II | The Methods of Relief Employed
1. Re-Applications
The preceding chapter makes plain that from June, 1907, to June, 1909, there was made on charity the largest demand in the history of San Francisco, and it seems safe to assert that the majority of those who asked aid would never have done so had they not been suddenly overtaken by the material losses and physical strain of a great disaster.
This chapter deals with the policies and costs of relief and the reasons discernible for refusing aid to applicants.
Any account of relief work, to be satisfactory, must include such a statement of the effect of the relief upon those to whom it was given as will enable the reader to decide how far it was appropriate and sufficient for the need it aimed to supply, how far it was given only to those who could or would benefit by its use, and how far, when refused, it was justifiably withheld. An attempt was made to note the instances in which the work of the Associated Charities could be said to have restored a family to efficiency. Only a case by case re-visit, by Relief Survey investigators, which for the reasons given later it was thought best not to make, would have determined the point for any great number of cases.
Table 107 shows the size of the grants and the number of persons that applied to the Associated Charities after having been under the care of the Rehabilitation Committee before June, 1907.
The largest proportion of the earlier grants was for furniture, which were given, in sums of from $75 to $150, to 905 applicants. The next largest was for general relief, by which 388 applicants were aided, in the greatest number of instances because of sickness.
TABLE 107.—SIZE OF GRANTS MADE BY THE REHABILITATION COMMITTEE, BEFORE JUNE 1, 1907, TO APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF WHO AFTERWARDS APPLIED FOR RELIEF FROM THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES
| Amount of grant | APPLICANTS RECEIVING GRANTS OF EACH SPECIFIED AMOUNT | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Per cent | ||
| Under $50 | 82 | 4.4 | |
| $50 and under $100 | 420 | 22.3 | |
| $100 and under $150 | 437 | 23.2 | |
| $150 and under $200 | 293 | 15.6 | |
| $200 and over | 517 | 27.5 | |
| None | 131 | [239] | 7.0 |
| Total | 1,880 | 100.0 | |
[239] Of the 131 applicants who received no money grant from the Rehabilitation Committee, 19 received relief other than money.
There is evidence that 1768[240] persons aided by one group of rehabilitation workers reapplied later to another group.[241] The question that arises is, Why?[242] In reading the records of cases, reapplication cannot be attributed to any one cause. For example, a group of about 60 lodging-house keepers, the majority of whom had been given over $200 with which to establish rooming houses, had to apply to the Associated Charities for aid in untangling their subsequent business difficulties. In a few instances the first grant served as a spur to ask for more; in other instances the amount given was insufficient to accomplish what was intended; in still other instances, failure of health, inability to secure lodgers, rise of rentals, the bank flurry, the unemployment crises, each played a part in inducing a miscarriage in the plan.
[240] From the 1,880 noted in the table have been deducted the 112 applicants to whom the aid given was neither in money nor in kind.
[241] It should be borne in mind that persons who reapplied were in many cases making their reapplication to the same individuals who had extended treatment in the first instance.
[242] Part II, p. 127 ff., should be read in connection with this discussion.
2. Emergent Relief
The relief given by the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to June, 1909, can be divided from the point of view of material service rendered into three principal types of aid:
1. Moving camp cottages to permanent locations.
2. Giving aid.
(a) In sums less than $50, or in kind. (Emergency and temporary relief.)
(b) In the form of care for the destitute sick.
(c) By finding work for the unemployed.
3. Administering pensions and grants.
(a) Grants made by the Rehabilitation Committee previous to the assumption of work by the Associated Charities.
(b) Grants or pensions made by the Associated Charities from money donated by the Corporation on advice of the Rehabilitation Committee.
The first type of aid has been already considered. The aid given in money, other than large grants and pensions, and in kind (2, a), is noted in Table 108.
