How a Group of Texas Sawmill Men Saved Money on Their Insurance

Many years ago in Texas, fire insurance rates on lumber yard.s were so infernally high, that the starting and opera- tion of a retail lumber business n'as forced to give most serious consideration to the expense item of ffre insurance oosts.

They were so high that the yard man looked with dread upon his insurance premium payment date.

Then a group of thinking retail lumbermen got together ond said to one another: "I:et us throw this insurance premium money into a pot of olrr own, pay the costs and losses out of it, and see how we come out. " They tried it, several hundred of them making the experiment now called "Reciprocal Insurance." At the end of the first year they had a lot of money left. The prorated it among themselves, and started over the next year. That was twenty years ago, and they have been cloing it ever since. Some years they get baek 80/o of their premium deposit.

Five years ago the mill men of Texas found themselves in something of the same fix the dealers had been in years before.

Workments compensation insurance costs were entirely loo high, they thought. So a group of the big mill operators of Texas ditt in 1917 just what the Texas retailers had done a generation before, and started The I.rumbermen's ReciproaI Association to insure themselves and one another with 'Workmen's Compensation Insurance for their employes at cost only.

Today that is one of the greatest 'Workmen's Compensa- tion Insurance organizations in existance. It spread to the Louisiana mills, then into Arkansas, and now it covers the South. The mill men themselves operate it. They employ a general manager of the highest type, both as to moral character and insurance ability. They pay the annual expenses of the business, and the rest of the money goes back to the insured at the end of the year. Absolute and. unqualified success has attended the efrorts of the organiza- tion since its inception.

The sawmill men who act as its Board are the biggest and most representative in the South. George R. Christie, of Ilouston, the General Manager, is a man whose word is as good as a U. S. Bond in the eyes of all who know him. Every activity of the organization is far above suspicion. They get knocked hard. often by those who don't believe in reciprocal insurance, but there is no flaw in their plan or in their operation of it.

They opened an office in California a year ago, and have some excellent accounts in the state. They are planning right now to greatly increase their aetivities in California. They operate under the California law, and can give the same service that they do in Texas and I-rouisiana. They insure nothing but lumber plants, and as a result of their specialized plan of operation they are able to give full protection in every way at very low net cost, after savings have been returned.

TIIE CAITIFORNIA IJULBER MERCHANT in this artiele, desires to do nothing more than to give to this excellent concern an honest introduction to California lumbermen. We have known the organization, its Board members and its Manager for many years, and they are the most representative and biggest lumbermen of their respective territories.

The present Board is as follows:

B. F. Bonner, President The Kirby Lumber Co., Houston, Texas.

J. W. Reynolds, Houston, Sabine I-:umber Company, Vice President.

Geo. A. Kelley, Lufkin, Texas, President, Carter-Kelley Lumber Company.

F. H. Farwell, Orange, Texas, Vice President, Irutcher & Moore Lumber Co.

I-.l. D. Gilbert, Texarkana, Texas, Vice President, Southern Pine Lumber Co.

H. S. Filson, Remlig, Texas, President, Alex. Gilmer Ilumber Co.

A. J. Peavy, Shreveport, I:a., President Peavy-Byrnes Lumber Co., Pearry-Moore Lumber Co., and Peavy-Wilson Lumber Co.

This Board represents 800,000,000 feet annual output of Southern Pine in their own concerns.

ENTER,PR,ISING LOS ANGELES TIIIET SPECIAIJZES IN HAR,WOOD TLOOBINC

Hardwood floors now are placed in a class with watches, diamonds, furs, art goods and other priceless and valuable property-from the standpoint of the burglar, anyway.

The latest criminal escapade reported from Los Angeles is the theft of an order of hardwood flooring from a house under course of construction in a fashionable residence section of the city. The thief was followed to his home and his garage and basement were found filled with great quantities of handsome hard.wood. flooring and finish-all pilferetl from house jobs.