim showing that has been made by the fund, however, was argument too Btrong for even the most snare reactionary and the fund was again saved...
...In addition to this, the state of Wisconsin has had a greater percentage of insurance protection than It formerly had...
...Copyright 1917 by Frank Crane...
...It causes one death for every five deaths due to lead poisoning, and it attacks five times as many people as it kills...
...Why have the multitude accepted creeds they did not understand and consented to practices they abhor, at the bidding of hierarchies, from the days of Egypt down to these times...
...In fact, there has been a tendency to relax the precautions covering the importations of animal materials so that, as far as human anthrax is concerned, the situation appears to be growing worse instead of better...
...The stato fund Income since 1903 was $687,8S2.53 and the total disbursements aggro-gated $632,703.46 leaving a balance of $55,179...
...Another attempt was made In the legislattre session just closed to wipe out the fund...
...And yet tho state of Wisconsin by setting aside yearly an amount less than would hare been required for private stock company premiums will have a surplus of nearly $100,000 to Its credit...
...There has been a sudden and startling Increase in illness and death from this malady...
...On July 1 of this year the surplus in the fund was $47,042.78 and on August 1 this amount will be increased to nearly $100,000...
...These fellows are big and strong and could easily overpower you...
...With the bill amended In such shape that it would afford the insurance companies no rerenue there was bitterness in the insurance cam It Gradually the lobbyists disappeared,—there was no farther if* centive for the passage of the hilL When the meaa* ¦ore went over to the senate It was sponsored hjr neither the progressives nor the reactionaries an£ it was killed by an overwhelming vote...
...In the center of (he pustule a black spot forms, axqund which Uie agents...
...This surplus will exist after $78,000 has been transferred back to the state's general fund from which it was borrowed at the time the old state capitol burned...
...Why do thousands of citizens vote ftor men and measures they know or care nothing about, simply because the bosses of their political party give the word...
...And if the peasants who are shooting the daylights out of each other in Europe knew enough to get together they Would all go home...
...The federal bulletin shows amazing neglect...
...Behold, they are horses, and the bits are In their mouths...
...The progressives kept banging away at the argument that tho only object of the repeal bill was not to conserve tho people's money but to repay the insurance companies for political services rendered...
...Much more energetic action than has been taken is needed, if this occupational disease is to be stamped out • • • Bits By Dn...
...Answer: The bit is in their mouth and they don't know enough to get It out Why do the millions In Russia and Germany march out and get shot without the slightest Idea of what it's all about...
...Before the lobbyists knew what had happened the amendment had been fastened to the bill...
...The insurance companies and their agents conducted an enronsive propaganda for the election of Gov...
...Wisconsin's scheme of state insurance is a success in the face of the greatest obstacles...
...Tw> ye~-s ago tile -.durance companies made a i.-'-~:'emo effort to get back what had been taken from them...
...The disease begins wira a tiny red painless pimple, which rapidly Increases in size...
...When this effort met with success they were jubilant over the thought of juicy state premiums again flowing into their coffers...
...John B. Andrews, just published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, indicate the need of action as determined as the campaign which finally abolished phossy jaw from the match industry...
...Yet the United States has lagged behind Europe in preventive measures...
...It Is because the man knows how to pat a bit in the horse's mouth, and tho horse doesn't know enough to spit it out And why do the toiling millions go on toiling, unlnsurance lobbyists and the Insurance...
...To begin with there was the capitol fire...
...With this combination it seemed that the state fund would be wiped out An innocent little amendment attached to the repeal bill turned the tables on the Insurance lobbyists, however...
...Then followed grief and recrimination among the Bkin rises in blisters...
...Why are people content to remain under the wasteful sway of competition when they might prosper and be happy in cooperation...
...Didn't you ever wonder why a horse goes about the streets so meekly, drawing loads that do not interest him, standing hours in one place, and again trotting along, for no reason at all, as far as he can see, just for some whim of the little two-legged creature that drives him...
...With the gradual spread of workmen's compensation to include all personal injuries in the course of employment," writes the author, "and with the probable development of health insurance in this country, the added incentive will be furnished for the prevention of this deadly disease...
...It has been known in this country for nearly a century...
...But it is transmitted to man usually by the bacillus or spore entering the blood through a scratch or cut in the skin...
...Alas for the horse...
Vol. 9 • June 1917 • No. 7