TABLE 108.—EMERGENCY AND TEMPORARY RELIEF GIVEN IN MONEY OR IN ORDERS BY ASSOCIATED CHARITIES. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909[243]
| Nature of aid | Number of grants or orders | Amount of grants or orders |
|---|---|---|
| Food | ||
| Groceries | 3,526 | $10,158.44 |
| Meat | 3,519 | 5,301.90 |
| Milk | 2,435 | 2,877.25 |
| Vegetables | 23 | 32.65 |
| Emergency and food | 592 | 2,094.20 |
| Total | 10,095 | 20,464.44 |
| Household | ||
| Rent and furniture | 499 | 6,466.88 |
| Sewing machines | 52 | 1,355.00 |
| Fuel | 163 | 212.35 |
| Total | 714 | 8,034.23 |
| Clothing | 212 | 1,583.37 |
| Lodging | 447 | 639.80 |
| Transportation | 27 | 76.85 |
| Merchandise | 718 | 718.00 |
| Carfare and incidentals | 1,042 | 2,438.57 |
| Grand total | 13,255 | $33,955.26 |
[243] Because of the fact that many persons received a number of grants, the total number of grants as shown in this table necessarily exceeds the number of persons receiving relief, as given in other tables in this Part.
1. The start
2. Well under way
3. Joining two cottages
4. The completed dwelling
Removal from the Camp
Most of this relief went to persons who would be dependent on aid in normal times and to the unemployed. The relief for the hungry was given for the most part in the form of orders, which varied in amounts from 10 cents to $10.44. The two items “emergency and food” are classed together under “food,” because they represent temporary aid given to persons whose special emergent need was food, but who had to have coupled with it other necessities. The rent and furniture grants varied in amounts from $1.00 to $75. A small supply of half worn clothing was kept on hand for distribution. This supply was drawn on in some instances; in others, money or an order was given for the purchase of new clothing. Materials for clothing, “merchandise,” were given in the form of $1.00 orders.
The following table shows actual expenditures for medical relief made by the Associated Charities in the course of its case work.
TABLE 109.—EXPENDITURE BY ASSOCIATED CHARITIES FOR CARE OF SICK, IN ADDITION TO AID FROM RED CROSS FUNDS. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909
| Nature of aid | Number of grants | Amount of grants |
|---|---|---|
| Glasses | 79 | $229.73 |
| Ambulance | 6 | 21.00 |
| Hospital | 9 | 118.14 |
| Surgical | 23 | 230.22 |
| Prescriptions at $.25 | 847 | 211.75 |
| Prescriptions for larger amounts | 1,351 | 1,181.38 |
| Total | 2,315 | $1,992.22 |
In Parts I and II accounts have been given of how the Department of Relief and Rehabilitation aided the hospitals in their care of the sick. To the Associated Charities, however, fell the task of caring for the sick poor in their homes, a task made doubly heavy because of the scattering of the applicants throughout the city. In the table of disabilities, in Chapter I,[244] it has been shown that although the percentage of sickness among applicants was less in the second period than in the first, the number of sick persons to be cared for was much greater. As the expense of caring for the sick in their homes was not made solely chargeable upon the Relief and Red Cross Funds, physicians and nurses having given their services freely, specific enumeration of services rendered to the sick does not belong to this particular study.
[244] See Table 104, p. 293.
The Society’s employment bureau was during the two-year period after the fire in charge of a paid agent, who replaced the volunteers that had been able before the disaster to give but irregular service. As has been shown in the preceding chapter, the community was called on to care for an unusually large number of middle-aged women, widows with children, and aged men. The employment agent had therefore to deal with the problem of the more or less untrained, incapable worker, with whom a regular agency could not or would not grapple.
In looking through the records, applicants were found to have been of all ages, but except during the unemployment crises of February and October, 1908, they were predominantly feminine. In regard to capacity the majority were low-skilled. Among these were the usual types of persons: the willing and able to work, pathetically few in number; the willing but inefficient because too delicate, too refined, or too specialized as to training; and the willing, the eager for employment, who ought to be protected from work. In the last class were not only the obviously incapacitated, but the children under suitable working age and the widowed mothers.
The good social service work done by the employment agent in showing women in what way they could best serve the real welfare of their children and in bringing them in touch with the public and private sources of relief is an interesting and suggestive story, but it is not one that belongs to this Relief Survey, except in so far as it shows that the Associated Charities itself was enabled to do better work for its people after having passed through the ordeal of the rehabilitation work than before the disaster. The fine spirit of independence that drove some to persist in seeking work is illustrated by the following stories.
An Irish widow who had been burned out and who was suffering from incipient tuberculosis applied for work. She consented after much persuasion to go to a home farm near San José, where for the sake of her self-respect she was to do some housework. After a week or more a letter arrived from the perplexed head of the house saying that the Irish woman had suddenly and summarily left with the announcement that she’d “rather die than be so lazy.” She had left to hire out as a cook in a family which was quite unaware of her being tubercular.
