cent. to the monthly fund, and fifty-eight per cent. to the strike fund;
eight cents per week per member is held by the local unions as a credit
to the benefit fund out of which are paid sick and out-of-work benefits;
and the remainder, seven cents per member, is held by the local unions
as a fund for local expenditures.

The adjudication of claims is naturally the most important
administrative task connected with a system of benefits. In all cases
the national officials rely upon the local unions and their officers for
a certain amount of cooeperation and aid in preventing fraud, but the
amount of this dependence varies with the character of the benefit. In
death and disability benefits the national union can prevent fraud
almost without any cooeperation on the part of the local unions. A
certificate of death or disability, properly signed, is in the great
majority of cases an indisputable evidence of the fact it purports to
attest. A union may in like manner administer an old age pension
directly from its head office. But in the case of sick, travelling and
out-of-work benefits, the local unions become an essential part of the
administrative machinery of the national union. No national union
attempts to determine whether a member of a local union is entitled to
the out-of-work benefit except through the local union. The
administrative systems fall thus into two great classes according as the
benefit administered can be guarded against fraud by means of
certificates and sworn statements, or according as it must be
administered partly by persons in contact with the claimant. In both
cases the national officers administer the benefits; but in the one they
act directly and the mediation of the local union is formal and
dispensable, while in the other the aim of national administration is to
supervise and control the local administration.

The administration of the death benefit or of a system of insurance
against death presents relatively few difficult problems. The local
union reports the death to the national officials and certifies to the
good standing of the deceased member in his local union. If the reports
of national and local unions correspond and the deceased member is clear
on the records of both local and national unions, the claim is approved
by the national officers and payment is made to the designated
beneficiary, or the legal heirs of the deceased. The report of the
subordinate union to the national uni