1. Summary
The Union Army data has significant economic information on the recruit and his household, including labor force participation. Labor force information comes from the Military, Pension, and Medical Records.
2. Variable Groups
Collection: Military, Pension, Medical Records
Labor Force: Recruit's labor force participation percentage, Recruit's working or disabled designation, Recruit's labor force participation description, Recruit's labor force participation date
Collection: Surgeons' Certificates
Labor Force: Claimant's ability to do manual labor, Claimant requires aid of another person, Additional comments regarding relative severity of condition or ability to do manual labor
3. Historical Background
3.1 Original Sources
The primary sources of economic data on labor force are the Pension records and the Surgeons' Certificates. Within the pension, labor force participation is not linked directly to a specific occupation. It is found in affidavits and depositions which included the subjective opinions of neighbors, co-workers, employers, friends, or military sources about the amount of work the veteran could do. These opinions, such as "UNABLE TO WORK MORE THAN HALF THE TIME," were converted into percentages and recorded in the variable for labor force percentage. During a physical examination, the surgeons may answer the question regarding veteran's ability to do manual labor or whether he requires the aid of another person. These questions require a yes/no answer and explanatory information regarding the condition is found in the additional comments section.
Civil War pensions were available for veterans with disabilities as well as for deceased veterans' widows, minor children, dependent major children, and parents. Under the Act of July 14, 1862, the first pension legislation specific to the Civil War, the veterans were eligible only for disabilities (wounds or chronic illnesses) received during wartime. The Act of June 27, 1890 changed that requirement and expanded eligibility to include disabilities not directly related to wartime experience. As a result, the number of men on the pension rolls swelled. Laws passed after 1907 changed the pension from disability-based to age-based.
When a veteran wanted to receive a pension, he would, under his attorney's supervision, submit an application/declaration. This form was sent to the Pension Bureau in Washington D.C., which reviewed the application and collected further testimony in support of the veteran's application. The decision is recorded on a claim form, which is input alongside the pension application/declaration. Veterans could, and often did, apply for a pension under several laws or submit additional applications because of an increase in disability or a dissatisfaction with the Pension Bureau's decision, therefore, records usually contain more than one pension application and claim.
The data collection process begins with the Civil War pension, which were available for veterans with disabilities as well as for deceased veterans' widows, minor children, dependent major children, and parents. A soldier's pension file often includes information on his birth, residences after discharge from the service, summary of military and medical wartime experience, and family information, including a listing of spouses and children, whether living or dead. The pension file also includes the soldier's or the surviving dependent's application for a pension and the corresponding record of the Pension Bureau's action. Additionally, the file contains documents in support of the soldier's claim, including affidavits from comrades, neighbors, family members, and physicians.
Viewing the pension as a whole document allows us to roughly reconstruct a veteran's life. We do this by recording different places of residence, occupations, levels of labor force participation, health problems, family relations, and standards of living throughout the veteran's pensionable lifetime.
The Surgeons' Certificates are medical examinations of the veteran included in the Civil War pension record. The Board of Examining Surgeons evolved over time, until by 1890 it consisted of three members appointed and paid by the Department of the Interior. The primary purpose for performing a medical examination on a veteran was to determine the applicant's eligibility for pension assistance. Thus, the form and content of the medical examinations were directly related to how the pension system was administered and the resulting incentives faced by potential pension applicants.
For the Early Indicators study, the surgeons' certificate is one of the most important documents found in the veteran's pension record. In addition to providing identifying demographic and military service information, each certificate contains the statement of the claimant regarding his health and disability and some basic physiological measures such as height, weight, pulse rate, and respiration rate. In addition, the examining physicians provided numerical ratings for individual conditions and for disability in general. The bulk of the certificate contains the findings, descriptions, and diagnoses of the examining physicians.
Examining physicians were charged with a set of detailed instructions, which gave a measure of uniformity to the certificates. However, there was still substantial variation in the content of exams. Part of this variation is due to changes in examination procedures over time, but part is due to idiosyncratic variation in the methods of examining physicians. Of course, the content of an individual certificate was determined primarily by the health of the veteran being examined. Of particular importance was whether or not certain conditions qualified the applicant for pension support. In many cases, conditions were mentioned by examining physicians even if the applicant did not qualify for pension assistance.
