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    FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 267

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Security Of Law And Of A Sound Scien...

    were also a member , wlieii £ 8 -was tlie sum to which , the widower was entitled . This last provision is inequitableand was often

    , grumbled against by the bachelors as such , nevertheless , year after year it continued in force .

    Fraud was provided against by each member , claiming sick _nionejrbeing obliged to produce a doctor ' s certificate , stating that

    , he or she was unfit for work . The _managing committee consisted of three , generally , young men

    chosen by the members , by ballot . They received the money , paid it into the savings' bankkept the booksandif shamming- was

    suspected , visitecl the member , so suspected , . , A flagrant case of shamming continued sickness was visited with expulsion , and was

    very rare indeed . The committee retired _eYevy year . In all eases of long continued sickness they visited , or appointed visitors , as

    a matter of course . If the illness of a member lasted more than six weeks , his sick

    money was reduced , and if it took place at the close of the year , _andjcontinued when the books of the Society were opened for next

    year ' s entry , the sick member was not allowed to re-enter . The assurance which the Society afforded was thus limited to illnesses

    of short duration , and the deaths consequent upon them . The princile on which it was foundedthat of an equal payment from

    persons p of any age between fifteen , and fifty , would have ruined any Society less elastic in formationor incurring a less limited liability ;

    , but within its limits it worked satisfactorily enough . Whatever remained over of the Sick and Burial Fund at the

    end of the year was divided among * the members . Sometimes this amounted to one-halfoften to one-thirdof the payments made , and

    served to enter for the , next year and pay , six weeks or a quarter in advance ; - but in some instances the fund has been drained , and the

    members called upon to add an additional penny to their weekly subscription in the latter weeks of the term . This was the case in

    the years of epidemic , when fever and cholera visited and ravaged the town .

    This Society combined another object , with its provision for sickness and death . It was also a society for investment and loan .

    fund Sixpence , and a no week limit was was the put lowest upon contribution the further amount received th into at mi the ght loan for be

    contributed . As the members were , without exception , working weekly wages , the average of contribution was two shillings weekly . After the first six weeks from the yearly opening of the fund , any

    contributor might become a borrower . No member was allowed to borrow more than the sum to which his weekly payments

    amounted at the year ' s end , and on this he or she had to id ay & ve per centinterest . Many invested simply for the payment of their

    , rent , and drew their money half-yearly at the terms , about £ 6 being there and then the yearlrent of a mechanic ' s house . Others

    invested that they might draw y at the new year , buy winter

    comt 2

    Friendly Societies. 267

    _FRIENDLY SOCIETIES . 267

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1860, page 267, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121860/page/51/