The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-28
The Decline of the
Fraternal Movement

1909 SOCS Glle membership OF the
Two. as 1924; January l, 1898,
20,571 members; and January l,
1884 it had 33,903 members. Dur
ing the last membership cam
paign, which lasted four months,
the Order has recruited 1857
members.
While we are on the growth Of
the Two. we can record gains
even in the first few months of
1884. In these three months we
have written nearly 1000 new poll
cies. We also have over 1000 mem
bers on the Children's Section
which we did not count in the
33,903 members. So we see that
the Order is now a very important
fact no in the workers movement.
Abstractly, these gains should
satisfy us. There is now no doubt
that in the nearly four years of
our existence we have laid the
basis for a powerful proletarian
fraternal organization. While all
the other fraternal organizations
have continually declined, we have
progressively developed upwards.
But when we consider our gains
in the light of the conditions sur
rounding us, in the light OF the
conditions in the fraternal field,
we must admit that we could and
should have done much more.
We must always bear in mind
the fundamental difference be-
tween the International Workers
Order and all other fraternal or
CARNATIONS. At a time when the
entire fraternal movement is a
hulwark for capitalism, when the
fraternal organizations sought to
solve the deep economic crisis by
throwing the entire burden onto
the shoulders of the members. lust
as capitalism seeks a way out of
the depression at the expense of
the masses; at time when all
the organizations have levied more
taxes upon the members, increased
the dues and lowered the benefits,
did not care one whit for the
interests of their members and did
not adopt the organization to the
need of the members, at such a
time did the International Work
ers Order cut the dues, decreased
the taxes and assessments, in
creased the benefits and did every
thing in its power to tighten the
burden of its members. 1t thus
showed that the interests of the
working-masses are always first
thought of by the International
Workers Order.
At time when the so-called
workers fraternal organizations be-
came more and more a bulwark
for the enemies of the working class.
the Two, from its very first day,
was closely integrated with the
working class movement, was closely
united with and supported all the
struggles of the workers in this
country, The International Workers
Order, for example, was the first or
ganization to raise the banners of
struggle for social insurance, was the
one organization to initiate this
struggle and to unite many other
fraternal organizations in the COM
mon effort to force measure of
social insurance from the govern
ment.
All these facts are in great meas
ure responsible for the growth of
the TWO. But at the same time
all these facts show us that today,
more than ever before, we have the
great possibility of drawing in not
only the thousands from foreign
language groups, but especially the
tens of thousands from the Ameri-
can fraternal organizations.
The losses of the fraternal or
CARNATIONS the last few years are
very great. This means that hun
dreds of thousands of workers to-
Gay are without any kind of protec-
ton in case of sickness, old age.
unemployment, etc. We can and
must draw them into our ranks.
This is our most important task
at the present time.