Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29:4

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xxix: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 tie that binds Us in Fraternal love; The Fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above.6

4 L.M. Thomas, “The Bulwark of Our Republic,” Knights and Ladies of Security, XXI (May 10, 1915), 1. 5 William P. Burrell and D.E. Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, 1881–1905 (Westport, 1970; orig. pub. 1909), 138; Ladies of the Maccabees of the World, Ritual of the Ladies of the Maccabees of the World (Port Huron, 1910), 19; Independent Order of Saint Luke, Degree Ritual of the Independent Order of Saint Luke (Richmond, 1904), 24; Security Beneªt Association, Ritual of the Security Beneªt Asso- ciation (Topeka, n.d), 32; Loyal Order of the Moose, Historical Souvenir of the Loyal Order of the Moose (1912), 10, 51, 61. 6 Security, Ritual, 36. The version of the song in the Maccabees’ Ritual included this stanza: Pledged sisters now are we In blest fraternity, Our hopes, our aims, our plans are one Till passing years are done. (40)

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 589 Through keeping this fraternal tie, societies set out to defend members from an often cruel world. Thus, the Maccabees’ ritual proclaimed, “Stand Back, Grim Poverty! We Protect the Child.” An ofªcial of the Moose struck the same pose, declaring that when “the vicissitudes of life circumstances change a brother’s condition from wealth to want . . . this Order comes to his relief and helps him tide across the unexpected happening.”7 The theme of the loving and extended family, united by reciprocity rather than blood ties, found universal fraternal appeal. According to the ritual of the Independent Order, all initiates were “members of the same family” pledged to “stand by one another at all hazards.” What members “lack[ed] by the sacred ties of blood [they made] up by a solemn oath-bound obligation, declaring [them]selves sisters and brothers, children of the same Father.” The Moose used similar terminology to promote its national orphanage, Mooseheart. Located in upstate Illinois, it was home to over 1,000 children of deceased members by the 1920s. An early report of Mooseheart’s board of governors opined that the “fraternal spirit is one of brotherly love. Aid to a brother is a part of our vows and the care of a brother’s child should be the greatest joy to a true fraternalist.”8 Odes to mutuality, such as these, included constant reminders of the sad fate suffered by those outside the reciprocal fraternal family. The initiation ceremony of the Maccabees featured a slide show about “the unprotected home” during hard times. “One by one,” read the narration, “the household articles have found their way to the pawnbroker or the second hand man. What of the future now?” Similarly, the newsletter of Security printed a car- toon depicting a chance meeting between a boy and a dishevelled bum on the railroad tracks. While walking to a poorhouse, the hobo gestured to a recruiting sign for Security in the background. He counselled the boy to “do what that says and avoid my mistake!” Other advertisements underscored how Security’s members had avoided such adversity because of “cradle to the grave” protection offered by a national orphanage, a home for the aged,

7 Moose, Historical Souvenir, 67; Maccabees, Ritual, 66. 8 Independent Order, Historical Report of the R.W.G. Council, I.O, Saint Luke, 1867–1917 (Richmond, 1917), 41; Moose, Minutes (1925), 91; idem, Mooseheart Year Book (1918–1919), 131. The use of the family analogy was pervasive among fraternalists. See David Thelen, Paths of Resistance: Tradition and Dignity in Industrializing Missouri (New York, 1986), 166; Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood, 119–120; Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood, 25.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 590 | DAVID T. BEITO and a hospital in Topeka. The hospital, which cared for members at reduced rates, was Security’s crown jewel. By 1929, it had 250 beds, making it probably the largest general hospital ever built by a fraternal society.9 Rituals often relied on Biblical verses and heroes to impart the lessons of fraternity. Some organizations were more explicit than others in this approach. The Independent Order of Saint Luke took its name from the Luke of the gospels. Initiates pledged to “be true and faithful to the Christian religion” and to devote leisure time to “searching the Holy Scriptures, so that [they] may become useful and true to all mankind.” The ritual of the Mac- cabees drew inspiration from the Old Testament account of the rebellion of Judas Maccabeus: “Like the Maccabees of old we are marching forward, a mighty army, for the defense of our loved ones and the protection of our homes.”10 All of the societies advocated self-reliance, a hallmark of fraternalism. This objective was a centerpiece of the initiation ceremony of the Independent Order, which featured a symbolic journey to Jerusalem. To foster humility, the rules required the candidate to wear a torn white robe. Prior to the journey, a member foretold what lay ahead: “You may ªnd the road rough and rugged, and you may meet with disappointment and mistrust. . . . You will ªnd no friendly hand extended, or kind advice given you on which to lean.” The meaning of the lesson was plain. “This is one of the times,” the ritual concluded, “that self-reliance must be exerted. You must seek to ªnd the emblem of the cross, with patience and unceasing energy as it is claimed Helena pos- sessed in searching for the cross of Calvary.”11

9 Maccabees, Ritual, 58; “No Poor House for Members of the S.B.A or Their Families,” Security News, XXX (March 1924), 1; “Protection Now Furnished from the ‘Cradle to the Grave,’” Knights and Ladies of Security, XXIII (April 1917), 7; “New $800,000 Hospital to be Occupied,” Security News, XXXVI (May 1930), 3; Dean L. Smith, A Nickel a Month (Topeka, 1979), 138–140. 10 Security, Ritual, 14, 49, 51, 57; Independent Order, Degree Ritual, 8; Maccabees, Ritual, 42–43. The journal of Security argued that “fraternalism is religion—the religion of the Master in motion.” “Fraternity Is Religion,” Security News, XXVII (December 1922), 1. In a provocative analysis, Betty M. Kuyk traces elements of the fraternal ritual of the Independent Order and other black societies to African antecedents (“The African Derivation of Black Fraternal Orders in the United States,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, XXV [1983], 559–592). 11 Independent Order, Degree Ritual, 19.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 591 Thrift ranked high in the fraternal value consensus. Like the other four societies, the Maccabees repeatedly extolled the many beneªts of frugality. The Ladies Review identiªed the “ways of thrift” as the “ways of pleasantness” and endorsed the “noble” campaign of the American Society for Thrift, headed by Simon W. Straus, to teach thrift through the schools: “Our Order is proud to feel that its members have exercised thrift in the securing of protection for their homes in the best Order on earth. Its members are women willing to work.”12 Individualism was another fraternal watchword. These societies, however, did not construe the concept as Epicurean self- gratiªcation or Emersonian contrariness. They viewed it as more akin to a winnowing out process for the improvement of character. Successful fraternal individualists were to be economically self-reliant as well as proªcient in the arts of cooperation and leadership. Although this ideal entailed self-discipline, the ultimate goal was not purely, or even mainly, a selªsh one. For this reason, an ofªcial of the True Reformers rejected any contradiction between opposition to “selªsh individualism, intemperance, and non- accumulativeness” and support for a program to enable “people to get homes and means upon which they may independently subsist.”13 A key tenet of fraternal (indeed nineteenth-century) individualism was the need to exercise mastery over the self. As a writer in a promotional publication of the Moose put it, the “kingship of self-control” was the “noblest royalty of a man. The self control he is taught to observe is the highest and best use of all his faculties, the mastery of his desires, passions and appetites, and the power to withstand temptation to the illegitimate use or prostitution of any part of his being, body, mind, spirit, and will.” Self-control meant the power to resist such vices as gluttony, “over-drinking, over-smoking, lack of exercise, bad air, bad con- versation, fool books.”14 But, according to this panfraternal philosophy, such qualities were useless if not tempered with civility. Lodges issued constant warnings to be vigilant against those who endangered their harmony by indulging in personal attacks. As Mary MacEachern of

