===================================+====_San Francisco Relief Survey; the organization and methods of relief used after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906

Nativity | APPLICANTS OF EACH

| SPECIFIED NATIVITY

+-------------+------------

| Number | Per cent

+------+------+------+-----

|Before| After|Before|After

| fire | fire | fire | fire

-----------------------------------+------+------+------+-----

United States | 532| 1,933| 42.7| 37.0

Ireland | 135| 734| 10.9| 14.0

Italy | 65| 541| 5.2| 10.4

Spain, Mexico and Porto Rico | 113| 500| 9.1| 9.6

Germany | 118| 475| 9.5| 9.1

Great Britain, Canada and | | | |

Australasia | 113| 373| 9.1| 7.1

Norway, Sweden and Denmark | 38| 138| 3.1| 2.6

Finland, Russia, Poland and Armenia| 32| 150| 2.6| 2.9

Other countries (24) | 97| 381| 7.8| 7.3

-----------------------------------+------+------+------+-----

Total | 1,243| 5,225| 100.0|100.0

-----------------------------------+------+------+------+-----

[230] Data are not available as to the nationality of 307 of the 1,550

persons applying for relief before the fire, and of 726 of the 5,951

persons applying for relief after the fire.

No question is of greater importance than that involved in the relation

between relief and the family. In Parts I and II the effort of the

Rehabilitation Committee has been shown to have been to limit closely

the amount of aid given to single, able-bodied persons and to

able-bodied men.[231] This policy is shown in the following table to

have influenced the work of the Associated Charities also, so that the

widow and the handicapped family received primary consideration in the

extended rehabilitation work.

[231] See Part I, p. 47, and Part II, p. 123. This policy was, of

course, being carried out in spirit when breadwinners were helped not

with continued general relief, but with means to re-establish a home

through a housing or business grant.

TABLE 99.--FAMILY TYPES AMONG APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF FROM ASSOCIATED

CHARITIES, BEFORE FIRE AND AFTER FIRE[232]

======================================+===============================

| CASES OF EACH SPECIFIED TYPE

+---------------+---------------

Family type | Number | Per cent

+-------+-------+-------+-------

| Before| After | Before| After

| fire | fire | fire | fire

--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------

Families | | | |

(1) Married couples with children | 500 | 2,012 | 34.2 | 33.9

(2) Married couples without children| 109 | 522 | 7.5 | 8.8

(3) Widows with children | 167 | 1,044 | 11.4 | 17.5

(4) Deserted wives with children | 53 | 258 | 3.6 | 4.3

(5) Widowers with children | 41 | 144 | 2.8 | 2.4

(6) Deserted husbands with children | 8 | 20 | 0.6 | 0.3

(7) Divorced men or women with | | | |

children | 26 | 109 | 1.8 | 1.8

(8) Orphan families | 10 | 30 | 0.7 | 0.5

(9) Illegitimate families | 6 | 65 | 0.4 | 1.1

--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------

Total families | =920=|=4,204=| =63.0=| =70.6=

| | | |

Detached persons | | | |

Men | 362 | 916 | 24.8 | 15.4

Women | 163 | 798 | 11.1 | 13.4

--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------

Total detached persons | =525=|=1,714=| =35.9=| =28.8=

| | | |

Dependent minors | =16=| =33=| =1.1=| =0.6=

--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------

Grand Total |=1,461=|=5,951=|=100.0=|=100.0=

--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------

[232] Data are not available as to the family type of 89 of the 1,550

persons applying for relief before the fire.

Since the term “families” covers the widest range of variations in

social status, it has seemed wise to make the nine family

classifications given in the above table. It is plain that the seventh

group lacks in value as compared with the classifying of each group

separately according to sex. The incompleteness of the records made a

separation by sex impossible. The most notable difference in the numbers

applying for relief before and after the fire occurs in the case of

widows with children. If to the 1,044 widows with children--taking the

figures of the second period--be added the 258 deserted women and the 30

orphaned families, all supported by women, 1,332, or 22.3 per cent of

all the cases, are shown to be families dependent upon women as

breadwinners. If the 798 childless, detached women be added to the

1,332, we have 2,130 women dependents, or 35.7 per cent of those that

applied,[233] which must be compared with 26.8 per cent for the period

before the fire. The 164 widowers and deserted husbands with children,

2.7 per cent of all the cases of the later period, is a relatively

larger number of such cases than is usually found in charity records.

The proportion of the group called “illegitimate families” rests upon

facts open to challenge as to exactness or completeness. Though the

presumption is that the number is too small, 65 such cases for the

second period are all that can be proven by the records. The fact that

the percentage of applications from single men was less after than

before the fire shows that the policy to limit relief given to this

class had a deterrent effect. The 49 dependent minors applying to the

Associated Charities in the two periods for various reasons were not

referred for care to the city’s child-caring agencies.

