Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29:4

xxix Journal of Interdisciplinary History, :4 (Spring, 1999), 585–612. David T. Beito FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920DAVID T. BEITO To Advance the “Practice of Thrift and Economy”: Fraternal Societies and Social Capital, 1890–1920 In conducting the affairs of the Order, women get business training that can be had in no other way. They learn the ways of handling money, and ordinary business forms, the lack of which knowledge is often so deplorable when women are obliged to do business for themselves. Ella J. Fiªeld, “The Twentieth Century Woman as Fraternalist” It would be difªcult to ªnd better illustrations of the many uses of social capital in American society during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries than fraternal orders. Much like the Italian social arrangements described by Putnam in Making Democ- racy Work, these institutions were characterized by “features of social organization, such as trust, norms, and networks that [con- tributed to] “the efªciency of society by facilitating coordinated actions.”1 As mass membership organizations, fraternal societies had few rivals. A conservative estimate is that one-third of adult males in the United States were members in 1910. Virtually no ethnic or religious group was immune from the lure of the lodge. Native whites ºocked to the Modern Woodmen of America, the Inde- David T. Beito is Assistant Professor of History, University of Alabama. He is the author of Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance During the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1989); “The Formation of Urban Infrastructure through Non-Governmental Planning: The Private Places of St. Louis,” Journal of Urban History, XVI (1990), 263–301. The author would like to thank the following individuals who provided valuable comments or aided in the research for this article: Ellen McDonald; Todd J. Olson; Carol DeGroff; Bernadine Lee; Kurt N. Wehermeister; Linda Royster Beito; participants at the conference, “Patterns of Social Capital: Stability and Change in Comparative Perspective,” Harvard University, December 4–6, 1997; and the editors of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. © 1999 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 1 Robert D. Putnam, with Roberto Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, 1993), 167. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 586 | DAVID T. BEITO pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and other societies. Immigrants could join the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Sons of Italy, and the Polish National Alliance. Blacks not only established versions of the Masons, the Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias but also such societies as the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor, the Grand United Order of Galilean Fishermen, and the Mosaic Templars.2 A notable accomplishment of fraternal orders was to spread life insurance among the masses. Between 1890 and 1910, the number of people belonging to societies offering death beneªts increased from 1.3 million to 8.5 million. By the end of this period, fraternal policies represented nearly half the value of all life insurance. In 1919, an extensive survey of wage earners in Chicago revealed that 38.8 percent carried life insurance in their societies. As an estimate of the total membership, this ªgure was probably on the low side, because respondents did not provide information about fraternal afªliation per se; they indicated only whether they held life insurance in these organizations.3 A key reason for the strength of fraternal networks of trust and cooperation was a shared code of values among the members. Although the details varied, nearly all societies trumpeted the virtues of thrift, self-reliance, reciprocity, self-government, and civility. Taken together, these and related ideals constituted a kind 2 The historical literature of fraternal societies is growing rapidly. See, for example, David M. Fahey, The Black Lodge in White America: “True Reformer” Browne and His Economic Strategy (Dayton, 1994); William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975); Robert Whaples and David Buffum, “Fraternalism, Paternalism, the Family, and the Market: Insurance a Century Ago,” Social Science History, XV (1991), 97–102; Susan D. Greenbaum, “Economic Cooperation Among Urban Industrial Workers: Rationality and Community in an Afro-Cuban Mutual Aid Society, 1904–1927,” Social Science History, XVII (1993), 173–193; Hannah Kliger (ed.), Jewish Hometown Associations and Family Circles in New York: The WPA Yiddish Writers’ Group Study (Bloomington, 1992); Daniel Soyer, Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880–1939 (Cambridge, Mass., 1997); Mary Ann Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, and Fraternalism (Princeton, 1989); Mark C. Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven, 1989); Lynn Dumenil, Freemasonry and American Culture, 1880–1930 (Princeton, 1984); Don Harrison Doyle, The Social Order of a Frontier Community: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825–70 (Urbana, 1978); Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939 (New York, 1990). 3 Frederick L. Hoffman, “Fifty Years of American Life Insurance Progress,” American Statistical Association, XCV (September 1911), 88; Richard de Raismes Kip, Fraternal Life Insurance (Philadelphia, 1953), 169; Illinois, state, Report of the Health Insurance Commission, (Springªeld, 1919), 228. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 587 of fraternal consensus. It extended well beyond the mainstream of American life and cut across such seemingly intractable divisions as race, gender, and income. The malleability of this fraternal value consensus was a key factor in its broad appeal. Under the right circumstances, mutu- alism, thrift, reciprocity, self-reliance, and other ideals could be deployed not only to advance entrepreneurship but also such political agendas as feminism and the struggle for racial equality. Many excluded groups relied on this consensus to overcome the obstacles presented by a hostile political and social environment. Blacks and women, for example, often found that lodges were their only venues to exercise such governing skills as framing constitutions, campaigning for ofªce, and disbursing funds for collective improvement—all of which counted for a great deal during an era of intense racial and gender discrimination and political disfranchisement. To shed more light on the relationship between the fraternal value consensus and the production of social capital, this article restricts its focus to ªve societies: the Loyal Order of Moose, the Security Beneªt Association, the Ladies of the Maccabees, the United Order of True Reformers, and the Independent Order of Saint Luke (henceforth the Moose, Security, the Maccabees, the True Reformers, and the Independent Order, respectively). Al- though all of these organizations thrived at, or near, the turn of the century, they did not generally share membership bases. Two of the societies—the True Reformers and the Independent Or- der—were all-black; the others had entirely white memberships. The Moose was an exclusively male society that emphasized sickness and funeral beneªts, much like the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Security (originally the Knights and Ladies of Security) followed in the tradition of the fraternal life-insurance orders, such as the Ancient Order of United Workmen. It broke from the mainstream, however, by admitting men and women on equal terms. The Maccabees (later renamed the Woman’s Beneªt Association) was also a life insurance order, but it excluded men from joining. These societies showed striking similarities in outlook. With perhaps a slight change in wording, the following statement, penned by a member of Security, was suitable to each of them: Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 588 | DAVID T. BEITO Its prime object is to promote the brotherhood of man, teach ªdelity to home and loved ones, loyalty to country and respect of law, to establish a system for the care of the widows and orphans, the aged and disabled, and enable every worthy member to protect himself from the ills of life and make substantial provision through co-operation with our members, for those who are nearest and dearest.4 To advertise its ideals, each society propagated a motto. The True Reformers went on record in favor of “unity, temperance, and charity.” The Maccabees and the Independent Order pledged, respectively, to advance “faith, hope, and charity” and “love, purity, and charity.” The motto of Security put a premium on mutual aid: “The mystic words of our Order are Wisdom, Pro- tection, Security, Fraternity. But the greatest of these is Frater- nity.” Lodge brothers in the Moose used the salutation “Howd’y Pap” (short for “purity, aid, progress”). The Junior Order of the Moose did its bit with the slogan “Be good, do good, and make good.”5 All of these societies stressed fraternity and reciprocity as the keys to individual and collective advancement. To drive this point home, the Maccabees and Security both incorporated versions of “Blest Be the Tie that Binds” in their rituals: Blest be the

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