Another woman accepted aid to carry out an employment plan which was somewhat opposed to her own. She dropped from sight, apparently having acquiesced in the office scheme. A year later she was found at a different address placidly pursuing, with fair success, the vocation she had been warned not to undertake on account of probable failure through ill health.
A widow in wretched general health who was burned out, had received before June, 1907, in addition to the aid of the camp and bread line, $1.00 for expressage. She came to ask the Associated Charities in the late spring of 1908, for money to go into business. Even the staff, whose policy was to make the largest possible concession to plans made by the applicant, hesitated and proposed that she do something involving less personal responsibility. She refused, so some generous-hearted members of the Rehabilitation Committee interceded for her. Two grants were made therefore, contrary to the judgment of the society’s staff, of $150 and $200 respectively, to be used under Associated Charities supervision for business purposes. In June, 1909, the woman was reported to be dying in a hospital; the business enterprise had failed.
In finding work for applicants a standard rate of wages for standard work was insisted upon. For all work the quality of which was below par by reason of the delicate health, relative inefficiency, or character defect of the applicant, the employer was left to settle terms with the employe. The greater number of women were given the only employment of which the average untrained middle-aged woman is capable; domestic work, “day’s work,” and house cleaning were paid for at prices ranging from $1.50 per day to $2.00 per day, plain sewing at $1.60 per day, care of the sick at $10 per week.
The two periods of unemployment which came in February and October, 1908, and which came as an indirect result of the disaster, brought heavy problems.
On February 5, 1908, arrangement was made to give work to unemployed men. It was decided that work orders should be granted to those applying, preference being given to men with families. From February 5 to March 26, 1781 work orders of three days each were given, a total of 5343 days’ work. As there were a number of repetitions, 1781 work orders represented about 920 men at work during the—approximately—six weeks. The majority of the men were untrained. One hundred and ninety-eight who had training were classified as follows: Bricklayers and stone masons, 7; electricians, plumbers, machinists, and engineers, 44; upholsterers, 2; watchmakers, 3; painters, 11; butchers, 5; cooks and bakers, 13; carpenters, 74; teamsters, 22; clerks and bookkeepers, 17. About 15 per cent of the 198 were members of unions. Most of the applicants had large families dependent upon them. As they were chiefly men newly arrived in San Francisco who expected to profit by the demand for labor created by the rebuilding, they were in reality not a fair charge on the relief funds. Their only relation to the earthquake and fire was the fact of their having been attracted to the city after April, 1906, by what proved to be in their case a Will-o’-the-wisp. The Porto Ricans and the Russians lead in the number of those who had come to San Francisco after the fire, and these are followed in point of numbers by the Mexicans and the Spanish.
As to the kind of work provided, four plumbers, six carpenters (all union men), and some of the laborers were set to work on the camp cottages. Seventeen of the carpenters were given work on the new Associated Charities building then in process of construction. Other groups were given work by the Corporation in repairing the almshouse road, in taking apart buildings at Stanley Place, South Park, and Lobos Square, and in loading wagons with warehouse supplies to be taken to the Relief Home. At this time and in the similar crisis in October, preference was given to family men. The payment was made either in money, or in kind; sometimes in both. Ninety-seven per cent of the men were paid at the following rate for three days’ work: Meat order, $1.00; grocery order from the store room of the Associated Charities, $3.00; and cash $.50. In some few cases, to those who were sent to work on the almshouse road, carfare also was given. As the Associated Charities purchased all groceries at wholesale, it was able to give four dollars’ worth of groceries for the three-dollar order. Men with large families, if they had no other employment were allowed five days’ work each week instead of three.
In October, 1908, about one-third of the men given employment were put to work upon a temporary tuberculosis hospital which was being built at the Ingleside Track. Four hundred and forty-two dollars in labor was paid for building four large wards, a diet kitchen, medicine closets in each one of the wards, and the bath and toilet rooms. Two-thirds of the men worked either at the almshouse or at the quarry which was started and run for several weeks by the Associated Charities. Many of the men, however, resented being put at quarry work which they considered belonged to convicts. Their dissatisfaction, the physical inability of a large number of them to do such heavy labor, and the inclemency of the weather, which caused the work to be intermittent, made the experiment one that can not be classed as a notable success.
