decreased, so that in May, 1895, it showed a reduction from 28,000 to
about 18,000. The membership of the beneficiary department at the close
of the year 1904 was 71,146, or 95.43 per cent of the membership of the
Brotherhood, and the total amount of insurance paid from date of
organization to January 1, 1906, amounted to $11,725,059.83.[25]

[Footnote 25: Trainmen's Journal, Vol. 23, p. 100.]

The Order of Railroad Telegraphers was instituted at Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
June 9, 1886. To it is admitted "any white person of good moral
character, eighteen years of age and employed on a railroad as a
telegrapher, line repairer, leverman, or interlocker, including all
employees connected with operation of signal towers and interlocking
plants."[26] By April 30, 1893, the membership numbered 17,780. A rapid
decrease reduced its strength to 10,114 on April 30, 1894, to 6684 on
December 30, 1894, and finally to 4976 on December 31, 1895. On August
1, 1904, the membership had increased to 37,700.[27]

[Footnote 26: Constitution, 1903 (St. Louis, n.d.), pp. 5, 7.]

[Footnote 27: The Railroad Telegrapher, Vol. 21, p. 292.]

Although the Order paid benefits almost from its organization, it was
without an effective system of insurance until January 1, 1898, when the
present system was established. The first constitution, 1886, provided
that local divisions should exercise every honorable means to assist a
member in need, and at the session in 1887 a voluntary insurance
association was established under the name of "Mutual Life Insurance
Association of North America." The insurance failed entirely to attract
any considerable part of the membership, and up to July, 1890, the total