FRIENDLY SOCIETIES

societies formed for the mutual advantage of the members, and based on the principle that it is by the contribution of the savings of many persons to one common fund that the most effectual provision can be made for casualties affecting, or liable to affect, all the eontributors, Mutual provident a ociations, taking the friendly society form, may be grouped under five main heads: (1) Affiliated Societies; (2) Ordinary Soci: eties, subdivided into (a) Centralized or General Societies,(b) Peculiar Trade and Profe ion Societies, (c) Local, including Dividing, Clubs, (d) Societies of Women; (3) Collecting Societies; (4) Medical Societies; and (5) Other Societies registered under the Friendly Societies Act, including (a) Cattle Insurance Societies, (6) Benevolent Societies, (c) Working Men’s Clubs, and (d) Specially Authorized Societies, i.e. those existing for purposes to which the Treasury specially extends any of the provisions of the Act. Divisions (1) and (2) offer a sickne as well as a funeral benefit to their members, and some of them offer a deferred annuity or superannuation as an optional benefit in addition. Hach registered society or branch must have a registered office, and each society must send annually to the Registrar of Friendly Societies a return of income and expenditure, and a ets as audited. Every five years the financial condition of societies is inquired into and a report made by a valuer. The funds are guarded against maladministration or fraud, and facilities for the prosecution of the offender or offenders given. The Friendly Societies Act of 1896 consolidated the law on the subject, and was supplemented in some ways by the Collecting Societies and Industrial A urance Companies Act of the same year. The following figures of membership and funds in the year 1918 are taken from the annual report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies: Members. Funds. 1. Affiliated Societies 2,928,186 £33,017,726 2. Ordinary Societies 3,763,369 £28,810,212 3. Collecting Societies 9,726,216 £14,839,173 4, Medical Societies 130,189 £78,129 5. Other Societies 820,607 £3,526,687 Mutual provident a ociation, on the voluntary principle and in a friendly society form, as an economic duty, is at present characteristic mainly of the English-speaking races. The at hili a ted societies (or orders, as they are called) extend their operations beyond the confines of the United Kingdom to America and the British colonies and dependencies. These societies are fraternities or brotherhoods, occupying in part the position of the old craft guilds. The Independent Order of Odd 588 FRIENDLY SOCIETIES fellows (Manchester Unity) and the Ancient Order of Foresters far outstrip all the other orders in numerical and financial strength, the former po e ing in 1930 a membership of 746,087, and in its lodges a capital of £20,861,967, whilst the latter had in the same year 555,929 members, and funds to the sum of £12,935,917 in its branches, or courts as they are termed. The amount of relief work done by these societies may be estiiaated from the fact that during 1918 tho Manchester Unity paid out £766,267. in sickne benefit and £297,680 in funeral benefit, while the A.O.F. paid out £530,353 and £231,879 cespectively. The Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds (Ashton Unity) is another powerful fraternity, being particularly strong in Scotland; other orders are known as Druids, Rechabites, Free Gardeners, Sons of Temperance, Romans, Locomotive Steam Engine men and Firemen’s Friendiy Society, . The Independent Order of Rechabites and the Order of Sons of Temperance exhibit the economic phase of the temperance movement, and the former especially has increased very rapidly in recent years. The Locomotive Steam Engine men, ., is confined to railway employees, and is the only peculiar trade society which is constituted as an order. In this group, as a rule, the constitution and government are purely democratic, consisting of individual branches (called Jodges, courts, tents, senates, .), local gatherings of branches (generally called districts), and a central executive elected from annual or biennial parliaments of branch delegates. The general group consists of bodies with one central office and a scattered area of membership up and down the country, as the Hearts of Oak, the Rational Sick and Burial A ociation, and the United Patriots; or of bodies known as county societies, because the membership of each society is restricted to the geographical area of some one county—generally of the east and south of England. Before it became a collecting society the Hearts of Cak was by tar the largest of the general group. In the case of these bodies the funds are centralized, and not retained in districts and lodges (or courts), as is the case with the orders. i Among the societies conx,ected with peculiar trades, the most important are those connected with mining. These are accident insurance organizations, the funds of which are subsidized by the employers as a contribution towards their liabilities in the case of fatal] or non-fatal casualties to the workmen in their empioy. By 8° 585 FRIENDLY SOCIETIES 4 means of them the workmen were able* to contract themselves out of the Employers’ Liability Act of 1880 and the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897. Membership is almost entirely confined to the coal-getting miners. Since the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906 a contracting-out scheme, however, has to be registered. Local benefit clubs have had their day, and are being displaced by branches of the affiliated orders. A large proportion of this division are tontine or dividing societies, i.e. temporary combinations on the mutual basis, which break up and divide their capital every twelvemonth or so, and then commence anew. The collecting societies in sure mainly for funeral benefit, but do pay other benefits. The larzer members oz the group have nearly swallowed up the smaller, and in Britain there are four societies of over 100,000 members, which comprise between them over 90 per cent of the members and funds. These societies are: Liverpool Victoria Legal, Royal Liver, the Hearts of Oak, and Scottish Legal, the membership of the first two exceeding 4 and 3 millions respectively, while the Hearts of Oak has nearly half a million members. As arule, these societies are trading concerns chiefly for the benefit of the promoters and collectors, these latter calling from door to door for the weekly pence of the members, but this does not apply to the Hearts of Oak. There is only a technical difference between them and the industrial insurance companies, and as a result of the recommendations of the Industrial Insurance Committee which reported early in 1921, legislation is foreshadowed whereby Cole nS societies will be required to make a deposit of the same amount as that required from insurance companies conducting life insurance busine . Separate societies used formerly to be established consisting wholly of ‘juveniles,’ in connection with societies of the general group and branches of the affiliated orders, but in 1895 the nece ity for such separate societies was done away with by an enactment that every society may have members of any age exceeding one year. Societies of women, however, have now begun to play a very definite part in the voluntary thrift movement. Altogether the number of different bodies of one cla or another registered as separate societies or branches, in Great Britain and Ireland, is about 30,000. Though friendly societies exist mainly for the benefit of the ‘ ma es,’ the friendly society form of mutual insurance is that under which some flourishing a urance societies, such as the Clergy Mutual, the National 589 FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF Provident, and the United Kingdom Temperance, were originally established; and we may instance as more recent examples of its adaptation to the ‘cla es,’ the establishment in London of a society of the general type for the benefit of the medical profe ion, the Medical Sickne and Annuity Friendly Society; and the Clergy Friendly Society, restricted to members of the Church of England. The three prime nece ities for securing financial stability and efficient government are: (1) Registration, (2) Valuation, (3) Graduation. This last requisite refers to the adoption of a graduated scale of annual contribution according to age on joining. Friendly societies exist also in the eolonies and in foreign countries. In Spe —— i ul} a, soo — Fijends’ Meeting House, Hustontioau, London the several Austral asian colonies more than £3,000,000 has been accumulated by these societies. In France a distinction is drawn between societies that are simply authorized and those that are approved, and these latter enjoy many privileges, which amount toa considerable State subsidy. In Belgium, also, a distinction is made between recognized and non recognized societies. ‘In Holland half the popwation are insured in some sickne benefit society. In Spain the history of these societies may be traced back to the medivval guilds. See also BUILDING SOCIETIES; CO-OPERATIVE SOC In TIES.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. F. Wilkinson, The Friendly Society Movement; Fuller, The Law relating to Friendly Societies; A. C. Stevens, The Cyclopedia of Fraternities; Annual Reports o ofeke Chief Regisurar. of Friendly Societies. IMG:fig590_1.jpg: