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had none. These 687 societies contained 1,270,789 members, out of whom 812,111 belonged to societies that did not possess a superannuation benefit. In other words, seven out of every ten Trade Unionists belong to societies in which there is absolutely no provision for old age. In 1893 only 6,789 members received superannuation benefit.* This benefit, too, involves a dangerous strain, since it is apt to outgrow the resources of a Trade Union. For instance, in 1851 the percentage of members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers upon superannuation benefit was o'09. Since then there has been a steady, and, to the officials, an alarming increase, till in 1898 the proportion was 405 per cent. "We hope, urged the officials, "the efforts of the last Delegate Meeting to finance and make this benefit secure, will be followed up by another effort of some kind, which will enable us to grant this benefit with pleasure, instead of, as is the case at present, with a fearsome thought of our ability to pursue a consistent and active Trade Policy."+ The case of the Engineers' Society is not exceptional in this respect; and the drift of feeling among Trade Unionists indicates a reduction rather than an extension of the scope of superannuation benefits.

(d) FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Were it not for the claims made for Friendly Societies, the extent of their contribution to a practical solution of the problem of old age might safely be ignored. With the exception of a reckless granting of continuous sick pay, they have not accomplished anything. And even with regard to sick pay, considerations for the future prosperity, to say nothing of the mere existence, of their societies are rapidly compelling the members to insist upon its abolition when the age of sixty-five is reached.‡

In 1882 both the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows and the Ancient Order of Foresters adopted schemes under which members, by paying a weekly, monthly, or yearly contribution, varying according to age at joining, could secure a pension of five shillings per week upon attaining the age of sixty-five. Of 804,415 adult male members of the Manchester Unity, just over 500 have joined in seventeen years. In the Foresters the results are still more discouraging; for out of a total adult membership of 726,403, only five members have joined. As Mr. Ballan Stead, the late Secretary of the Foresters, explains, "the ordinary working-man could not

Seventh Annual Report on Trade Unions by the Labor Correspondent of the Board of Trade, 1893. (C-7808, 1895). It is impossible to give more recent figures, owing to the unfortunate decision of the Labor Department to publish particulars relating to certain unions only.

+ Report of the Executive Council of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 1895, p. 25.

In the Valuation Reports of 1870 of the Manchester Unity, the late Henry Ratcliffe, the Unity's actuary, gave a warning. "If lodges," he wrote, "contemplate an allowance to members in old age, the members should contribute for such benefit, or the funds of the lodges will not be equal to pay the customary sick and funeral benefits."

Grand Master of the Manchester Unity expressed the feeling of the working class towards such schemes in his retiring address. "The idea," he said, "of asking young men of sixteen or eighteen years of age to make a selection for a benefit so long deferred, and for which they will have to pay a contribution higher than their fellows, is so utterly unreasonable that the most sanguine could not expect it to be very succesful."+ These attempts of the Oddfellows and Foresters are typical of Friendly Society effort in this direction. Nothing is to be hoped for from it.

(e) SICK CLUB, ETC.

In many large manufacturing establishments sick clubs exist. The majority only provide a moderate sick and funeral benefit. Where an old age pension is included, the clubs can be, and frequently are, used as pretexts for coercing the members. Commercial assurance societies, too, accomplish some amount of provision for old age; but as most of them, while willing to give a quotation for any form of annuity, do not publish general tables, it is obvious that the demand is trifling.

Voluntary Provision.

This is ludicrously inadequate to the necessities of the case. The highest estimate of the savings of the working class places them at £300,000,000, which, divided amongst the 16,800,000 members of the manual labor class, only yields an average saving of £17 16s. each. There is no reason to doubt Dr. Hunter's estimate that only three per cent. of the working class have made any definite provision for old age. The figures relating to Poor Law relief tell the same tragic story.

Old Age Pauperism and Poverty.

According to the census of 1891 there were 1,323,000 persons over sixty-five years of age in England and Wales. For the twelve months ending Lady Day, 1892, a record was made of the persons over sixty-five who received Poor Law relief. The result showed that there were 376,427 persons over sixty-five years who were driven to accept relief from the Poor Law. In other words, two persons in every seven over sixty-five years old were in receipt of relief during those twelve months.

