The following table presents, in detail, the answers to the preceding inquiry according to the industries followed by the establishments reporting:

ESTABLISHMENTS SUGGESTING MEANS TO LESSEN THE CONSUMPTION OF INTOX. ICATING LIQUORS AMONG THE PEOPLE.

The means suggested represent in each case individual opinion, and must be given weight accordingly. For example, the proprietors or managers of 1,103 establishments suggested prohibition as, in their opinion, the means best suited to lessening the consumption of intoxicating liquors; 769 considered that the refusal to employ drinking men would accomplish most; 445 thought high license the best method; 180 would suggest education; and so on through the list, 1,132 suggesting a great variety-177 in number-of miscellaneous means. It should be said that these suggestions are in reply to schedules sent without preference to all parts of the country. The table includes all the replies received.

The replies received from liquor dealers in answer to the inquiries will have a peculiar interest. Schedules were filled by 32 liquor dealers, representing an aggregate of 525 employees. Twenty-seven of these report that when employing new men they take into consideration the question of whether or not the applicant is addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors, although quite a number take care to specify that it is not the use but the abuse of liquor that is objected to. Twenty-eight of the 32 report that they are not troubled with intoxication among employees, and have had, therefore, no occasion to try remedies. Three, while not reporting that they are troubled, give as their remedy for intoxication, "discharge," while one reports his remedy to be "example and influence."

But by far the most interesting feature of these schedules is to be found in their answers to the inquiry, "What means, in your view, better than now employed, can be taken by employers, communities, organizations, municipalities, or States to lessen the consumption of intoxicating liquor among the people?" Of course, in the nature of the case, where any mention is made of prohibition, it is to say "Repeal prohibitory laws," Prohibition of no avail," or "It only increases the desire for liquor," etc. Also, in regard to taxation (with one excep tion), lower license and more liberal excise laws are favored. Better education and severe punishment of drunkenness are also frequent suggestions.

Some of the replies to this inquiry are, however, worth giving in full:

From about thirty years' observation I am convinced that the bad habit of treating' is the cause of more drunkenness than any other one thing."

"Prohibition increases the desire for whisky, wine, and beer. The abolition of the 'treating' habit of our people would decrease consump tion, increase sobriety, and solve the liquor problem."

"We believe that the brewers' methods to establish as many saloons as possible by favoring low license, etc., and the treating' habit are the two worst enemies of moderation and true temperance."

"The arrest and fining or imprisonment of the offender-if intoxicated. The repeal of 'prohibitory laws.' They never have nor can 'prohibit. Education, which is the precursor of refinement. The offender's punishment should be on an increasing scale for continued offenses. It is he only who offends, and he should be dealt with-not the dealer, but the offender. In other words, offenders should be dealt with for this offense as with others, with increasing punishment for each offense."

"By having only pure liquors sold. The National or State governments should have liquors examined, and those not up to standard destroyed, as in the case of meat, milk, etc. The National Government should forbid the manufacture of continuous distillation (or quick-aging goods, as they are sometimes called.) They are ruinous to health. It should also set a period after which no spirituous liquors could be sold less than five years old."

"Use, free and open, of wine, beer, and spirits, whence moderation and absence of abuse, which alone is injurious."

BROTHERHOOD RELIEF AND INSURANCE OF RAILWAY

EMPLOYEES.

BY EMORY R. JOHNSON, PH. D.

The railway employees in the United States number more than S00,000. Not less than one-twentieth of the entire population of our country is supported by the wages and salaries paid by the railway companies. The standards of living which prevail with such a large class of the social body, the ideals which they cherish concerning their intellectual and material needs, and the organizations and institutions which they are building up to assist in realizing those ideals are matters of much moment to society. Not only the students of the labor problem and the sociologists, but every person who is interested in the progress of the industrial classes to a position of greater economic stability, will perforce give attention to the efforts which the railway employees in the United States are putting forth for their own and their families' betterment.

The intellectual and industrial status of the railway employees is of much social consequence, not only because of their large numbers, but also, and quite as much, because of the intimate relation which the services they perform bear to the convenience and safety of the public. Every person uses the railroads directly or indirectly, and is necessarily affected by the character of the service performed by the employees. Whatever makes railway employees a more efficient class of workmen and inspires them with a greater pride in their work, and whatever enables them to provide more surely for the material wellbeing of themselves and those dependent upon them, is of general public benefit. The railway employees in the United States are striv ing, by means of their associations and brotherhoods and by means of the relief and insurance departments connected with those organizations, to improve themselves as men and as laborers, and their endeav ors have met with a large measure of success. The associations of railway employees rank among the most successful labor organizations, and the influence which they have exerted upon their members has made our railway staff better men and more capable public servants. Most of the associations of railway employees maintain organizations to provide their members with relief and insurance, and the plans which these beneficial institutions have adopted for the accomplishment of their purposes constitute an interesting and instructive study in insurance. An investigation of what the organizations have accomplished should have value for the student of insurance and be of assistance to those who may be desirous of establishing other relief and insurance organizations.

