THE RAILWAY MAIL CLERK, CIRCA 1937
Requiem and recognition by Frank R. Scheer
GEHA 70th Anniversary Celebration
August 4, 2007
Kansas City, Missouri
Across the street in the former General Post Office building, several Railway Mail Clerks conceived the idea for a hospital association. We have gathered today to observe the growth of the seed they planted 70 years ago: a strong, vibrant Government Employees Health Association (GEHA). It has served the past well and is poised to support the future even better.
Although the visionaries were members of the Railway Mail Association and its Mutual Benefit Association, there remained a medical care gap. The Mutual Benefit Association provided a death benefit, but nothing for hospitalization.
Let's look back to the 1930s for a moment. We'll survey the work, these people, and their needs in that era.
The Railway Mail Service --the mail distribution and transportation arm of the Post Office Department-- had matured by 1937. Established in 1864, there were 19,000 Railway Mail Clerks in the year of GEHA's birth. Work was performed in 4,000 cars, operated as a national network of Railway Post Office routes over the majority of track miles. That battalion of clerks --who disliked going "stuck"-- made just shy of 16 billion distributions of mail so that each letter, parcel, and newspaper could reach destinations with certainty, celerity, and security.
The creation of GEHA was at the Railway Mail Service Kansas City Terminal situated on the fourth floor of the GPO Building, across Pershing Drive from where we are today. Initial administration of the plan was by a Kansas City Terminal clerk.
The title "Railway Mail Clerk" was a slight misnomer, corrected in 1949 when these jobs were renamed "Postal Transportation Clerks." GEHA founders were Railway Mail Clerks even though they did not ride aboard trains. Within the group "Railway Mail Clerks," people worked in Railway Mail Terminals at major cities such as Kansas City, Transfer Offices, Air Mail Facilities, some registry offices --and, of course, on the "road."
Railway Mail Clerks in the 1930s valued their jobs as the American society was recovering from Great Depression depths. Advertisements in popular magazines trumpeted "steady work and good pay," along with a somewhat misleading statement of "see the country." Clerks may have traveled as many as 400 miles in as much as a 16 hour workday, but they peered at little else other than a mountain of pouches and sacks, or the distribution case and racks in front of them.
While the pay was good --clerks earned and average $2,400 per year-- it was not princely. Frugality was hallmark of Railway Mail Clerks, with cash payments being the mode for most transactions.
Positions were competitively filled by those who scored high on a Civil Service examination especially designed to test aptitudes needed for mail distribution. This was not an easy test; one clerk recalls that his lasted seven hours. Clerks who were accepted and endured the rigors of their positions were especially bright. Those who were educated to become doctors, lawyers, and teachers found a career in the Railway Mail Service when other job opportunities were limited.
These clerks, then, were often forward-thinking and creative. They were also conscientious, dedicated, and closely-knit --as one might expect from the camaraderie of a crew that possessed the work ethic that no one is finished until everyone is finished.
Times changed over the decades and so too did the needs of clerks and their families. In the 1880s when the Mutual Benefit Association was formed, Railway Mail Clerks were often denied life insurance because their work environments were harsh and risk-filled. A 19th Century description, iron men in wooden cars, suited its time --and those wooden cars occasionally became coffins and funeral pyres. A death benefit paid to survivors was appropriate because many men never survived their injuries in splintered, burnt Railway Post Office cars.
The needs of the 1930s were different. Steel cars, railway signaling, and other technological advances decreased accidents to a mere 88 for 1937. The death rate declined to only one clerk suffering wreck injuries. 13 other clerks were seriously injured, while 96 men were slightly injured. Instead of a focus upon burying the dead and paying for funeral expenses, a new benefit was needed for the living --to keep them living!
The hospital plan envisioned during a swing room meeting was directed at that need. Neither employer nor labor association had addressed health-care. So, just as Kansas City clerks had the foresight to form a credit union to support their financial needs, they likewise developed a strategy for dealing with hospitalization: the Railway Mail Hospital Association. It was often referred to as the "Kansas City Plan," thereby memorializing the city of its birth.
The clerks here today as honored guests are a link with GEHA's establishment and nurturing through early formative years. This 70th Anniversary marries the past with the future. Looking ahead, today's tribute demonstrates that GEHA will always remember its roots and reason for being. Aside from serving more than 225,000 health plan members and providing health insurance to over 407,000 people across the nation and around the world, GEHA also covers nearly 150,000 lives with its dental plans. All of these achievements are a lasting tribute to the foresighted people credited with its founding: Railway Mail Clerks.
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Notes:Statistical references are from the ANNUAL REPORT OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1937. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1938). Pages 16-17 and 129.
Jerry Yocum was a regular clerk in the Eighth Division, Railway Mail Service. His note reads:
From: "Jerry Yocum" <>
To: "Frank Scheer(RMS)" <>
Subject: COMMENTS
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 09:01:45 -0700
FRANK:
Your comments re the GEHA anniversary are excellent. As a GEHA member, I am proud of the RMS. We were definitely a special group.
My entrance exam was 7 hours long not counting the time required for "name and address", etc.
My congratulations to all those KC clerks! and GEHA.
Jerry McGinnis was likewise a regular clerk in the Eighth Division, Railway Mail Service. He states:
From: "gerald mcginnis" <>
To: "Frank Scheer" <>
Subject: Ab GEHA
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 12:45:35 0700
An excellent talk...If it wasn't so far I'd I would have liked to attend. Frank, I have been a GEHA member "since you were a boy" and we are really pleased with it.
Incidentally, when we first heard of GEHA, it seems to me it was called "The Kansas City Plan". Good luck on your presentation.
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