To carry on this work for the unemployed the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds made during February, March, and October, 1908, three appropriations of $5,000 each. Of this amount, $14,105.26 was expended in wages or equivalent aid to unemployed men and their families.
3. Permanent Relief
The work of relief was carried on with most care in the case of those applicants to whom money had been given in sums of over $50, in some instances in one grant, in others, in the form of pensions. Though numerically of relatively slight importance, these cases occupied so much of the attention of the force that they may justly be taken as most representative of policies and accomplishments. The amounts of the gifts are shown in Table 110. The grant was made most often to the family whose dependence was a result of the abnormal times.
TABLE 110.—GRANTS AND PENSIONS OF $50 AND OVER GIVEN BY THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES[245]
| Amount of grant or pension | Grants or pensions of each specified amount |
|---|---|
| $50 and under $100 | 28 |
| $100 and under $150 | 55 |
| $150 and under $200 | 47 |
| $200 and under $250 | 48 |
| $250 and under $300 | 8 |
| $300 and under $350 | 11 |
| $350 and under $400 | 4 |
| $400 and over | 4 |
| Total | 205 |
[245] Some grants of over $50 have been grouped with the emergency relief cases.
The disaster case has many variations, but the common mark is that the applicant is thrifty, in fairly good health, and capable of self-support. Adventitious circumstances brought a reduction or a loss of income. With rare exceptions, when the grant was sufficient the family became entirely self-supporting. The policy of the office was to find what had been the former standard of living, and to aid so that not only would the same standard be maintained but a higher one if possible attained. The two cases that follow illustrate how in 18 or more cases a grant of from $75 to $500 gave the aid needed to make a fresh and successful start.
A peddler of imported linen goods, in poor health, with a wife also in poor health, and four children under fourteen years of age, who had been burned out, asked for no aid until 1908. He believed he could do without help, but when the wife became very ill the man knew that he must appeal for relief. He was granted at once $250 to purchase a stock of goods, though his plan for resuming his old business was vague. For about three months, as the family seemed able to care for itself, the case was not held under treatment. Then the wife died, leaving the man as sole caretaker of four ill children. The children, three suffering with typhoid fever and one with tuberculosis of the hip, were sent to a sanatorium and a grant of $150 was secured, which was supplemented later by a grant of $300. A large part of these two sums was spent for hospital treatment, but the remainder was invested in getting the man to make a fresh start at his old business of selling imported linens. When the family was revisited in June, 1909, the man’s sister-in-law reported him as making a good living. Having employed a housekeeper, he was able to keep his children properly and to give them a suitable education. This expenditure of $700 lightened burdens brought alone by disaster and illness.
Home for the Aged and Infirm (the “Relief Home”)
An American widow fifty-nine years of age, with a daughter of forty stone deaf and in ill health, and the daughter’s three children under thirteen, had kept a boarding house before the fire in fairly comfortable quarters in one of the busier districts of San Francisco. The daughter, separated from her husband, an inebriate and a gambler, was entirely dependent on her mother. With high courage the fine woman planned to rent and furnish a hotel in one of the smaller watering places of the state. The Rehabilitation Committee gave her $400 for the purpose. The venture failed, so two years later she applied to the Associated Charities for rehabilitation. She was given $200 with which to move the furnishings saved from the first venture to a suburban town, where she now has a successful rooming and boarding house. She is valiantly carrying her own burdens.
There are some 20 or more cases whose success is dubious, because the money was used for purposes for which it was not intended; because the plan to keep a domestic group intact through the expenditure of a large grant was frustrated; or because defective character balked the rehabilitation plans. In most of these cases the investigation failed to unearth characteristics or resources which, if discovered, would have made a flat grant unnecessary or undesirable.
Pensions were granted of course for several different ends. In a good many instances they were given primarily to tide a family over the period during which one of the younger members was being given a good business training so as to be prepared to undertake the chief support of the group. These so-called “scholarship” grants had definite and satisfying results. A typical case will illustrate the method.
