Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-29

The collapse of the Masonic Mutual Bene-
fit Association of Connecticut directs atten-
tion to a peculiar exemption in the Connect
icut law governing fraternal insurance socie-
ties. Section II provides that the act shall
not apply to the societies Of Masons or Odd
Fellows, located in this state nor to associa-
tions composed exclusively of their re-
spective members, nor to any organization
conducted solely for benevolent and chari-
table purposes, whose members are EN-
ployed by one corporation or institution, or
by more than one similar corporation or in
stitution, or whose membership is confined
to one trade, art, or profession"
The reason for the exemption of Masons
and Odd Fellows from the operations Of the
law in Connecticut was the pressure which
they were able to bring to bear upon the
General Assembly at the time that the bill
was under discussion. In view of the dem
oralized financial condition of the Masonic
Mutual Benefit Association, this exemption
is now eliciting considerable unfavOrable
criticism. Ex.Judge A. Heaton Robertson
Of New Haven, receiver for the organization,
has just been directed by the Superior Court
to pay a dividend of oK per cent on claims
aggregating $4,000. It is not probable that
any further dividend will be paid
This is another instance Of the folly Of ex-
empting certain branches Of insurance from
state supervision on the theory that they
are not run for revenue only but in the
interests Of fraternal or charitable enter
prises. Massachusetts, is another state that
has been peculiarly exposed to such in-
huences, for on more than one occasion,
aee-
cussion in the legislature, fraternal organ
izations, or assessment concerns. have had
their emissaries at work in the interests of
favoring amendments. The result has been
that much of the supervision has been in
adequate to meet the real needs of policy
holders who have been without remedy in
resisting apparently unjust demands.
Where litigation has been resorted to the
process has been found too expensive to
afford immediate assistance, and the result
has been that policyholders have frequently
given up in despair rather than fight a
management in control of the books and
funds.
The association that has to gain some
exemption from the state in order to COM
pete with regularly authorized companies IS
open to suspicion. One effect of these
assessment Withdrawals has been 10 educate
! the public in the principles Of sound in
surance. Only few years ago any assess
ment concern could attract business by
offering cut rates.
The Masonic Mutual Relief Association
of this District has been forced to reorganize
or revolutionize its system of death assess
ments. And in the readjustment the mem
bers who have been paying in death assess
ments for ten, fifteen and twenty years are
now compelled to pay fifty, sixty OF al
most seventy dollars per annum on thous-
and dollar benefit or policy, whereas they
have already paid IN in death claims from
six to eight hundred dollars or sufficient to
purchase them paid up policies for 81 600 in
any Of the first class regular companies. In
other words, if the members of the District
Masonic Mutual Relief Association who are
sixty years of age and over, and who have
paid in in the past ten or fifteen years from
six to eight hundred dollars in death assess
ments withdraws or declines to pay the
new rates, which in their cases will
amount to sixty or seventy dollars per
aunum they will lose all that they have
paid in. while if they continue at sixty or
over they will be paying on a one thousand
dollar benefit at death at the rate of sixty
or seventy dollars per annum, in addition to
the six or eight hundred dlllars they have
already paid IN No clearer object lesson
of the unreliable and expensive character Of
these so called fraternal insurance societies
could be given than the experiences in this
District Of the older members of the
Masonic Mutual Relief Association. The
collapse in Connecticut of similar fraternal
insurance organization Of the Masonic order
will be accepted by the brethren here to get
from under and either wind up the concern
or quietly withdraw and sacrifice what they
have already paid in. The younger mem
bers will take warning by the fate or condi-
tions now confronting the men who have
been paying death assessments for the past