12 “Editorial Comment,” Ladies Review, XXII (January 1916), 1; “Editorial Comment,” ibid., XX (September 1914), 1. 13 Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 138. 14 Moose, Historical Souvenir, 35, 51.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 592 | DAVID T. BEITO the Maccabees framed it, the “woman with a grievance is wel- come—nowhere.” Similarly, the Independent Order required initiates to forswear “slandering a member of this Order or family of a member.” The ritual of the Order of the Rose—the youth group of the Maccabees—taught the same lessons. The instruc- tions stipulated that the queen of the court (the head of the lodge) instruct young members to avoid “[e]nvy and unkindness, selªsh- ness and strife”—the “poisonous weeds that would destroy lovely blossoms. Sow not their seeds within these walls, but pluck them out wherever you ªnd them growing.” The queen implored new members to follow the credo that “[l]ove is service. Love is giving.”15 A precondition for the strength of fraternal networks of trust, and thus the advancement of social capital, was the avoidance of political conºicts. To this end, most constitutions of societies banished discussion about partisan topics or contentious issues. Ofªcials of the Maccabees typically characterized the organization as “nonsectarian” and “nonpolitical.” Societies favored nonpartisanship to achieve harmony and tolerance as well as to widen the potential applicant pool. It was standard practice for aspiring Republican and Democratic politicians to join all of the leading societies in their communities. Individuals who were bitter rivals in the political realm could often coexist under a common fraternal banner. The Moose was not unique when it signed up such prominent politicians from both parties as William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, and Champ Clark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives under Woodrow Wilson.16 All of these societies also facilitated trust by bridging class and social divisions. The ritual of the Maccabees implored initiates to emulate Judas Maccabeus, who “knew no selªsh ambitions, no class distinctions, but led his people in noble and united effort for the general good of all.” Even though the more well-to-do mem-

15 Mary MacEachern, “Editorial Comment,” Ladies Review, XXII (December 1916), no page numbers; Independent Order, Degree Ritual, 20; Woman’s Beneªt Association of the Maccabees, Ritual and Laws: The Order of the Rose (Port Huron, 1917), 25–26. 16 Fanny L. Armstrong, “Woman as a Factor in Fraternal Organizations,” Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, V (May 1, 1899), no page numbers; “Address Delivered by Honorable William Jennings Bryan,” Mooseheart Magazine, I (October 1915), 18; Moose, Historical Souvenir, 33. Two rare fraternal exceptions to the usual policy of nonpartisanship were the Workmen’s Circle, which generally endorsed candidates of the Socialist Party, and the International Workers Order, which was aligned with the Communist Party.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 593 bers usually constituted the leadership, exceptions were not hard to ªnd, such as the “modest workingman” described by the publicity for the Moose, who directed “the affairs of the lodge, while seated in the meeting [with] his employer.” Like the other societies, members of the Moose were often from the working class. Well over half the fathers of Mooseheart children had worked in unskilled and semiskilled occupations.17 By all accounts, the membership, and much of the leadership, of the True Reformers came from modest backgrounds. Much like predominantly white-male organizations, however, the order pledged to make “capital and labor friends.” In 1901, William L. Taylor, the Grand Worthy Master, commented with pride that the annual meeting had allowed business owners to mingle “with preachers, lawyers, doctors, teachers and men of the humble walks of life” on a plane of equality. Taylor advised his listeners that the “cook is just as important as the boss; the janitor’s place is just as important as the President’s.”18 Fraternal ritual writers disdained partisanship and class divi- sion, but they zealously promoted patriotism as a binding tie. An article for the Security News phrased the matter bluntly: “The Lodge System is the foe of the outlaw and the anarchist, incul- cating patriotism and love for country and that to live for one’s country is as essential as to die for it.” The ritual of the Maccabees required initiates to “[b]ehold that glorious banner, our Nation’s Flag” and featured a group rendition of “The Flag of Our Nation.” Fraternalists often contended that patriotism and good moral character were part of one package. The ofªcial historian of the True Reformers, for instance, deªned as “good citizens” those who endeavored “to obey the laws of the government, and to practice virtue, morality, industry, and economy.”19 Although the members of all ªve societies relied on nearly identical terminology, the interpretations and applications often

17 Maccabees, Ritual, 37; Moose, Historical Souvenir, 33; “Classiªcation of Mooseheart Students According to Fathers’ Occupation,” Mooseheart Weekly, VII (June 21, 1924), 5. The data on Mooseheart fathers may not completely mirror the composition of the rank and ªle. It would make sense that the poorest members would be more likely to leave orphans at Mooseheart. 18 Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 216; Fahey, Black Lodge, 9, 31; True Reformers, Grand Fountain, Minutes (1901), 40. 19 Harvey F. Songer, “The Lodge System,” Security News, XXX (July 1924), 4; Maccabees, Ritual, 41–42; Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 386.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 594 | DAVID T. BEITO diverged. As Hartz once wrote, a consensus does not necessarily entail uniformity of thought; the fraternal consensus was a case in point. Societies found creative ways to customize such ideals as thrift, self-reliance, and self-government to suit the special needs and interests of members. This behavior reached its fullest expres- sion outside of the white-male fraternal mainstream. For example, societies that catered to blacks and women—such as the Macca- bees, the True Reformers, and the Independent Order—used the fraternal consensus to overcome disfranchisement, segregation, and discrimination.20

