Fire Insurance For Lumber Yards

Address delivered by F. J. Martin, President of the Nothwestern Mutual Fire Association, Seattle, Wash., before the California Retail Lumbermen's Association at San Francisco, Novembet 16, 1928.

I feel very much at home with the Retail Lumber Dealers of California, having done business with them for more than twenty-two years. I want to express my sincere appreciation for the very hearty cooperation our own organization has always received from the Lumber Dealers in this state.

There is much in common between your organization and our Lumber Mutual Insurance Companies. The object of both is to serve the trade in the largest possible way. ,The Associated Lumber Mutuals is composed of six companies. Some of these companies confine their service exclusively to the lumber trade, while others, like our own, have established departments servicing other classes of business. With all, however, the lumber business is conducted in a special department, furnishing insurance at cost of losses and expenses in that department. Owing to the income from the large cash surplus accumulated by these companies for a period of years, we have all been able to furnish the lumber trade insurance at a little less than the actual cost for losses and expenses.

'We extended the service of the Lumber Mutuals to the Retail Lumber Dealers of California just prior to the San Francisco fire. At that time the laws of the state were so worded as to permit only stock company insurance. Consequently, we were considerably handicapped in our efforts to serve the lumber interests. The minimum rate charged by the stock companies on retail yards prior to the fire rvas two dollars. After the fire all rates were increased 25/o, making the minimum rate on the lumb-er yards two dollars and fifty cents. Though we made several efforts to secure mutual insurance legislation in the state, we did not succeed until the year 1911, when I came to California and devoted myself to the effort during the entire term of the Legislature. That success was then achi'eved is entirely owing to the splendid cooperation I received from the Retail Lumber Dealers of the state. It is also your cooperation that has been a large factor in re- ducing your insurance cost to a mere fraction of the rate formerly charged by our competitors.

Cooperation is the order of the day. Civilization and society advance just in proportion to the advance in cooperation. Cooperation builds prosperitv. While cooperation has been growing, America's greatest waste is still produced by wasteful competition. At the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. which I attended in Washington last May, the keynote of the meeting was "Team work for prosperity." The thought running through the entire meeting was that there can be no such thing as over-production generally, so long as our people need the things that their labor can produce. While there may be over-production in some one thing, the real problem is to raise the standard of living as production increases.

Our wheat farmers of the Middle West are producing more wheat than can be profitably disposed of. The high price of their lands does not enable them to compete for the export trade in competition with the cheap lands of Canada. The per capita consumption of wheat by our American people is 25/o less than it was prior to the war. Were this not the case, we would today be importing wheat from Canada. This condition has probably been brought about by the growing inclination of our people, and especially of the ladies, to avoid fattening foods. Were the wheat farmers in the Middle West able to build the modern homes they need, our lumber mills would be taxed to their utmost to supply the lumber needed for these homes. We may not be able to increase wheat consumption, but there are millions of people in our Eastern cities who need more of other things that our lands can produce, such as dairy products, poultry, fresh vegetables and fruits.

Financial prosperity will be abundant and permanent whenever all classes of our people join in team work for prosperity. Trade associations such as this one are doing much towards the accomplishment of this. Their object should be the greatest possible service to the public in general. They are helping to avoid competition and price wars which are so destructive to prosperity.