It so happens that the world cannot be conducted on superfine principles.  To most men, and especially to the men we are speaking of, it is a rough, working world, conducted on common principles, such as will wear.  To some it may seem vulgar to associate beer, tobacco, or feasting with the pure and simple duty of effecting an insurance against disablement by sickness; but the world we live in is vulgar, and we must take it as we find it, and try to make the best of it.  It must be admitted that the tendencies to pure good in man are very weak, and need much helping.  But the expedient, vulgar though it be, of attracting him through his appetite for meat and drink to perform a duty to himself and neighbours, is by no means confined to societies of working men.  There is scarcely a London charity or institution but has its annual dinner for the purpose of attracting subscribers.  Are we to condemn the eighteenpenny annual dinner of the poor man, but excuse the guinea one of the rich?

A vigorous effort was made by Mr. Akroyd of Halifax, in 1856, to establish a Provident Sick Society and Penny Savings Bank for the working men in the West Riding of Yorkshire.  An organization was set on foot with these objects; and though the Penny Bank proved a complete success, the Provident Society proved a complete failure.  Mr. Akroyd thus explains the causes of the failure:  “We found the ground preoccupied,” he says, “by Friendly Societies, especially by the Odd Fellows, Druids, Foresters, etc.; and against their principles of self-government, mutual check against fraud, and brotherhood, no new and independent society can compete.  Our rates were also of necessity much higher than theirs, and this was perhaps one of the chief causes of our failure.”

Low rates of contribution have been the principal cause of the failure of Friendly Societies.[1] It was of course natural that the members, being persons of limited means, should endeavour to secure the objects of their organization at the lowest cost.  They therefore fixed their rates as low as possible; and, as the results proved, they in most cases fixed them too low.  So long as the societies consisted, for the most part, of young, healthy men, and the average amount of sickness remained low, the payments made seemed ample.  The funds accumulated, and many flattered themselves that their societies were in a prosperous state, when they contained the sure elements of decay.  For, as the members grew older, their average liability to sickness was regularly increasing.  The effects of increased age upon the solvency of benefit clubs soon becoming known, young men avoided the older societies, and preferred setting up organizations of their own.  The consequence was, that the old men began to draw upon their reserves at the same time that the regular contributions fell off; and when, as was frequently the case, a few constantly ailing members kept pressing upon the society, the funds were at length exhausted, “the box” was declared to be closed, and the society was broken up.  The real injustice was done to the younger men who remained in the society.  After paying their contributions for many years, they found, when sickness at length fell upon them, that the funds had been exhausted, by expenditure for superannuation and other allowances, which were not provided for by the rules of the society.