the ladies of the maccabees The Ladies of the Maccabees originated in 1892 as the auxiliary of the Knights of the Macca- bees, a life insurance society. At its inception, it closely resembled such dependent auxiliaries as the Eastern Star of the Masons and the Rebekkahs of the Odd Fellows. Within a decade, however, the women had established a separate identity. A key ªgure in the growth of the society was Bina West, a former assistant principal and school examiner from Capac, Michigan. West became Su- preme Record Keeper in 1892 and Supreme Grand Commander in 1911, holding the latter position until her retirement in 1948. West was instrumental in building up a cadre of female lodges (or “hives”) during the 1890s. Her successful pitch included low-cost life-insurance coverage, a forum to socialize with peers, and opportunities to cultivate organizational and business skills.21 During the 1910s, the Ladies severed all remaining ofªcial ties with the Knights of the Maccabees and changed its name to the Woman’s Beneªt Association (wba). Long before this time, the organization had become the largest fraternal society controlled exclusively by women. Its membership had passed the 200,000 mark by 1920.22 Although the Maccabees, like other fraternal societies, generally required that members keep politics from entering the lodge portals, it did not prohibit participation in feminist causes. Many of its leaders played prominent roles in the movements for suffrage and temperance. Indeed, the organizational skills that they learned

20 Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York, 1955), 20. 21 Keith L. Yates, An Enduring Heritage: The First One Hundred Years of North American Beneªt Association (Formerly Woman’s Beneªt Association) (Port Huron, 1992), 15–85, 312–313. 22 Ibid., 160–161, xxiv.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 595 through the Maccabees greatly facilitated this involvement. Lillian M. Hollister, the ªrst Grand Commander, was the parliamentarian for the Michigan afªliate of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She also was active in club work, serving as the president of the National Council of Women in 1909. Several years later, Alice B. Locke, a Supreme Trustee of the Maccabees, participated in the affairs of the National American Woman Suffrage Associa- tion and the League of Women Voters.23 That these women regarded themselves as members of a fraternal, rather than sororal, society might seem odd to modern sensibilities. The members and leaders of the Maccabees would have rejected this dichotomy as fallacious. For them, fraternity, much like liberty and equality, was the common heritage of both men and women. “Fraternity in these modern days,” asserted Elizabeth E. Brown, the Great Record Keeper for Pennsylvania, “has been wrested from its original signiªcance and has come to mean a sisterhood, as well as a brotherhood, in the human family.”24 The women of the Maccabees belonged to a feminist tradition that emphasized individualism over group differences. In this respect, they followed in the footsteps of the ªrst women’s rights conference in American history at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the delegates at this conference drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, which held “these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Under this conception of feminism, women deserved rights not because of their sex but because they were individuals. In her famous address of 1892 “The Solitude of Self,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a veteran of Seneca Falls, restated this natural-rights theory. She argued that women’s suffrage fulªlled “the individuality of each human soul. . . . In discussing the rights

23 Alice E. Boyd, “Our Order,” Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, IV (January 20, 1898), 2; Yates, Enduring Heritage, 101–104, 135–136; “History of Order and Biographical Sketches of Ofªcers and Representatives of the Third Biennial Review,” Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees (Supplement) (July 1, 1899), 19–24; “The National Council of Women,” Ladies Review, XV (September 1909), 188; Locke, “Compulsory Insurance Opposed by Women’s Beneªt Societies,” National Civic Federation Review, V (July 10, 1920), 14, 16. 24 “Elizabeth E. Brown, “The Work of Women,” Ladies Review, VII (April 1, 1901), 2.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 596 | DAVID T. BEITO of women, we are to consider, ªrst, what belongs to her as an individual.”25 Sounding much like Stanton, Bower, the Great Record Keeper of the Michigan Great Hive of the Maccabees, looked forward to a day when “we shall hear no more of woman’s sphere than we shall hear of woman’s rights or any of the other outworn phrases of man’s inventive brain,” marking the end of competition between the sexes and the law’s failure to treat women as individuals. Bower showed little patience for traditionalists, and in- creasingly feminists, who trumpeted theories of female superiority. She asserted that practical experience proved that women “were not created to be either man’s inferior or his superior, but his equal.”26 Even before the Ladies broke with the Knights of the Mac- cabees, it had differed from other auxiliaries by enforcing a rule against male members. For West, an all-female policy was essential to preserve the society’s organizational independence and credi- bility. In her ªrst recruiting address in 1891, she described, with some amusement, how several men from the Knights of the Maccabees had applied for honorary membership. To these ap- plicants she replied that “L.O.T.M., which means Ladies of the Maccabees, may also be construed to mean, Leave out Those Men.” But not even for West did this stance entail complete sex segregation. She wanted to create opportunities for men and women to meet as independent equals. Hence, the Ladies regu- larly held joint social and fraternal gatherings with the Knights of the Maccabees well into the 1920s.27 The basis of the all-female policy ªt comfortably within the fraternal value consensus under the rubric of self-reliance. Writing in the Ladies Review, McGowan stated that women who partici-

25 “The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, July 19, 1848,” in Henry Steele Commager (ed.), Documents of American History (New York, 1949), I, 315; Aileen S. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920 (Garden City, 1971), 40. Angelina Grimke, one of the founders of the suffrage movement, expressed this view long before the Civil War: “I recognize no rights but human rights—I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female” (“Human Rights Not Founded on Sex,” in Wendy McElroy [ed.], Freedom, Feminism, and the State: An Overview of Individualist Feminism [Washington, D.C., 1982], 31). 26 Emma E. Bower, “Women in the World’s Work,” Western Review, XV (January 1909), 11. 27 West, “First Address, Vanderbilt, Michigan,” October 21, 1891, Woman’s Life Insurance Society Papers, Port Huron, Mich.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 597 pated with men in auxiliaries often became “timid in the presence of men of superior knowledge.” As a result, they waived “their rights and privileges and [became] reliant and dependent” and “irresponsible.” McGowan concluded that such women were more likely to be “courageous and strong in [their] own meeting hall where only sisterly faces greet [them], and conscious that [they] must assume all the responsibilities.”28 More bluntly, Olds, the Great Commander of Ohio, sug- gested that self-reliance was only worthy of the name if it came from the initiative of women themselves. She approvingly quoted President James A. Garªeld’s statement that the best prospect for a young man was to be “thrown overboard.” For Olds, it “should be equally helpful to character building to women to be thrown upon their own business resources, to be allowed and even com- pelled to rely upon their own judgment and business sagacity.”29 The all-female rule, according to its advocates, reinforced another cornerstone of fraternalism: training in self-government. Faust, a District Medical Examiner for the West, praised this policy for enabling a woman “to associate with her kind in other ways than social pastimes. It teaches her many things that man has arrogated to himself: the business conduct of a meeting, parliamentary law, many details of money expenditure.” Faust expressed boundless faith in the potential of women, given the right incen- tives and opportunities, to rise to the occasion. She predicted that “if all the work of man was wiped from the earth, women could reconstruct it and add to it.”30 Another stated justiªcation for male exclusion was that it would inculcate civility in the membership. The reasoning was that an all-female society would require women of all incomes and social backgrounds to cooperate. According to Bower, sex exclusivity created “a bond which binds together people of all classes, of all languages; the educated and the uneducated, the rich

