account of the impracticability of closely defining permanent or total
disability. With almost every revision of the constitutions changes were
made in the definition of the term "disability." Strict construction of
the law by the executive officials led to dissatisfaction and often to
appeals from their decisions to the insurance committees, or to the boards
of trustees.[62] During the early years disability claims were often
presented through subordinate officials, who were either unable to
interpret the laws aright, or were unwilling to assume the responsibility
of pronouncing the claims illegal. The Engineers, after a period of
thirty-two years, in 1898 adopted a satisfactory definition of total
disability: "Any member of this Association losing by amputation a hand at
or above the wrist joint; a foot at or above the ankle joint; or
sustaining the total and permanent loss of sight in one eye or both eyes,
shall receive the full amount of his insurance."[63] Similar definitions
of disability have been worked out by the other railway organizations. The
Conductors add to this "total loss of the sense of hearing." The Switchmen
include "the loss of four fingers of one hand, at or above the second
joint." Disability, as defined by the Letter Carriers, means inability,
because of sickness or accident, to perform the regular duties of a letter
carrier.[64]

[Footnote 62: Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Session of the Order
of Railway Conductors of America, 1887 (n.p., n.d.), p. 69.]

[Footnote 63: Constitution, 1899 (Cleveland, 1898), Art. 28.]

[Footnote 64: Constitution of the Letter Carriers of the United States,
1905, Art. 13, in The Postal Record, Vol. 19, No. 1, p. 3.]

The most important development in the insurance systems of the railway