The Bulletin of the Department of Labor for January, 1897, published an account of the departments which six of the large railway corporations in the United States have established in connection with their service to enable their employees to secure life insurance and relief in case of accident or sickness. These railway relief departments were established by the corporations and are largely controlled by them. In order to complete the study of the agencies for the relief and insurance of railway employees, it remains to consider the beneficial organizations which the employees have established and developed in large part without the cooperation or approval of their employers.

CLASSIFICATION OF RELIEF AND INSURANCE
ORGANIZATIONS.

The railway employee has the choice of several organizations from which relief and insurance may be secured. There are, first of all, the well-known stock companies which issue life and accident insurance policies. Many railway corporations urge their employees to carry policies in such companies, and in some cases the railway corporations collect the premiums on these policies by deducting the payments from the wages of the employees and paying the amounts thus collected to the insurance companies. One company, the Ann Arbor Railroad, requires all employees in the train service to carry such policies "in a regular specified insurance company." The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway has gone further in this matter than any other corporation. For some years past it has encouraged various accident and life insurance companies to do business on its roads, assisted them in securing as many policies as possible, and collected the premiums without charge. But on July 12, 1897, a further step was taken when the receiver of the road announced that he had arranged with the Railway Officials and Employees' Accident Association of Indianapolis to "issue policies of insurance upon the conductors, engineers, firemen, brakemen, bridge carpenters, signalmen, yardmen, and foremen in his employ at the regular rates," and that the railway company would, until further notice, provide 45 per cent of the premiums named in the policies. It is not made compulsory upon the employees to insure; but if they choose to insure they are required to pay only 55 per cent of regular premiums. The occupations in the railroad service are classified and the premiums vary with the degree of hazardousness of each class of labor.

Another general class of relief and insurance organizations comprises the two kinds of railway employees' associations that the railway companies organize and largely manage. In each of these two kinds of associations the membership is limited to the employees of one company or system, and is sometimes voluntary and in some instances compulsory. One of the two types of association includes the organizations for the maintenance of "hospital funds." Numerous companies, particularly the transcontinental or Pacific lines, require their employees 6368-No. 17——4

to pay 25 or 50 cents a month toward defraying the expenses of maintaining hospitals, the payments being deducted from the monthly wages. The employees of these companies are entitled to free medical treatment at home or in the companies' hospitals. In some instances the company also pays a small death allowance to cover the burial expenses of a deceased employee. The Northern Pacific Beneficial Association is a good example of this type of organization.

Another association of a type very similar to the one just mentioned is represented by the relief organization connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The expenses of managing this association are borne by the company, and the "contributions" to the funds from which benefits are paid are made half by the company and half by the employees who choose to join. The contribution which the employee may make to the fund upon any one assessment is "the amount of one day's wages or less, but in no case is the amount subscribed to the fund to exceed $3." Representatives of the contributing employees share with the company in the management of the fund. Participation in the fund is voluntary; those who contribute have a claim for relief in case of an injury received while in discharge of duty. The relief amounts to "three-fourths as much per day as that contributed by him to the fund for every working day during his total disability to work, but not longer than for the period of nine months." If death results from such an injury, a moderate sum is paid to a designated beneficiary. This death benefit comprises an immediate payment of $50 and a monthly payment for two years of "an allowance for every working day at a daily rate of three-fourths the amount of" the deceased employee's contribution. It has not been found necessary to compel the employees to contribute to the fund. After several years of successful management there were, in July, 1897, 6,199 employees contributing to the fund.

The other kind of relief association belonging to this second classthose organized by the railroad companies-is the railway relief department. As noted above, there have been six such departments or associations organized, and their membership includes about 125,000 men. In three of the departments membership is voluntary and in three compulsory.(a) Sick, accident, and death benefits are paid by all departments, and one pays pensions to superannuated employees. expense of maintaining the department is borne mainly by the members, but the railway corporations with which the departments are connected bear from one-sixth to one-fifth of the financial burdens. These relief departments were described in detail in the author's report, published in the Bulletin of the Department of Labor, January, 1897. (b)

a Section 10 of the mediation and arbitration act, approved June 1, 1898, makes it illegal for railway companies to compel employees to join a relief department. b Consult also a more lengthy account of them in the author's paper on Railway Departments for the Relief and Insurance of Employees, Anuals of the American