28 Elizabeth B. McGowan, “The Scope of Woman’s Inºuence and Its Greatest Avenue for Good in Fraternal Organizations,” Ladies Review, VII (January 1, 1901), 1. 29 Emma S. Olds, “The Twentieth Century Woman as Fraternalist,” The Fraternal Monitor, XXI (October 1, 1900), 35. Elizabeth E. Brown, Grand Commander of Pennsylvania, endorsed the female-only rule on the grounds that members would be “unhampered by the dominating sentiments of men” (“What Can She Do?” Ladies Review, X [July 1, 1904], no page numbers). 30 Elsie Ada Faust, “The Advantages of Fraternalism for Women,” ibid., XXII (January 1916), 4.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 598 | DAVID T. BEITO and the poor.” Through the lodge, West added, “the sharp corners of egotism and vanity are broken off, and the rough surfaces or inexperience are smoothed and polished.” Another ofªcial of the Maccabees wrote that the give and take of the lodge meeting exposed the “quarrelsome, sarcastic, meddlesome” woman as a “weakling and her opinions are treated accordingly. Women can learn tolerance, and are learning it.”31 A deªning aim of the Maccabees was to recast fraternalism through creating an organization that was “to the working woman what the woman’s club is to her sister of the leisure class. Here she gets her ªrst lessons in parliamentary law. . . . Here the working woman comes for relaxation from the drudgery of domestic life.” In a direct sense, this language addressed the day-to- day concerns of the rank and ªle. An actuarial study indicated that 86.6 percent of the members were housewives at the time of initiation. Among those with gainful employment, the most common occupations were sewing (mostly dressmaking) at 3.4 percent, ofªce work at 1.6 percent, and professionals at 1.4 percent.32 The Maccabees tailored its message to ordinary members by repeatedly stressing the glories of the “home.” An advertisement for the society touted its goal to “Protect the Home: The Parental Hearth is the Rallying Place of the Affections,” and characterized the Ladies Review as “a home magazine for the home woman.” Other advertisements featured a husband, wife, and child gathered around a cozy ªreplace. The theme of hearth and home also pervaded the initiation ceremony. The lodge commander gave a “lecture on protection,” describing the home as “the most sacred word of the English language” and as the “woman’s kingdom. It is her natural impulse to protect it.” She delivered this speech to the accompaniment of members singing “Home, Sweet Home” in the background. The message to initiates was that only through

31 Bower, “Beneªt of Fraternalism to the Home,” Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, V (March 1, 1899), 1; West, “First Address”; MacEachern, “Editorial Comment,” Ladies Review, XXIII (October 1917), no page numbers. 32 “Bower, “Women in the World’s Work”; Fraternal Actuarial Association, Proceedings of the Fraternal Actuarial Association (1918), 66. For a list of the occupations of those members who died between 1900 and 1903, see the Maccabees, Supreme Hive, Regular Review (1904), no page numbers. Hollister asserted that “the walls that have naturally been built up between women, because of their social position, are thrown down in the lodge room” (“Greetings to the National Federation of Clubs,” Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, II [June 1896], no page numbers).

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 599 the Maccabees’ death beneªt could the ªnancial security of loved ones be best assured.33 What befell women who failed to secure such protection? According to the Maccabees, they were just as guilty as uninsured men of shirking family responsibilities; the fate of their dependents would not be pleasant. In 1913, the Ladies Review reprinted a letter from the commander of a lodge in California to illustrate what could happen. It described a woman who had let her insurance lapse, carelessly leaving her child “in destitute circumstances.” The editor pointedly cited this story as an object lesson: “We cannot know our future. We can know, however, that the holding secure of our beneªt certiªcates is the surest sign of our love and interest in those who are dependent upon us.”34 In stating the case for female life insurance, the Maccabees turned the death beneªt, as male organizations interpreted it, on its head. Fiªeld ridiculed the stereotype that the wife was some- how less able to cope than the husband after the death of a spouse, claiming that the man was “often more helpless than a mother left in the same circumstances.” For Fiªeld, it was truly “one of the saddest sights in life to see a father left with his little group of helpless children.” By contrast, a wife who belonged to the Maccabees could throw “a circle of sisterly care and protection around her children made up of all her sisters in the Order to which she belonged.”35 Fiªeld and others also argued that the provision of death beneªts for women made good actuarial sense. They pointed to an increasing number of statistical reports that women generally outlived men, thus confounding stereotypes of the “weaker ves- sel.” Hollister credited this longer life span to healthful habits, asserting that women, unlike men, did “not stay out late at night, [did] not chew, smoke, or drink.”36 The Maccabees had few rivals, at least among white societies, in the high priority that it assigned to entrepreneurship. The

33 “Protect the Home,” Ladies Review, XIV (May 1908), no page numbers; “Protect the Home,” ibid., XV (August 1909), no page numbers; the Maccabees, Ritual, 55–56. 34 “A Chat With Our Members,” Ladies Review, IXX (April 1913), 58. 35 Ella J. Fiªeld, “The Twentieth Century Woman as a Fraternalist,” Ladies Review, VII (December 1, 1901),” 1. 36 Hollister, “The Supreme Commander’s Department,” Ladies Review, XV (August 1909), 166; Terence O’Donnell, History of Life Insurance in Its Formative Years (Chicago, 1936), 649; Louis I. Dublin, After Eighty Years: The Impact of Life Insurance on the Public Health (Gainesville,

