CHAPTER VI.

A few unions have allowed aged members to draw all or a part of their death benefit. Thus, the Granite Cutters permit members sixty years of age who have been in continuous good standing for ten years to draw the sum of $125.[205]The Typographia also pays an indeterminate lump sum to aged members who wish to retire from the trade.

More important still, a considerable number of unions have made provision for the payment of a superannuation benefit in one form or another at a definite future date. Such unions are the Journeymen Plumbers, the Pattern Makers, the Machinists and the Jewelry Workers.

In the Plumbers' Association any member of at least twenty years' full membership and not less than forty-five years of age, who, through old age or infirmity, is incapacitated from following his employment, is entitled to the benefit according to a prescribed scale; those of twenty consecutive years' full membership and not under sixty-five years of age are to receive three hundred dollars; those of twenty-five years' membership and not under seventy years of age, four hundred dollars; those of thirty years' membership and over, five hundred dollars. The rule providing for the payment of the benefit became effective in January, 1903, but no benefit is to be paid before January, 1923.[206]The Pattern Makers' League provides that superannuated members be divided into two classes: (a) members sixty years of age and of twenty-five years' continuous membership, who receive twelve dollars per month, and (b) those sixty-five years of age and over and of thirty years' membership, who receive sixteen dollars per month. The provisions of this rule became operative July 1, 1900, and the first benefit will be payable on July 1, 1920.[207]The Jewelry Workers have the same specifications as the Pattern Makers. The rule went into effect January 1, 1902, but no benefit will be paid until January 1, 1922.[208]The Machinists provide thatany member sixty-five years of age and of ten consecutive years' good standing shall receive five hundred dollars and those sixty-eight years of age and of twenty years' standing shall receive one thousand dollars. This benefit became effective June 1, 1903, and no payment can be made before June 1, 1913.

The only two American trade unions which in 1908 are actually paying a superannuation benefit as distinguished from a mere compounding of the death benefit are the Granite Cutters and the Typographical Union. In both the establishment of the benefit is very recent.

In 1905 the Granite Cutters made provision for the payment of a monthly benefit of ten dollars for "six months each year beginning with November" to those who had been members for twenty years and who had reached the age of sixty-two. The applicants must have been in continuous good standing for the "last ten years previous to arriving at the age of sixty-two."[209]The first payments under the new rule were made in December, 1905.

The Typographical Union has, however, led all the American trade unions in the provision which it has made for its aged members. As has been noted above, as early as 1857 it was proposed to establish a home for aged printers in Philadelphia, and the project was revived from time to time. The persistence with which this proposal appeared and reappeared gave evidence of its popularity. In 1870 a Kansas union proposed the establishment of a "Home for Disabled Printers." All members of local unions were to be taxed two dollars each for the purpose of endowing the Home. The committee of the International Union to whom the plan was referred reported that they "deemed it impracticable at the present time." In 1877 a similar proposal was defeated. In 1882 a committee consisting of the officers of the union was appointed to inquire into the possibility of establishing and maintaining a "Home for Disabled Printers." This committee expressed its approval of the project, but doubted the ability of the union to finance it.

In 1886 Messrs. George W. Childs and A.J. Drexel of Philadelphia presented to the International Union the sum of ten thousand dollars. This donation was to be used in any manner the union might see fit. For some years an active discussion as to the best use to be made of the fund was carried on, and in the meantime the sum was being increased by contributions from members of the union.

It ultimately became evident that some plan for applying this fund to the establishment of a home for aged printers would best satisfy the membership. In 1887 the Austin, Texas, union announced that the Mayor and City Council of Austin were willing to present a site for such a home. In 1889 the Board of Trade of Colorado Springs offered to donate eighty acres of land for the same purpose, and other offers of land were received from time to time. The International Union finally decided to accept the offer of the site at Colorado Springs, and this decision was approved by a referendum vote.

