Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-27
WORKING THE ORDERS
Enormous Sick Benefits Secured by
Poles and Russians.
FALLING SICK AS A BUSINESS.
Great Scheme for Bleeding Beneficial
Societies Unearthed.
A BIG COMBINATION ILLNESS SYSTEM


anticipated will in few days result in a
number of arrests.
The charge is made that numbers OF Poles
and Russians in this city have united In an
organization to defraud beneficial associa-
tions by feigning illness and drawing large
weekly benefits. This scheme, it is said. is
engineered BY a number Of shrewd specula-
tors, who. it is believed, make large
amount OF money out of the ignorant bene-
fciaries as well as out of the societies.
Owing to the enormous percentage of
sickness recently developed in the Polish
and Russian branches of such organizations
as the Universal Order of Security, Sexeu-
nial League, Order of Tonti, Order of
Uuity, Order of Amitie, Union Endow-
meDt, Iron Hall, Order of Pente, Order of
Vesta and others. searching investigation
IS being conducted which has so far re-
vealed one of the most remarkable systems
OF making money ever invented.
Claims for Sick Benefits.
1t is claimed that 80 per cent of the Rus
sian and Polish members of these orders put
in claims Tor sick benefits while only 10 per
cent of the other members have been i'll. Of
this 90 per cert, it is claimed that only about
10 per cent are genuine cases of sickness;
vet the remarkable prevalence of illness in
the Polish and Russian colony down town
has assumed the proportions of frightful
epidemic, which should receive the attention
OF the Board of Health. This condition of
affairs is owing to the large sick benefits
paid by these orders, some of which reach
$50 per week.
a 4 officer of the Sexennial League says
that a whole lodge had been expelled in
Chicago and another one in Auburn. and an
officer of the Universal Order of Security
stated that after thorough investigation of
some OF the Chicago branches of Poles and
Russians, $40, 900 worth of claims had been
rejected as fraudulent, the order preferring
10 fight the claims in court. Since last Oc-
tober the Sexennial League has rejected 500
claims, mostly from Russians and Poles
ana last Friday II appeals were taken in the
Office of the Supreme Lodge, in the Key
stone Bank building
A 4 officer of one of the orders said vester-
day that there are about &c, 600 members In
this city OF the different orders OF this
numher, about ), 600 are of the Polish and
Russian element. OF this 5000 he said,
fully 80 per cent have been on the sick list
within three months of The time when they
could begin to draw sick benefits; while
among the l. 900 other members there would
not be yearly average of more than 10 per
cent of illness. Thus 80 per cent of IL, 900
meulcs>s were supporting 80 per cent OF
3 600 members.
Crusade Against the Beats.
The Universal Order of Security, it was
stated Yesterday, has determined to make a
crusade against the obiectionabI: element
which has drawn so heavily on its funds,
and when the order holds its convention
next month, an effort will be made to amend
the bylaws in such a way that the down.
town Russian and Polish colonistS will be
frozen out. At present, all the orders are
united IN a sort of protective system by
which a blacklist is made of fraudulent
cases.
For instance, when beneficiary beats"
an order, his name is Immediately fur
nished TO the other orders, and il is said that
it is not an unusual thing for half dozen
orders TO send each other the name of the
same man.
The inducement for this fraud speaks for
itself. A short time ago in non-suitiug
claim against one of these orders, Judge
Finletter said that no bene1cial society
could honestly pay $50 per week sick bene-
fits. The lawyer for the order, replied that
he had been instructed 10 say that the order
mad Slol,001 in its treasury. and conld pay
all its Just obligations "Well," T" replied the
Judge, that is only 10000 more induce
ments for people to try to get $50 per week"
Harvest From Sick Benefits.
The Universal Order of Security issues
maturity policies, payable in seven years, of
from 500 TO s., 600. 1t costs 81 initiation
fee and 81 80 medical examination fee 10
Join. On . SO per week sick benefit certif-
lcate, the quarterly dues are 81 80, and the
limit OF the assessment Sc. A member
Ifust belong three months before he can
draw q sick benefit; and the benefits run as
low as 81 30 per week, on which the quar-
terly dues are 80 cents and the assessment 60
cents.
Down town, recently, many Poles and
Russians started branch lodges. and at the
expiration of the 90-day limit almost the
entire lodge in some cases have been taken
sick. A notable illustration is that of
Grant Lodge, on South Sixth street, which
was organized last September
The question has been asked, how do
people fool doctors. It has been answered
in two ways. first, that they don't fool the
doctors in the majority Of cases, and second,
.tnat they resort to al sorts of methods, such
as irritating the skin, burning their legs
with croton oil, scalding themselves, and so
Cd, but in some cases it is said some doctors
demand aud get from 81 TO So for every
claim proof they sign, and In some cases
officers Of some branches have demanded as
high as Sj9 Tor their signatures to the
proofs.
An officer Of the Sexennial League yester-
day said that up to last October the order
had to pay out thousands OF dollars on such
claims, but that an entirely new system has
been introduced which has acted as check
on wholesale fraud. 1t was simply this:
The order had been hoodwinked so badly,
that il formed districts and swore in deputy
supreme medical examiners, who are re-
CURED 10 take au iron-elad oath that they
viii faithfully and honestly do their duty,
and even then the deputies who now exam
inc every case during the illness, over the
heads OF the branch examiners, are some
times shifted from one district to another,
like italian garrisons, to prevent their get
ting too familiar with the patients.
A Sickness Combine.
a well-known physician who is now IN
vestigating the causes Of this remarkable
epidemic said last night that he had secured
information to the effect that there is q
regular combination by which members get
sick On a system.
He said that many of them take turns
getting i'll and that when a man has been
SICK week or two weeks, or three weeks, as
the arrangement might call for. he is re-
CURED 10 get we'll in order to allow another
member or section OF members to get sick.
IhIs physician said that he not only had the
names Of members VINO had been sick under |
this arrangement, but that he also had the |
names OF men on a list whose turns to get |
sick are vet TO come.
This physician also said that in some of |
the cases Of the Union Endowment, Bos- |