Benefit societies based either on neighborhood associations here or on village association in Europe, soon grow up. These are usually self-assessment societies, in which each member pays a small sum each month, often only 25 cents. Out of the funds thus raised, a sick benefit of from $3 to $5 a week is paid. On the death of a member an assessment of from 50 cents to $1 is laid on the surviving members, and the resulting sum is paid to the bereaved family, helping to meet the funeral expenses. Such societies are not incorporated, their officers are usually without business training, and they are often unstable. They include, however, a considerable proportion of the more recent immigrants, who, through fear of falling into distress and dread of charity, are influenced to keep up the membership. In addition to the money benefit, these neighborhood societies often mean friendly interest and help in nursing, in the care of the children, and in household work. As the fees are low and as provision for the sick benefit seems very important, a person often belongs to several such societies. Owing to the instability of these organizations the effort is often made to combine them and to establish them on a sound financial basis as national fraternal insurance societies. These societies substitute fraternal insurance for the sick and death benefit. As the immigrant family gains a foothold in the new community the members are likely to join a national fraternal insurance society or, in the second generation, an organization of the type of the Catholic Order of Foresters, Knights and Ladies of Security, Tribe of Ben Hur, or Woodmen of the World. The national fraternal insurance society is, among the Slavs, highly organized. Often in one national group as many as three flourishing societies will be found, with membership determined by religious or political preferences. As they exist now, these societies are all much alike, differing in the elaborateness of their organization in accordance with the period covered by the immigration of the group or with the strength of its cohesion in America. Leaders who wish to communicate directly with the great body of their co-nationals in America, do so through the channels provided by these organizations. As the group develops a feeling of confidence, the insurance function becomes less urgent. In fact, officers of the national societies predict that the societies will gradually abandon the field of insurance and develop along other lines. Many societies already admit a considerable number of uninsured persons, who join in order to share in other enterprises. It would be neither possible nor profitable to describe all the groups, but the organization of a Croatian society and the relation of women to certain societies in the Polish and Lithuanian groups will be briefly discussed. NATIONAL CROATIAN ORGANIZATIONS