A Mexican seamstress of thirty-five and her three orphan sisters were living together at the time of the disaster. One of the sisters, aged thirty-three, had to be sent afterwards to a hospital for the insane. A married sister, aged thirty-four, with a child of three years, was deserted by her husband the day of the earthquake, and had to place the child in the Orphans’ Home. The deserted wife assumed charge of the household, and the two young sisters of fifteen and thirteen who were markedly intelligent were kept at school. The seamstress was very proud of her young sisters, so she borrowed $20 from a woman who worked in the same factory with her in order that she might send the elder to a business college. Later when taken ill she found herself in debt and unable to carry out her plan. She then applied to the Associated Charities and was given two grants of $75, one for general relief, the other to keep the girl in the business college. The girl graduated and her knowledge of Spanish and English then enabled her to get a specially advantageous position. All the sisters are the better for the grant which raised their social status.
The pension was given most often to persons who, because of the catastrophe, fell into dependency from which, unaided, it was impossible for them to extricate themselves. The unanswered question in connection with these pension cases was: What sum of money, in San Francisco, constituted an adequate monthly sum for the support of a needy family? If a semi-dependent, how much should have been spent before it could be proven whether the power of self-support was latent or was lacking? No one knew, as the community’s best practice furnished no guide. The Rehabilitation Committee and the Associated Charities acted on the general principle of granting such pensions as they felt they could afford. The Associated Charities hoped, moreover, that if the sum of $15 to $25 given as a pension were not sufficient, the usual neighborhood help would gradually develop so as to eke out the amount given. The pensions were most often given in the form of money, but in some cases in weekly food orders. The following pension case is illustrative:
A Greek aged thirty-five deserted his wife and five children under thirteen years of age at the time of the fire. Before the disaster the family was known to the Associated Charities as one in which the man was not meeting his responsibilities. The oldest child, a boy, was a decent, serious little chap; the second, also a boy, was so wild that he had later to be sent to a reformatory; and the three youngest were sickly, weak-eyed little creatures. When the woman made application immediately after the disaster she was given $75 for clothing. She was lost in the big body of refugees, but when found again in the fall of 1908, though pitifully destitute, was making a brave effort to support her children. The eldest boy was given a position as office boy at the Associated Charities at $4.00 a month, a baby from the children’s agency was put to board in the home at the rate of $11 a month, and $150 was appropriated, to be given in monthly sums of $20. With this monthly income of $35, $10 of which went for rent, she was enabled, having judgment in expenditure, to get along.
As is brought out in Part VI, an unusual number of old people had been thrown on the community for care. To some of these, who were invalids, pensions were given so that they need not go to the Relief Home.
In the two-year period covered by this study, from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, the total receipts of the San Francisco Associated Charities amounted to $252,046.75.[246] As has been stated above,[247] this money was contributed almost exclusively by the Corporation and the Board of Trustees of Relief and Red Cross Funds. The Associated Charities disbursed, in the period dealt with, $236,303.72,[248] of which sum $180,577.78, or 76.4 per cent, was expended directly on relief work, and $55,725.94 was expended on salaries and other administrative expenses.[249] The expenditure for salaries amounted to $41,560.21 for the period,—a monthly average of $1,351.80 for the last seven months of 1907, of $2,023.19 for the year 1908, and of $1,563.86 for the first five months of 1909.
[246] A statement of the receipts of the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to September, 1912, inclusive, is given in Appendix I, p. 419.
[247] See Part V, p. 283.
[248] The sum of $31,224.11 expended through the Associated Charities for the payment of what were known as the “Red Cross Pensions” is not included in this total.
[249] A statement of the disbursements of the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to September, 1912, inclusive, is given in Appendix I, pp. 419-421.
Data are not available for a complete classification of disbursements according to the nature of the relief afforded. It is impossible to state separately the expenditure for the purposes termed in this Part “emergency and temporary relief” and “aid given the unemployed.”
It appears from data available that there was a total expenditure by the Associated Charities for housing, from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, of $59,556.06.[250]
[250] Compare with figures presented in Part I, p. 86. While the amount given above covers all housing relief granted by the Associated Charities for the period from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, the $55,963.50 mentioned in Part I relates to expenditures for moving or repairing cottages during the entire period of the relief work.
4. Relief Refused
The policy behind a refusal to aid measures the quality of relief as well as the policy which shapes giving. The cases to which material aid was refused have therefore been segregated and an attempt is here made to state what the records show concerning the basis and utility of such refusal. It will be remembered that 5951 cases applied for relief and that 1704 of these were refused aid. The following table gives the number refused who had or who had not lived in the burned area and the number who had not made application for rehabilitation aid before June, 1907.
