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( 107 )
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XVI.—FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
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Life AssunAisrcE has long since become a...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
( 107 )
( 107 )
Xvi.—Friendly Societies.
XVI . —FRIENDLY SOCIETIES .
Life Assunaisrce Has Long Since Become A...
Life AssunAisrcE has long since become an established mode of provision against the contingencies of life , among * the upper and
middle classes . But with one or two recent exceptions , Assurance offices have confined their business to amounts quite beyond the reach
of the humbler classes . Still for even a longer period , another form of life assurance has been a favorite mode of provision for the future
among the industrious poor . Working- men have established Societies among themselves , which , though numerous instances of
failure testify to the bad principles on which they were conducted , or the bad management with which they . met , still succeeded so far
as to confer great benefits on numerous districts , and to leave unshaken the faith of working men in their efficacy . In every
town and in almost every village in the kingdom , such associations are to be found . They are but too frequently conducted in the
public-house or one of the public-houses of the district , the owner of which allows their weekly meetings to take place under his roof ,
in consideration of the drink which is likely to be consumed in the course of the proceedings . Nor unfortunately does his speculation
prove a barren one . To this fact might be traced many of the disasters that have overtaken these Societies . The landlord , if an
unprincipled man , plays into the hands of some unscrupulous good customer , who gets the management of the affairs , is entrusted
with the money , and finally decanrps with it . A Friendly Society is formed on the principle of Mutual
Assurance ; each member contributes a certain subscription per week or monthas may be agreed uponin return for which the Society
, , undertakes to pay him a certain sum weekly in sickness , or on attaining old age . In addition to thisit generally allows what is
, called " Burial Money , " a certain sum paid to the member ' s family at his death .
The causes that effect the failure or secure the success of these valuable Societies form a most interesting and important branch of
inquiry . The failure of institutions widely enlisting the sympathies and energies of working men , and calling forth their independence
for and real forethoug congratulation ht , is matter ;¦ and for he who serious by inquiry regret . , skill Their in success calculation calls ,
and knowledge of thpse laws which affect the subject , contributes to their future stability and progress , confers an incalculable benefit
upon society . Incalculable , inasmuch as the forethought of the parent tells on the training and education of the child , and gives
steadiness and strength to the very basis of the community . The first defectthe most frequent cause of failure in these
, Societies , has been the inadequacy of the rates of contribution demanded from members . It is manifest that if the members of a
Society pay twopence a week for mutual assurance , against a risk which to each is of the value of fourpence , bankruptcy will be the H 2
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1860, page 107, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101860/page/35/
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