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 600 | DAVID T. BEITO organization did not own businesses or grant loans, but it endeavored to teach managerial and ªnancial skills. Fiªeld asserted that the lodge provided “business training which can be had in no other way” by showing “the ways of handling money, and ordinary business forms.”37 The fraternal value consensus, as interpreted by the Macca- bees, also embodied more intangible forms of social capital. The work of the lodge, as the Ladies Review put it, necessitated the exercise of “patience, forbearance, perseverance, and practicabil- ity.” Just as important, the Maccabees hoped to advance entrepreneurship by fostering pride and ambition among members through participation in the “greatest business Association of women in the world.” According to the author of an organizing manual, the achievements of the Maccabees gave the lie to the stereotype that women were inferior in ªnance and business. Citing statistics on membership and ªnancial growth, she concluded that “if you will compare the above ªgures with those of organizations that have men for their leaders, you will ªnd that we stand second to none, in the matter of ªnance.”38 The Maccabees combined this promotion of female entrepreneurship with a conªdent faith in the liberating possibilities of the market on the lives of women. On more than one occasion, Hollister favorably referred to the writings of Spencer, the most famous exponent of laissez-faire, in particular, his well-known dichotomy of “industrial” societies (characterized by contract and voluntary exchange) and “militant” societies (dominated by status and political coercion). Spencer held that the rise of industrial societies brought the “exceptional elevation of women.” Hollister agreed:

In the United States, where the degree of militancy had been so small, and the industrial type of social structure and action was

1966), 47–49. Security, which admitted both men and women on equal terms, also relied on this argument although to a much lesser extent. “If a woman dies, she will leave just as large a doctor’s bill, just as much funeral expense and just as gloomy a husband as a man would leave if the reverse were true (“Women Protected,” Security News, XXVIII [December 1922], 2). 37 Fiªeld, “The Twentieth Century Woman,” 1; Maccabees, Approved Decisions and Ofªcial Rulings (Port Huron, 1912), 71–72. 38 “Editorial and Personal,” Ladies Review, XV (June 1909), 1; “Editorial Comment,” ibid., XXI (April 1915), no page numbers; “Study Course: Port Huron, Hive No. 1, Mich.,” 8, Woman’s Life Insurance Society Papers, Port Huron, Mich.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 601 predominant, women have reached a higher status than anywhere else, thus proving that where there is a degree of militancy, an increase in industrialism [is] generally concomitant [with] a rise in their position.39

The hospital service was one of the most important by-prod- ucts of the social capital exempliªed by the Maccabees. The service was established in 1915 after a decade of experimentation at the local level and ªnanced by a special monthly fee of two cents per member. The national ofªce disbursed all receipts to state and local hospital committees of volunteers who, in turn, contracted with private hospitals to reserve or endow beds and rooms.40 Members who were otherwise unable to pay and in need of surgery were eligible for hospitalization. They generally obtained free service, including room, food, and nursing care. A requirement with each application was a physician’s diagnosis recom- mending surgery. By early 1919, the Maccabees had signed contracts with eighty-seven hospitals in thirty states, the District of Columbia, and British Columbia. From 1919 to 1922, 5,720 women obtained care through the hospital service—3,825 in surgical cases and 1,895 in medical ones. The Maccabees also stressed the fraternal side by arranging for at least one member to visit each patient every day.41 The plan’s success depended on fraternal bonds of trust, in particular, the willingness of surgeons (many of them women) to donate their services to indigent patients. The Maccabees recruited many of its surgeons from the ranks of the medical examiners who examined new members for life-insurance purposes. Medical ex-

39 Hollister, “The Czar’s Peace Conference,” Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, V (May 1, 1899); Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Sociology (New York, 1899), I, 743. Why would so dedicated a feminist as Hollister make such a positive reference to Spencer, a strong opponent of women’s suffrage? Hollister may have been aware, as were many other feminists, that Spencer had not always been opposed. In 1850, only two years after the Declaration of Sentiment, Spencer had called for extending full political equality to women (Social Statics: The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Speciªed, and the First of Them Developed [New York, 1954; orig. pub. 1850], 138–153). 40 “Report of Supreme Commander,” Maccabees, Supreme Hive, Regular Review, (1915), 62–67; “Report of Supreme Commander,” Woman’s Beneªt Association of the Maccabees, Supreme Review, Regular Session (1919), 33–35. 41 “Hospital Service Directory,” Ladies Review, XXV (January 1919), 11; “Report of Supreme Medical Examiner,” Woman’s Beneªt Association of the Maccabees, Supreme Review, Regular Session (1923), 55–57; “Our Hospital Service,” Ladies Review, XXIII (March 1917), 37.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 602 | DAVID T. BEITO aminers for the Maccabees had more reason than most physicians to feel a sense of trust toward the organization and thus donate services. These positions opened doors for female physicians who otherwise suffered from discrimination. In 1909, a writer for the Ladies Review pointed to “certain compensations for the medical examiner aside from the money consideration,” for instance, the opportunity for younger doctors to study methods of diagnosis and to gain an “extension of acquaintance in the community.”42

the united order of true reformers Whereas the Macca- bees deployed the social capital embodied in the fraternal consensus for the advancement of women in business and politics, the True Reformers used it to nurture entrepreneurship among blacks. The True Reformers began in 1872 in Kentucky as the semi- ofªcial black afªliate of the all-white Independent Order of Good Templars. It languished for the rest of decade, and most of the original state afªliates, or fountains, became defunct. The agenda of temperance and prohibition simply did not have enough drawing power. A sustained revival began in the 1880s under the leadership of William Washington Browne, a former slave from Georgia and veteran of the Union Army. Browne succeeded because he shifted the focus to more practical concerns. Under his leadership, the True Reformers became the ªrst black society to promise life insurance over and above the costs of a burial. Browne’s timing was excellent. During the previous decade, white fraternal orders, such as the Ancient Order of United Workmen, had shown the potential for cooperative life insurance among the working class. In addition, white commercial insurance companies had created opportunities for black competitors through neglect and disrespect toward black policyholders.43 As an insurance organization, the True Reformers was a trend setter. During the 1880s, it became the ªrst black society, or company, to vary premiums with age and disburse beneªts through a national ofªce rather than lodges. It gave new members the option of purchasing policies of up to $500 (later $1,000).

