suggests old-age insurance, though it may result in fact in the separation of a member from the society at a time when he is in the greatest need of succor. The system of reduced sick pay is more nearly a benefit of this type, as it is allowed to members above 60 years of age who are unable to earn more than 12s. ($2.92) per week; also to members above 50 years of age who have been on the reduced sick list continuously for not less than one year and who can furnish satisfactory evidence of their inability to earn more than 12s. ($2.92) per week. The amounts allowed are 2s. (49 cents) per week to members of less than six years' standing, 3s. (73 cents) to members of six and under eight years' standing, and 4s. (97 cents) to members of a standing of eight years and over. No change in the rate of allowance will be made after a member has gone on the reduced sick list.

The importance of the question of sick pay is evident from an examination of the tables showing the percentage and the per capita cost of disbursements, this benefit alone having demanded uniformly since 1903 more than 50 per cent of the total income, while the per capita cost reached its maximum of $6.75 in 1908. Sick visitors are appointed for the purpose of seeing that sick pay is properly distributed and that the society is not being imposed upon. A system of official visitation was established in 1899 in an effort "to relieve the members of an irksome obligation" and "to reduce, if possible, our excessive sickness experience." The general-purposes committee of the delegate meeting of 1908 reported that the first object had been attained, but that the new system of visitation had not materially reduced the sickness experience. This fact was attributed to the longer duration of the cases of sickness and the increased age of the membership. It would seem, however, that the first reason given was merely a consequence of the second, and it was so regarded by the president in his annual address of the same year, in which he notes the increase of payments for reduced sick allowance at a rate of over £5,000 ($24,333) per annum, while the actuary reporting on the sick fund showed a net loss of £39,370 ($191,594) during the year 1907 and took occasion to "again urge upon the members the necessity of taking effective measures for the reduction of the excessive sickness claims, if the society is to be maintained in a state of solvency."

The principal facts as to sick pay during the ten years 1899 to 1908 are shown in the following table:

SICKNESS BENEFITS PAID BY THE HEARTS OF OAK BENEFIT SOCIETY, 1899 TO 1908. [Source: Sixty-seventh Annual Statement of the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, p. 31.]

In commenting, at the annual conference of 1909, on the report for 1908, the chairman of the general-purposes committee compared present insurance conditions with those of twenty-five years ago and said that the situation to-day was a more difficult one to meet on account of the keenness of competition and the more rapid industrial pace. It was a question whether the factory act had been as beneficial as was sometimes supposed. Hours were shorter, but the pace had increased out of all proportion to that reduction. The conditions of the skilled artisan were so much changed that the average worker was put out of action more frequently than was the case in less strenuous days. Unemployment affected them. Over and over again they had to deal with sickness solely the result of unemployment. The members became genuinely ill as the result of loss of wages following prolonged unemployment.

This society furnishes a report for the year of 1907 showing, by age, the number of members insured for sick pay, the number who received such pay and the period of such receipt, the number of losses by death and by other causes, and the total membership insured at the end of the year. The table follows:

STATISTICS OF SICKNESS AND MORTALITY IN THE HEARTS OF OAK BENEFIT SOCIETY, BY AGE OF MEMBERS, 1907.

[Source: Hearts of Oak Benefit Society. Return of Sickness and Mortality, 1907, pp. 8 and 9.]

STATISTICS OF SICKNESS AND MORTALITY IN THE HEARTS OF OAK BENEFIT SOCIETY, BY AGE OF MEMBERS, 1907-Concluded.

The above table clearly demonstrates the correctness of the statement that the system of reduced pay closely approximates a provision for old-age pensions, inasmuch as of the 253 members aged 80 years and over, 230 or 90.9 per cent were recipients of sick benefits, 188 of these, or 74.3 per cent of the total, being on reduced sick pay. A similar calculation for members between 70 and 79 years of age shows 2,270 in the group, of whom 1,584, or 69.8 per cent, were on the sick roll in 1907; 937 of these, or 41.3 per cent of the total, were on the reduced pay list, showing a disability of more than one year's duration.

SOCIETIES WITH BRANCHES.

The remaining form of associations to be noted is what are known as the affiliated societies or workingmen's orders, sometimes called the great orders, and these are the most important of the friendly societies. With a central body having branches extending, in many cases, into every part of the United Kingdom, they compete successfully with the local clubs, so that it was said in 1874 that they had made a clean sweep of the local societies in some towns, while they predominate in all; and "in the country districts they establish themselves wherever and so soon as a dozen or a score of artisans find themselves within living reach of each other and in want of a club.

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In a larger sense the term affiliated societies includes all those consisting of district branches united by a common organization, but the predominant type is governed by a central organized body, usually the creation of the representatives of the whole society gathered in annual meeting, the place of meeting being sometimes the same from year to year, and sometimes movable. They undertake to combine the advantages of local and centralized organizations, the branches or local lodges being financially independent so far as the sick pay is concerned, but interdependent within the limits of fixed "districts" so far as the liability for burial money or death benefits is concerned. Over and including the districts is the "unity" or central body, which is occupied with the administration of certain matters of discipline and auditing rather than with the administration of funds in any general sense, though there is a central fund in the charge of the central body, to which each local or district branch must contribute.

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This form of benefit club [says Sir G. Young, quoted in the Fourth Report of the Friendly Societies Commission of 1871, p. xxv] appears to have been first worked out by the Odd Fellows, Manchester Unity, and since it is the undisputed invention of men belonging to the class for whom benefit societies are intended, it is important to point out how admirably it is adapted to meet the primary requisitions of a good system of thrift, as thrift is understood by the members of that class in England. I find it to be universal that the first benefit desired by the working man from his club is the weekly provision in case of sickness. The second is with equal unanimity declared to be the sum at death, to clear off standing scores, pay funeral expenses, and assist a widow or children through the first days of bereavement. Taking these two to be the primary objects of a benefit club, the chief difficulties encountered in securing them are, in the first case, imposition; in the second, insufficient numbers to form a basis of insurance. The mischief which may be done by imposition and by lax administration which accompanies it, is best guarded against by confining the sick club to a small area within which the members know each other, and each can watch his neighbor, while the intenser personal interest which they naturally take in a fund locally subscribed insures that the supervision shall be stricter. A small area may be sufficient to form a basis for sick pay, while insufficient to insure burial money, because the payments are smaller, in the proportion of shillings to pounds, and are distributed among a larger number of the members. In the case of burial benefits the risk requires a larger area, which is found in the "district" of the affiliated orders.

These administrative methods furnish probably the fundamental reason for the great success of these orders, though the social and ritual features are no doubt also strongly persuasive. An attractive feature socially is the recognition of the members of one branch by those of another branch while absent from home for any reason. The local branch has the power of fixing the number or classes of benefits that it will pay, the rates of payment required from members, the cost