*For the evidence of the officials upon the results of these schemes, see the Report of the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor, summarized in the Final Report, C-7684, 1895.

+ Speech of P.G.M. Orford White, at Bristol A.M.C., p. 10.

The Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, in a paper read before the Royal Statistical Society on April 23, 1895, estimated the total savings as follows: Savings Banks, 144,725,640; Registered Friendly Societies, £28,500,000; Trade Unions, £1,378,007; Incorporated Building Societies, £44,414,115; Industrial and Provident Societies, £18,552,867; Certified Loan Societies, £256,139; Railway Savings Banks, £2,469,965; Total, £240,296,733.

§ (C-265, 1892). The figures are exclusive of medical assistance only. For an extremely acute analysis of these figures, see "Memorandum," by Mr. Charles Booth, in the Aged Poor Commission Report.

Several objections have been urged against the accuracy of these figures. The only one worth serious consideration is the possibility of the same individual being counted more than once, since casual wards are largely occupied by men and women tramping from union to union. But however true this may be of men and women under fifty, its applicability to older persons is doubtful. It is not reasonable to assume that, to any appreciable extent, men and women weakened and harassed by a life of ceaseless toil (for after all the mass of aged paupers belong to this class, and not to the idle) wander from district to district. But even admitting that a number of the persons returned as having received relief have been enumerated more than once, the figures are too startling to leave any excuse for optimism. And it must be remembered that, bad as they are, they take no account of the hidden mass of poverty that endures starvation in preference to accepting Poor Law relief with its accompanying stigma of pauperism and disgrace. The extremely moderate Royal Commissioners, in the Aged Poor Report, have spoken out upon this matter. "There are also," they say, "many aged poor who are destitute so far as their own resources are concerned, but who are kept off the rates by the assistance of friends and by private charity. Such persons must sometimes endure great privation in their effort to avoid application for Poor Law relief; and they form a class quite as deserving of consideration as others who are actually numbered in the return as paupers."

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Can Voluntary Institutions Accomplish More in the

Future?

As far as Co-operative Societies and Trade Unions are concerned, this question is negatived by the considerations already mentioned. No one pretends that they can solve the problem, or that it is any part of their business to do so. But the Friendly Societies are still relied on by the people who have no idea of their financial position or the industrial conditions of the problem. In the Report of the Treasury Committee on Old Age Pensions is an interesting table compiled by the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, which deals with twenty-eight Friendly Societies having a total membership of 2,214,620. Of the 21,293 branches or lodges of these societies, 12,448, or 58 per cent., were actuarially unsound at the last valuation.t In the Manchester Unity, which is by far the most stable of the large societies, 55'14 per cent. of the lodges have an actuarial deficiency. In 31 per cent. of the lodges the proportion of assets to liabilities is less than 90 per cent. In the Stepney district 26 lodges out of 46 have been proved by the Unity's actuaries to have deficiencies.‡

*Par. 24 of the Majority Report of Royal Commission on Aged Poor. (C-7654, 1895).

+ C-8911, 1898, p. 187.

Quinquennial Valuation. (Manchester, 1899, pp. 14-15, 76).

The 1897 Quinquennial Valuation of the Ancient Order of Foresters reveals a worse condition of affairs. Of the 3,973 courts, 3,038, or nearly 76 per cent., show estimated deficiencies, and the proportion would have been greater had not the valuation in 1,180 courts been based upon the assumption that the funds will in future realize compound interest at a higher rate than 3 per cent.* The difficulty, in fact, of meeting financial obligations has compelled large numbers of village clubs to dissolve. In Mr. Charles Booth's enquiry into "Old Age in Villages," numerous instances of this breaking-up of country societies are given. The process there detailed is still continuing; for in the last Report of the Chief Registrar, societies containing 4,924 members had dropped out of existence.t

