It is a matter of common knowledge that unscrupulous undertakers often
obtain possession of the insurance policy and make the charge for the
funeral equal to the whole amount. This may, in part, explain the
criticism that the funerals in foreign-born families are often
unnecessarily expensive. An Italian woman interviewed, the president
of one benefit society and a member of four others, speaks of going to
buy a casket at the time of the death of a friend during the influenza
epidemic. The cheap, wooden casket cost $150. The next day, when she
went with another friend to the same undertaker, the casket which had
been $150 cost $175. She could not understand how such prices could be
allowed, and exclaimed, "The government regulates prices of flour and
sugar, and why not such things as the cost of coffins in times like
these!"
There may also be expenses connected with the service itself. In some
churches the tolling of the bells must be paid for by the mourners,
and sometimes it is the poorest who will insist that the bells be
tolled the longest. In a church in South Chicago it is said that the
parishioners paid for the chimes with the definite understanding that
the bell-tolling at funerals should no longer be a special charge. The
need of provision against sickness and death is keenly felt in every
immigrant community. One of the older women, who had been frequently
called into the homes in cases of sickness and death, said that in
sickness there was never money for the doctor, or night clothes, or
bedding, and in case of death never enough of anything.