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 larger than the amount at which the benefit was later fixed.  When, in 1880, the Cigar Makers adopted a death benefit of twenty-five dollars, their membership had increased to 4400, making possible, by a per capita assessment of ten cents, the payment of four hundred and forty-four dollars upon the death of each member.  The assessment of twenty-five cents levied by the Glass Bottle Blowers for each death benefit upon a membership of 2423 in 1891 yielded a greater sum than the definite amount adopted one year later.  The amount paid under the fluctuating system in the Iron Molders was also larger than the fixed amount later guaranteed by the International Union.

In another respect the early death benefits and insurance systems were alike.  Participation in the more important and successful death systems was voluntary.  Membership in the Iron Molders’ Beneficial Association, created to pay death benefits, was, for example, entirely optional.[94] The first constitution of the Granite Cutters provided for an additional voluntary benefit.[95] In both of the above named unions the voluntary idea was short-lived.  In January, 1879, the Iron Molders provided for the payment of a death benefit for all members of the craft.[96] By 1884 the Granite Cutters had abolished the voluntary death benefit and paid it to all members.[97]