248 B. F. MEYER 



duties, and establishes seven standing committees dealing with 

 the constitution and laws, statutory legislation, credentials and 

 finance, statistics and good of the orders, fraternal press, 

 jurisprudence and medical examinations, respectively. The 

 powers and duties of these committees are also defined. Fi- 

 nally, the constitution repudiates the speculative societies, 

 whose chief aim is to pay sums of money to members during 

 life, without regard to distress or physical disability; and de- 

 clares that the aims of such societies are entirely opposed to 

 the principles upon which the fraternal beneficiary societies are 

 founded, and by virtue of which they exist. The congress 

 meets partly in sections, the two chief sections being the medi- 

 cal and that on the fraternal press. The latter, by imifying 

 and uniting the interests of the various fraternal publications, 

 is capable of diffusing the knowledge which is essential for the 

 permanent establishment of a sound understanding and the 

 full recognition of true conditions. The former has been aim- 

 ing at the improvement of medical selection. The personal 

 element being so important in the fraternal system, greater 

 care and efficiency in the selection of risks reacts favorably 

 upon the personal habits of members. A thorough medical 

 examination as a necessary preliminary for participation in a 

 system of benefits is a valuable lesson in right living. A 

 bureau of information has also been proposed and discussed. 

 The helpfulness of such a bureau can scarcely be overestimated, 

 for, as a whole, the system is suffering from want of sufficient 

 and accurate information. Not until the accumulated experi- 

 ence of fraternal societies has been scientifically formulated 

 and appHed to their financial operations can fraternal insur- 

 ance be said to have reached the dignity of an economic in- 

 stitution. One society has adopted the combined experience 

 of four other orders, until its own experience may have be- 

 come sufficiently comprehensive. This is correct in principle, 

 and will tend to banish the grotesque systems of guess work 

 which at present are altogether too common. 



