In none of these unions has the subject been more fully debated than in the Typographical Union. In October, 1895, the New York local union adopted an out-of-work benefit, which provided for its unemployed members an allowance of four dollars per week for a period of eight weeks in each year.[170] Such activity on the part of the largest local union added considerable force to the movement for an International benefit. President Prescott in his report to the forty-second session of the International Union in 1894 recommended the establishment of an out-of-work benefit, in preference to a sick benefit. He showed that during 1894 several of the largest local unions had found it necessary to levy special assessments for the support of unemployed members. The amount of unemployment, especially in large cities, had increased rapidly. A large per cent. of the unemployed consisted of old men who were unable to compete with younger men in the operation of the linotype. The neglect of this class of men President Prescott characterized as criminal.[171] All agitation for the establishment of an out-of-work benefit has, however, up to the present time failed.[172] [Footnote 170: Typographical Journal, Vol. 7, No. 5, p. 3.] [Footnote 171: Proceedings of the Forty-second Annual Session, 1894, p. 3.] [Footnote 172: Proceedings of the Forty-third Annual Session, 1896, pp. 76, 86.] In 1894 at the eighth general session and again at the ninth in 1896 the Carpenters and Joiners considered seriously the question.[173] The Boot and Shoe Workers at their fifth convention in 1902, although refusing to adopt a proposed plan for a national system, recommended as a partial substitute that all local unions raise funds for the payment of dues of out-of-work members and provide such other relief as they should deem wise, "to the end that from the experience so gained a national plan for relief of unemployed members may be developed."[174] [Footnote 173: The Carpenter, Vol. 14, September, 1894; Vol. 16, September, 1896.] [Footnote 174: Proceedings of the Fifth Convention, 1902, p. 28.] In the unions maintaining out-of-work benefits it is customary to provide as a precautionary measure that members must have been in good standing for a lengthy period before being entitled to the benefit. The Cigar Makers and the Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia provide that only members of the union in good standing for two years shall be entitled to the benefit.[175] [Footnote 175: Constitution of the Cigar Makers' International Union of America, 1896, thirteenth edition (Chicago, n.d.), sec. 117; Constitution of the Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, 1901.]