The Express.
London, England, 1859-11-18 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVMHER' 'lB 1869.

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.•

The two millions of members of enrolled Friendly
Societies could not do better with the next hall-crown
they may have at liberty than buy Mr. Hardwick'.
manual. Any five of them that may think it worth
sixpence apiece to learn their prospects as members
had better get the book, and study it as they would
study a prophecy of what is to become of them.
They know who Mr. Hardwick is. The general
public may not, so we will just explain that Mr.
Hardwick is unquestionably competent to the
useful task he has undertaken, having held
the most responsible offices in the Man-
chester Unity, and been grand master of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows in that Unity.
He has lectursdlextenevely on the subject of Friendly
Bccietiee' never failing to convince all listeners of
the perils which at present attend those associations,
and his researches and calculations have been ac-
cepted and authenticated by actuaries, as correct
expositions of the real financial character and pros-
peeta or the benefit clubs of the kingdom, under
their various names. As his researches relate to
funds amounting to above nine millions of pounds
sterling, the property of above two millions of mem-
bers,—and a kind of property on which depends
their independence and self-respect amidst the
changes of human life—the subject is too important
to be over-looked by anybody w no has the respecta-
bility sad enders of the werkieg claws at heart.
We hope therefore that while the two millions of
Mr. Hardwick's comrades in Benefit Clubs will be-
come acquainted with the results of his studies, the
rest of society will take heed to the facts, and COS.
sider what can be done to avert the dangers which
impend, and to prevent the wreck of the earnest and
rational hopes which are invested in the Friendly
Societies of Great Britain, under their variety of
queer titles.
The history of such associations given by Mr.
Hardwick, and the sketch of the progress of actua-
ries in discovering the true principles of insurance
are interesting ; but for these we must refer our
readers to the book itself. The all-engrossing im-
portance of the volume is in its revelation of the
immure state of the insurance on which many thou-
sands of men have reeled their hopes.
If the wisest men were unaware a century ago of
some of the leading principles of calculation of the
value of life, health, and deposited money, it is no
wonder that working men whose attention has
never been turned to such subjects should be igno-
rant of the existence of even any doubt in the most
precarious cases. In hundreds of Friendly Societies
it has never occurred to any member that there is
mach less sickness among young men than among
the middle-aged, and less in the middle-aged than
the old; and therefore the young men of twenty
have been required to pay the same sub-
scription from the beginning as the men of
five-and-thirty, or rather the elder men have not
been required to pay more than the younger; and
thus, when the time came for sick-allowances, the
need' of which was always increasing with the col-
lective age of the members, the money was all spent
(or is now diminished far below the solvent point),
before the younger members can get their share. In
their day of need, they find that their savings have
gone to support the senior members, and there is
little or nothing left for them. As long as their
officers announced at their meetings that the reserve
fund amounted to this ,or that they cheered the re-
port, and supposed themselves prosperous, not con-
sidering whether the fund was sufficient to meet the
claims upon it which must be ooetinually increasio
till the first generation of subscribers had
away, and young men enough had entered to 811 the
places of those who were growing elderly. If a
man of twenty has, on the average, only half •
week's sickness in the year, and the prospect of
subscribing for forty years, and if the man
of forty has the prospect of double the sickness
yearly, and little more than half the years before
him to subscribe in, it is a cruel injustice to the
young man and an undue favour to the elderly one
to make them pay alike. It is actually found that
the sickpay required for members above sixty was so
gnat that the only thing to be dons was to commute
it late a pension; and all such discoveries have been
made at the expense of the members who could wait
Ingest; that is, at the expense of the youngest.
Many are the sufferers who, after paying insur-
ease through the best years of their lives, have seen
their society break up, paying a dividend or not, as
might happen. The Registrar's report informs us
(p. 3) of the existing state of things.
Notices of dissolution have been received from 58 societies
during the year ending 31st December, 1858. and since that
time the number has considerably increased; the muses of
diewolution generally arising from the claims made on the
funds by pensioners, the number of the members being small,
sad no Mamma e( young members, Sinai the passing of the
Arm Friendly Society Act in 1793 to the 31st of December,
1858, the number of friendly societies enrolled and certified
is 28,660, and of that number 6,860 have used to said.
The Registrar observes on the smallness of the
number of members as a common cause of failure;
and Mr. Hardwick is particularly emphatic on this.
He shows that the average of sickness and death
as be reckoned upon only in the case of large num-
bers, small societies being in perpetual danger
of wreck from a very insignificant iceman of sick-
ness or accidental deaths; whereas the larger the
numbers the nearer is the approach to a uniform rate
of calls upon the funds. Mr. Hardwick tells us of
lodges consisting of twenty members, or a dozen, or
less, at a time when the average throughout the
Manchester Unity was only sixty-six ; and yet, to
secure the treasury against a run,and to obtain steadi-
ness in the course of affairs, no number short of five
hundred is sufficient.
Judging from the results of the peat experience which 1 have
emunined, I should not recommend any society to remain
content with a smaller number than five hundred members.
A thousand would be sal better. Eves hare there would be
Ilantuations, notwithstanding every precaution may have
bees taken ; but the larger the numb*/ the leas will be the
imewalarity.

