The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-11-06 00:00:00

LABOURERS' BENEFIT CLUBS.

A Suffolk Rector hue sent the following letter to
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The Tunes for publication
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I see by the letters of some of your correspondents that
well-directed effort& are being made to place safe benefit club,
within the reach of the labourers of the parishes under their
charge. We, in this part of the country, however,
have advanced beyond the point of establishing pa-
rochial clubs apart from public-houses, and free from ex-
penses of management. We have large district soon-
elation, combining 'many parishes, and having the aci•
vantage of a great number of members. The association to
which my parish belongs has £25,000 invested, and is Pro-
nounced by Mr Tidd Pratt as safe as such a society
can be. The risks of a benefit society are greatly di-
minished by numbers The existing parish clubs sometimes
break down from an unusual run of illness, as well
as from the pronto being absorbed by the publican,
but where a number of pari-hes cmibine, this risk is almost
it Mired to nothing My own parish has drawn so seriously
on the association during the last tew years that tilt had
been only a parish club it must have faded, hut it has
scarcely felt the pressure. The management is entirely con-
ducted by the gentry and clergy, the necessary exPenses being
paid out of an honorary fund subscribed by ihem. I con-
sider this, however, to be a mistake. I think I, would be
batter that the members should rot receive am thing beyond
the gratuitous labour of the directors
The association has one remarkable feature—that it under-
takes to give half-pan for life after the age of sixty.five. A
member may shliscribe to receive 103. or Is. or tts. a week in
sickness, according to the amount of his subscription but
whichever of these he takes, he receives half as mush for life
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if I'W:ital.'s the age of sixty:five.
It might he supposed that an association like this would
supersede all other clubs, but I regret to say that it is not
so. The publichonse has still its club to which no warning
from the losses if others will keep some young men from
subscribing. One reason of this is that the terms of the
association are higher than those of the puhlichouse, and
that the payments increase with the age at which the
member enter.. The publichouse does not trouble itself
wt. h an actuary, and admits all members at the same pay-
ment under a certain age, after which it refuses them alto-
gether Its rates also, even if nothing went for beer, are
generally too low for what it undertakes to do—hence it
almost certainly collapses before many years.
Unto, tunately, the increasing scale of payments, accord-
ing to age, almost excludes the labourers In my parish, sin-
less they begin young. But too often they do not think of
the provident step of joining a ben. fit club VI they are
married, and find family cares Increasing, and then the sub-
scription is almost out of their reach. I have established a
supplementary club for these cares. I admit all members at
whatever age, who can obtain a medical certificate of
soundness, at a uniform rate of 14 per month to secure Os
per week in sickness, or GI. per month for 4s. a week. I find
that women are very glut to take the lower scale. I break up
the club at the end of the year, dividing whatever may
be left of the funds, and then begin again. Thus there is
no risk of any serious loos. I have tried the plan four years,
and have never had less than half the motley subscribed to
divide. Of course it might he that the subscribed funds
would not suffice; hut even then there would be 110 great
harm done. Toe experience of this club for sickness
alone has led me to consider whether it would not
lie a good thing to 'separate the Eitlneas part of
the ordinary benefit club from the assurance part.—
that is, the payment at death and the annuity, where there
is one. The assuranse part would he best done by
Government ; only much smaller assurances must be al-
lowed than at present. The sickness part could sOt, of
course, he managed by Goveinment, and might be conducted
as at present. One great advantage of the separation would
he that the rates of payment need not increase so much ac-
cording to ARO and thus there would not be so many ex-
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::luded-fr.mi -safe societies.
1 otter this accoubt of our Suffolk proceedings in the hope
that our experience may be useful to those who are beginning
the good work of combating the publichouse clubs.