Only a few unions make good physical condition a requisite for admission to the death benefit. In a small number provision is made that if death result from disease incurred prior to admission the union shall not pay the benefit. In the majority of the unions every member admitted to the union is covered by the death benefit. Some of the unions, such as the Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, the Brotherhood of Painters, and the Pattern Makers' League, provide a smaller benefit for those not eligible at time of initiation. In the Brotherhood of Carpenters any apprentice under twenty-one years of age, or any candidate for membership over fifty years of age, in ill health and not qualified for full benefit when admitted to the union, is limited to a funeral allowance of fifty dollars.[[99]] The Boot and Shoe Workers' Union provides that members of sixty years of age, or those afflicted with chronic diseases at time of initiation, shall be eligible to half benefit only.[[100]] In the Brotherhood of Painters members of sound health and over fifty years of age when admitted are eligible to a semi-beneficial benefit of fifty dollars and to a funeral benefit of twenty-five dollars in case of death of wife.[[101]]
The requirement of a preliminary period of membership serves to protect the union against the entrance of persons who wish to join because they are in ill health and are anxious to secure insurance which they could not otherwise get. None of the unions provide, however, for any deliberate selection of risks, and the mortality is higher than it would be if the applicants were examined.
The death benefit is thus regarded by the unions not as a pure matter of business. It is paid partly on charitable grounds, and the small increase in the cost of the benefit occasioned by the lack of strict physical requirements is regarded as more than compensated by the increase in the solidarity of the organization thus attained.
In several important unions the death benefit has been made the basis for a disability benefit. Thus a member receiving the disability benefit loses his right to the death benefit. So closely are the two benefits associated in these organizations that they are practically a single benefit. This combination of death and disability benefits is found chiefly in those trades in which the workmen are exposed to great danger of being disabled by accident.[[102]] The principal unions maintaining the disability benefit are the Iron Molders, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the Cigar Makers, the Painters, the Wood Workers, the Metal Workers, the Glass Workers, and the Boot and Shoe Workers.[[103]]
Nearly all the unions thus combining death and disability benefits grade the disability benefit. They usually also differentiate the two benefits either in the amount paid or in the period of membership required for eligibility to the benefit. The Iron Molders, the Cigar Makers and the Painters pay the same sums in case of disability as of death.[[104]] The other unions, with one exception, provide for a greater maximum benefit in case of disability. The period of good standing required to draw a particular sum is usually greater in the case of the disability benefit than in the case of the death benefit. The provisions of the Brotherhood of Carpenters are fairly typical.[[105]] After six months' good standing members become eligible to a death benefit of one hundred dollars, but they are not eligible to a disability benefit until they have been in membership twelve months. The maximum death benefit is two hundred dollars, while the maximum disability benefit is four hundred dollars. The maximum death benefit is paid on the death of members in good standing for one year, while to be eligible to the maximum disability benefit requires a membership of five years.[[106]]
The following table shows the amounts of the death and disability benefits in the more important unions, as originally established and as paid in 1905:
| AMOUNT OF DEATH AND DISABILITY BENEFIT. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name of Union. | Amount Paid Originally. | Amount Paid in 1905. | ||
| Death. | Disability. | Death. | Disability. | |
| Iron Molders. | Yield of a 40c. per capita assessment. | Yield of a 40c. per capita assessment. | $100 for 1 yr. | $100 for 1 yr. |
| 150 for 5 yrs. | 150 for 5 yrs. | |||
| 175 for 10 yrs | 175 for 10 yrs | |||
| 200 for 15 yrs | 200 for 15 yrs | |||
| Carpenters, Brotherhood of. | $250 for 6 mo. | $100 for 6 mo. | $100 for 6 mo. | $100 for 1 yr. |
| 200 for 1 yr. | 200 for 2 yrs. | |||
| 300 for 3 yrs. | ||||
| 400 for 5 yrs. | ||||
| Painters | $50 for 6 mo. | $50 for 6 mo. | $100 for 1 yr. | $100 for 1 yr. |
| 100 for 1 yr. | $100 for 1 yr. | 150 for 2 yrs. | 150 for 2 yrs. | |
| Wood Workers. | $60 for 1 yr. | $100 for 1 yr. | $ 50 for 6 mo. | $150 for 1 yr. |
| 75 for 18 mo. | 200 for 2 yrs. | |||
| 100 for 3 yrs. | 250 for 3 yrs. | |||
| Metal Workers. | $75 for 1 yr. | $500 for 5 yrs. | $75 for 1 yr. | $500 for 5 yrs. |
| Glass Workers. | $50 for 6 mo. | $150 for 1 yr. | $150 for 1 yr. | $ 75 for 1 yr. |
| 100 for 1 yr. | 175 for 2 yrs. | 100 for 2 yrs. | ||
| Boot and Shoe Workers. | $50 for 6 mo. | $50 for 6 mo. | $100 for 2 yrs. | |
| 100 for 2 yrs | 100 for 2 yrs. | |||
The ratio of disability benefits paid to death benefits paid varies in the different unions according to the definition of disability adopted. The Iron Molders' Union, which took the initiative in adopting a national disability benefit, undertook to pay benefits to all disabled members, with two exceptions. First, the disability must not have been caused by dissipation, and secondly, the member must not have been disabled before joining the Association.[[107]] The Granite Cutters' Union, however, when establishing their voluntary insurance association in 1877, limited the benefit to members disabled for life by any real accident suffered while following employment as a granite cutter.[[108]] The two benefits were unlike in that the Iron Molders paid the benefit no matter how the disability had been incurred, while the Granite Cutters paid only when the disability resulted from a trade accident.
Some of the unions now paying the disability benefit, as for example the Boot and Shoe Workers, have followed the policy of the Iron Molders in paying the benefit in all cases of disability; while others, for example the Brotherhood of Carpenters, pay only where the disability is incurred "while working at the trade." Under this system, in the case of the Iron Molders, the claims for disability were so numerous that in 1882 the term "permanent disability" was defined to mean "total blindness, the loss of an arm or leg, or both," and since 1890 also paralysis.[[109]] Similarly in 1880 the Granite Cutters defined more exactly what constituted total disability.[[110]]
The younger unions have usually adopted the later revised definition of the term "permanent or total disability," with such modifications as are made necessary by the peculiar nature of the trade. The system of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, adopted in 1886, and still in force, defines permanent disability as "total blindness, the loss of an arm or leg, or both, the total disability of a limb, the loss of four fingers on one hand, or being afflicted with any physical disability resulting from sudden accident."[[111]] The Amalgamated Glass Workers as late as 1900 had made no attempt to give definite limits to the term "total disability," but in 1903 they adopted the definition of the Carpenters and extended it to include disability resulting from paralysis.[[112]] The Amalgamated Wood Workers, however, still provide simply that to receive the benefit members shall be disabled from following the trade.[[113]]