42 “The Object of Our Hospital Service,” ibid., XXIV (November/December 1918), 124; Elizabeth M. Hooper, “Beneªts of the Hospital Service,” ibid., XXIV (September 1918), 102; “Our Watchful Guardians,” ibid., XII (May 1906), 105; “The Medical Department,” ibid., XV (November 1909), 242. 43 Fahey, Black Lodge, 19; M.W. Sackett, Early History of Fraternal Beneªciary Societies in America (Meadville, Penn., 1914), 130–159; John S. Butler, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconstruction of Race and Economics (Albany, 1991), 110–111.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 603 Before this time, most fraternal societies, both black and white, offered only small burial beneªts through local lodges and charged equal rates for old and young. Another innovation, which helped to disseminate actuarial principles (albeit still on a crude level) among blacks, was a requirement that each initiate ªll out a medical questionnaire.44 The membership of the True Reformers surged to more than 50,000 by the ªrst decade of the twentieth century, and lodges had spread to over twenty states. Although this growth was impressive, the society never became as large as the black offshoots of the Masons, the Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias. Even so, people began to take notice. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics published a detailed and highly favorable report. In addition, both Booker T. Washington and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, despite their other differences, praised the True Reformers as an exemplar of black self-help and creativity.45 The True Reformers was one of the ªrst societies (black or white) to operate businesses on the side. Browne’s aim was not just to “take care of the sick and bury the dead” but to create an organization “united in ªnance” as well as “united in brotherhood.” The linchpin of these business enterprises was the True Reformers’ Savings Bank of Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 1889, it had $500,000 in deposits by 1907. During the next two decades, the society established a 150-room hotel, a newspaper called the Reformer, several retail stores, and an old-age home. It also purchased lots for an all-black community to be called Brownesville.46 The True Reformers’ celebration of thrift was well within the fraternal mainstream. Following the slogan, “Save the cents, and the dollars will take care of themselves,” Browne predicted that great things would result from the frugality and resourceful- ness of ordinary blacks. He boasted that the man who had toiled in the cotton ªeld “can beat the plan laid by people that have been free all their lives” because “he is the best ªnancier who can make money go the farthest.”47

44 Fahey, Black Lodge, 19. 45 Ibid., 4, 19–21, 31, 40. 46 Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 15; Elsa Barkley Brown, “Uncle Ned’s Children: Negotiating Community and Freedom in Postemancipation Richmond, Virginia,” unpub. Ph.D. diss. (Kent State Univ., 1994), 141–142; Fahey, Black Lodge, 33. 47 Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 75, 87.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 604 | DAVID T. BEITO To instill these habits at an early age, the True Reformers established a children’s department in 1887, the Rosebud Nursery. By 1906, it had about 15,000 members. These children paid monthly dues and were eligible for sickness and burial insurance. The True Reformers was an innovator in this respect. Not until the late 1910s did juvenile departments became common among fraternal societies, either black or white. The goal of the Rosebud Nursery was to “discipline the young [and] to train them in the practice of thrift and economy.” The name reºected Browne’s belief that the “children were to be the buds of the Order as well as of the race” and “a blessing to their communities if they [were] carefully nurtured and directed.” In 1907, Mrs. M. A. Lane, the President of the Rosebud Nursery, underscored the broad educa- tional goals of the department. The intention was “not only to make and save a dollar, but to form a character; the fundamental principle to permanent success in this life and the life to come.”48 Browne’s self-help ideals were similar to Booker T. Wash- ington’s, but he gave them a more radical edge. Browne declared a war of independence against white ªnancial control. Citing his unhappy experiences with insurance regulators, he cautioned that “white men try to break up every plan the Negro has. In order to split the log you must ªnd the seam. White men ªnd the seam of our union, and unless we are strongly united, they will split us up.”49 Along the same lines, Mattie Bowen, a lecturer for the Rosebud Nursery, depicted the True Reformers as an economic self-defense league in an era of Jim Crow. Although she did not “believe in brawls,” she recommended that “when the Race is assailed, stand up or step back.” During the ªrst decade of the twentieth century, many members fought back with political action when the city of Richmond introduced segregated street- cars. They not only helped to organize boycotts but also offered meeting facilities for protesters.50

48 Fahey, Black Lodge, 19, 52, 150, 256–257; True Reformers, Grand Fountain, From Slavery to Bankers (Richmond, 1907), 9; idem, Minutes (1907), 12. 49 Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 90. 50 Ibid., 170; Fahey, Black Lodge, 30. A speaker at a True Reformer meeting predicted that the “Brown before the rebellion and the Browne after the rebellion shall cause the white man to grasp the black’s man hand, regarding him truly as his equal.” See Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 206.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 605 But the True Reformers’ primary focus was always economic rather than political. Browne complained that blacks were “throw- ing away money enough to buy this country” on personal frills and patronage of white businesses. He had great faith that the True Reformers could marshal these resources for self-help. While members of the current generation might be condemned to poverty, he often said, there was still a chance to leave a viable legacy for the next.51 In addition to collective improvement, the True Reformers stressed individual entrepreneurship. Browne touted the True Reformers’ Savings Bank as a depository for black businesses and a source for loans. Through the Rosebud Nursery, the young generation would, as Bowen put it, learn to follow the adage, “Roll up your sleeves, go to work and make business for your- selves.” The leaders of the True Reformers, like those of the Maccabees, stressed a commitment to group business pride. They wanted to stimulate individual successes by holding up an ideal model of “Afro-American skill, energy and push.” Browne sup- ported wide dissemination of the Reformer to publicize the achievements of blacks as well as to present general news about the black population. His dream was to make it the black analogue of the highly successful Irish World of New York City.52 Long before the founding of Security, the True Reformers admitted women as ofªcially equal members. Browne’s defense of this policy, however, kept well within prevailing stereotypes: “Ladies ought to be in societies where men are, as they act as moderators, and help the presiding ofªcer keep order.” Despite his careful words, women in the True Reformers were far more than “moderators”; they were always critical to the success of the organization. Although men retained most of the power, women often held leadership positions at the local and state levels. The adult leadership of the Rosebud Nursery, in particular, represented a stronghold of female inºuence.53

51 Ibid., 80, 117. 52 Ibid., 135, 171; Fahey, Black Lodge, 27. 53 Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 119. Bowen quotes Browne as stating, When it comes to building churches, then the women are ahead; societies, then the women are ahead; when it comes to shooting crap, then the boys are ahead; bar-rooms, the boys are ahead. . . . I am getting jealous; we want the men, and I am not going to stop until we get them. We want the boys from gambling dens; help us, girls. (Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 173–174)

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 606 | DAVID T. BEITO Although the society’s bank and other businesses failed during the 1910s, the social capital created by the True Reformers left a lasting imprint on black economic and social life throughout the twentieth century. Because of its activities, many future black entrepreneurs were introduced to ªnance, management, and actuarial principles. With only slight exaggeration, Walter B. Weare observed that “virtually every insurance association founded in the Upper South during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be traced to ex-True Reformer agents who organized their own societies.” The most famous example was John Merrick, the founder and president of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. The company continues to thrive under his successors. In 1998, it had assets of over $200 million making it the largest black-owned insurance company. Other former True Reformers who founded commercial companies were Samuel Rutherford Wilson of the National Beneªt Life Insurance Com- pany, W. F. Graham of the American Beneªcial Insurance Com- pany, and Booker Lawrence Jordan of the Southern Aid Society. Experience in the True Reformers also gave business training to Herbert Chauncey, who organized Cleveland’s ªrst black-owned bank in 1921.54

the independent order of saint luke For many years, the Independent Order labored in the shadow of its more prestigious neighbor in Richmond, the True Reformers. The Independent Order traced its origins to a factional dispute in the United Order of Saint Luke. The United Order, based in Baltimore, had been founded in 1867 by Mary Prout, an educator and reformer who had been free since birth. Like many black fraternal orders, the United Order emerged out of a church—in this case the Bethel African Methodist Church in Baltimore. Prout initially restricted membership to women but soon opened the doors to men. In 1869, however, dissident members in Richmond split off to form the wholly separate Independent Order, with William M. T. Forrester as Grand Secretary. Although its headquarters was in Richmond, it had lodges in several states.55

