Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 254

Attempts have been recently made--more especially by the officers of the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows--to improve the financial condition of their society. Perhaps the best proof of the desire that exists on the part of the leading minds in the Unity to bring the organization into a state of financial soundness, is to be found in the fact that the Board of Management have authorized the publication of the best of all data for future guidance,--namely, the actual sickness experience of the Order. An elaborate series of tables has accordingly been prepared and published for their information by Mr. Ratcliffe, the corresponding secretary, at an expense of about £3,500. In the preface to the last edition it is stated that "this sum has not been abstracted from the funds set apart for relief during sickness, for assurances at death, or for providing for necessitous widows and orphans, but from the management funds of the lodges--funds which, being generally raised by direct levy on the members, are not therefore readily expended without careful consideration on the part of those most interested in the character and welfare of their cherished institution."

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 254 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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