FRATERNAL INSURANCE IN AMERICA 245 



fraternal unless it practices a ritual, has a system of lodges, a 

 representative form of government, pays benefits, and does 

 not conduct its business for profit. At the meetin^^ of the 

 congress in 1900, a representative form of government was 

 defined as **one in which there is a corporate meeting of the 

 supreme legislative body, provided for as often as once every 

 three years, to be composed of the officers and, in addition, 

 delegates representing the membership; to which meeting sole 

 power is given to adopt and amend by-laws, and to elect the 

 chief officers of the order, and in which the term of no officer so 

 elected shall be longer than until the next regular session of 

 such governing body." Both the law and the constitution of 

 the congress distinguish sharply between assessment and fra- 

 ternal societies. A fraternal society may adopt an assessment 

 system of benefits, but it must, in addition, possess all the 

 other fraternal elements ; while an assessment society does not 

 necessarily incorporate one or more of the fraternal charac- 

 teristics. A fraternal society may consequently be an assess- 

 ment society (imtil after the general adoption of level or step 

 rates), but a pure assessment society is not a fraternal society. 

 In some states special laws have been enacted to govern old 

 line, assessment, and fraternal insurance organizations, re- 

 spectively. 



Any society coming within the description just given, but 

 organized under the laws of another state, may be admitted to 

 a state having adopted the uniform law, by appointing the 

 insurance commissioner as its legal representative, and filing 

 its charter, constitution, etc., for which a small fee is charged. 

 Societies of other states, on application, may be examined by 

 the insurance commissioner at a cost not to exceed $50, in 

 certain cases. The president of the last congress, in his annual 

 report, favors a graduation of fees for examination, var^^ing 

 from $100 to $500, depending upon the membership of the 

 society examined. That the limitation of fees to be paid to 

 examiners is necessary, the experience of one large order 

 demonstrates. This society uncomplainingly paid $2,307.40 

 for an examination made, at its request, by the insurance de- 

 partment of one of the states. Not long after, the officers of 

 another state appeared, to make a similar examination. When 