TABLE 111.—APPLICANTS FOR AID FROM THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES TO WHOM AID WAS REFUSED, CLASSIFIED AS HAVING LIVED OR NOT HAVING LIVED IN THE BURNED AREA. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909[251]
| Classes of applicants | APPLICANTS REFUSED AID | |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Per cent | |
| Applicants who had lived in burned area | ||
| With rehabilitation record | 571 | 35.4 |
| Without rehabilitation record | 604 | 37.4 |
| Total | 1,175 | 72.8 |
| Applicants who had not lived in burned area | 439 | 27.2 |
| Grand Total | 1,614 | 100.0 |
[251] Data are not available as to the former place of residence of 90 of the 1,704 refused aid.
It must be borne in mind that the total number of applications made to the Associated Charities on the part of applicants who had been burned out was, 1,880 by those who had had a rehabilitation record before June, 1907, and 2,116 by those who had had no such record. The percentage of refusals is seen to be, therefore, very nearly the same,—about 30 per cent of refusals for the first class, 29 per cent for the second.
Although many of these applicants had rations until, and shelter perhaps for months after they had secured work, to refuse further aid to 1,175 applicants burned out, or 29 per cent of those who made application from June, 1907, to June, 1909, called for an exercise of courage and a holding firm to the well-defined principles of the relief administrators.
The following criticisms are typical of those that had to be answered:
A woman prominent in labor circles, speaking of a rejected case, said to one of the managers of the Associated Charities and voiced a rather widespread sentiment: “I can’t see the justice of this picking and choosing. My friend was burned out and was just as good as some of those who received help—and there was plenty of money! Who was it for, if not for the refugees?” Another in writing to the office said: “Mrs. X—— is old and ought not to have to work any more. Surely some of that relief money can be found for her.” The bitterness of the refugees themselves made, however, the loudest plaint in the chorus of discontent.
Two classes then, in one or other of which many San Franciscans are today, quarreled with this policy of investigating the claims of the refugees; on the one hand, those who held theoretically that all who had felt the blow should, if they asked, receive help; on the other, those who held concretely that they themselves, having been losers, had a “right” to a portion of the relief fund.
The natural desire to give generously to the limits of one’s capacity, especially to those whom disaster has robbed of competence, is what constructive charity work always has to face from those who “cease not to give without any regard.” As years make it possible to view without prejudice the aim and result of the more cautious, less emotional policy pursued, it seems demonstrable that time will vindicate the much criticized deliberation of the Rehabilitation Committee and the Associated Charities. As has been considered in Part I, the extent of need and of the sum to meet it were both unknown, and what was foreseen happened,—that a portion of the fund was needed to be held in reserve for those who at first courageously refrained from asking help, but who as the strain proved too great necessarily appealed. The dual risk of giving to the sham refugee and of carrying the man who could help himself and who was inclined to lean on relief could only be avoided by careful investigation and treatment, even though both raged at the refusals of an “unjust” committee. The final argument is that no relief should be so generous as to dry up the normal sources of aid in a community. That aid is wisest which rouses all the neighborhood and civic sources of help into effective action.
It is undeniable that the records show a certain number of persons to have been refused aid who seemed as entitled to help as some who by influence or persistence got at least a minimum. “Influence” is used with no invidious intention. In San Francisco as in every other community a certain number of wholly disinterested persons bear an enormous share of the burden of the charity work. When these asked aid for a case and gave their word that it was deserved, it was difficult, often impossible, to deny the aid. The Associated Charities did give help in a good many instances where in its own judgment aid could have been refused and the cases left for reconstruction to neighborship and individual capacities. Table 112 shows the causes for refusal to aid.
The first three reasons for refusal and the ninth and tenth could be brought under the heading “thirst for relief money,” and make the total for the type, 516, or 30.3 per cent of the refusals. The attitude of mind was expressed collectively by the naïve Italian woman who said frankly that she “thought they could get something nice,” and by the Irish woman who said with equal naïveté “they could get something for the asking.” The 77 applicants who asked for money for purposes of relief no longer being granted, asked aid too late for the building of a cottage or for the moving of a house or for furniture. Twenty-seven of these had not been burned out, and about two-fifths of the remaining 50 had had rehabilitation before June, 1907.
