cted in the sum
of one franc, unless they shall have previously by letter excused
themselves.

Every member at the expiration of twenty full years of membership shall
be entitled to his share of the interest earned during the twentieth
year of his membership by the property of the society, the funds of
which can only be invested in the three or five per cent. funds of the
French nation. His regular contribution to the society will still go on,
but he will receive his share of the interest earned thereafter
regularly every three months. Should a pensioner die, the year's
interest due to him shall be paid over to his heirs or assigns. The
pension cannot be transferred or alienated, and the relations of a
pensioner have no claim upon the amount of the payments made by him to
the society. Should a member become an invalid, incapable of work, after
fully paying up his dues to the society during five years, he may demand
to be kept upon the books as a full member, and as such he will be
entitled to his pension at the end of twenty years. The society can only
be dissolved by a unanimous vote of the members at a general meeting;
and if so dissolved the members must choose another society as nearly as
possible resembling this, to which the property of the dissolved society
shall be transferred.

The funds for current expenses of the society can never exceed 1,500
francs. This society, as I have said, was founded in 1880. Its success
has been really phenomenal.

On January 1, 1882, it comprised 757 members, and its capital amounted
to 6,237 francs. On January 18, 1886, it consisted of 15,008 members,
and had a capital invested in French consols of 361,003 fr. 99 c. On
April 1, 1889, it numbered 59,932 members, divided into 340 sections,
and it possessed an invested capital of 1,541,868 fr. 26 c.! Of course
the Tontine principle enters into the system, and it would be
interesting to compute the probable pensions in 1902 of so many of the
757 persons who were members of the society in 1882 as may then be
living to claim their share of the interest then earned by the then
capital of the society. The minuteness, precision, and practical common
sense with which the statutes of this organisation have been drawn up
and provision made in its regulations against all the probable
difficulties to be encountered in carrying it on, gives one a very
favourable notion of the business capacity and of the character of the
French working class