Even if the societies were actuarially solvent, they would be none the more within the reach of the poverty of the bulk of the laboring class. From his analysis of the Poor Law and Census Returns, Mr. Booth told the Aged Poor Commission that two-fifths of the adult population of England and Wales consists of (1) agricultural laborers, (2) unskilled town-workers, (3) women wage-earners. These classes provide 80 per cent. of the pauperism of this country. Out of every three who survive to old age, two have to come to the Poor Law for sustenance. The Friendly Societies are of no use to these classes. In the purely agricultural counties their hold upon the laborers is small. Only o'67 per cent. of the population of Somerset are enrolled in the two large Orders; only 2.38 per cent. in Buckinghamshire, 2.78 per cent. in Oxfordshire, 3.66 in Berkshire, 424 in Wiltshire, and 5.68 in Norfolk, and similarly throughout the agricultural districts. The membership of women is smaller still, as most societies do not admit them. Even in the two Orders, it is doubtful whether there are 20,000 women members.§ In Ireland there are only 58,000 Friendly Society members of both

sexes.

There remains another serious objection to dependence on Friendly Society action. When the pensions schemes were formulated by the two Orders, the maximum of benefit that could be safely given for the minimum of subscription was prescribed. In order to ensure financial stability, no members were allowed to join after attaining fifty years of age. Yet 137,277 members in the Manchester Unity, and 92,755 in the Foresters, are over fifty. And this number is increasing out of proportion to the total membership; whereas 17 per cent. of the Unity's members were over fifty in 1887, by 1897 the percentage had increased to 1992. In the London districts of the two societies two in every eleven members have reached the limits. How can it be claimed that the Friendly Societies unaided can solve the problem, when the two largest,

150 of 1898, p. 17.

† 150 of 1898, pp. 178-187.

Quarterly Reports, 1893.

There are only 4,139 women members of the Manchester Unity. (Oddfellows' Magazine, June, 1899).

wealthiest, and most influential societies tell 230,032 of their members that no hope can be held out to them? At fifty the expectation of life is nineteen years; so that nearly a quarter of a million members are being compelled to face the disadvantages of old age throughout this period. Furthermore, this number must be largely increased in the future. The necessity of readjusting financial obligations to balance income will inevitably lead to a cessation of continuous sick pay. Its recipients will then have to look elsewhere for provision for their old age. The question is, Where?

State Aid Imperative.

The truth is, the State alone possseses the power and the resources tor dealing with the problem. The thoughtful men in both the Trade Unions and the Friendly Societies are recognizing this. They realize how dangerously the aged members are handicapping the societies. Turn how or where they will, the claims and necessities of their aged brethren are forced upon them. For every vacancy that occurs in the voluntary pension fund attached to the South London District of the Manchester Unity-the only district that possesses such a fund-there are ten or more applicants. For every grant of 10s. and upwards that is generously made by the lodges, there are at least twenty other members quite as deserving of relief. As things are at present, the younger members of both Friendly Societies and Trade Unions are heavily taxed to provide for the unsound continuous sick pay in some lodges of the former, and the superannuation benefit in a few of the latter. The result is that financial collapse is in prospect for many Friendly Societies, and a serious limitation of trade action the heavy price to be paid by the Trade Unions. The only source from which any relief of this pressure can be obtained is through the State.

Methods of State Aid.

Four distinct methods, with numerous detailed variations, are at present before the country.*

I. SUBSIDIES TO FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

It is proposed by many well-meaning advocates of State aid that the Government should contribute a yearly sum to the Friendly Societies to enable them to make provision for their aged members. Clearly, were this subvention to be granted unconditionally, it would place a premium on their financial instability. It would be impossible to devote any considerable proportion of the revenue to such a purpose without conditions which would amount to State regulation, and upon the failure of any society to fulfil its obligations, State control. To this a large number of the Friendly Societies are uncompromisingly opposed; and in the teeth of their oppositon

It is not intended to discuss here any specific or individual plan that has been published. The essential ideas of the four different methods are grouped and discussed. Nor is any reference made to various schemes which have been propounded during the last hundred years, from the one outlined in Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" down to the earliest form of Canon Blackley's plan.

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