The strongest societies among the Croatians are the National Croatian Society of 50,000 members, and the Croatian League of Illinois of 39,000 members, sometimes called the "New Society," which in spite of its name is really a national organization. The purpose of the National Croatian Society is set forth in its constitution: ... to help people of the Croatian race residing in America, in cases of distress, sickness, and death, to educate and instruct them in the English language and in other studies to fit them for the duties of life and citizenship with our English-speaking people, to teach them and impress upon them the importance and duty of being naturalized under the laws of the United States, and of educating their children in the public schools of the country; these purposes to be carried out through the organization and establishment of a supreme assembly and subordinate assemblies of the Croatian people with schools and teachers. Those eligible to become members are: Croatians or other Slavs who speak and understand the Croatian language, of all creeds excepting Jews. All between the ages of sixteen and fifty may be admitted, provided they are neither ill nor epileptic nor disabled, are not living in concubinage, and have not been expelled from the national society. The structure of the society is quite elaborate, and the conditions of admission and of membership, the organization and conduct of the lodges, the relations among the lodges and between a lodge and the national society, are all carefully specified in the constitution and by-laws. Lodges are often organized on a sex basis, and in a community in which there is a lodge for men and a lodge for women, no one of one sex can be admitted to the lodge organized for the other. There is no special notice taken of women's interests in the structure of the national society, but there are local women's lodges, and women constitute about one tenth of the total membership. The functions of these local lodges, aside from their official relation to the national organization, as specified by the by-laws, are: ... to assist those members who do not know how to read and write (either an officer or member shall, at least once a week, teach such members reading and writing); to establish libraries for members and gradually supply the same with the best and most necessary books; to hold entertainments with a view to building up the lodge treasury and to provide for brotherly talk and enjoyment. The officers and members of some of the local lodges in Chicago have endeavored to develop and extend the social and recreational features of the lodges to meet what they believe to be one of the greatest needs of their people, but the efforts have so far met with little success.