By their means, working men are enabled
to secure the results of economy at a comparatively small cost. For,
mutual assurance is economy in its most economical form; and merely
presents another illustration of that power of co-operation which is
working out such extraordinary results in all departments of society,
and is in fact but another name for Civilization.
Many persons object to Friendly Societies because they are conducted at
public-houses; because many of them are got up by the keepers of
public-houses in order to obtain custom from the members; and because,
in their fortnightly meetings to pay their subscriptions, they acquire
the pernicious habit of drinking, and thus waste quite as much as they
save. The Friendly Societies doubtless rely very much on the social
element. The public-house is everybody's house. The members can there
meet together, talk together, and drink together. It is extremely
probable that had they trusted solely to the sense of duty--the duty of
insuring against sickness--and merely required the members to pay their
weekly contributions to a collector, very few societies of the kind
would have remained in existence. In a large number of cases, there is
practically no choice between the society that meets at a public-house,
and none at all.
It so happens that the world cannot be conducted on superfine
principles.
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