The most important development in the insurance systems of the railway unions has been the change in the amount paid from an uncertain to a fixed amount.  This evolution is best illustrated in the history of the older organizations.  In the period from 1868 to 1884 the amount paid was the sum collected by levying upon each member a certain assessment for each death or disability.  The amount of the benefit therefore varied with the number of members.  In the first stage, the Engineers paid one dollar per member upon each death and fifty cents in each case of disability, the Conductors paid one dollar per member upon each death or case of disability, while the Firemen paid fifty cents upon each death or case of disability.[65] The membership was small and the assessments were largely regarded as benevolent contributions.  This phase is well illustrated by the early history of the benefit among the Conductors.  The first benefit, paid in December, 1871, amounted to $48.  During the first thirteen years of the department’s activity 19 claims were paid.  The last was $70, and the average amount paid was $88.[66] This system continued until 1881-1884, when a general revision of constitutions in these three brotherhoods limited the amount of insurance paid, and laid the foundation for issuing insurance certificates in fixed sums.  In the second period, from 1883 to 1890, the number of assessments remained undetermined; but the amount of the benefit was limited to a fixed sum and all surpluses were placed in reserve.  The Conductors and the Firemen took the initiative in this change and in the constitution of 1881 fixed the maximum amount for death or disability at $2000 and $1000, respectively; the Engineers, in the constitution of 1884, placed this maximum at $3000.

[Footnote 65:  Constitution of the Locomotive Engineers, 1869, in Journal, Vol. 4, p. 31; Proceedings of the Railway Conductors, 1868-1885 (Cedar Rapids, 1888), p. 119; Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine, Vol. 21, p. 181.]

[Footnote 66:  Proceedings of the Eighteenth Convention, 1885 (Cedar Rapids, 1888), p. 754; The Railway Conductor, Vol. 4, p. 188.]

The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, the Switchmen’s Union, and the Maintenance-of-Way Employees did not pass through the first period of development, but were organized during the second stage when the amount of insurance was limited.  The Trainmen, the Telegraphers, and the Switchmen, in their first constitutions of 1883, 1887 and 1886, respectively, and the Trackmen (Maintenance-of-Way Employees) in 1892 fixed the amount paid at the definite sums of $300, $1000, $500 and $1000, respectively.[67] The Letter Carriers, although organized after the railway unions had fixed at a definite sum the amount of insurance to be paid, for several years paid only a sum equivalent to one assessment, at the regular rates, upon all the certificates in force at the time of the death of the insured.[68] The amounts paid on the second death, March 22, 1892, and on the third death, July 28, 1893, were $599.16 and $596.12, respectively.[69] Finally, in the third period, from 1890 to the present, the number of assessments was also fixed.