l. 4, August, 1884.]

[Footnote 117: The Painter, Vol. 1, April, 1887; Vol. 17, p. 529.]

[Footnote 118: Constitution of the Cigar Makers' International Union of
America, 1887 (Buffalo, 1888), Art. 10.]

The wife's death benefit is designed to defray the cost of burial. It
is, therefore, small in amount, not exceeding fifty dollars in any of
the unions in which it is important. The following table gives the
minimum amounts of the wife's funeral benefit paid under the original
and under the present rules in the five unions in which the benefit is
of importance. The term of membership required for participation in the
benefit is also shown.

MINIMUM AMOUNT OF WIFE'S DEATH BENEFIT.
=====================================================================
| Originally. | In 1905.
|------------------------------------------------------
Name of Union.|Amount.|Required Period of| Amount.|Required Period of
| | Membership. | | Membership.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Bakers........| $50 | 6 mo. | $50 | 6 mo.
Carpenters....| 50 | 6 mo. | 25 | 6 mo.
Cigar Makers..| 40 | 2 yr. | 40 | 2 yr.
Painters......| 25 | 6 mo. | 50 | 1 yr.
Typographia...| 25 | 1 yr. | 50 | none
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The wife's death benefit is not graded except in the case of the
Carpenters, where the minimum benefit is twenty-five dollars for six
months' and fifty dollars for one year's membership. The minimum given
in the above table is in all other cases also the maximum.

The success of the wife's death or funeral benefit is not beyond
controversy. The Tailors, who began to pay the benefit in 1889,
abandoned it in 1898. The benefit was at first seventy-five dollars
after three months' membership, but it was remodelled until in 1896 it
became a graded benefit ranging from twenty-five dollars to fifty
dollars according to the length of membership. The chief objection to
the benefit was that unmarried members were taxed to support the benefit
although they did not participate in the advantages. In 1898 Secretary
Lennon declared that the benefit "was based on real injustice, giving
one member more benefits for the same dues paid than to another."[119]
In other unions whic