to the industrial pre-eminence which she is gaining."19 speaking of the sickness insurance of Germany he says: In The testimony in regard to the value of the work done in the sick insurance system is almost universally favorable. It would be hard to calculate its economic importance, but it is so great that it has become one of the leading factors in helping Germany to the industrial pre-eminence which she is gaining. 7. The attitude of the trade-unions to obligatory insurance, the only kind which can ever afford help to all and especially to those who most require it, is still in doubt. The national assembly of the American Federation has voted down a resolution favoring such insurance in the form presented to it.20 But the probability is that under its more recent forms, when once clearly explained to the members and properly presented, it will soon win their favor. Obligatory workingmen's insurance has been in the past in this. country connected with attempts to compel the workmen to pay an excessive share of the premiums, to break the power of the union and alienate its members, and to retain the equitable share of the funds to which the men have contributed if they leave the service or are discharged. In conventions the propositions for collective insurance have been championed by the socialist faction and have gone down in the defeat of this party. Insurance in the European sense has never yet been offered to our workmen in any state. When it is shown that obligatory insurance does not mean absolute control of employers, but union of effort in which both sides are fairly represented in local management; that the interest in collective bargaining remains untouched; that 10 Mr. F. A. Vanderlip, in North American Review, December, 1905, p. 925. 20 The federal Bureau of Labor is now engaged in a thorough investigation of the whole subject, and a report is expected before many months. Some results of the investigation have already been published and are used in this volume. voluntary organizations are recognized and made secure by suitable state supervision and control and that taxpayers, so far from being asked to increase burdens, will be substantially relieved from many charity demands, it seems likely that indifference and antagonism will change to approval. Mr. John Mitchell has expressed a favorable opinion which already has won the attention and the approval of many trade-unionists.21 8. America has no system of industrial insurance, but a beginning has been made from various starting-points—local societies, trades-unions, fraternal societies, employers' initiative, private corporations, casualty companies, and municipalities. The nation throughout its history, from Plymouth pilgrims down to our own day, has developed the most extensive pension system known to the civilized world. Out of these fragmentary, contradictory, inadequate, unsystematic experiments the nation has yet to develop a consistent and worthy social policy. It is our purpose to describe these various schemes, and to inquire what measures promise immediate improvement and tend in the right direction. Signs are not wanting that many of the most competent leaders of industry and commerce will in the near future give much more attention to this problem than they have hitherto done. 21 Report of Industrial Commission, Vol. XII, p. 50. CHAPTER II LOCAL RELIEF SOCIETIES The most simple and primitive form of industrial insurance is found in the numerous mutual benefit associations which exist everywhere and under many forms. Some of these are aided by the employers and others are supported entirely by the contributions of the members. These mutual aid associations are the elementary school of thrift, of brotherhood, and of the future social policy which is growing up within these voluntary organizations. These societies rarely have any centralized organization to bind them together, the state does not recognize their existence until they become federated and important, and their by-laws have no direction from actuarial experts. They spring up spontaneously and by imitation in response to economic necessity, and they are found among wage-earners of many occupations and of many nationalities in our large cities. German, Scandinavian, Italian, and Hebrew immigrants find in their little societies protection and support in the hour of sickness and sorrow. The negroes have similar organizations and are greatly attached to them. Reliable statistics are not accessible, because there is no central office nor general system of reports. The administration is often changed and usually inadequate, while the bookkeeping is ordinarily very crude and unsatisfactory. It would be almost impossible to reduce their premiums and benefits to tabular form, because each society has its own peculiarities. All that is here attempted is to give a certain number of significant illustrations and to call attention to certain general tendencies. Mutual aid societies of immigrants from Europe.—In a foreign land and among strangers the poorer immigrants seek fellowship, encouragement, and care among those who understand their language and sing the songs of fatherland. In the large cities the people of the same race or nationality establish societies of a charitable nature in order to succor their countrymen who have not yet won a secure place and means of self-support. Those who have lived in this country some time and have become prosperous are proud to relieve the distress of those recently arrived. Public relief and the alms of other races are felt to be disgraceful, and soon the industrious immigrants prefer to aid each other through contributions to a mutual benefit society where the thought of alms is not present. For some time the benefit societies retain something of the character of their origin in charitable relief, but the tendency is to remove them as fast as possible from this ground. Naturally these independent new citizens associate themselves with persons of their own race and language. This tendency is fostered by the fact that immigrants often form "colonies" of members of the same nationality and religious confession, and thus we have Bohemian or Italian quarters and sometimes a Ghetto. Frequently these colonies contain thousands of persons who come from the same land, speak the same tongue, and worship after the same ritual. The Russian Jews dwell in the same region of a city, the Italians are for the most part Catholics, and the Bohemians are Catholic or free-thinkers. It follows very naturally that many of these local societies are composed of families of the same language and religion. The synagogue or church may easily become the social center of the organization, and on festival occasions the place of public worship may witness their ceremonies and incidentally advertise their advantages. In the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1892, was founded the society of the Independent Chevra Kadisho. whose purpose was to furnish poor families with money for funeral expenses. It has about 3,000 members, each of whom pays ten cents each month as dues. There are three other societies of a similar character in the city. Mr. Bernheim tells us that the lodges furnish social recreation and contribute materially to the elevation of the social condition of the residents of a Ghetto. Various branches of the brotherhoods extend in every direction and there are few families which are not connected with some organization. The Ghetto in Chicago contains seventy-five registered lodges, of which thirty-two belong to the federation B'rith Abraham and twenty to the Western Star, and others to less conspicuous unions. In this respect they resemble the lodges so popular among their Christian neighbors which furnish life insurance to their members and so render an important economic service which is the principal ground for their existence. Here we see a common tendency to federate local lodges into larger societies or brotherhoods, a form of union which will be studied more closely in the chapter which will follow later on "Fraternal Benefit Societies." Mutual benefit societies in mercantile and manufacturing establishments.-Common employment in the same house furnishes a convenient basis for organization of a mutual benefit society in a simple and imperfect form. Here again the mutual benefit fund is established to avoid dependence on charitable appeals. Wherever people come together in considerable numbers and with moderate and small incomes, a prolonged illness, a serious accident and the extraordinary demands of a funeral inevitably start someone to collect money to meet the emergency. This instinctive appeal to humanity is enforced by the reflection that no one knows who may require assistance next. The employer is usually asked to contribute to this fund. But the whole arrange |