Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/664

 650 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

"contribution," "certificate," "emergency fund," etc. Never- theless, whenever a definite sum of money is promised at the end of a fixed period of time in return for specified contribu- tions, an insurance contract is entered into, and the transaction is insurance. No amount of sophistry can cover an escape from this conclusion, and such a contract must ultimately rest upon the same fundamental principles upon which all other insurance contracts rest. There are fraternal societies whose beneficiary system stands as firm as the pyramids of Egypt, and the fra- ternal spirit of which has not been dwarfed in consequence. There is no fundamental antagonism between the noblest aspirations of fraternity and the demands for absolute safety and permanency on part of benefit features of fraternal societies ; indeed, without the latter the former may become an illusion capable of drawing multitudes into bitter disappointments, if not worse.

There are in the neighborhood of six hundred fraternal bene- ficiary societies in the United States, with an aggregate member- ship of five and a half millions, two and a quarter of which are included in the three greatest and oldest and most purely fra- ternal orders the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Freemasons, and the Knights of Pythias two and a half mil- lions in the forty-seven which together form the National Fra- ternal Congress, and the remaining membership is distributed among the five hundred or more smaller societies. Collectively these societies have an annual income of sixty millions and carry certificates insurance policies aggregating nearly five thousand millions of dollars. About 5 per cent, of their income is derived from admission fees and other dues, and the remainder is raised by assessments and annual dues. Fees for admission vary from $i to $50 in different societies, $5 being most com- mon; and annual dues usually range between $2 and $10 and over, depending upon the amount of benefit carried. Only "benefit" members pay all the dues. "Social" members, con- stituting about 14 per cent, of the aggregate membership of the societies in which such a class is maintained, generally pay the regular admission fees, dues, etc., but do not contribute