The Home was opened on May 12, 1892. Applicants for admission were required to have been members of the union in good standing for five years. Persons incapacitated either by age or by illness were admitted to the Home. The number of residents has increased from twenty-two in 1893 to one hundred and forty-three in 1907. A considerable part of the residents are sufferers from tuberculosis, and the union has made provision for treating them according to modern methods. A part of the inmates, however, have always been persons whose incapacity was solely the result of old age.

About 1904 an agitation began to be carried on in the union for making more adequate provision for the maintenance of aged members. The establishment of the Home had made provision only for those incapacitated members who were willing to leave their families and live in an institution. It was argued that the Home benefited one class of the aged, and that another class, equally worthy, was left entirely dependent upon its own resources. Moreover, certain innovations in the trade had made the union highly sensible of the helplessness of its aged members. Theintroduction of the linotype caused many old members to lose their employment. The New York local union established an out-of-work benefit in 1896 which has since been maintained. This benefit, while nominally an out-of-work benefit, was in many cases really a superannuation benefit. In 1903 the Chicago local union made provision for the payment of old-age pensions to its members, and other local unions rapidly followed the same policy.

In 1903 and 1904 propositions were introduced at the sessions of the International Union for the establishment of an International old-age pension system. In 1905 the session of the International authorized the appointment of a committee to investigate the subject. The eight-hour strike which taxed for two years the resources of the Union delayed the consideration of this report. In 1907 the committee reported in favor of the establishment of old age pensions, and presented a plan which when submitted to the referendum was ratified by a large majority, and on August 1, 1908, the International secretary-treasurer began the payment of pensions. All members sixty years of age who have been in continuous good standing for twenty years, and who earn less than four dollars per week, are entitled to a weekly pension of four dollars. The original plan provided also that in order to receive a pension a member must have no other means of support. The officers of the Union, however, have construed this provision liberally, and the pension is paid as of right and not as a form of charity.

The pension scheme thus adopted by the Typographical Union is the most ambitious that has been proposed in any American trade union. The sum of money required to finance the project will be very large, and the Union has levied for the support of the pension system an assessment of one half of one per cent. on the wages of all its members. Whether this will be sufficient adequately to support the benefit is as yet uncertain, since the number of pensioners cannot be estimated with any accuracy. It is certain also that the number of pensioners will not reach its maximum for a considerable period.

No factor has been of more consequence in determining the development and stability of the relief systems than the character of their administration. The problems that confront the unions are both legislative and administrative, but the administrative organs must not only execute the rules already in force, but must furnish data upon which additional rules can be based.

When the early voluntary insurance associations were formed under the auspices of the national unions, their management was usually confided to a separate set of officials, and the funds of the association were kept distinct from those of the unions with which they were connected. In some cases the officers of the unions, for purposes of economy, acted also as officers of the association. The Iron Molders' Beneficial Association was thus formed as a separate institution to furnish a voluntary death and disability benefit to any journeyman molder in good standing in any local union under the jurisdiction of the national organization.[210]

The administration of the beneficiary systems, in all but two of the unions, is now carried on by the officers who manage the general affairs of the union. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the National Association of Letter Carriers each maintains a mutual benefit department administered by separate officers. The official staff of the Engineers' Insurance Association consists of a president, a vice-president, a secretary-treasurer and five trustees; while that of the Letter Carriers consists of the president of the National Association, a board of trustees, a chief collectorand a depositary. In those unions in which the administration of the beneficiary system is in the hands of the officials of the union the officials in charge of the administration of the benefits are usually two, variously known as a grand chief, grand master or president and a secretary-treasurer. In a few unions the offices of treasurer and secretary are separated. In the Cigar Makers the president also performs the duty of secretary. In the Tailors the general secretary has sole charge of the benefits. In the Iron Molders' Union the "financier" has charge of the administration of the sick benefits.

