The Granite Cutters, the Iron Molders and the Printers all experimented
after this fashion. Only in the railway brotherhoods did these insurance
systems develop into a permanent feature.

The development of beneficiary functions by the leading national unions
began about 1880. The benefits administered by these organizations do
not interfere with the nationalization of membership. A new theory as to
the relation between the beneficiary and the trade functions began about
1880 to gain wide acceptance. It was argued and with much force that the
benefits were a direct aid in the accomplishment of trade purposes.
While some leaders of the older school have seen in the rapid
development of beneficiary functions a danger to the unions, the greater
number who have come into positions of authority since 1880 have
steadily advocated the establishment of benefits.

The table on p. 12 gives the year in which the principal national unions
were organized, together with the date and order of introduction of
their national benefit systems.

This change in the attitude of American trade unions toward beneficiary
activities is illustrated by the fact that while in the older American
trade unions, such as the Typographical Union, the Cigar Makers' Union
and the Iron Molders' Union, many years elapsed between the founding of
national organizations and the institution of national benefit systems,
of the national unions organized since about 1880, some, as for example,
the Granite Cutters' Union, the Brotherhood of Painters, the Metal
Polishers' Union, and the Wood Workers' Union, incorporated provisions
for the payment of benefits in their first constitutions, and many
others adopted benefit systems within a few years after organization.