54 Alexa Benson Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company: Guardian of Black Economic Dignity (Tuscaloosa, 1990), 9; Butler, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help, 184, 188; Fahey, Black Lodge, 22; B.E. Research, “B.E. Banks,” Black Enterprise, XXVIII (June 1998), 181. 55 Independent Order, Fiftieth Anniversary—Golden Jubilee, Historical Report (Richmond, 1917), 5–6; Margaret Reid, “Mary Ann Prout,” in Darlene Clark Hine (ed.), Black Women

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 607 In 1899, Maggie L. Walker, who had once been a paid employee of the True Reformers, replaced Forrester who had resigned, claiming that the Independent Order was on its last legs. During Walker’s tenure, which lasted until her death in 1934, both membership and assets grew rapidly. Consciously emulating the True Reformers’ strategy, she set up side businesses, the most durable being the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank, founded in 1903. She was probably the ªrst woman in American history who was a bank president in her own right and not chosen because of family connections. The Independent Order also established a printing plant, a newspaper called the Saint Luke Herald, and, for a brief time, a department store, the Saint Luke Emporium.56 Walker often referred to the True Reformers as the role model for the Independent Order. Referring to Browne in 1909, she proclaimed that the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank “drew its inspiration and ambition from one which he created. I wish to acknowledge his greatness as a ªnancier, the ªrst of our day and time: secondly, as an executor, ofªcer of a business concern, having for its direct object the further perfection and training [of ] Negroes in ªnancering and mercantile development.”57 Like Security and the True Reformers, the Independent Order incorporated women in the fraternal consensus by allowing them equal membership rights. In contrast to these organizations, however, it was more likely to entrust them with a leadership voice. Walker recalled that her “ªrst work was to draw around me women.” In elections for the executive board in 1901, women won six out of the nine slots. Although Walker always made sure that men participated in the leadership, she kept female concerns at the center. In 1913, for example, she praised God “that this is a woman’s organization, broad enough, liberal enough, and

in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Brooklyn, 1993), 948–949. For more on the relationship between mutual aid and black churches, see Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company, 7–17. 56 Elizabeth B. Brown, “Uncle Ned’s Children,” 207, 500–503; idem, “Womanist Con- sciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke,” Signs, XIV (Spring 1989), 615–616, 624–630. See also Gertrude W. Marlowe, “Maggie Lena Walker,” in Hine (ed.), Black Women in America, 1216; Fahey, Black Lodge, 22; Wendell P. Dabney, Maggie L. Walker and the I.O. of Saint Luke: The Woman and Her Work (Cincinnati 1927), 38.

57 Elizabeth B. Brown, “Uncle Ned’s Children,” 145.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 608 | DAVID T. BEITO unselªsh enough to accord equal rights and equal opportunity to men.”58 Walker probably never heard of Bina West but it is not hard to ªnd parallels in their visions of social capital. Both used fraternalism to advance agendas of feminism and business ownership. Both also participated in the national and local women’s club movement. Walker was the vice president of the National Asso- ciation of Colored Women and was a founder and vice president of Richmond’s Council of Colored Women. Like West, she wanted to broaden women’s sphere beyond the “the mere drudgery of domestic life, the house, the cook, the house-servant.” The two women conceived of fraternalism as a means to teach business skills and the practical beneªts of thrift. “Sisters,” Walker implored, “let us combine our pennies, our nickels, our dimes and our dollars. Let us provide employment for our girls.” She hoped that the job opportunities provided by the Order would protect women from the “snares and traps of sin and satan.”59 Like West and Browne, Walker sang the praises of thrift, calling on blacks to emulate “the wealthiest men” of Richmond who accumulated vast bank accounts with “simply a dollar or two to which they constantly added.” With a ºair reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin, she urged members “to save some part of every dollar you have and the practice will become a habit—a habit which you will never regret, and of which you will never grow shame.”60 Walker, Browne, and West also shared a similar zeal to foster thrift among the young. The juvenile auxiliary of the Independent Order was the main vehicle to achieve this goal. The department, which had been established in 1895 to provide insurance for children, grew to more than 15,000 members by the 1920s. Like the Order of the Rose of the Maccabees or the Rosebud Nursery of the True Reformers, it had a ritual, uniforms, and social activities. The Independent Order also used its bank to promote

58 Idem, “Womanist Consciousness,” 617, 630. 59 Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 12–13; Marlowe, “Maggie Lena Walker,” 1218–1219; Eliza- beth B. Brown, “Womanist Consciousness,” 618–619; Walker, “Traps for Women,” Ad- dresses, n.d. In 1921, Walker ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent of education in Virginia on the “Lily–Black” Republican ticket (Elizabeth B. Brown, “Womanist Conscious- ness,” 618). 60 Walker, “Nothing But Leaves,” Addresses, 1909 (Maggie L. Walker Papers, Maggie L. Walker National Historical Site, Richmond, Virginia [henceforth mlwp]).

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 609 youthful thrift by encouraging children to open accounts of a dollar or more. By 1909, children represented over one-third of the bank’s nearly 3,000 depositors. Like its counterpart in the True Reformers, this program was part of a broader effort to nurture social capital in the next generation. Walker viewed the opening of savings accounts as one tactic in a strategy to inculcate such valuable survival habits as responsibility, hard work, and deferred gratiªcation: “They sell papers, cut grass, do chores, run errands, and work in stores on Sundays. We teach them to save with the deªnite purpose of the wise use of money. We try to give them a sense of moral responsibility.”61 Walker regarded the advancement of black women as a precondition for collective political and economic uplift, though she warned that women would never reach their potential so long as a husband could “lord it over, or dominate the wife.” For Walker, business partnerships and marriages needed the same elements to be successful. Pointing out that business partners “consult, agree and act,” she asked, Why “then should not the partners in the home and the children, do the things which have made all other partnerships a success?” Walker used this analogy for other reasons. She considered equal marriages to be the pre- requisite for raising children, as well as for building entrepreneurship. As Walker put it, “what stronger combination could God make—than the partnership of a businessman and a business- woman.”62 Although the leaders of the Independent Order and the Maccabees wanted to enhance economic opportunities for women, they diverged over strategy. The Maccabees’ message was that the lodge’s main function was to teach the leadership skills that individuals could apply in the business, professional, and political worlds. In Walker’s view, this goal was not ambitious enough: If black women were to make genuine economic progress, they had to be united by an organization that controlled its own businesses. She had some success using such enterprises not only to provide jobs but also to advance start-up loans. Elsa Barkley Brown has estimated that the Independent Order em-