[233] See Devine, Edward T.: Misery and Its Causes, New York,

Macmillan, 1909. The percentage of women breadwinners in the 500

cases, New York Charity Organization Society in the year 1908 is given

as 40.8 per cent.

Of 1,375 married couples who had lived in the burned area 647, or nearly

47 per cent, had a rehabilitation record, while the majority of all the

men applying were without such records. By actual count over 80 per cent

of the single men who made the first application after June, 1907, had

come to San Francisco within the year after the disaster, lured

presumably by the expectation of work.

The age of the person entered on the statement card as the main source

of support for the family group, has been chosen as the age basis for

Table 100.

In the second period of time 55.6 per cent of all the cases in which the

age was ascertained were over forty years of age. This proportion falls

to 54 per cent when the family cases alone are considered.

From the records for the first period, it was possible to tabulate data

relative to the age of the breadwinner for only 661 family groups. In

only 175 of these 661 groups, or 26.5 per cent, was the breadwinner

known to be over forty years of age.

TABLE 100.--AGE OF PRINCIPAL BREADWINNER IN FAMILIES APPLYING FOR RELIEF

FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909[234]

===========================+=====================

Age of breadwinner | FAMILIES WITH

| BREADWINNER OF EACH

| SPECIFIED AGE

+----------+----------

| Number | Per cent

---------------------------+----------+----------

Under 30 years | 682 | 16.2

30 years and under 35 years| 597 | 14.2

35 years and under 40 years| 647 | 15.4

40 years and under 60 years| 1,632 | 38.8

60 years or over | 646 | 15.4

---------------------------+----------+----------

Total | 4,204 | 100.0

---------------------------+----------+----------

[234] Data are not available as to the age of the principal

breadwinner in 1,747 of the 5,951 families applying for relief after

the fire.

TABLE 101.--AGE OF PRINCIPAL BREADWINNER IN FAMILIES APPLYING FOR RELIEF

FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, BEFORE FIRE AND AFTER FIRE, BY FAMILY

TYPE[235]

=======================================+============+===============

Family type | Families | FAMILIES WITH

| for which | BREADWINNER 40

|information | YEARS OF AGE

|as to age of| OR OVER

|breadwinner +------+--------

|is available|Number|Per cent

| | | of all

| | |families

---------------------------------------+------------+------+--------

Married couples with children | | |

Before fire | 372 | 83 | 22.3

After fire | 2,012 | 946 | 47.0

Married couples without children | | |

Before fire | 84 | 26 | 31.0

After fire | 522 | 293 | 56.1

Widows and deserted women with children| | |

Before fire | 135 | 44 | 32.6

After fire | 1,302 | 864 | 66.4

Widowers and deserted men with children| | |

Before fire | 34 | 17 | 50.0

After fire | 164 | 110 | 67.1

Other family types | | |

Before fire | 36 | 5 | 13.9

After fire | 204 | 65 | 31.9

---------------------------------------+------------+------+--------

Total Before fire | 661 | 175 | 26.5

After fire | 4,204 |2,278 | 54.2

---------------------------------------+------------+------+--------

[235] Data are not available as to age of the principal breadwinner

and family type for 889 of the 1,550 families of persons applying for

relief before the fire, and for 1,747 of the 5,951 families applying

for relief after the fire.

[Illustration: Largely rebuilt. Washington Square restored to park uses

TELEGRAPH HILL AND WASHINGTON SQUARE]

The preponderance of applicants past forty in the second period is not

surprising. Given a prosperous community and care in dispensing aid in

time of disaster it was to be expected that those approaching middle age

would be the ones to apply for and to receive aid.

It is interesting to note whether the strain due to the conditions

following the disaster was felt more by the native or by the foreign

born married groups.

TABLE 102.--AGE OF PRINCIPAL BREADWINNER IN FAMILIES THAT HAD BEEN

BURNED OUT APPLYING FOR RELIEF FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, BY NATIVITY

AND REHABILITATION RECORD. JUNE 1, 1907-JUNE 1, 1909[236]

=======================================+============+================

| Families |FAMILIES BURNED

| burned out | OUT WITH

| for which | BREADWINNER

Nativity and rehabilitation record |information | 40 YEARS

|as to age of| OF AGE OR OVER

|breadwinner +-------+--------

|is available| Number|Per cent

---------------------------------------+------------+-------+--------

Native born | | |

With rehabilitation record | 558 | 322 | 57.7

Without rehabilitation record | 473 | 226 | 47.8

---------------------------------------+------------+-------+--------

Total | =1,031= | =548=| =53.2=

| | |

Foreign born | | |

With rehabilitation record | 966 | 666 | 68.9

Without rehabilitation record | 1,032 | 583 | 56.5

---------------------------------------+------------+-------+--------

Total | =1,998= |=1,249=| =62.5=

| | |

All cases with rehabilitation record | =1,524= | =988=| =64.8=

All cases without rehabilitation record| =1,505= | =809=| =53.8=

---------------------------------------+------------+-------+--------

Grand total | =3,029= |=1,797=| =59.3=

---------------------------------------+------------+-------+--------

[236] Data are not available as to age of the principal breadwinner,

nativity, and rehabilitation record for 967 of the 3,996 burned out

families applying for relief after the fire.