TABLE 112.—REASONS FOR NOT GIVING AID FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES TO APPLICANTS
| Reason for not giving aid | APPLICANTS WHO HAD LIVED IN BURNED AREA | Applicants who had not lived in burned area | Applicants whose former place of residence is doubtful | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With rehabil- itation record | Without rehabil- itation record | ||||
| Applicant merely seeking more relief money | 54 | 36 | 21 | 3 | 114 |
| Applicant has already had as much money as is justified | 29 | 4 | 1 | .. | 34 |
| Applicant able to get along without help | 143 | 149 | 61 | 15 | 368 |
| Applicant has relatives who can help or have helped | 27 | 54 | 30 | 2 | 113 |
| Money no longer given for use desired | 19 | 31 | 25 | 2 | 77 |
| Applicant would not accept aid offered | 24 | 27 | 11 | 3 | 65 |
| Applicant’s plan unpracticable | 19 | 14 | 26 | 1 | 60 |
| Applicant withdrew application | 25 | 30 | 43 | 5 | 103 |
| Case reported without knowledge of applicant | 10 | 3 | 13 | 8 | 34 |
| Pauperization feared | 7 | 3 | 3 | .. | 13 |
| Applicant a professional beggar | 31 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 58 |
| Applicant lazy | 4 | 12 | 4 | .. | 20 |
| Applicant vicious | 5 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 25 |
| Applicant a drunkard | 34 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 58 |
| Applicant unthrifty | 3 | 11 | 4 | .. | 18 |
| Applicant could not be found | 13 | 40 | 36 | 14 | 103 |
| Aid received from other sources or case referred to other societies | 53 | 68 | 73 | 19 | 213 |
| Disposal of application not known | 71 | 80 | 65 | 12 | 228 |
| Total | 571 | 604 | 439 | 90 | 1,704 |
In reading some of the cases of families burned out who had no rehabilitation record in the group of 368 “able to get along without aid,” the question often mooted was, “If these were not given, why were others?” This may be a feeling, not a judgment. It is probable that the records, though relatively complete, do not tell enough to permit a fair judgment, but it is one of the regrets of the analyst of these cases that in justice to the difficulties of the current work they could not be re-visited. The protest of the office was that re-visits would stir a whole neighborhood to descend upon it again in hope that there was a little more money to be distributed,—a protest voiced concretely by one visitor, who said, “We can scarcely be seen to pass along the street in a given neighborhood without receiving calls a few days later from people eager to know if there is any more relief money to give away.” The objection, based as it was on a recognition of human frailty, had to be respected. Other objections given to a re-visit were that some persons would be found to be so disgruntled that a fair statement could not be got from them; that others were too stupid to understand the questions or too indifferent to care to answer them. An attempt to re-investigate any of these groups would fairly seem to have been a waste of effort and money.
The small number, 13, refused on the ground of fear of pauperization may raise a smile, but the heading is a reflex of the dread in the minds of some of the visitors. “This is a very decent family who have never had aid,” writes one of the visitors, “and I do not think it well to begin for fear of pauperizing them.” It is noteworthy that of the 58 refused as “professional beggars,” 45 had lived in the burned area and of these 31 had rehabilitation records; that of the 58 refused on account of alcoholic habits, 51 had lived in the burned area, 34 of whom had a rehabilitation record. Whether these refugees had acquired the habits of begging and of drinking after the earthquake experience is not shown by the records. The individuals in these last two groups, many of whom were members of families, needed much more than they asked for, but the thorough investigation and constructive treatment they should have received could not be meted out to them at a time when material assistance was the overwhelming issue.
5. Conclusions
Positive questions have been asked; they have received but few definite answers. It is easy to question, but hard to answer positively, when past efforts are but meagerly recorded, and present efforts are too fresh for an accurate measure to be taken of their results. It is a simple task theoretically to define a line of inquiry; it is a complex one to separate human beings into classes and to determine just what circumstances of character and condition forced each into his appropriate place.
The notable facts for the inquirer as to the effect of the disaster upon the dependency situation are these: There were a little over three and one-half times as many applicants for aid at the Associated Charities during the two years from June, 1907, to June, 1909, as in those from April 18, 1904, to April 18, 1906.
It is not as plain as could be wished how many of the 3996 applicants to the Associated Charities who had lived in the burned area were charges on public or private charity before the fire, or would have become so in any case. The point seems hardly demonstrable.