The secretary-treasurer in the majority of the unions is the chief official concerned in administering the benefits. Such is the case in the Typographical Union, the Brotherhood of Painters, the United Association of Plumbers, the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, the Tobacco Workers' Union, the Brotherhood of Leather Workers on Horse Goods, and the Barbers' International Union.[211]In the Iron Molders' Union, the Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Wood Workers' Union, the Glass Bottle Blowers' Association, the United Garment Workers' Union, and the Granite Cutters' Union these duties are divided between the general secretary and the general treasurer.

Ordinarily no particular part of the funds of the union is devoted to the payment of beneficiary claims. The unions paying insurance, however, are exceptional in this respect. In such cases the funds of the insurance departments are separate from the general funds of the brotherhoods, and the dues for maintaining the insurance departments are levied as assessments distinct from the general levies. Nearly all the grand lodges have made provision in theirconstitutions against encroachments upon the beneficiary funds by the grand officers for the benefit of other departments. The Trainmen and the Switchmen provide that the beneficiary fund shall be used exclusively in paying death and disability claims.[212]The Telegraphers provide that no part of the mortuary fund shall be paid out, loaned or diverted for any purpose except for the payment of approved death claims.[213]The Firemen pay out of their beneficiary fund "all expenses for the proper conducting of the beneficiary departments."[214]The position of the Conductors on this point is not so explicit. The Order, however, holds in reserve a fund of $300,000, from which the grand officers may draw, in case the assessments levied for beneficiary purposes are insufficient to pay legal claims and the surplus in the beneficiary fund is not sufficient to cover the deficit.[215]The Engineers and the Maintenance-of-Way Employees have no specific regulation of this kind; but the implication is that similar protection is furnished their funds. The Letter Carriers provide that the beneficiary fund shall be used exclusively for paying insurance claims.

Only a few of the unions paying benefits as distinguished from insurance make any such provisions. The Boot and Shoe Workers provide that the "sick and death benefit fund shall not be drawn upon for any purpose except for payment of sick and death benefits;" the Painters, that "no money received for a specific purpose shall be otherwise used;" and the Tobacco Workers, that "none of the funds shall be transferable one to another."[216]The Cigar Makers and the unions which follow its methods go quite to the otherextreme.[217]All the moneys of the union are kept in a single fund and are drawn upon for the payment of benefits, organizing expenses, or strike pay, as need requires. In the great majority of unions, however, a nominal allocation of funds is practised. Thus, the Typographical Union in 1906 apportioned its monthly dues as follows: five cents to the general fund; five cents to the special defense fund; seven and one half cents to the defense fund; seven and one half cents to the burial fund; and ten cents to the endowment fund of the Union Printers' Home. Similarly, the Iron Molders, the Boot and Shoe Workers, Painters, Pattern Makers, Barbers and many others apportion their dues in fixed ratios to specific objects. But such apportionments are mere book-keeping devices. None of these unions hesitate in an emergency to transfer money from one fund to another. The Iron Molders and the Printers, for example, give their executive board or council power to transfer money from one fund to another whenever occasion demands.[218]In the other unions there is an implied power. In 1899 the Executive Board of the Iron Molders transferred $10,000 from the surplus in the out-of-work fund to other funds, as follows: $3000 to the strike fund; $5000 to the expense fund, and $2000 to the monthly fund.[219]Similarly, the Typographical Union, from 1897 to 1902, transferred $24,174.64 from the burial fund to the general fund.[220]Although the Brotherhood of Carpenters do not make provision for the transfer of money from one fund to another, it has been found necessary to borrow from one fund in order to meet claims on another. In 1896 the Executive Board borrowed seven thousand dollars from the "protective fund"and twelve thousand from the " organization fund" with which to pay benefit claims.[221]

