1G2 Friendly Societies, State Action, and the Poor-law. 
nature. He pays sufficient, and oftentimes more than sufficient, to 
secure this provision, and to ^ hat purpose ? Is there one club* 
in a thousand which will fulfil the terms of his contract ? The 
security is worthless, not from the dishonesty of the managers. 
Dishonesty is comparatively rare, though it crops up now and 
then. From sheer inability, either to administer the rules or take 
care of the capital, and from ignorance, which I believe is 
invincible, of the importance of holding on, even against the 
wish of the members themselves, to capital, the man's provision 
is lost. 
The accumulation of two or three years' capital is considered 
to be so much surplus hoarded to no purpose. There are barely 
any societies among the poor in which deferred or prospective 
insurance is a matter of even a fair probabilitv. It is almost a 
mockery to try and improve their societies by adoption of the 
admirable rules and directions issued bv the Chief Registrar,t 
for the simple reason that once the excitement of the formation 
of their society is gone, and the guardian care of one or two 
painstaking men who get no thanks for what they do is with- 
drawn, there is nobody who can manage the business and take 
care of their property. I forbear quoting instances. They are 
probably within the knowledge of most of my readers who take 
an interest in village clubs. How far " duration " may be 
relied on in the affiliated societies is another question. It is 
possible to maintain a central authority in perpetuity, while 
some of the subordinate parts, the districts or courts, go to 
pieces. Perhaps for no better reason than that the local 
managers have failed to read and understand the rules which 
relate to general management, they find their district " out of 
touch " with the main body in the day of their struggle, and 
cannot claim the assistance they need to prevent disaster. 
Dissolution and re-formation, with loss of capital and some peril 
to " heavy " cases, may follow. Disasters of this kind do not 
arise from want of warning on the part of the authorities ; but 
the local people are not fond of advice, especially if they have a 
few hundreds of capital, at a high rate of interest, in some local 
investment. Few, indeed, are the Friendly Societies of the 
labouring poor which can secure the payment of insurances 
deferred to anything like a period of twenty years. Is it 
wonderful that, amid such failure, prospective insurance is but 
little attempted, with the solitary exception of burial- money ? 
Add to the inherent difficulties of management and security in 
* The nomber of the Sharing-ont Clabs is estimated to be greatly in excess 
of the certi6e<.l Societies, but no return is given by the Conimis.<ioii. 
t " The Form of Rules " on application to the Registry of Friendly Societies, 
Abingdon Street, S.W. 
