RAILWAY MANAGERS AND EMPLOYES. 771 



and indeed all the most solvent co-operative associations, select their 

 risks, upon which they place a limit, imposing their own standard of 

 physical qualifications. Railroads, however, can make no such invid- 

 ious distinctions against, perhaps, their most deserving servants, and 

 hope to succeed in any insurance scheme they inaugurate. Such a 

 plan must embrace all, if any. In considering percentages of railroad 

 accidents the physical condition of employes is a comparatively small 

 factor entering but little into cause and effect because in active rail- 

 roading, as in army campaigning, the weak and diseased are soon elimi- 

 nated, and the fittest only survive the exposure and physical strain to 

 which they are constantly subjected. In the five years of this associa- 

 tion it has been uniformly found that the standard of health and lon- 

 gevity of railroad operatives is remarkably high, far exceeding that 

 which the insurance tables assign as the average for people of equal age 

 but of unselected occupations. On the other hand, age is a potent factor 

 in determining liability for sickness and death from other causes than 

 violence. Besides the statistics of accidents at its command, the Balti- 

 more and Ohio Company were able to ascertain with approximate ac- 

 curacy the ages of its employes; and it was thereby enabled to estimate 

 with a reasonable degree of certainty the risks to be incurred and pro- 

 vided for. Then, after allowing the employes a reasonable time within 

 which to enter the association without questioning their age or physi- 

 cal condition, it adopted and has since rigidly enforced the policy of 

 employing for its service none over forty-five years of age, and who 

 can not pass a strict medical examination. Among other immediate 

 results of this measure, the average age of many thousands of employes 

 has been reduced to twenty -eight years, and the standard of their 

 physical strength and activity perceptibly advanced, to the company's 

 obvious gain and the lessening of the liabilities of the relief associa- 

 tion, which were predicated upon the average age and health of the 

 company's employes when the average of age was much higher and 

 their standard of health lower than now. This has resulted in largely 

 increased benefits without increasing premiums, and has rendered the 

 company's guarantee, as regards the relief features, practically a nul- 

 lity. The premiums and benefits under the relief feature of the asso- 

 ciation were predicated upon a simple classification of the employes 

 according to hazard of occupation and accustomed compensation. It 

 was recognized that the laboring classes of this country are familiar 

 with larger sums of money than are foreigners, and are therefore apt 

 to regard with indifference the net earnings of premiums that would 

 be deemed considerable abroad ; and because adequate protection 

 against the wants of life affords great security against harassing and 

 costly litigation with the employers, it was thought desirable to fix the 

 standard unit sufficiently high to give substantial relief, while yet not 

 allowing such large benefits as would require oppressive taxation of 

 the employes, or as would offer temptations to practice fraud or deceit 