3.2 An Initial Classification System: The Disease Screens
A fundamental challenge in making the information gathered from surgeon's certificates available for public use was the development of adequate data collection instruments, or "disease screens." The collection screens are the result of extensive analysis of the original surgeon's certificates, led by Nevin S. Scrimshaw, M.D. and Irwin H. Rosenberg, M.D. The screens were designed to give some basic structure to the data while still allowing for later modifications as more experience was amassed in the collection process. They constituted the format used by the data inputters, and also provided an initial classification scheme that organized the data for further standardization and classification. The structure of the disease screens is motivated by three primary factors. First, the data are grouped according to physiological systems (where possible). For example, there are individual screens for the cardiovascular, respiratory, genito-urinary, and gastro-intestinal systems. Variables are named in a way that identifies to which system (collection screen) they belong. For instance, variables such as c_murmur and c_enlarg are identified as cardiovascular variables because of the prefix "c_" that precedes the variables. Second, the form of the certificates themselves dictate the design of the screens. Examining physicians tended to group their observations according to disease systems. Some of these, such as cardiovascular and genito-urinary, are consistent with modern classification. Other groupings used by the physicians, however, were determined by the specific purpose of the examination, namely, to identify what were considered to be disabling conditions. Therefore, there were individual screens for diarrhea, hernias, hemorrhoids, rheumatism, and varicose veins. Organizing the screens according to the groupings, typically used by the examining physicians, considerably simplified the collection process. Finally, the grouping of different conditions is highly correlated with the disability ratings given to conditions. In general, the disease screens represented the level of detail that was commonly found in the ratings. For instance, ratings were usually given for the cardiovascular system as a whole without differentiating between different cardiovascular conditions, even though additional details were often provided about the cardiovascular system. A typical example of a physicians statement was "$8 for disease of heart." On the other hand, conditions such as hernias, chronic diarrhea, or varicose veins were given individual disease ratings. On each disease screen there is a field to enter the disability rating for that disease screen. Sometimes diseases from different screens are grouped together under a single rating amount, and at other times the only rating information provided was a single disability rating that gave the overall amount the physicians recommended the applicant receive. There are 21 main screens consisting of an entry screen and 20 individual disease screens. On the entry screen, inputters record all the identifying information concerning the veteran as well as his statement of disability to the pension board. The information provided by the physician is recorded on the 20 disease screens.
3.3 Variables
An example of labor force data includes the recruit's labor force participation description. Non-numerical data indicating the recruit's ability to work or disability from working is described in this variable. So, rl_pds01 is one instance of the recruit's labor force participation, and rl_pds01 - rl_pds10 follow no chronological order. The information in each rl_pds observation is given in the format % disability, condition, when, where. The numerical suffix relates to the recruit's labor force participation percentage rl_prt01.
In the disease data set, every screen (organ systems or disabilities) has an additional comments field: g_cmt, u_cmt, etc. These variables contain information for which there is no other field as well as explanatory information for that particular organ system or disability. For example, if g_manlab is answered "Y," then g_cmt might contain, "Aggregate permanent disability for earning support by manual labor."
4. User Guide Table
| Variable Label | Variable Name | Data-Set | Source |
| rl_prt01 - rl_prt10 | Recruit's labor force participation percentage | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition CMSR: Certificate of Disability for Discharge |
| rl_wd01 - rl_wd10 | Working or disabled designation | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition CMSR: Certificate of Disability for Discharge |
| rl_pds01 - rl_pds10 | Recruit's labor force participation description | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition CMSR: Certificate of Disability for Discharge |
| rl_pdt101 - rl_pdt10 | Labor force participation date | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition CMSR: Certificate of Disability for Discharge |
| rl_pqc01 - rl_pqc10 | Quality code for labor force participation date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| g_manlab | Claimant's ability to do manual labor | DIS | Surgeons' Certificate |
| g_reqaid | Claimant requires aid of another person | DIS | Surgeons' Certificate |
| g_cmt | Additonal comments regarding relative severity of condition or ability to do manual labor | DIS | Surgeons' Certificate |