This fundamental error of proposing to pay out
more money than comes in, in the long run, is the
most prominent muse of failure in friendly societies ;
but there are others quite sufficient to bring on •
fatal result. Mr. Hardwick laments the prejudioe of
even leading members against the protection of
law—against any use of the act of parliament which
was pained altogether for the sake of such societies.
In • passage too long to quote, our author exposes
the mischief of this prejudice, and shows that there
is no interference with the free action of members in
placing their re!fgoversswient and the observance of
their own rules under the protection of the law.
This piece of argument, extending from pp. 138 to
164, is particularly worthy the attention of all who
have anything at stake in such institutions. It refers
to the excuse so often heard from members that, if
they choose honest office-bearers,they condo very well
without the help of the law. As Mr. Hardwick
remarks, every office-bearer that ever was entrusted
with the funds of any society was believed in,
very confidently, when he was selected for his office.
Yet the absconding or defaulting of treasurers and
secretaries has been no very rare circumstance.
Again, there is a constant difficulty in finding honest
and capable men willing to serve, while the vain,
and idle, and ignorant are more easily obtainable.
The sensible and conscientious man is aware of what
be is undertaking, not only of the hard work of a
secretary, which is really enough to wear a man out,
it added to his own occupation, but of the pressure
of unreasonable members, and of the disagreeable
things which are thought and said by ill-informed
men when they find matters going otherwise than
as they wish. The members do not look after their
sick comrades as they might; they leave it to the
office-bearers, and suppose without inquiry that the
surgeon's certificate is duly obtained; and, after
carelessness like this, they are too apt to fancy causes
for the expenditure which they have taken no pains

• A Manuel for the Use of Friendly ficaletiet. By
Iretlown,Chula Hardwick, of the independent Order of Odd
1859 Horst of the &skim of Friendly &elitism la England,

to check. Facts.liks those came main an incidental
way in the course of the author's argument in favour
of large soeieties,io which there Is of course a larger
°holm of men for cake. . _

Another ems of failure in a easeiderable masher
of clubs is the inattention of the sassibess to trio
states of health in diffarent ocenpatiena localities,
and other circumstances. If, between the aces of

iositdlo,—pottereate ill mote than 335 Weal*
while clerks and selicsoltautare are ill only 4!! if

dime claim for 2911 trestle of iiiirnom ida wheel-
wnghts far only 64, it is madams to make the pay-
ment the same in their respective clubs, or to
jumble them together in one. It is the same rale-
take to protein the same benefit' for the same pay
to men who live in the city and ie the ookintry, if
the city residents are sure in the long roe Whitmire
pay for 12 or 16 weeks more than the roof mem-
bers; and if Rochdale men are ill 67 weeks where
the Sheilleul men see ill for 96, the terms cannot
eahly he the same. Again: there are enormous
difilirencee in the prosperity oUsociettes, amording
to the inreinmenta closes for their reserve fends.
Though the act precludes amain investments--aoch
as the pinwheel of lands and houses (for obvious
ramsons)—it leaves a large variety open; and the
.41,iffsrence between lending money at 2 or 24 per
mat. and at 5 may be just the difference betwesa •
poruparous and an insolvent society.
Coaaidating these various cameo of failure (which
yet are =tali Met are exhibited by oar anther) it
is no wood. doe too prospects of so many societies
aro gloomy, and that so many have been broken up.
In 1849, the Housed Cammons was informed that of
120 inmates of the Birmingham workhorse, not
young and ablirbodied,6o had been members of
broken clubs. Out of sixteen bedridden paupers,
oaoe club members, thirteen were wholly disap-
pointed of aid, from the exhaustion of the funds be-
fore their turn came. In the Winchester union
workhouse, 20 out of 29 paupers had belonged to
societies which had broken up. Dismal as this is, it
is no more than might have been expected after
what Mr. Ansel], the actuary, has told us • that, oat
of shoat 4,000 societies whom affairs he had investi-
gated, " not one was in a perfectly sound financial
conditios." (P. 82.) Society men do not like to hear
such thin" They refuse to listen ; they refine to
believe. Some trust the concern will last their time,
and some fine fellows take a very different vie*,
which wo most turn maids to quote :

