turn. France
certainly furnishes a singular exception to those countries of Central
and Western Europe, where "the rich are getting more rich and the poor
ever more poor." In France wealth becomes more and more distributed
among the bulk of the population.]

English benefit societies, notwithstanding their great uses and
benefits, have numerous defects. There are faults in the details of
their organization and management, whilst many of them are financially
unsound. Like other institutions in their early stages, they have been
tentative and in a great measure empirical,--more especially as regards
their rates of contribution and allowances for sick relief. The rates
have in many cases been fixed too low, in proportion to the benefits
allowed; and hence the "box" is often declared to be closed, after the
money subscribed has been expended. The society then comes to an end,
and the older members have to go without relief for the rest of their
lives. But life assurance societies themselves have had to undergo the
same discipline of failure, and the operation of "winding up" has not
unfrequently thrown discredit upon these middle-class associations.

To quote the words of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, in a recent
report: "Though the information thus far obtained is not very
encouraging as to the general system of management; on the whole,
perhaps, the results of the investments of the poor are not worse than
those which noblemen, members of Parliament, merchants, professed
financiers, and speculators have contrived to attain in their management
of railways, joint-stock banks, and enterprises of all kinds."

The workmen's societies originated for the most part in a common want,
felt by persons of small means, unable to accumulate any considerable
store of savings to provide against destitution in the event of
disablement by disease or accident. At the beginning of life, persons
earning their bread by daily labour are able to save money with
difficulty. Unavoidable expenses absorb their limited means and press
heavily on their income. When unable to work, any little store they may
have accumulated is soon spent, and if they have a family to maintain,
there is then no choice before them but destitution, begging, or
recourse to the poor-rates. In their desire to avoid either of these
alternatives, they have contrived the expedient of the benefit society.
By combining and putting a large number of small contributions to