Whatcom Fights Back Against 'Exorbitant' Insurance
After paying $250,000 in premiums with only $5,800 in losses, Whatcom business leaders threaten to form their own insurance company.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A strong effort is being made by the business men of Whatcom to secure from the Pacific Coast Insurance Union a reduction of insurance rates. A committee of the Board of Trade which has been investigating the matter reports that during the past five years Whatcom has paid insurance premiums to the amount of $250,000, and that the fire losses which the companies have paid during the same period have amounted to only $5,800. The city water system is among the best on the Coast, and a well-organized fire department is maintained. The rates of insurance are exorbitant and as the union shows no disposition to reduce them the committee recommends that a local company be organized to carry the home insurance.
“The rates of insurance are exorbitant and as the union shows no disposition to reduce them the committee recommends that a local company be organized to carry the home insurance.”
This reflects the long-standing frustration of frontier cities with centralized monopolies and 'out-of-town' corporate control. The impulse for local residents to bypass extractive national or regional industries by creating their own cooperatives or municipal services is a recurring theme in Pacific Northwest history.
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