3
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The travelling loan in the Cigar Makers was for some time badly
administered. Until the adoption of the out-of-work benefit, the
financial secretaries, moved by sympathy, frequently granted the benefit
to members who had never left their jurisdiction and who had no
intention of leaving.[197] This practice endangered the entire
system.[198] Since the adoption of the out-of-work benefit the amount of
loans per capita of membership has diminished. At present the cost of
the travelling benefit in the Cigar Makers is not large; the loans are
promptly and efficiently collected. Data for recent years are not
available; but in the period from 1881 to 1901 the sum of $735,266 was
loaned and $660,255 was repaid. The balance outstanding at the close of
1900 was $75,014, and of this a considerable part was collectible. The
net cost of the system for twenty-one years was thus certainly less than
$50,000, an average annual cost of about $2400, or an annual average per
capita cost of ten cents. Even in the Typographia, where the benefit is
a gift, the annual per capita cost to the membership is not large,
varying from eleven to sixty cents, according to the state of
employment.

[Footnote 197: Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 6, July, 1881, p. 1.]

[Footnote 198: _Ibid.,_ Vol. 9, July, 1884, p. 3.]

CHAPTER V.

SUPERANNUATION BENEFITS.

In 1901 thirty-eight of the one hundred principal British unions paid a
superannuation benefit. These unions had a membership of 566,765, and
the amount paid in superannuation benefits from 1892 to 1901 was about
one sixth of the total amount expended for all benefits.[199] In the
American trade unions, on the other hand, superannuation benefits are
paid by only a few unions. A considerable number of unions have in
recent years been considering the advisability of introducing this
feature, and it is likely within a brief period to form an important
part of the beneficiary system of the American unions.

[Footnote 199: Weyl, "Benefit Features of British Trade Unions," in
Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, Vol. 12, p. 722.]

The superannuation benefit may take several forms--a weekly stipend, a
lump sum or a support in a home for the aged. The aim of the benefit in
all three cases is to protect the member in old age. The weekly stipend
is regarded as the preferable form, since in going to a home the member
must leave his family. Ordi