The decrease in the ratio of disability to death claims paid is due primarily to a stricter definition of disability and to better administration. The number of disability claims paid per 1000 of membership shows also, however, a slight decrease. The records of the Trainmen which separate claims resulting from accidents still farther emphasize the need for disability insurance. DEATH AND DISABILITY CLAIMS IN BROTHERHOOD OF TRAINMEN (1886-1904). ====================================================================== Kind of |Number |Number from|Percentage of|Percentage of|Percentage Claims |from | Accidental| Claims from | Claims from | of Claims |Natural| Causes | Natural | Accidental | from all |Causes | | Causes | Causes. | Causes. -----------+-------+-----------+-------------+-------------+---------- Disability.| 526 | 2,610 | 16.77 | 83.23 | 32-1/3 Death | 2,033 | 4,522 | 31. | 69. | 67-2/3 -----------+-------+-----------+-------------+-------------+---------- Total | 2,559 | 7,322 | 26-1/3 | 73-2/3 | 100 -----------+-------+-----------+-------------+-------------+---------- The data show the place disability insurance has occupied among the Railway Trainmen during twenty years. For this period disability claims for all causes were 32-1/3 per cent. of all claims paid. The percentage of claims from accidental causes--including both disability and death--was 73-2/3 of the whole number of claims paid, while the percentage from natural causes was only 26-1/2. In other words, these statistics show that the Trainmen's accidental disability and death claims, as compared with those due to natural causes, have averaged almost three claims paid as the result of accidental causes to one as the result of natural causes.[39] [Footnote 39: Proceedings of the Seventh Biennial Convention, 1905 (Cleveland, n.d.), pp. 65-66.]