What is plain beyond question is that the disaster brought for the two years a burden of dependency of over three times the ante-disaster proportions. What is not so plain is how far the relief funds swelled these proportions.
As to results, the records prove some definitely successful instances of aid given. Health restored; financial independence regained by the capable, temporarily dependent; and relatives or friends found to support dependent adults and minors, are achievements cheeringly demonstrable in 25 per cent of the cases.
A relief fund whose amount was fairly adequate to meet the need has had one patent result. A number of persons tottering toward dependency by reason of the failing health of a breadwinner, of a wife, or of children, who in ordinary times would not have been helped in San Francisco, at the right moment received the inspiration of friendly visitors and the instruction of trained nurses. The intellectual and physical care added to the material combined to stay deterioration, and in some instances to raise standards.
The more insistent call of the children for protection because of the demoralizing effects of the camp life brought response from the Associated Charities, which through its children’s agency found for each defenseless child a protecting friend, a foster home, or when nothing else was available or suitable, an appropriate institution.
For the remainder of the cases, results lie less within the range of demonstration. This much is certain; there was neither impulsive nor indiscriminate giving. Though the amount that was spent, inclusive of administration expenses, totals for the period from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, a sum of $236,303.72, yet the first feeling on reading the history of the treatment of the average case was rebellion that in so many instances such niggardly doles had been given. When, as was of course true of adult dependence, the aim was restoration of financial independence, the means granted often seemed insufficient to warrant any hope of success. After this feeling has been for six months tried in the crucible of a careful investigation of the facts of cost of living[252] and habits of spending among persons of low income, it still seems not without foundation.
[252] A study made of the family budgets of 49 cases under care of the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to June, 1909, could not, owing to lack of space, be included in this Relief Survey.
One result of the disaster and of the use of the relief funds is the notably increased efficiency in relief work in San Francisco. Out of the widespread experience born of and bred by facing a large and varied round of relief problems, comes the first gain. While it is incorrect to say that San Francisco had no poverty in the days before the fire, it is true that the mass of those seeking aid were dependents because of unemployment and ill health, both due in many cases to ignorance or to vicious practices. The problem of destitution involved in the care of this type of cases does not stimulate a worker to any such broad and aggressive social policies as those which he must meet when handling the cases of capable and nearly self-directing people whom circumstances alone, loss of occupation, insanitary conditions, new situations, force to seek aid and guidance. Add to this fact of greater experience, that the relief funds enabled the work to be carried by a staff of visitors more nearly adequate than before the fire to meet the demand for investigation and treatment. Add the further fact that there had been enough not only to pay for relatively efficient office service but to give aid of a kind approximately sufficient. In a summary of these three gains will be found in part the value to the Associated Charities of San Francisco and to the people it serves of having been selected as the final agent of the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds will in part be clear.
6. the Associated Charities Since the Fire
When the Associated Charities set up its own office in June, 1907, the allowance of money made to it from the relief fund enabled the society to form a staff of from 12 to 15 experienced workers; to institute a division of labor among the office force which had never before been possible; to announce the formation of a new department, namely, a civic relief bureau; and to undertake to deal in a thorough-going way with all cases handled by this bureau, obtaining employment for applicants when necessary, and giving whatever relief might be called for by the exigencies of the case.
The co-operation of the Associated Charities with all the other philanthropic agencies of the city has been made much closer by the fire. In working together shoulder to shoulder under the Relief Corporation, the philanthropic agencies of the city became well acquainted with one another and the way was paved for important working agreements.
One such working arrangement is that by which various children’s institutions make use of the placing-out department of its children’s agency. During the years 1907-1909, 212 children were taken from orphanages and placed in family homes. Curiously enough, only four of these were children of refugees. The work of the placing-out department in 1909 was double what it had been before the fire.
The children’s agency has another department which demands mention here, because as a result of the disaster its work has also been doubled. This is the boarding-out department. Its expansion is due to two causes. On the one hand, children’s institutions could accept fewer children, having been cut down in capacity by their material losses; and on the other, there had been an actual increase in the number of foundlings, illegitimate infants, and children requiring protection. The records of the juvenile court for 1907-1909 show that 29 per cent of dependency cases came from residents of public camps. The boarding-out department of the Associated Charities had some of these to provide for. Among the candidates for public care were the children of ten insane mothers and the infants of ten unmarried mothers whose plight was thought to be directly traceable to the situation after the fire.