Efficient financial administration requires in the case of certain benefits an apportionment of revenue between the national union and its subordinate unions. The funds for the payment of death and disability benefits or of old age pensions can be held at national headquarters, since the administration of such benefits can be centralized and immediate payment is not essential. In the railway unions and in the great number of unions, such as the Brotherhood of Carpenters and the Typographical Union, which have developed only death benefits, the dues for beneficiary purposes are collected by the local unions and paid over to the national treasury. In those national unions which have introduced sick, out-of-work, or travelling benefits, national funds are ordinarily held by the local unions, for the reason that it is desirable that payment of claims should be made immediately. The unions which pay such benefits are divisible into two classes according to the extent to which they have entrusted the funds of the national union to the local unions. The Cigar Makers, the Typographia, the Piano and Organ Workers and the Plumbers intrust to the local unions all the funds of the national organization. A more numerous class of unions apportion the dues between the local unions and the national organization. The Iron Molders, for example, collect twenty-five cents per week from every member. This amount is applied as follows: ten cents per week per member is transferred to the International treasurer, of which sixteen per cent. is placed to the credit of the death and disability fund, twenty-six per cent. to the monthly fund, and fifty-eight per cent. to the strike fund; eight cents per week per member is held by the local unions as a credit to the benefit fund out of which are paid sick and out-of-work benefits; and the remainder, seven cents per member, is held by the local unions as a fund for local expenditures.

The adjudication of claims is naturally the mostimportant administrative task connected with a system of benefits. In all cases the national officials rely upon the local unions and their officers for a certain amount of coöperation and aid in preventing fraud, but the amount of this dependence varies with the character of the benefit. In death and disability benefits the national union can prevent fraud almost without any coöperation on the part of the local unions. A certificate of death or disability, properly signed, is in the great majority of cases an indisputable evidence of the fact it purports to attest. A union may in like manner administer an old age pension directly from its head office. But in the case of sick, travelling and out-of-work benefits, the local unions become an essential part of the administrative machinery of the national union. No national union attempts to determine whether a member of a local union is entitled to the out-of-work benefit except through the local union. The administrative systems fall thus into two great classes according as the benefit administered can be guarded against fraud by means of certificates and sworn statements, or according as it must be administered partly by persons in contact with the claimant. In both cases the national officers administer the benefits; but in the one they act directly and the mediation of the local union is formal and dispensable, while in the other the aim of national administration is to supervise and control the local administration.

The administration of the death benefit or of a system of insurance against death presents relatively few difficult problems. The local union reports the death to the national officials and certifies to the good standing of the deceased member in his local union. If the reports of national and local unions correspond and the deceased member is clear on the records of both local and national unions, the claim is approved by the national officers and payment is made to the designated beneficiary, or the legal heirs of the deceased. The report of the subordinate union to the national union, covering the case in point, contains a certificate validating the claim, sworn to before a notary public orcommissioner by the president and the financial secretary, together with all documents upon which the local authorities based their decision or prayer for the payment of the claim. Upon receipt of an application for a claim the general secretary-treasurer, the general president, or both, examine it and, if satisfied as to its validity, order immediate payment; if the claim is questionable it is referred to the general executive board for final adjustment.[222]

The adjudication of disability claims is more difficult than that of death claims. Of the unions that pay disability insurance or benefits the Locomotive Engineers, the Railway Conductors, the Locomotive Firemen, the Railroad Trainmen, the Switchmen, the Maintenance-of-Way Employees, the Iron Molders, the Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Painters, and the Glass Workers specify the disabilities that constitute "total or permanent disability," while the Wood-Workers and Metal Workers define disability simply by the resultant disqualification for "following the trade,"[223]In the latter group of unions the administrative officers have large discretionary power. The lack of more specific rules in such cases causes unsatisfactory administration and this in turn gives rise to general complaint.[224]

All claims for disability benefits are filed with the local officers of the disabled members' union for their examination and approval or rejection. In case of approval the claims are forwarded to the central office of the national union with all necessary papers concerning its validity. If the claim is approved, payment is made through the local union to thelegal claimants.[225]The majority of the unions paying disability benefits, as a precautionary measure specify the time within which claims for disability must be filed. The Conductors and the Carpenters require claims to be filed within one year from date of disability,[226]the Firemen and the Switchmen, within six months,[227]and the Trainmen "promptly" after injury;[228]while the Engineers and the Maintenance-of-Way Employees fix no specific time for filing claims. The Carpenters and the Painters require that notice of a claim for disability must be given to the general secretary-treasurer within sixty days after disability occurs.

