Shortly after the close of the Civil War the rapid growth of mutual insurance companies attracted the attention of many trade unionists. The formation of insurance associations under the auspices of the national unions with a membership limited to the members of the unions was discussed in the most important organizations of the day. In many of them voluntary associations of one kind and another were inaugurated. The Granite Cutters, the Iron Molders and the Printers all experimented after this fashion. Only in the railway brotherhoods did these insurance systems develop into a permanent feature. The development of beneficiary functions by the leading national unions began about 1880. The benefits administered by these organizations do not interfere with the nationalization of membership. A new theory as to the relation between the beneficiary and the trade functions began about 1880 to gain wide acceptance. It was argued and with much force that the benefits were a direct aid in the accomplishment of trade purposes. While some leaders of the older school have seen in the rapid development of beneficiary functions a danger to the unions, the greater number who have come into positions of authority since 1880 have steadily advocated the establishment of benefits. The table on p. 12 gives the year in which the principal national unions were organized, together with the date and order of introduction of their national benefit systems. This change in the attitude of American trade unions toward beneficiary activities is illustrated by the fact that while in the older American trade unions, such as the Typographical Union, the Cigar Makers' Union and the Iron Molders' Union, many years elapsed between the founding of national organizations and the institution of national benefit systems, of the national unions organized since about 1880, some, as for example, the Granite Cutters' Union, the Brotherhood of Painters, the Metal Polishers' Union, and the Wood Workers' Union, incorporated provisions for the payment of benefits in their first constitutions, and many others adopted benefit systems within a few years after organization.