carriers at thirty-five years of age:

Class of Employees. Rate per $1000.[85]

Engineers .................................... $27.23
Conductors ................................... 22.23
Firemen ...................................... 27.23
Trainmen ..................................... 27.23
Telegraphers ................................. 22.23
Switchmen .................................... 27.23
Maintenance-of-Way Employees ................. 27.23
Letter Carriers .............................. 27.30

[Footnote 85: The letter carriers' rate is that of the New England
Mutual Life Insurance Company, the rates of the other classes of
employees are those of the Aetna Life Insurance Company.]

Assuming that the average age at admission of the members of unions is
thirty-five, the cost of insurance in the regular companies is far
higher than the cost for an equal amount in the unions. The conductors
pay their union twenty-five per cent. less than they would have to pay
to an insurance company and the locomotive firemen pay considerably less
than one half of company rates. These rates, moreover, are for insurance
against death only, while the insurance offered by the brotherhoods also
provides against total disability.

The compulsory insurance has not been in operation long enough in any of
the organizations for its full effect to be seen. It is certain that as
the unions grow older they must materially raise the rates at which they
issue insurance. The rapid growth in membership has brought into all the