Mutual Beneficial Association of Pennsylvania Railroad Employes.

The Mutual Beneficial Association of Pennsylvania Railroad Employes, Inc. (MBA), traces its beginning to a meeting of 116 delegates held at Arnfield Hall in Pittsburgh on June 2, 1913. The outward leader of the movement was George Washington Brown, a 59-year old passenger conductor of conservative views. The object was to construct a conservative organization of workers to counter the influence, organizing drives and strikes being mounted by the more radical leadership of the national unions. In fact, a good deal of the impetus for the new organization came from Vice President in Charge of Operations W. W. Atterbury and his public relations advisor Ivy Ledbetter Lee.

One function of the MBA was to act as a front for paternalistic welfare work such as company picnics. Most importantly, the MBA offered insurance at reasonable rates, which was one of the most tangible benefits of membership in many national unions. It also engaged in co-op buying and operated cafeterias at many of the larger shops and offices.

The Mutual Beneficial Association of Pennsylvania Railroad Employes, Inc., was formally incorporated in Delaware as a fraternal organization and mutual insurance company on December 20, 1913, and was formally organized on January 2, 1914, with the election of George Washington Brown as its first President. As such, the MBA was controlled by its members and was entirely separate from the company in any legal sense. In fact, the PRR provided rent-free office space and other accommodations.

In July 1915, the MBA began the publication of the Mutual Magazine, a monthly that was a de facto company magazine. Although independently edited, unlike the later Pennsylvania News, the magazine relied heavily on input from the Publicity Bureau and was distributed to outside subscribers and placed in the lounge cars of PRR passenger trains. Nothing appeared that was contrary to the company line, and the news columns were heavy with company press releases. By the late 1920s and 1930s, the Mutual Magazine featured first-class, evocative industrial photography.

Eventually, the MBA succeeded beyond its promoter's hopes and survived long beyond the company that sponsored it. Although many of the old-style welfare work activities disappeared during the Depression and World War II, and the co-op stores and cafeterias could not survive the postwar downturn, the insurance feature proved particularly enduring. The MBA survived the Penn Central merger, becoming the Mutual Beneficial Association of Penn Central Employees, Inc., in 1968 and then the Mutual Beneficial Association of Conrail Employees, Inc., in 1976. Finally, it cut all ties to a particular railroad company and is now simply the Mutual Beneficial Association, Inc. It offers insurance, annuities and IRAs to anyone with a connection to the railroad industry. The MBA still publishes Mutual Magazine as a member's magazine. It stopped publishing official Penn Central news stories in 1974.

From the description of Records, 1920-1954 (bulk, 1943-1945). (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 164036354