I have often heard past dicers of Ihe lodges in the Man-
chester Unity my that, if the brasehas to which they
belonged elmWd, unketsnasoly. he compelled to sanpsnd pay-
ment when dry became old sad heels ea Iran eiseinen,
they ahoaldmisma that weemegg, meek the ler et their
penadital Argeobserss la the *bit ag. In.
phdenthropy, h what wag they meld
have better spent lin mosey. And sits wry sea I rile to,
it most be uninsistel, are eligiek sdeseres of the met fall
sad weepier Reiser et all imenstal leresiesttess, sod have
made, and are yet preened to maks, heavy pun mon-
does us order to effect so disirable a sae —P. 230.
There is, ae we were saying,•difficulty in bringing
men to face the truth,unlese they arebrave and patr-
ons, like the specimens just shown; bat this is one of
the saddest facts of all, bonus despair ruins every-
thing, and there is no reason for despair. Our author
relates the ease of several societies which have ewer.
tainted their position, and have acted accordingly.
It is fearfal to discover that while members have
supposed they were all right, because there was a
food of 60,0061., there was an actual deficiency of
10,0001., the inevitable claims amounted to 60,0001.
Yet, by timely seal, sacrifice, and alteration of the
terms, it may be possible to go on, or to close with-
out total lass of character. Members may tax
themselves to make up the deficiency in course of
years ; or they may increase the entrance fees, or
graduate the payments for the time to come; or
they may pay a dividend, and disperse, or begin
again. If they will bat refuse to go on in a fatal
course, ail may end at least without dispose.
It is probable that no one but read this book, sines
its publication, without the thought paring through
his mind that there can be nothing but rain in pros-
peet for members of thrice unions, in which other
objects are mixed up with the relief of the sick and
payment of pensions and burials. Mr. Hardwick
shows very clearly the importance of keeping these
objects absolutely and always separate from any
ether whatever, insisting that even the expenses of
management should be considered and provided fee
apart. How utterly hopeless, then, are the beneficial
objects of trades unions, while the funds are liable
to be used for the support of strikes ! It would be •
cruel blow to the building trades of London to learn
this at the present moment; yet those would be their
best friends who could convince them of it with the
leant loss of time.

After all that has been said--after the disappoint.
ments that have been endured, and the discredit
incurred—friendly societies are such good things in
their nature and effect, such a bulwark to the inde-
pendence of the labouring classes, such a charter of
their social liberties, such an encouragement to fore-
thought and self-denial, such a steppingstone to ease
and comfort, such a sanction to the domestic virtues,
that no man with a heart in his breast could en-
dure the thought of giving them up. And there is
not the least occasion to think of it. The worst days
are over—the days when actuaries themselves were
ignorant of many particulars essential to the sound-
ness of every kind of life and health insurance. The
principles of such insurance are now well enough
understood—by Mr. Hardwick for one—to afford the
means of rectifying the societies which have erred
from mere ignorance, and of organising new ones on
safe terms. No man could exhibit the faults and
dangers of such associations more boldly than Mr.
Hardwick ; and no man can be more anxious fee their
regeneration and prosperity.
In the hope that his volume will go through many
editions, we would suggest to him the alteration of
two or three passages which are unworthy of the rest
of the book. At page 230 he falls foul of the Registrar
on the topic of the anniversary dinner of most
friendly societies, and of the drinking and waste
of funds caused by meetings being held, and business
transacted, at public-houses. Whether anniversary
festivals do most good or harm le a fair matter of
opinion, on which men may differ without mischief
or discredit. It is another question—a question of
fact—whether such festivals are contemplated by the
act as part of the liabilities of the funds. In his
recent report, Mr. Tidd Pratt has shown that this
is a subject of bitter discontent among members of
friendly societies, some of whose appeals to himself
he has published, with the omission of names. One
secretary complains that it thus costs each member
84. a year to lay up Ifs. A member writes that if
he does not attend, at a cost of 141. Bd. (including
the lest day's work) he will be fined 2s. 6d.;
" which," as he says, " is a heavy fine on us who have
got families to keep." Others complain that a
society with diminishing funds has paid for making
little boy. drunk for a lark ; and that a sum of 31.
from the funds was voted for liquor, after dinner,
and against the wishes of many member..
There can be no question of the slaty of the
Registrar to bring forward such facts, when thus
appealed to ; while it is equally open to Mr. Hard-
wick to exhibit the favourable side of these celebra-
tions, which he does in a very cordial way. Mr.
Tidd Pratt's attention was walled to a registered law
which made it necessary for hlm to declare whether
such feasts are or are not contemplated by the act;
and Mr. Hardvrick's comment is that the Registrar
is influenced by gentlemen " who regard the slightest
convivial enjoyment by working men as little short
of open profanity." This is an unworthy view of a
question of fiat. By this time, Mr. Hardwick mall
have read in the meat report the account of a suc-
cessful resistance at law to a perversion of the funds
to the purchase of drink. This is at p. 18 of the
report ; and at p. 17 is a shockiog set of bills for beer
charged on the anniversaries of the last three yaws.
We have no doubt that Mr. Hardwick is right in
his view and argument that friendly sovietise pro-
mote temperance on the whole ; but this is no reply
to the proved allegation that large sums of
are spent in drink which are the property of the
and aged of the society.