1877 they adopted a benefit of fifty dollars, but also provided for an
additional voluntary benefit to be raised by an assessment of fifty
cents. After a few years the entire system was replaced by provision for
the payment of a fixed funeral benefit.

The fluctuating benefit was very unsatisfactory, inasmuch as the insured
member could not be certain as to what amount he would receive, and this
uncertainty was aggravated by the voluntary character of the
association. Even where participation was compulsory the fluctuations in
the number of members were much greater than at present.

As soon as the unions became sufficiently strong, financially and
numerically, and had acquired experience in the management of the
benefit, they, with few exceptions, guaranteed to their members a
benefit of fixed amount. A fixed payment of one hundred dollars was
guaranteed by the Iron Molders in 1879 on the death of a member, and in
1882 the voluntary organization known as the Beneficial Association,
which had maintained the system of special assessments, was
disbanded.[90] The advantage of paying a benefit of fixed amount, as
demonstrated by the experience of Local Union No. 87 of Brooklyn, led to
the adoption of this system by the Cigar Makers' International Union, in
September, 1880.[91]

[Footnote 90: Constitution, 1878 (Cincinnati, 1878); Iron Molders'
Journal, Vol. 26, May, 1890, p. 2.]

[Footnote 91: Constitution, 1880 (New York, 1880), Art. 13.]

The majority of American trade unions have inaugurated their death
benefits since 1880,[92] and hence have escaped the experimental period
of benefits based upon the fluctuating principle. Learning from the
experience of the older unions, they have in most cases paid from the
beginning death benefits of fixed amount. The benefit is a definite sum
in all the unions except the Watch Case Engravers' Association and the
Saw Smiths' Union, which in their constitutions of 1901 and 1902
respectively provide for the payment of a benefit upon a fluctuating
basis.[93] This must be attributed to the fact that the unions are not
sufficiently strong to guarantee the payment of a definite amount.

[Footnote 92: See page 12.]

[Footnote 93: Constitution of the Watch Case Engravers' International
Association of America, 1901 (New York, n.d.), p. 21; Constitution of
the Saw Smiths' Union of North America, 1902 (Indianapolis, n.d.), p.
8.]

Under the fluctuating system the sum paid was often larg