the 7th of April 1876 (amended on the 1st of June 1884)
which prescribed for registered friendly societies many things
which in England are left to the discretion of their founders;
and it provided for an amount of official interference in their
management that is wholly unknown here. The superintending
authority had a right to inspect the books of every
society, whether registered or not, and to give formal notice
to a society to call in arrears, exclude defaulters, pay benefits
or revoke illegal resolutions. A higher authority might, in
certain cases, order societies to be dissolved. These provisions
related to voluntary societies; but it was competent
for communal authorities also to order the formation of a friendly
society, and to make a regulation compelling all workmen not
already members of a society to join it. Since then the great
series of imperial statutes has been passed, commencing in 1883
with that for sickness insurance, followed in 1884 by that for
workmen’s accident insurance, extended to sickness insurance
in 1885, developed in the laws relating to accident and sickness
insurance of persons engaged in agricultural and forestry pursuits
in 1886, of persons engaged in the building trade and of seamen
and others engaged in seafaring pursuits in 1887, and crowned
by the law relating to infirmity and old-age insurance in 1889.
Mr H. Unger, a distinguished actuary, remarks that the whole
German workman’s insurance and its executive bodies (sickness
funds, trade associations, insurance institutions) are constantly
endeavouring to improve the position of the workmen in a social
and sanitary aspect, to the benefit of internal peace and the
welfare of the German empire.
In Holland it is stated that the number of burial clubs and sickness benefit societies appears to be greater in proportion to the population than in any other country; but that the burial clubs do not rest upon a scientific basis, and have an unfavourable influence upon infant mortality. Half the population are insured in some burial club or other. The sick benefit societies are, as in England, some in a good and some in a bad financial condition; and legislation follows the English system of compulsory publicity, combined with freedom of competition.
In Spain friendly societies have grown out of the religious gilds. They are regulated by an act of 1887. Their actuarial condition appears to be backward, but to show indications of improvement. (E. W. B.)
United States.—Under the title of fraternal societies are included in the United States what are known in England as friendly societies, having some basis of mutual help to members, mutual insurance associations and benefit associations of all kinds. There are various classes and a great variety of forms of fraternal associations. It is therefore difficult to give a concrete historical statement of their origin and growth; but, dealing with those having benefit features for the payment of certain amounts in case of sickness, accident or death, it is found that their history in the United States is practically within the last half of the 19th century. The more important of the older organizations are the Improved Order of Red Men, founded in 1771 and reorganized in 1834; Ancient Order of Foresters, 1836; Ancient Order of Hibernians of America, 1836; United Ancient Order of Druids, 1839; Independent Order of Rechabites, 1842; Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, founded in 1843; Order of the United American Mechanics, 1845; Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel, 1849; Junior Order of United American Mechanics, 1853. A very large proportion, probably more than one-half, of the societies which have secret organizations pay benefits in case of sickness, accident, disability, and funeral expenses in case of death. This class of societies grew out of the English friendly societies and have masonic characteristics. The Freemasons and other secret societies, while not all having benefit features in their distinctive organizations, have auxiliary societies with such features. There is also a class of secret societies, based largely on masonic usages, that have for their principal object the payment of benefits in some form. These are the Oddfellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Honour, the Royal Arcanum and some others. Many trade unions have now adopted benefit features, especially the Typographical Union, while many subordinate unions and great publishing houses have mutual relief associations purely of a local character, and some of the more important newspapers have such mutual relief or benefit societies. The New York trade unions, taken as a whole, have paid out large sums of money in benefits where members have been out of work, or are sick, or are on strike or have died. The total paid in one year for all these benefits was over $500,000.
It is impossible to give the membership of all the fraternal associations in the United States; but, including Oddfellows, Freemasons, purely benefit associations and all the class of the larger fraternal organizations, the membership is over 6,000,000. Among the more important, so far as membership is concerned, are the Knights of Pythias, the Oddfellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Improved Order of Red Men, Royal Arcanum, Knights of the Maccabees, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, Foresters of America, Independent Order of Foresters, &c. These and other organizations pay out a vast amount of money every year in the various forms.
Since about the year 1870 a new form of benefit organization has come into existence. This is a life insurance based on the assessment plan, assessments being levied whenever a member dies; or, as more recently, regular assessments being made in advance of death, as post-mortem assessments have proved Assessment insurance. a fallacious method of securing the means of paying death benefits. There are about 200 mutual benefit insurance companies or associations in the United States conducted on the “lodge system”; that is to say, they have regular meetings for social purposes and for general improvement, and in their work there is found the mysticism, forms and ceremonies which belong to secret societies generally. These elements have proved a very strong force in keeping this class of associations fairly intact. The “work” of the lodges in the initiation of members and their passing through various degrees is attractive to many people, and in small places, remote from the amusements of the city, these lodges constitute a resort where members can give play to their various talents. In most of them the features of the Masonic ritual are prominent. The amount of insurance which a single member can carry in such associations is small. In the Knights of Honour, one of the first of this class, policies ranging from $500 to $2000 are granted. In the Royal Arcanum the maximum is $3000. This form of insurance may be called co-operative, and has many elements which make the organizations practising it stronger than the ordinary assessment insurance companies having no stated meetings of members. These co-operative insurance societies are organized on the federal plan—as the Knights of Honour, for instance—having local assemblies, where the lodge-room element is in force; state organizations, to which the local bodies send delegates, and the national organization, which conducts all the insurance business through its executive officers. The local societies pay a certain given amount towards the support of the state and national offices, and while originally they paid death assessments, as called for, they now pay regular monthly assessments, in order to avoid the weakness of the post-mortem assessment. The difficulty which these organizations have in conducting the insurance business is in keeping the average age of membership at a low point, for with an increase in the average the assessments increase, and many such organizations have had great trouble to convince younger members that their assessments should be increased to make up for the heavy losses among the older members. The experience of these purely insurance associations has not been sufficient yet to demonstrate their absolute soundness or desirability, but they have enabled a large number of persons of limited means to carry insurance at a very low rate. They have not materially interfered with regular level premium insurance enterprises, for they have stimulated the people to understand the benefits of insurance, and have really been an educational force in this direction.
A modern method of benefit association is found in the railway relief departments of some of the large railway corporations. These departments are organized upon a different plan from the benefit features of labour organizations and secret societies, providing the members not only with payments on account Railway relief departments. of death, but also with assistance of definite amounts in case of sickness or accident, the railway companies contributing to the funds, partly from philanthropic and partly from financial motives. The principal railway companies in the United States which have established these relief departments are the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia & Reading, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Plant System. The relief department benefits the employés, the railways, and the public, because it is based upon the sound principle that the “interests and welfare of labour, capital and society are common and harmonious, and can be promoted more by co-operation of effort than by antagonism and strife.”
