MAJORITY REPORT. 
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evidence of Mr. Alban Gordon to the effect that ‘‘ the present 
Approved Society system is not suitable for administering any 
other form of insurance benefit, nor does it seem capable of being 
co-ordinated with any other system of administration.’’ (App. 
XII, 19) 
216. We cannot say that criticisms of this kind commend 
themselves to our judgment. We have not been asked to con- 
sider the unification of social insurance, and while we cannot 
regard it as a practicable or desirable development merely because 
"50 many people now desire *’ it, we equally cannot assume, in 
the absence of evidence directed to the point, that if it were 
introduced, no place in its administration could be found for the 
Approved Societies. If there are grounds for concluding that 
the Approved Society system is well adapted to administer the 
benefits of National Health Insurance, it does not appear to us 
that the Societies should be dispossessed from this work because 
some other forms of organisation are better fitted to administer 
other branches of social activity. The assumption implied in 
these criticisms that one form of organisation could equally well 
administer these diverse schemes of social welfare, appears to us 
to take for granted much that should be investigated before an 
opinion is formed. 
217. In this rapid survey of the main lines of criticism directed 
against the Approved Society system, room should perhaps be 
found for a passing reference to one suggested element of weakness 
arising from the conditions under which the Insurance Scheme 
came into being. We have already referred to the three main 
types of Approved Societies—the Friendly Societies, the Trade 
Unions, and the Societies formed by Industrial Assurance Com- 
panies. In essence, the criticism based on the diversity of 
bodies engaged in the work of Health Insurance is that each of 
these types of organisation approached the matter with a previous 
history, in which its affections had already been bestowed else- 
where. Health Insurance was added to other work already 
undertaken ; *“ Approved Society work was a supplementary and 
subsidiary activity ** (Cohen, App. LXXVI, 27). It is suggested 
that the growing absorption in the work of National Health Insur- 
ance has in no way effected a change of heart or undermined the 
earlier and deeper loyalty. ** Industrial Insurance Societies are 
much more concerned with canvassing for .burial insurance. 
- + . To the good Trade Union official what matters are 
questions of wages, hours, workers’ control and political repre- 
sentation > (Cohen, App. LXXVI, 27). In quoting Mr. Cohen’s 
examples we do not necessarily adopt them. 
THE INEQUALITIES OF BENEFIT. 
218. The main criticism of the present system is, however, 
directed against the inequalities which it has produced in the