The following table shows that in 1904 less than 4 per cent of the societies reporting sex of members were organized for females alone. The number of organizations admitting only males has increased from a little over seven-tenths in 1873 to eight-tenths in 1904.

NUMBER OF MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES IN VARIOUS YEARS, 1873 TO 1904, BY SEX OF MEMBERSHIP.

In addition to the active members of societies, belonging for the benefits to be derived from such membership, large numbers of honorary and contributing members assist them by their contributions or influence, thus introducing an element of private and organized charity into the activity of these mutual benefit societies. In 1873 (") the number of such members was 19,263, or about 9 per cent of the active membership, and in 1878, 32,177, or nearly 10 per cent of the active membership. In 1885 the total honorary membership amounted to 52,763, of whom only 31,690 were contributing. For later years information is not available, except that on December 31, 1903, (') the incorporated societies had 11,675 contributing honorary members as against a total of 259,914 active members, or only 4.5 per cent. The influence of the honorary members in the development of the mutual benefit societies seems to be decreasing.

SIZE OF SOCIETIES.

The distribution of the mutual benefit societies by the number of members is shown in the following table for the last three censuses, 1885, 1894, and 1904:

a Società di Mutuo Soccorso, 1878.
Società di Mutuo Soccorso, 1904.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES IN EACH MEMBERSHIP GROUP AT THE END OF EACH YEAR, 1885, 1894, AND 1904.

[Source: La Società di Mutuo Soccorso, 1885, 1894, and 1904.]

a In the report for 1904 the groups begin with the even hundred, as follows: 100 to 199, 200 to 299, etc.

The majority of the societies are found to be very small. In 1894 54.26 per cent had not over 100 members. In 1904 52.11 per cent of all societies had less than 100 members, 26.44 per cent from 100 to 199, and 18.57 per cent 200 members or over. Only 49 societies had 1,000 members or over. It is easily seen how difficult- any application of actuarial principles would be in such small societies.

A comparison between the incorporated and unincorporated societies in 1904 shows a very interesting difference in distribution by size of membership. Societies with less than 100 members constituted 39.02 per cent of the incorporated and 56.17 per cent of the unincorporated societies; those with a membership of 100 to 199, 32.11 per cent and 24.68 per cent; those with 200 to 999, 26.15 per cent, and 15.24 per cent; and those with 1,000 members and over, 1.23 per cent and 0.60 per cent. To put the comparison somewhat differently, of the societies with a membership of less than 100, 17.7 per cent were incorporated; of those with a membership of 100 to 199, 28.8 per cent; of those with a membership of 200 to 499, 34.8 per cent; of those with a membership of 500 to 999, 34.4 per cent; and of those with 1,000 members and over, 38.8 per cent were incorporated. The tendency to incorporate under the act is evidently much stronger among the larger societies.

OCCUPATIONS OF MEMBERS.

Satisfactory data are unfortunately lacking concerning the occupations of Italian workmen belonging to the mutual benefit societies. In the following table is shown all the information available on this subject. The classification here is that of the societies rather than members, and the large majority of the societies, 61.05 per cent in 1894, are unclassified. Besides, no similar data are available for the last census year, 1904. Some tendency toward differentiation may be noticed in this table. In 1878 81.30 per cent of all societies, and in 1894 only 61.05 per cent were unclassified as far as the occupations of their members is concerned. In 1885 66.13 per cent of all membership of mutual benefit societies were unclassified as to occupation, and in 1894 58.50 per cent.

OCCUPATIONS OF MEMBERS OF MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES, 1878, 1885, AND 1894. [Source: La Società di Mutuo Soccorso, 1878, 1885, and 1894.]

Total.

2,091 100.00 4,817 100.00 740, 280 100.00 6,587 100.00 994, 183 100.00

13

.27 1,594

30

.62

2,415

.33

14

.29

1,726

45

.19

4

.08

.24

11

.23

1,603 1, 413

.08

1,588 .16

701

410

56

59

75

1.14 11,350 1.14

36

.55 10,652 1.07 1.40 10,346 1.04

2.17 9,260 .93

YEAR OF ORGANIZATION AND OF INCORPORATION.

In the following table are shown the societies in existence in 1894 and 1904, distributed by the year of their organization:

YEAR OF ORGANIZATION OF MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES.
[Source: Le Società di Mutuo Soccorso, 1898 and 1904.]

The table shows that the period of most rapid development of mutual benefit societies was the years 1880 to 1884. Possibly the organization of the large national funds subsequently checked the increase of this class of societies. A comparison of the figures of 1894 and 1904 are particularly interesting, for such a comparison shows that many of the earliest associations have been dissolved.

Of the 6,535 societies enumerated in 1904, 5,022, not including those for which the year of organization was not reported, had been organized before 1895. But the census of 1894 showed 6,722 societies (exclusive of the three railroad funds), so that evidently 1,700, or 25.3 per cent, of the societies have been dissolved in ten years. Of the societies organized from 1880 to 1894, 4,153 were in existence in 1894 and 2,917 in 1904, showing that during the ten years 1,236, or 29.8 per cent, were dissolved.

As it is desired to show here the efficiency of the law for voluntary registration (incorporation) of the benefit societies, the following table supplies some information as to what degree the societies made use of this right of incorporation. The percentage of incorporated societies is greater among the older societies and incorporation evidently comes not at the time of organization but later in the history of the society. In any case incorporation proceeded at a very slow rate, the highest number of societies incorporating in one year being 149 in 1891.

NUMBER OF MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES ON DECEMBER 31, 1904, BY YEAR OF INCORPORATION.

a Not including 42 societies incorporated by royal decree, years not reported.

CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP.

The list of the societies is not very stable from year to year, many societies dissolving and others being formed; there is also a considerable degree of change in the membership of these societies. In the following statement the gain and loss in membership is shown for 1885 and 1903. Unfortunately the data for 1885 are for all societies and for 1903 only for incorporated societies, the data concerning the membership of the unincorporated societies in 1903 not being available. For this reason no satisfactory comparison of the data for the two years can be made. The incorporated societies are usually larger, stronger, and probably subject to fewer changes in membership than those which are not incorporated.

The changes of membership in 1885 among all mutual benefit societies were as follows:

In 1903 the changes of membership in the incorporated societies were as follows:

Number of societies reporting.....

Effective members at beginning of year..

Members admitted during year........

Per cent of members at beginning of year..

Members lost during year.......

Per cent of members at beginning of year...

Net gain during year...

Per cent of members at beginning of year.. Total effective members at close of year....

1, 412 258, 346

19,842

7.7 18, 274

7.1 1,568 6

259, 914

As is shown by the next table, the loss of membership is mainly due to failure in payment of dues. In the incorporated societies out of a total loss of 18,274 members in 1903, 10,916, or nearly 60 per cent, were dropped for that reason.