[Footnote 12:  Ibid., Vol. 5, p. 294.]

Before the expiration of the five-year period, however, on December 3, 1867, the Brotherhood founded an insurance association.[13] On March 13, 1869, the secretary-treasurer reported:  number of members admitted during 1868, 2426; amount of claims paid, $31,920; average amount of each claim, $1520.09; cost per member, $19.  At Baltimore, on October 21,1869, by-laws were adopted providing for assessments of $1 per member for each death, and 50 cents for each case of total disability,[14] and at the annual convention of 1871 President Sherman reported that for the three and one half years of the life of the association there had been 86 deaths and 88 assessments, aggregating $196,358.50, an average of $3278.

[Footnote 13:  Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 232.]

[Footnote 14:  Locomotive Engineers’ Journal, Vol. 4, p. 31.]

The industrial depression of the seventies decreased the membership, but with the revival of trade an increase set in.  Since January 1, 1890, insurance has been compulsory upon all members of the Brotherhood under fifty years of age.  In January, 1890, the association numbered about 8000, and on January 1, 1897, it had increased to 18,000.  During the twenty-five years of voluntary insurance $3,122,-669.61 was paid in death and disability benefits, and at the close of 1896 this total had been increased to $5,771,214.61.[15] Ten years later, December 31, 1906, the membership had grown to 49,328, with $97,799,500 insurance in force, and the total aggregate paid in death and disability claims had reached $10,323,181.60.

[Footnote 15:  Ibid., Vol. 25, p. 951; Vol. 31, p. 504.]

The next organization of railway employees to be formed was the “Conductors’ Brotherhood,” at Mendota, Illinois, July 6, 1868.  Being desirous of a more comprehensive organization, a few conductors issued, in November, 1868, a circular to the railway conductors of the United States and the British Provinces.  As a result of this effort, the Grand Division of the Order of Railway Conductors was organized at Columbus, Ohio, on December 15, 1868.[16] For a period of twenty-two years the organization grew slowly against much opposition.  From 1877 to 1890 the Order was exclusively beneficiary, and many of its members withdrew to organize the “Grand International Brotherhood of Railway Conductors of America.”  In 1890 the National Convention decided to make collective bargaining one of its functions, and the members of the International Brotherhood joined the Order of Railway Conductors in such numbers that a year later the Brotherhood disbanded.  On January 1, 1890, there were 249 subordinate divisions and 13,720 members; on January 1, 1904, there were 446 divisions with 31,288 members.

[Footnote 16:  Proceedings, 1868-1885 (Cedar Rapids, 1888), p. 13.]