The death benefit in the Typographia includes a member’s death benefit graded from sixty-five dollars to two hundred dollars, a wife’s funeral benefit of fifty dollars and a disability benefit varying according to the age of the member.  This combination of benefits costs to maintain on the average about three dollars.  The cost varies considerably from year to year on account of the small number of members, and the consequent lack of regularity in the death rate, but taking five-year periods, the cost is stable.

In the Cigar Makers the cost of the death benefit is increasing.  The full effect of the grading of the benefit has not as yet shown itself in the cost, since the influx of members recently has caused the rate to be somewhat lower than it would have been.  If the Cigar Makers hold their membership and the increase slackens, it may be expected that by 1912 the cost of the benefit will be much higher than at present.  In 1905, a normal year, the death benefit, including a member’s death benefit graded from $200 to $550 (two to fifteen years), a wife’s funeral benefit of forty dollars and a disability benefit equal to the death benefit cost the union the per capita rate of $3.56 to maintain.  The following table shows the per capita cost of the death benefit system in several of the more important and typical systems: 

       Percapita cost of the death benefit.
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============= Year.|Cigar |Typogra-|Carpen-| Typo- |Iron |Leather |Granite |Glass
     |Makers.| phia. |ters. |graphical|Mold-|Workers |Cutters.|Bottle
     | | | | Union. |ers. |on Horse| |Blowers.
     | | | | | |Goods | |
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------------- 1882 | $0.15 | | | | | | | 1883 | .20 | | | | | | | 1884 | .33 | | | | | | | 1885 | .35 | $2.11 | | | | | | 1886 | .20 | 1.05 |$0.69 | | | | | 1887 | .43 | 1.94 | .66 | | | | | 1888 | 1.23 | 2.58 | .66 | | | | | 1889 | 1.06 | 1.85 | .90 | | | | | 1890 | 1.03 | 1.94 | .90 | | | | | 1891 | 1.51 | 2.23 | .99 | | | | $0.92 | 1892 | 1.60 | 1.60 | 1.38 | | | | 1.02 | 1893 | 1.74 | 2.20 | 1.38 |$0.73 | | | 1.37 | 1894 | 2.12 | 4.36 | 1.62 | .81 | | | 1.28 | 1895 | 2.27 | 3.51 | 2.46 | .78 |$0.44| | | 1896 | 2.69 | 2.36 | 1.62 | .78 | .44| | | 1897 | 2.44 | 4.23 | 1.77 | .84 | .44| | | 1898 | 3.30 | 2.63 | 1.80 | .80 | .44| |