Page:Farm labourers, their friendly societies, and the poor law.djvu/29

 to some respectable young fellow, and that the two are enabled to keep clear of rented furniture and travelling bagmen. Again, in cases where parents save something towards paying an apprentice-fee for the boy, they will take an endowment insurance, payable at the end of fourteen or fifteen years, which costs a 1s. or 11d. a month according to the term agreed upon. In case of the death of their nominee, or death of the father, the money is returned. Endowments are a better investment than deposits in the savings banks. In the first place, the interest paid on the contributions is a little more than that commonly paid in the old savings banks, and considerably more than that which is paid in the Post Office Banks, which at present does not exceed 2½ per cent.; and in the next, it is not so easy to realise the amount of contributions paid for an endowment before its completion as it is to withdraw the deposit from the bank. And such are the common trials of the wage-paid classes that they are often pressed to encroach, and they do encroach, on the small sum they have been able to put into the bank. But in the case of the endowment the society will interpose. If the pressure is such that in the judgment of the board the endowment policy should be turned into cash before it is complete, the amount of contributions, with a trifling deduction, is returned. Otherwise the board will decline to return the money; and the member is benefited in the long run, though for a time compelled, as it were, to save in spite of himself. No persons are warmer in their acknowledgements for the adoption of such a course towards them than those who have struggled on with their payments till the term is complete, and they receive their money according to their contract with the society. They are pretty sure to want a new endowment, and there are cases where, when No. 2 is complete, they will come for another. The habit to save something monthly has become confirmed, and they appear to like the notion of continuing to be benefit members of the society. This excellent insurance has been hitherto thought too good by the foes of friendly society insurances, "the companies," to be suffered to fall into the hands of the Postmaster-General. We would again, and notwithstanding the discouragements which led Lord Hartington to withdraw his bill last session, empowering the Post Office to grant further burial money insurance, submit its claims. It is admirably suited to the development of provident habits among the industrial and labouring classes, and it entails very little trouble and expense in the way of agency and management. In truth, the endowment ought to have been granted at the Post Office before any other insurance, and had it been practicable, it should even have had precedence over the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks.