href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@12580@[email protected]#Footnote_40_40" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">^[40] The by-laws of the insurance association founded by the Brotherhood on December 3, 1867, provided for assessments of 50 cents per member for the benefit of each totally disabled member—one half the amount assessed in case of death.^[41] The history of this benefit was tersely summed up by General Secretary-Treasurer Abbott in his address to the Engineers' Association, December 3, 1871: "The Baltimore convention, 1869, adopted a disability clause, the Nashville, Tenn., convention amended it, and the Toronto, Canada, convention, 1871, repealed it." At St. Louis, 1872, the Brotherhood formed a separate association, known as the "Total Disability Insurance Association," for furnishing insurance against disability to members. An entrance fee of $2 was required and the assessment was fixed at $1.^[42] In 1876 the convention dissolved the Total Disability Insurance Association, and the Engineers did not succeed in establishing a satisfactory system of disability insurance until 1884, when the prosperous condition of the association enabled the convention to carry out its long-cherished plan and to make provision for the payment of the same benefit in case of total disability as at death.^[43] In the call of the Conductors for a convention to effect a permanent organization issued in November, 1868, the purpose of the proposed Order was stated to be the protection of "the members and their families in case of sickness, accident or death."^[44] The mutual insurance association instituted by the first convention paid a disability benefit equal to the death benefit. The law under which the association operated was repealed at the second convention in October, 1869; but when the third convention in October, 1870, adopted a new insurance plan, provision was made that disability insurance should be paid in an amount equal to that paid in case of death. Not until 1881, however, did the Conductors satisfactorily solve the problem.

The difficulties experienced by the Engineers and the Conductors in establishing disability insurance, without doubt, served to deter the Firemen from adopting a similar system until their fifth convention in 1878. During the period 1868-1880 the disability benefit was in process of evolution. By 1880 the three older organizations had demonstrated the possibility of maintaining the benefit, and since that time it has been regarded as an essential element in railway insurance systems. Hence the Trainmen in 1883, the Telegraphers in 1887, and the Switchmen in 1886, in their first constitutions, and the Trackmen in 1893, made the disability insurance equal to that paid in case of death. All of the railway organizations, except the Telegraphers, follow this policy at the present time. The Telegraphers have not paid a disability benefit since 1897. They provide, however, that should a member become totally or permanently disabled the insurance committee may order his assessments paid and shall deduct the amount of these assessments when the benefit is finally paid.^[45] The failure of the Telegraphers to pay a disability benefit is largely due to the fact that their occupation is less dangerous than other forms of railway service.

The Letter Carriers also have not the same urgent need for the payment of a disability benefit and until the Denver convention, 1902, paid insurance against death without direct provision for disability. At this convention, however, the National Association organized a Retirement Association for the payment of superannuation benefits to the aged and disabled members.^[46] The Association had in view in founding this department the growing necessity of making some provision for the large number of carriers whom old age prevented from doing the regular amount of work.^[47] Under the original plan, which went into effect January 1, 1903, the Association issued retirement certificates to members in the sums of $500, $400, $300 and $200 at monthly premiums of $6.70, $5.35, $4.00 and $2.70, respectively. On retirement, after having paid thirty annual premiums, or their equivalent, the beneficiary was entitled to receive annually the amount of his certificate. The retirement might also take place after thirty years' service, or after thirty years' membership in the Association, or after the age of sixty-five had been reached, provided ten annual premiums had been made.^[48] This "ten annual premium" concession was for the special benefit of old men whose circumstances would not allow them to pay the sum of thirty years' premiums. The concession was allowed only for a period of ten years. ^[49]

The scheme also included provision for disability. After January 1, 1906, any member of the Retirement Association who became permanently incapacitated, mentally or physically, for any kind of remunerative labor before thirty years' service or before attaining the age of sixty-five years, was to receive annually from the retirement fund a certain per cent. of the face value of his retirement certificate. The amount was proportionate to the years of service. For five years' membership such a member received fifteen per cent.; for ten years', thirty per cent.; for fifteen years', forty-five per cent.; for twenty years', sixty per cent.; for twenty-five years', seventy-five per cent. Any member of not less than five years' standing might, after ninety days' notice to the chief clerk, withdraw from the Association; and in such event he became entitled to receive seventy-five per cent. of the annual premiums paid to the Association. Also in case of death within two years of his retirement and prior to the payment of not more than twenty-four monthly installments of pension, the Association agreed to pay to the widow, the children, or legal heirs the annuity provided in the deceased member's certificate until the amount paid should aggregate seventy-five per cent. of all premiums received by the Association.^[50]

This plan was a failure. In it business principles had been sacrificed for fraternity. Relief had been provided