INSURANCE, Fraternal. This term ap plies to a large class of societies that bas come into existence in America since the Civil War, whose primary object is to provide a substan tial death benefit for the families or depend ents of the members on the co-operative plan. These orders are to be distinguished from the older class of secret societies, comprising the Masons, Odd Fellows and Foresters, which originated for the most part in Europe and have primarily social and benevolent objects; and also from another large class of societies that has come into being during the past half century or more and which combine good-fel lowship with stipulated sick and funeral bene fits, although some of the first-named orders afford sick or other benefits, in one way or an other, in addition to death benefits.
It is Well known that all fraternal societies, as known in America and now numbering many hundreds, have distinctly moral and religious foundations, are educational and tend to de velop character, good citizenship and the spirit of co-operation and mutual helpfulness. The Masonic bodies afford charitable relief gener ously where the need is made evident, but in other fraternities the kind and measure of the benefits are stipulated and become the right of members on the basis of their dues or assess ments and good standing, irrespective of a ne cessitous condition.
History.— Mutual benefit societies for one object or another are found back as far as the dawn of history. Whatever was necessary or desirable to people in common might be se cured by co-operation when the chances of life or the hazards of death rendered the individual helpless. Burial societies were common among the Greeks and Romans, because ceremonial sepulture was indispensable to the repose the spirit in the land of shadows — the underworld. Among the Teutonic nations, guilds flourished not only for relief against misfortune but for co-operation and protection in daily affairs.
From its earliest rise in Europe the Chris tian Church was a centre of charitable relief to all whom its benevolent activities could reach. Not only the teaching of its founder,
but its own bard early experiences, empha sized charity as the highest of the graces of human character. In Great Britain the system of Church relief was swept away in the gen eral seizure of endowments under the reforma tion enforced by Henry VIII and in its place under Elizabeth was substituted a system of public relief by poor-rates which has continued with changes to present time. The old guild spirit, however, came to the surface -again during the reign' of Charles I,' although the guilds had gradually fallen into decay dur ing and after the Elizabethan period. The re sult was the rise of the English friendly socie ties for co-operation among people in moderate circumstances who were not satisfied to fall back upon the tender mercies of the poor-rates but endeavored in a self-respecting way to forefend the ills of life and the mischances of affairs by provisions for sharing the hazards among themselves—a principle that is at the bottom of all modern insurance.
Little or no historic connection is apparent between the guilds or friendly societies of Great Britain and the fraternal beneficiary or ders of America. The latter dearly took their rise out of the new social and co-operative spirit that was developed by the Civil War, which- drew together for the first time on this continent millions of people in a vast undertak ing, and by the very necessities of the task drew forth and trained their faculties for joint action to a degree there had not been occasion for before. The pioneer period of America called for the individual hardihood and personal self-reliance that subdued a broad continent and carried settlements from coast to coast. The Civil War indicated an excess of individ ualism, or at least the approach of a new era which called for an abundant measure of un selfish social co-operation to save the nation from futile division and the continent from antagonistic civilizations.