of a preliminary period of membership serves to protect
the union against the entrance of persons who wish to join because they
are in ill health and are anxious to secure insurance which they could
not otherwise get. None of the unions provide, however, for any
deliberate selection of risks, and the mortality is higher than it would
be if the applicants were examined.

The death benefit is thus regarded by the unions not as a pure matter of
business. It is paid partly on charitable grounds, and the small
increase in the cost of the benefit occasioned by the lack of strict
physical requirements is regarded as more than compensated by the
increase in the solidarity of the organization thus attained.

In several important unions the death benefit has been made the basis
for a disability benefit. Thus a member receiving the disability benefit
loses his right to the death benefit. So closely are the two benefits
associated in these organizations that they are practically a single
benefit. This combination of death and disability benefits is found
chiefly in those trades in which the workmen are exposed to great danger
of being disabled by accident.[102] The principal unions maintaining the
disability benefit are the Iron Molders, the Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners, the Cigar Makers, the Painters, the Wood Workers, the Metal
Workers, the Glass Workers, and the Boot and Shoe Workers.[103]

[Footnote 102: Those unions that pay a death benefit and make no
provision for total or permanent disability are: Bakers' and
Confectioners' Union, Barbers' International Union, Cigar Makers,
Elastic Goring Weavers' Association, United Garment Workers, Glass
Bottle Blowers' Association, Granite Cutters' Association, United
Hatters, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Iron, Steel and Tin Workers'
Association, Jewelry Workers' Union, Brotherhood of Leather Workers on
Horse Goods, Lithographers' Association, Metal Polishers' Union, Pattern
Makers' League, Piano and Organ Workers' Union, Plumbers' Association,
Printing Pressmen's Union, Retail Clerks' Association, Saw Smiths'
Union, Stone Cutters' Association, Stove Mounters' Union, Street Railway
Employees' Association, Tailors' Union, Tobacco Workers' Union,
Typographical Union, Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, Watch Case
Engravers' Association, Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers' Union.]

[Footnote 103: Originally, the Granite Cutters paid a disability benefit
of five hundred dollars. By