SERIES XXVI NOS. 11-12 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE Under the Direction of the Departments of History, Political Economy, and Political Science November-December, 1908...

This monograph had its origin in the investigations of American trade-union activities which have engaged the attention of the Economic Seminary of the Johns Hopkins University since October, 1902. It was begun and completed while the author was a graduate student at the University. The study is based on a survey of the beneficiary activities of national and international trade unions. While no attempt has been made to study in detail the various forms of mutual insurance maintained by local tra

The American trade unions have developed beneficiary functions far more slowly than the trade unions of England and Germany. Only since about 1880 has there been any considerable increase in such activities. Prior to that time the national unions with few exceptions paid no benefits. [1] The local unions, here and there, developed beneficiary systems, but these were not continuous nor, in many cases, important. The history of trade-union beneficiary activities in the United States may be roughly

The distinction between systems of insurance on the one hand and systems of death benefits on the other is not so much one of quality as of quantity. Legally the distinction lies in the fact that in the case of insurance a signed contract known as a policy is given to the insured, while in the case of a benefit no policy is issued. This difference is not of economic importance. Ordinarily, however, where a trade union issues insurance policies to its members the amount paid is larger than in the

The most needed trade-union benefits are those against death and these were the first to be established. At the present time about one half of American national trade unions maintain death benefit systems. In 1904, out of a total of one hundred and seventeen national unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, fifty-three were paying death benefits. [87] Of those unions not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, ten were also paying such benefits. The development of death

Second in importance among the systems of benevolent relief maintained by American trade unions is the sick benefit paid to members who are prevented by illness from working. Historically, the sick benefit was probably the earliest beneficiary feature inaugurated by local trade unions, but, for several reasons, its adoption by the national unions was delayed. At the present time two systems of sick benefits can be found among American trade unions. In some unions this benefit is paid from the fu

The out-of-work benefit, of prime importance among English trade unions, has made little headway in America either as a national or even as a local trade-union benefit. In 1905 the amount expended for out-of-work benefits could not well have exceeded eighty thousand dollars, and of this sum a considerable part was spent by the Amalgamated Carpenters, a British trade union with branches in the United States. Certainly less than one half of one per cent. of the expenditures of American national un

In 1901 thirty-eight of the one hundred principal British unions paid a superannuation benefit. These unions had a membership of 566,765, and the amount paid in superannuation benefits from 1892 to 1901 was about one sixth of the total amount expended for all benefits. [199] In the American trade unions, on the other hand, superannuation benefits are paid by only a few unions. A considerable number of unions have in recent years been considering the advisability of introducing this feature, and

No factor has been of more consequence in determining the development and stability of the relief systems than the character of their administration. The problems that confront the unions are both legislative and administrative, but the administrative organs must not only execute the rules already in force, but must furnish data upon which additional rules can be based. When the early voluntary insurance associations were formed under the auspices of the national unions, their management was usu