quire that the claim shall be
investigated by "three Union members of good repute not related to the
sick member, each acting independently of the others and reporting
individually to the local executive board." The Plumbers and Cigar
Makers require that every sick member shall be visited at least once in
each week and that no two members of the committee shall visit him at
the same time.

Notwithstanding these precautions it has not been possible entirely to
prevent the payment of fraudulent claims for sick benefits. The visiting
committees of the local unions are frequently neglectful or careless in
exercising their supervisory functions, and occasionally knowingly
sanction the payment of unwarranted claims. Where the unions do not have
an out-of-work benefit, there is always the chance that unemployed
members will claim the sick benefit and that the local unions, aware
that the money for the payment of the claim comes from the national
union, will not scrutinize with any care the severity of the illness.

Reserving to the national officials the right to pass finally upon
sick-benefit claims is not effective as a precaution against such
frauds. The national officials cannot inform themselves as to the
honesty of the physician who signs the certificate nor as to the good
faith with which the visiting committee has performed its duties. On the
whole, the better policy seems to be to place the responsibility of
passing upon individual claims directly upon the local union, and to
reserve to the national officials an oversight of the administration of
the local unions.

In several of the unions no effective measures appear to have been taken
to keep the local unions up to their duties, but in others a close
scrutiny is maintained. The system in use by the Iron Molders is
probably the most effective of those used by the unions which do not pay
a money out-of-work benefit and in which consequently the need for
supervision is greatest. Every member of the union is catalogued on a
card. When he is reported as having received a benefit payment from any
local union, this fact is entered on his card. Members removing from one
local union to another and drawing more sick benefits than they are
allowed by the rules are thus detected and forced to make restitution.
The "financier" of the union also notes the sick rate in each local
union. When the amount of sickness in any locality appears to be
excessive, he employs for a limite