Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-31
The New Assessment

adopted by the Ancient Order of Unit ed Workmen, about which there has been so much excitement, goes into effect tomorrow. The convention of "dissenters" from score or more lodges throughout the eastern portion of the state which met at Hartford last week, adjourned without doing anything except to pass resolutions condemning the action of the grand and supreme lodges and declaring the A. O. U. W. to be thing. of the past.
 The officers of the grand lodge have been indefatigable in their work of educating the members and expla ning the necessity for the change of rates. Every night in the week lodges of in- struction are held and the large attend ance at these meetings which are us ually protracted until after midnight is, perhaps the best evidence of the fact that the membership are at last realizing that the grand lodge officers knew what they were about when they used their influence to secure the adoption of the new rates.
 As was anticipated several hundred members have dropped out of the order in this state, but it is quite like ly that the returns from the lodges for the month just ended will show That the applications for reinstate- ment exceed the lapses The foll w. ing statement, issued by the members of the executive committee of the grand lodge will be read with inter- est by the members of the order and by all who are watching the progress of fraternal insurance in this country. GRAND LODGE OF THE A. o. U.
 w. OF CONNECTICUT.
 To the Members and Friends of the A.
 O. U. W. in Connecticut:
 We, the members of the executive committee of the grand lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen of Connecticut, view with extreme satis- faction the manifest change of senti- ment among the membership of the order in this state in regard to the new assessment rates which are to be put into operation on January 1st, 1904. No step towards the perpetu ty of the order was ever taken which met at the outset with such instantan- eous, violent and unwarranted criti- cism. To the credit of our member ship be it said that this opposition has subsided even more quickly than it was created, and now all talk about the new rates is confined to the ex- planation of their application to indi- vfdual members.
 The A. O. U. W. was founded in Oc- tober, 1868. The supreme lodge was organized in January, 1873. There are 40 grand lodges and nearly GOOD subordinate lodges throughout the United States and Canada, there be- ing on November 1, 1903, 43S,428 mem bers. During the thirty years since the supreme lodge was organized the order has paid over $13O,OO0,O00 in death benefits. Tn 1902 the total amount of benefits paid was over $9,- S60, ,000, an average of over $29,OO0 for every day of the year. The success or failure of our order is, therefore, a matter of no little importance and pe- clniary interest to about two million women and children who receive it's benefits at the rate of hundred a day.
 From 1873 to 1896 the order raised the money, required to pay it's benefits by the collection of level assessments of one dollar each upon every mem- Der without regard to age. Money sufficient to meet the current death claims was thus collected, but no re. serve fund of any kind was accumu- lated. During these twenty three years the age distribution of the mem bership became steadily more and more adverse. The accessions to mem bership furnished plenty of "new blood" but the entrance of new mem bers did not keep the old members from growing older and older, nor prevent the cost of affording them pro- tection from becoming more and more of burden.
 It must not be supposed, however, that all the leaders of the order were blind to existing conditions. From 1882 to 1895 not an annual meeting of the supreme lodge was held at which