TRADE UNION INSURANCE. Mutual insurance —aid to the traveling journeyman in search of work, assistance in case of sickness, and a collec tion to defray burial expenses—was per haps the principal function of the trade union of the eighteenth century, and still eonstitutes a principal function of trade unionism in foreign countries. particularly in England. In the ten years 1892-1901, for instance, the 100 principal trade unions in England expended £299.310 in working and miscellaneous expenses, £293,552 in dispute or strike pay, and £919,901 in friendly benefits.
Among American unions, however, conditions are entirely different. Of the 96 national unions of which information is at hand, 22 make no pro vision for any kind of benefits, 32 pay no strike benefits, 48 pay no death or funeral benefits, 74 pay no sick or accident benefits, and 91 pay no unemployment or out of work benefits. Only 2 pay a superannuation benefit, and one of these is a branch of a British union.
While it is evident that the friendly benefit is not essential to the successful conduct of a trade union, it is also true that the leading American labor leaders strongly advise the in stitution of the benefit system, and in unions maintaining this system it has been of immense service in accumulating large reserve funds, in forcing obedience from members, in preventing them from dropping out when their interest wanes. and in stimulating a more conservative
policy in general. The powerful Cigar Makers' International Union, for example, and the rail road brotherhoods, furnish illustrations of the advantages of the insurance system as an auxili ary to trade unionism. (See RAILWAY BROTHER DOODS.) The insurance function, however, is strictly subordinate, except in one o• two organi zations. The insurance funds are unprotected, and may he expended in strikes, trade wars, or for any purposes which meet the approval of the constituted authorities. After having paid in surance assessments for years, the individual member may be expelled for a trifling infraction of rules, or may see the insurance system abolished and all the funds dissipated in support ing a sympathetic strike. Nevertheless the in dividual members acquiesce in this condition of affairs, and vehemently oppose any attempt at regulative legislation. The widespread opposi tion of trade unions to incorporation rests large ly upon the belief that it would destroy this un limited freedom in the use of insurance (Wick.