The Washington times., 1894-03-24
CHANCE FOR
THE UNEMPLOYED.

Mr. Nathan Straus, says Harper's Weekly,
who is continually devising new schemes to
benefit his fellows, gives out that he is busy
now on plan for burying folks at cost. 1t is
a good work. II Mr.. Straus does no more
than merely to ascertain and publish what is
the real cost Of contemporary burial, he will
illuminate one OF the obscurest subjects with
which moderns have to deal. The neces-
saries are about the same in all funerals,
cheap or dear. A hearse, IA coffin. some car
riages, some black gloves for bearers, a grave
that short list covers most of the items that
society regards as comparatively indispens-
able. 1t appears, however, that the bill for
furnishing them may easily range from S25
up to 81, 800, while the taste for display, il the
mourners happen to have it, may be gratiiied
to the extent of as many additional thousands
as they may care to provide.
Mr.. Straus says that the undertakers charge
too much, that hundred-doar funerals do
not really cost more than thirty dollars. and
that poor people ought to get their funerals
at cost He hopes to provide them with
facilities for doing so, and without any pref
udice to the prosperity of the undertakers,
we trust that he may be able to do so. 1t is
not to lie expected OF him that he shall also
interest himself in the relief of the wel-to-do,
but it would be interesting to know If the
same proportion between cost and charge
which he objects TO in the funerals OF the
poor, obtains in more expensive obsequies.
Is the real cost of Il $500 funeral no more
than one hundred dollars? Is the real
cost of $500 funeral less than $500? When
the undertaker's bill reaches $4,000, is 81 300
of it somebody's profit? 1t is suspected that
all these questions could be answered by
slightly qualified alternatives. 1t is known
but tai To
ence between funeral costing S400 and one
valued at five times that sum. In the bills
for such pair of funerals the single item
which will ordinarily be greater in one than
in the other will be the caskot. In one bill
that item will be $500 or $500. in the other,
81 200 or 81 500. Yet the two caskets look ex-
actly alike. Whether there is any reasonable
approach to such difference in their value as
the bills suggest is something which the under
taker may know. but which the customer
doesn't. He doesn't want TO dicker about
caskets. He simply tells the undertaken to
go ahead and provide WI II is proper. When
he finally comes to pay the bill he wonders in
wild way how much of it is for goods de-
liyered and services done, and how much is
in the nature of an inheritance tax for the
benefit of undertakers.
The truth is that there is q chance for a
new profession in connection with burials.
We already have undertakers who under
take tue Nnat Is needed
are funeral attorneys who will under
take the undertakers. They should be
expert persons, who know the real value of
all sorts of caskets, as well as the true worth
of undertakers' services. Their province
should be to find out what grade of funeral is
really desired, and to represent the bereaved
in the deal with the undertaken. OF course
they should not be in collusion either with
the undertakers or the casket factories, and it
should be ever present in their minds that
their business is primarily to protect the
bereaved, and not merely TO reduce the un-
dertaker's profits by sharing them. II would
be as well, or better. if the funeral attorney
business could be carried on in connection
with some other ayocation, as the care of real
estate, or the sale of flowers. thereby lessen
ing the temptation of persons who engage in
it TO make it improperly profitable. In all
cases. too, the attorneys charge should be a
fixed sum. bearing some relation. perhaps, TO
the cost of the funeral. but moderate, and
previously ascertained by law or custom.