The disability claim must be accompanied, under the rules of practically all the unions, by the sworn certificates of the attending physicians.[229]The Firemen provide that the national officials may, when they consider it necessary, appoint a physician to pass upon the validity of a claim; the Maintenance-of-Way Employees require subordinate lodges to appoint a special committee to report on the nature and cause of the disability. The Engineers exercise special care in passing upon a claim for loss of sight. In such cases they require a certificate signed by two experienced oculists; and in case the eyes have not been removed the claim remains on file for one year, when additional certificates from twoexperienced oculists, certifying to total or permanent blindness, must be furnished.[230]

A member whose claim for a death or disability benefit has been rejected may appeal from the decision of the official authorized to pass upon claims. The provisions of the Trainmen are typical. Every claim rejected by the secretary-treasurer is referred to the Beneficiary Board, consisting of the grand master, the assistant grand master and the secretary-treasurer. If rejected also by the Board the claimant may appeal to the Grand Lodge "at its next succeeding session, but not afterward." The appellant must give a written notice to the grand secretary-treasurer of his intention to appeal.[231]

The unions paying the sick benefit fall into two classes according as they administer the benefit directly from the offices of the national union with the aid of the local union or as they intrust the administration of the benefit to the local union and leave to the national officers only a general supervision. The Boot and Shoe Workers, the Barbers and the Tobacco Workers are in the former class, while in the latter are the Cigar Makers, Iron Molders, Typographia, Plumbers, Leather Workers on Horse Goods and the Garment Workers.

The chief means relied upon to guard against fraud are the certificate of the attending physician and the report of a visiting committee of the local union. Some of the unions require both the certificate and the report; the larger part, however, rely on the report of the visiting committee, although local unions are permitted to require that a physician's certificate shall be furnished. The duties of the visiting committee are set forth with great elaboration in all the constitutions. Thus, the Boot and Shoe Workers requirethat the claim shall be investigated by "three Union members of good repute not related to the sick member, each acting independently of the others and reporting individually to the local executive board." The Plumbers and Cigar Makers require that every sick member shall be visited at least once in each week and that no two members of the committee shall visit him at the same time.

Notwithstanding these precautions it has not been possible entirely to prevent the payment of fraudulent claims for sick benefits. The visiting committees of the local unions are frequently neglectful or careless in exercising their supervisory functions, and occasionally knowingly sanction the payment of unwarranted claims. Where the unions do not have an out-of-work benefit, there is always the chance that unemployed members will claim the sick benefit and that the local unions, aware that the money for the payment of the claim comes from the national union, will not scrutinize with any care the severity of the illness.

Reserving to the national officials the right to pass finally upon sick-benefit claims is not effective as a precaution against such frauds. The national officials cannot inform themselves as to the honesty of the physician who signs the certificate nor as to the good faith with which the visiting committee has performed its duties. On the whole, the better policy seems to be to place the responsibility of passing upon individual claims directly upon the local union, and to reserve to the national officials an oversight of the administration of the local unions.

In several of the unions no effective measures appear to have been taken to keep the local unions up to their duties, but in others a close scrutiny is maintained. The system in use by the Iron Molders is probably the most effective of those used by the unions which do not pay a money out-of-work benefit and in which consequently the need for supervision is greatest. Every member of the union is catalogued on a card. When he is reported as having received a benefit payment from any local union, this fact is entered on his card. Members removing from one local union toanother and drawing more sick benefits than they are allowed by the rules are thus detected and forced to make restitution. The "financier" of the union also notes the sick rate in each local union. When the amount of sickness in any locality appears to be excessive, he employs for a limited time a reputable physician, who must sign all claims for sick relief. The result usually is the discovery of laxity in the local administration and the necessary corrective measures are applied.[232]The Cigar Makers have a staff of travelling auditors who from time to time inspect the accounts of local unions and scrutinize the administration of the benefits.

