tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">^[38] 1886 75 37 33 4.6 1887 77 42 35 4.8 1888 145 59 28 5.2 1889 152 69 31 5.1 1890 175 116 40 8.6 1891 264 123 32 6.6 1892 270 145 34 6.1 1893 372 201 35 7.1 1894 304 138 31 6.1 1895 212 147 41 7.8 1896 254 159 38 7.2 1897 240 160 40 6.3 1898 358 165 31 5.8 1899 403 211 34 5.7 1900 498 205 29 4.9 1901 507 231 31 5.1 1902 570 249 30 4.7 1903 788 305 27 4.6 1904 849 374 31 5.2

The decrease in the ratio of disability to death claims paid is due primarily to a stricter definition of disability and to better administration. The number of disability claims paid per 1000 of membership shows also, however, a slight decrease.

The records of the Trainmen which separate claims resulting from accidents still farther emphasize the need for disability insurance.

The data show the place disability insurance has occupied among the Railway Trainmen during twenty years. For this period disability claims for all causes were 32-1/3 per cent. of all claims paid. The percentage of claims from accidental causes—including both disability and death—was 73-2/3 of the whole number of claims paid, while the percentage from natural causes was only 26-1/2. In other words, these statistics show that the Trainmen's accidental disability and death claims, as compared with those due to natural causes, have averaged almost three claims paid as the result of accidental causes to one as the result of natural causes.^[39]

The old-line companies do not offer the form of disability insurance required by railway employees. These companies issue accident policies against death and total or partial disability from accident while on duty; but there are two defects in the form of this insurance. In the first place, the definition of total disability adopted by the companies is much stricter than that of the insurance departments of the railway brotherhoods. A typical insurance company's definition of total disability is incapacity for "prosecuting any and every kind of business pertaining to a regular occupation from the loss of both eyes, both hands, both feet, or one hand and one foot;" while partial disability is "the loss of one hand or one foot or any injury preventing the performance of one or more important daily duties pertaining to a regular occupation." In other words, to secure the indemnity for total disability, the insured must be disabled from performing any regular labor whatever. In the railway organizations total disability is so defined as to cover inability of the insured to continue in his position. Secondly, the disability insurance offered by the regular insurance companies is joined with accident insurance affording a weekly indemnity during the period of illness due to accident. The railway employee, if he insures against totally disabling accidents, must also insure against temporarily disabling accidents, since the companies do not separate the two forms of insurance. The inclusion of all accidents in one policy necessitates a heavy premium. For example, to secure accident insurance including, besides a weekly indemnity of $20, provision for the payment of $1000 in case of death or total disability resulting from accidents, an engineer must pay an annual premium of $50.40 or $56 according to the section of the country over which he runs, or the system by which he is employed. The combination of life with disability insurance meets the need of the ordinary railway employee better than any other combination.

The formative period of the two older organizations furnished opportunities for a study of the disability benefit and showed its usefulness in strengthening the national unions. These organizations, however, experienced grave difficulties in their attempts to administer disability insurance. The Engineers included "totally disabled members" among the beneficiaries of the fund provided for in 1866.