Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/663

 FRATERNAL BENEFICIARY SOCIETIES 649

when we take into consideration the multitudes to whom such ceremonies appeal with all the force of reality. Other features of the programs of fraternal societies are essentially similar to those of literary clubs readings, essays, debates, musical selections, etc. In addition, fraternal solicitude and the work which grows out of it find a permanent place in these meetings. It is customary in several great orders for the presiding officer to open the meeting with the question, " Does any brother know of a brother or a brother's family in need ? " or words to that effect. Other societies adopt analogous forms. This is a truly beautiful custom, which can hardly fail to teach that in modern society vital relations exist among men, and that, in a sense at least, every man is every other man's keeper. The unobtrusive manner in which relief is given affords practi- cal illustrations of true charity, in which every piece of sil- ver is accompanied by golden, loving words and more loving deeds.

The relief work of some of the orders is magnificent, as the following statistics, recording the activity of a single society for the last year, will testify: brothers relieved, 87,546; weeks' bene- fits paid, 568,094; widowed families relieved, 5,685; brothers buried, 8,997; paid for the relief of brothers, $2,111,646.26; paid for the relief of widowed families, $124,836.81 ; paid for the relief of orphans, $33,130.46; paid for the education of orphans, $6,823.33; paid for burying the dead, $583,556.96; special relief, $259,131.65; total relief, $3,119,125.47. While this order pays small death benefits, it by no means belongs to the insurance type of fraternal societies ; yet it is expending nearly $8,500 per day, over $350 per hour, and approximately $6 per minute. Surely this kind of charity is more than "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."

Relief work of this kind is not to be confused with the sys- tems of "benefits" adopted by the great majority of the newer societies, and which differ in name only, but not in substance, from mutual insurance. There exists much opposition among some fraternal societies to the use of such "old-line" terms as "premium," "policy," "reserve," etc. They prefer the terms