The administration of out-of-work relief is similar to that of sick benefits in that the national union must of necessity rely upon the local union. The requirement of registration from day to day is the chief administrative check upon the payment of the benefit to members not entitled thereto.

The more complete the system of benefits the less is the difficulty in preventing the payment of fraudulent claims. A union such as the Cigar Makers or the Typographia has a comparatively small problem in administration as compared with that of a union like the Iron Molders. Since the Iron Molders do not maintain an out-of-work benefit unemployed members are tempted to try to secure sick benefits. Even in the Cigar Makers the sick benefit and the out-of-work benefit are used as a form of superannuation relief. The addition of a superannuation benefit would lower the expense of maintaining the sick and out-of-work benefits.

The administration of trade-union benefits is subject to certain rules imposed by the statutes of the various states. All the commonwealths of the United States regulate by law the conduct of insurance business. In this regulation, distinction has necessarily been made between regular insurance companies and that class of organizations known asfraternal or beneficiary societies. The trade organizations described in this monograph as maintaining insurance or benefit departments fall under the latter class.

The unions paying insurance, as distinguished from benefits, have conformed to certain requirements of these laws, either by incorporating their insurance departments or by modifying the rules of the organizations in harmony with special state regulations for fraternal insurance companies.

Prior to 1894—from December, 1867, to 1894—the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers had its headquarters in the state of New York. In the latter year the State Superintendent of Insurance notified the Brotherhood that incorporation of the insurance department was necessary for the continuance of the business. In consequence thereof the central office of the Brotherhood was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio, and on the twenty-second of February, 1894, the insurance department was incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio as a separate organization.[233]Similarly, the Conductors were forced to incorporate by the pressure of the state laws. In December, 1885, the Order moved its central office from Cedar Rapids to Chicago. In order to strengthen its power and to broaden its influence, the Order, in 1886, applied for a certificate of incorporation under the laws of the state of Illinois. The Secretary of State refused the certificate on the ground that the insurance regulations of the Order were not in accordance with the state laws, and requested that these be changed and that the insurance department be incorporated as a separate organization. The Secretary of State was willing to incorporate the Order under the Act of 1872, provided the Order eliminated from the object of organization the clauses referring to the payment of benefits or indemnity; or he was willing to issue a charter based on the Act of 1883 which provided that only such powers could be taken as are specifically granted therein, namely, "the furnishing of lifeindemnity or pecuniary benefits to widows, orphans, heirs, relatives, and devisees of deceased members, or accident or permanent disability indemnity to members."[234]In other words, the Order could have been incorporated under the Act of 1872 to do all business except insurance, while under the Act of 1883 it could have been incorporated to maintain a system of insurance, but nothing else. The only alternative was separate organization for the protective and the benevolent departments. The Order was unwilling to separate the two departments and consequently transferred its central office to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Board of Directors, on July 12, 1887, ordered the grand secretary to proceed with incorporation under the laws of the state of Iowa.[235]The certificate of incorporation, however, was not issued until the laws of the union were made to conform to the insurance laws of the state. These changes were only unimportant ones, such as the change of the name of the Insurance Department to "Mutual Benefit Department," and in no way affected the intent of any laws of the Order.

The other railway brotherhoods have conformed to the insurance laws of the states in which they do business. The insurance department of the Switchmen's Union is incorporated under the laws of the state of New York. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen does business in the state of Illinois under a law enacted in 1893 whereby all beneficial fraternal associations are declared to be corporations, the insurance features of which are subject to state laws.[236]The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen operates its insurance department under a license issued by the insurance department of the state of Ohio under the Fraternal Beneficiary Society Act.

The National Association of Letter Carriers, at the time of organizing the Benefit Association, on August 7, 1891, incorporated the Association under the laws of the state of New Jersey. But less than one year later, on February 26, 1892, the Association was reincorporated under the laws of the state of Tennessee. This change was made, according to Collector Dunn,[237]in order that both the National Association and the Mutual Benefit Association might operate under a single charter.

