[Footnote 99:  Constitution, 1903 (Indianapolis, n.d.), secs. 65 and 98.]

[Footnote 100:  Constitution, 1904 (Boston, n.d.), sec. 68.]

[Footnote 101:  Constitution, 1904 (La Fayette, n.d.), sec. 133.]

The requirement of a preliminary period of membership serves to protect the union against the entrance of persons who wish to join because they are in ill health and are anxious to secure insurance which they could not otherwise get.  None of the unions provide, however, for any deliberate selection of risks, and the mortality is higher than it would be if the applicants were examined.

The death benefit is thus regarded by the unions not as a pure matter of business.  It is paid partly on charitable grounds, and the small increase in the cost of the benefit occasioned by the lack of strict physical requirements is regarded as more than compensated by the increase in the solidarity of the organization thus attained.

In several important unions the death benefit has been made the basis for a disability benefit.  Thus a member receiving the disability benefit loses his right to the death benefit.  So closely are the two benefits associated in these organizations that they are practically a single benefit.  This combination of death and disability benefits is found chiefly in those trades in which the workmen are exposed to great danger of being disabled by accident.[102] The principal unions maintaining the disability benefit are the Iron Molders, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the Cigar Makers, the Painters, the Wood Workers, the Metal Workers, the Glass Workers, and the Boot and Shoe Workers.[103]

[Footnote 102:  Those unions that pay a death benefit and make no provision for total or permanent disability are:  Bakers’ and Confectioners’ Union, Barbers’ International Union, Cigar Makers, Elastic Goring Weavers’ Association, United Garment Workers, Glass Bottle Blowers’ Association, Granite Cutters’ Association, United Hatters, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Iron, Steel and Tin Workers’ Association, Jewelry Workers’ Union, Brotherhood of Leather Workers on Horse Goods, Lithographers’ Association, Metal Polishers’ Union, Pattern Makers’ League, Piano and Organ Workers’ Union, Plumbers’ Association, Printing Pressmen’s Union, Retail Clerks’ Association, Saw Smiths’ Union, Stone Cutters’ Association, Stove Mounters’ Union, Street Railway Employees’ Association, Tailors’ Union, Tobacco Workers’ Union, Typographical Union, Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, Watch Case Engravers’ Association, Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers’ Union.]

[Footnote 103:  Originally, the Granite Cutters paid a disability benefit of five hundred dollars.  By 1878 the amount of the disability benefit had been made variable, being raised by an assessment of fifty cents on each member of the Union.  About 1884 the disability benefit was abandoned.]