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It will be observed that the ratio of the number of wife's funeral
benefits to the number of member's funeral benefits has steadily fallen
for a considerable number of years. The experience of the Painters is
probably typical, although the number of claims of each kind is not
ascertainable in the other unions.

The combination of the wife's funeral benefit with the death benefit
causes a material addition in the cost of the death benefit. This
increase is greatest in those unions in which the wife's benefit is
relatively large in amount. The following table shows the sums paid for
member's and wife's death benefits in three of the more important
unions:

SUMS PAID FOR WIFE'S AND MEMBER'S DEATH BENEFITS.
======================================================================
| |Wife's Death Benefit.|Member's Death Benefit.
| |---------------------------------------------
| | |Percentage| |Percentage
Union. | Year. | |of Whole | |of Whole
| |Expended. |Sum | Expended. |Sum
| | |Expended | |Expended
| | |for Death | |for Death
| | |Benefits. | |Benefits.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Painters |1888-1889|$ 650.00| | |
|1889-1890| 1,075.00| 26.8 |$ 2,894.00| 73.2
|1890-1892| 2,075.00| 23.1 | 6,000.00| 76.9
|1892-1894| 3,912.00| 27.7 | 10,548.00| 72.3