The unions that pay benefits as distinguished from insurance are less subject to legal regulation. They do not issue beneficiary certificates as do the railway unions, the Letter Carriers' Association, and the large class of fraternal beneficiary societies, and hence are not deemed to be maintaining insurance departments. With one exception, the Brotherhood of Painters,[238]the unions of this group have neither taken out charters of incorporation nor in any way obtained authority to operate benefit departments within their respective states. These unions cannot be said to operate their beneficiary systems irrespective of state laws. In all the states the laws define the scope and functions of such organizations.

The Brotherhood of Painters, in the incorporation of its organization, has taken a step beyond the practices of unions of its type. On December 7, 1894, the Secretary of State of Indiana issued a certificate of incorporation to the Brotherhood under the state law entitled "An act to authorize the formation of voluntary associations;" and in order to conform more strictly to the state laws the corporate name was changed, in December, 1899, to the present name.[239]Incorporation, however, has not proved satisfactory. For many years the Brotherhood maintained one general fund from which local unions received assistance in time of strikes, orin other cases of need. As a chartered institution the funds were liable at legal action and all payments from them subject to injunction. This state of affairs led the officials to urge complete separation of protective and benevolent funds, thereby offering greater protection to the membership. Consequently in 1904 the Brotherhood adopted the recommendations of the national officials and apportioned the national receipts into separate funds to be used only as specified.

[1]

The term "benefit" is used in this monograph to include all forms of mutual insurance other than those directly connected with the enforcement of trade-union rules by collective bargaining. "Strike benefits" and "victimized benefits" are thus without the scope of the study.

[2]

Iron Molders' Journal, Vol. I, p. 309.

[3]

Proceedings of the Twentieth Session, 1895, Report of the President.

[4]

The dates given indicate the years in which the unions first succeeded in adopting national benefits of some kind, and not the dates on which successful systems were inaugurated. For example, the Cigar Makers' system of travelling loans adopted in 1867 and its "endowment plan" adopted in 1873 were unsuccessful and the present system was not adopted until 1880. (Cigar Makers' Journal and Program, twentieth session, pp. 57-63.)

[5]

Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 26, September, 1901.

[6]

Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 10, Aug., 1885; Vol. 19, May, 1894, p. 8. The records of initiations and suspensions for various periods in the history of the union also show the increase in the power to retain members. During 1877-1879, with only strike benefits in operation, 3000 members were initiated and 2750 were suspended; from September, 1879, to September, 1880, with strike and travelling benefits in force, 5453 were initiated and 1853, or 33.9 per cent., were suspended, while from September, 1880, to September, 1881, when a sick benefit was also being paid, 7402 were initiated, and 1867, or 25.2 per cent., were suspended. (Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 6, June, 1881, p. i; Vol. 7, October, 1881, p. 3.)

[7]

Iron Molders' Journal, Vol. 33, p. 73; Vol. 36, p. 78.

[8]

Proceedings of the Fifth Convention, Detroit, 1902; Shoe Workers' Journal, Vol. 5, February, 1904, pp. 19, 25.

[9]

Barbers' Journal, Vol. 10, p. 10; Shoe Workers' Journal, Vol. 2, April, 1901, p. 6.

[10]

Order of Railway Conductors, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Order of Railroad Telegraphers, Switchmen's Union, Brotherhood of Maintenance-of-Way Employees, and National Association of Letter Carriers.

[11]

Locomotive Engineers' Journal, February, 1867.

[12]

Ibid.,Vol. 5, p. 294.

[13]

Ibid.,Vol. 3, p. 232.

[14]

Locomotive Engineers' Journal, Vol. 4, p. 31.

[15]

Ibid.,Vol. 25, p. 951; Vol. 31, p. 504.

[16]

Proceedings, 1868-1885 (Cedar Rapids, 1888), p. 13.

[17]

Proceedings, 1868-1885 (Cedar Rapids, 1888), p. 19.

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