The membership and financial operations of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Miners' Permanent Provident Society for the years 1881 to 1908, inclusive, are given in the next table.

MEMBERSHIP, CONTRIBUTIONS, AND BENEFIT PAYMENTS OF THE MONMOUTHSHIRE AND SOUTH WALES MINERS' PERMANENT PROVIDENT SOCIETY, 1881 TO 1908.

[Source: Report of Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Annual General Meeting of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Miners' Permanent Provident Society, 1909.]

The marked and rapid decrease in membership of this society, together with the consequent falling off of contributions, indicates a practically dying organization. This was recognized by the president of the society in his annual address at the meeting in March, 1909, in which he commented on the fact that the experience of voluntary organizations such as this had demonstrated the necessity of transferring the burden of the results of industrial accidents on other than the victims themselves or their families, and that the Government had of late years realized the necessity of assuming such responsibility, as was evidenced by the passage of various statutes, "based largely upon the experience which these societies had themselves gathered." This declaration is borne out by the fact that the first great decrease in membership occurred in 1898, the year following the enactment of the first workmen's compensation act, and though there was some gain for the next two years, the diminution has been constant and rapid since 1901. That the decay of the organization is not due to improper financing or a failure to make adequate assessments is indicated by the fact that there was on hand at the date of the meeting above mentioned a sum amounting to £144,233 ($701,910), which was declared by the president to be ample, with proper management, for the discharge of the existing obligations to widows, orphans, and permanently disabled or superannuated members.

A characteristic of these funds is the division of control between the local agency, composed entirely of the workmen employed at or about any colliery in the district covered by the society, and the central or general committee, comprised in part of ordinary and in part of honorary members, and elected at the annual delegate meeting of the society. In brief, it may be stated that the central body manages the funds and directs the general policy of the society, while the local bodies supervise the collection of dues, the payment of benefits, and the conduct generally of members and beneficiaries. These societies are therefore in a sense comparable with friendly societies with branches and share in the advantages gained by such a combination of central and local administration.

The supervision of the member receiving benefits is left to his fellows, who are most likely to have an intimate knowledge of the facts of each case, who are best qualified to detect instances of malingering, and whose natural sympathy for a fellow-worker is sufficiently counterbalanced by having the strongest pecuniary interest in keeping the funds of the society as free from burdens as possible. On the other hand, the supervision and control of the society's general policy are aided by the experience of the men of wealth and of standing in the business world who serve as honorary members on the committee of management.

The actuarial standing of the societies is being gradually established on a firmer basis. When the societies were organized, the reports of the mine inspectors contained the only material from which data bearing on the accident rate could be secured. In making a report to the Monmouthshire and South Wales society, Mr. F. G. P. Neison, an actuary who is regarded as an authority on this subject, found that the experience of this society from 1880 to 1898 brought the risks to the following basis per 1,000 employees:

Fatal accidents will be at the rate of 34 per annum.

Accidents of from two to twenty-six weeks' duration are at the rate of 130 per annum and average three and one-half weeks each. Accidents of over twenty-six weeks' duration occur at the rate of 4 per annum.

The experience of the Lancashire and Cheshire society since 1873 has been as follows:

DEATH RATE FROM ACCIDENT, ETC., IN THE LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE MINERS' PERMANENT RELIEF SOCIETY, 1873 TO 1899.

[Source: Report of the Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Permanent Relief Society, pp. 29-31.]

The same society furnishes tables showing for the two quinquennial periods, 1893 to 1897 and 1904 to 1908, the number of members and of accidents of all kinds and the accident rate per 1,000 members. While the arrangement of the two tables does not admit of strict comparison, it is yet possible, by considering this in connection with the foregoing table, to gain a pretty accurate view of the relations of fatal accidents to those of all kinds, as well as to discover the high rate of accidents existing in mine employment. The table follows.

NUMBER OF MEMBERS AND OF ACCIDENTS AND RATE OF ACCIDENTS PER 1,000 MEMBERS IN THE LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE MINERS' PERMANENT RELIEF SOCIETY, 1893 TO 1897 AND 1904 TO 1908.

[Source: Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Permanent Relief Society, 1909, p. 13.]

The per capita amount of the burden placed upon the members of the Northumberland and Durham Miners' Permanent Relief Fund and its apportionment to the various funds are shown by the following table, taken from the report of the fund for the year 1907:

COST PER 1,000 MEMBERS OF BENEFITS AND MANAGEMENT IN NORTHUMBERLAN AND DURHAM MINERS' PERMANENT RELIEF FUND, 1897 TO 1907.

[Source: Forty-sixth Annual Report of the Northumberland and Durham Miners' Permanent Relief Fund, 1908, p. 99.]

The administration of the relief for the permanently disabled miners has caused much difficulty in the operations of the societies, especially since the passage of the workmen's compensation acts, which place upon the employers certain liabilities for accident to their employees. To reduce this liability to a minimum, employers of

mining labor are reported to have generally refused to take any but young, alert men into their service, so that those advanced in years have found it more or less difficult to secure employment. In consequence, whenever an aged or infirm miner met with an accident every effort would be made to have the injury classed as a permanent disablement, with the right to the benefits for that class, practically making an old-age pension out of the disablement allowance. Since the passage of the acts many employers have discontinued their contributions to the relief societies on the ground that the liabilities imposed on them by the acts were sufficient to protect the workmen, and were, in addition, such an unknown quantity that employers could not in justice be expected to assume any further burdens on this score. The situation was further complicated by the withdrawal of a large number of miners from membership in the societies because they considered themselves sufficiently protected by the provisions of these acts.

At the 1900 meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire society the board of management reported that a serious actuarial deficit existed in the accounts of the society, due entirely to the drain on its funds through the misuse of the permanent disablement allowance. An increase in the dues and a decrease in the benefits was the only remedy, though this action was expected to cause more members to withdraw from the society, an expectation that was temporarily realized, though in recent years the growth has been constant, the membership in 1908 being the greatest in the history of the society. In the year 1900 one other society found itself confronted by a similar deficit, though the reports of the societies generally do not show that they have yet found it necessary to revise their schedules in connection with this part of their operations.

On the other hand, the expenses for the relief of temporary disablement, for the relief of widows and orphans, and for burial allowances, have not exceeded the anticipated rates. The superannuation feature causes a heavy expenditure in the Northumberland and Durham society only, where in 1899 it was £39,667 ($193,041); in 1903, £50,468 ($245,602), and in 1907, £64,164 ($312,254), over one-third of the total receipts for each of those years, while in the West Riding of Yorkshire and the Thorncliffe and Rockingham societies it formed an unimportant part of the annual disbursements. In the case of the Northumberland and Durham society, the superannuation expenditures in 1899 encroached on the invested funds of the superannuation department to the extent of £2,165 ($10,537). In 1903, as the result of an increase in the superannuation dues, the invested funds of this department showed an increase over the preceding year of £9,635 ($46,886), and benefits were increased in May of that year from 4s. (97 cents) to 5s. ($1.22) per week. As a result of the valuation of