From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State

From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967  by David T. Beito, The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 

Beito describes the era in American history before the establishment of the welfare state, an age where voluntary, private mutual aid benevolent associations helped people who were down on their luck. These were mutual self-help societies where the members helped each other, not charities where the members helped non-members. These societies were based on the ethical principle of reciprocity. The members of a particular organization came from similar walks of life. Each organization was homogenous with respect to sex, race, ethnicity and religion. Members paid monthly dues. Behavioral restrictions were placed on the members: no drunkenness, no profanity, no adultery, no venereal disease, no criminality, no lying, no narcotics, no divorce. This system worked very well, Unfortunately, in the early twentieth century, the Progressive movement replaced it by government bureaucracies.