61 Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 13; Elizabeth B. Brown, “Uncle Ned’s Children,” 544–547. 62 Walker, “Nothing But Leaves,” 16; idem, “Stumbling Blocks,” Addresses, February 17, 1907, mlwp; Elizabeth B. Brown, “Womanist Consciousness,” 623.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 610 | DAVID T. BEITO ployed more than one-third of the black clerical workers in Richmond during the 1920s.63 It was understandable that sentimental rhetoric about the home—so much a staple for the Maccabees—rarely appeared in Walker’s speeches. Such talk was less resonant with the economic and social realities of the Independent Order’s members. Many had no other choice but to continue working outside the home after marriage, usually in such unskilled occupations as domestic service. Brown’s survey of the ªnancial records of the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank reveals that many of “its earliest and strongest supporters were washerwomen.” Right or wrong, Walker concluded that the “old doctrine that a man marries a woman to support her is pretty nearly thread-bare to-day.” The members of the Maccabees, by contrast, were primarily housewives. Those few members employed outside the home held predominantly skilled, clerical, and professional positions.64 A more obvious difference between the Maccabees and the Independent Order was that one could ignore the issue of race, but the other could not. Walker marshalled the resources of the Independent Order, including the editorial pages of the Saint Luke Herald, against discriminatory legislation and lynching. From 1923 until her death, she served on the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and formed common cause with the True Reformers in protests against Richmond’s Jim Crow streetcar law of 1904. Partly because of her efforts, by the 1930s, about 80 percent of eligible black voters in the city were women.65 Walker argued that blacks could never achieve dignity and ªrst-class citizenship without ªrst laying an economic foundation. She stressed how black-owned stores, such as the Saint Luke Emporium, would make it possible for black female customers to shop without fear of enduring disrespectful treatment from white merchants. She urged blacks to create a clientele for such stores by kicking their habit of spending paychecks in white stores and

63 Ibid., 624. In Walker’s words, “When I sit and listen to colored men tell colored women to stay at home, mind the children and wait on their husbands,” Walker declared, “I grow sad. How many of us colored women are wives—how many have husbands who can take care of us?” (“Traps for Women,” 17). 64 Elizabeth B. Brown, “Womanist Consciousness,” 620, 622. 65 Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 12; Marlowe, “Maggie Lena Walker,” 1218–1219; Eliza- beth B. Brown, “Womanist Consciousness,” 618–619.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL, 1890–1920 | 611 white banks, which was all the more foolish when segregationist legislation already encouraged the throttling of “Negro business enterprises, the refusal of employment to Negroes; the attempt to drive out Negro barbers.” On one occasion, to illustrate the critical need for black-owned businesses, Walker cited the recent trend of white stores only hiring white female clerks, declaiming that the spending habits of black consumers “keep her there, while your own women, ºesh of your ºesh, blood of your blood are left to shift for themselves.”66 The Independent Order also fostered social capital by extending credit to members and employees of the society at favorable terms for homeownership and seed money for businesses. Em- ployees could secure loans, for example, as long as they earned at least $50 per month, and they had saved enough money for the ªrst installment. When promoting the loan program of the bank, Walker repeatedly cited individual success stories as inspiration. One involved “a one-legged little bootblack” who, by borrowing money from the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank, had established a successful business and purchased a home. By 1930, the bank had ªnanced the construction of an estimated 645 black-owned homes.67 After 1926, the Independent Order expanded its credit program to include student loans of between $50 and $500 per borrower. This policy represented a departure from earlier fraternal societies, which had generally aided education through direct grants. One of the reasons why the Independent Order favored loans over grants was that it could create a self-sustaining fund and thus give more help per dollar. According to Brown, these loans “put the possibility of higher education within the reach of many more young people in the community and it required that they put something into the effort themselves by stipulating that

66 Walker, “Beniah’s Valour,” Addresses, March 1906, 8, 15, mlwp. Walker framed the issue in personal terms: Well, when next you send your banking committee down to the white man’s bank, to take your club money, your society money, your church money and your Sunday School money, don’t forget, that with your own hands, you are placing a stumbling- block in the pathway of that boy and that girl you are sending to school, which will, probably, take them all their lives to overcome. (Walker, “Stumbling Blocks,” 38) 67 Elizabeth B. Brown, “Uncle Ned’s Children,” 526–528.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002219599551822 by guest on 25 September 2021 612 | DAVID T. BEITO they pay back into the fund in order to help provide the same opportunity for others after them.”68 After Walker’s death, the Independent Order suffered a period of slow and continual decline, but the social capital that it generated, much like that of the True Reformers, had broader social ramiªcations. The most tangible legacy was the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank. Although this institution severed legal ties with the fraternal order in 1911 because of state laws, it continued to prosper as the renamed Consolidated Bank and Trust Company of Richmond, Virginia. According to Black Enterprise, in 1998, it ranked as the thirteenth largest black-owned bank, with assets exceeding $100 million.69

The ideals and strategies advanced by the Loyal Order of the Moose, the Security Beneªt Association, the Ladies of the Mac- cabees, the United Order of True Reformers, and the Inde- pendent Order of Saint Luke exemplify both the many variants of fraternalism and the elasticity of the fraternal value consensus. The social capital generated by all ªve organizations extended beyond the narrow conªnes of the memberships and entailed economic, social, and political consequences for American society as a whole. The True Reformers and the Independent Order put forward programs of ethnic self-help, while the Maccabees encouraged female political and economic emancipation. The pri- orities of Security and the Moose were to impart life skills and establish social-welfare institutions. There was considerable diversity in the economic proªles of the memberships served by these organizations. These differences, however, should not obscure the commonalities. All of these societies helped to advance social capital by drawing from the same fraternal pantheon of self-help, individualism, self-government, civility, and reciprocity.

68 Ibid., 543–544; Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 54, 128–129. 69 Ibid., 121–122; B.E. Research, “B.E. Insurance Companies,” Black Enterprise, XXVIII (June 1998), 189.

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