The answer given by the table is that the foreign born family was older

than the native born, whether it had had rehabilitation aid before

applying to the Associated Charities or not. The facts indicate that the

courage and resourcefulness of comparative youth whether of the foreign

or of the native born, tended to make men under forty wait until all

other resources had failed before appealing for aid.

The number of children shown in Table 103 gives but the approximate

number of living children of the different families. Though data were

fairly complete for children, minor and adult, living at home, there

were probably many instances in which children who were married or no

longer members of the household, were not named on the statement card.

The count, however, tells facts sufficiently interesting to a student of

dependency to warrant its inclusion.

TABLE 103.--NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN FAMILIES HAVING CHILDREN APPLYING FOR

RELIEF FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, BEFORE FIRE AND AFTER FIRE

==================+=========================

Number of children| FAMILIES HAVING EACH

| SPECIFIED NUMBER OF

| CHILDREN

+------------+------------

| Number | Per cent

+------+-----+------+-----

|Before|After|Before|After

| fire | fire| fire | fire

------------------+------+-----+------+-----

One | 263 |1,204| 32.4| 32.7

Two | 205 | 989| 25.3| 26.9

Three | 150 | 608| 18.5| 16.5

Four | 85 | 370| 10.5| 10.0

Five | 58 | 255| 7.2| 6.9

Six | 26 | 130| 3.2| 3.5

Seven | 9 | 69| 1.1| 1.9

Eight | 9 | 36| 1.1| 1.0

Nine or over | 6 | 21| .7| .6

------------------+------+-----+------+-----

Total | 811 |3,682| 100.0|100.0

------------------+------+-----+------+-----

In the first period only 6 per cent of these families applying had more

than five children; in the second only 7 per cent. Seventy-six per cent

of the families in each period had three or a smaller number of

children. Large families evidently played a small part in the dependency

situation. It is true that the cases which presented serious problems of

treatment were often those with a large number of children, but the

actual number of such cases was small. The high average age of the

applicant and the likelihood, therefore, of his having unrecorded

children living away from home must, it is reiterated, be borne in mind.

The applicants in 75 per cent of the cases of the second period,

mentioned in Table 104, were found to be suffering from two or more

disabilities. The classifications were taken from the case records.

TABLE 104.--CAUSES OF DISABILITY AMONG APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF FROM

ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, BEFORE FIRE AND AFTER FIRE

====================+===========================

Disability | CASES IN WHICH THE CHIEF

|DISABILITY WAS AS SPECIFIED

+------------+--------------

| Number | Per cent

+------+-----+------+-------

|Before|After|Before| After

| fire | fire| fire | fire

--------------------+------+-----+------+-------

Death | 31 | 111| 2.0| 1.9

Illness | 493 |1,366| 31.8| 23.0

Old age | 56 | 344| 3.6| 5.8

Accident | 94 | 264| 6.1| 4.4

Unemployment | 302 |1,532| 19.5| 25.7

Laziness | 26 | 184| 1.7| 3.1

Desertion or divorce| 90 | 151| 5.8| 2.5

Vicious habits | 143 | 295| 9.2| 5.0

Other disabilities | 315 |1,704| 20.3| 28.6

--------------------+------+-----+------+-------

Total |1,550 |5,951| 100.0| 100.0

--------------------+------+-----+------+-------

The largest single disability for the second period was unemployment. Of

those who applied to the office between June, 1907, and June, 1909,

1532, or 25.7 per cent, came for the alleged reason that they were out

of work. The greater percentage of illness before than after the

disaster is also noteworthy. Included in the other disabilities or

handicaps that led to application for relief should be mentioned

unsanitary surroundings and overstrain, the latter a term used to

describe a general break-down of nerve due to the conditions following

the disaster. Under the caption “vicious habits” are included all cases

in which drunkenness, the drug habit, brutality, licentiousness, or

professional mendicancy had played their part in bringing persons to be

a charge upon a charity office. Add to those classed as having vicious

habits those who were recorded as being lazy, as having deserted or

divorced a partner, and 49 of those reported under “other disabilities”

who had been neglectful or had served a penal term, and we have a total

of 679 persons of the second period who may be said to have come to make

application, or caused others to apply, by reason of the effects of

wrong living. As this count does not include those whose illnesses

resulted from evil practices or those whose unemployment resulted from

disabling vice, it is not complete. It indicates, however, that

dependency after the fire did not come in an exceptionally large number

of cases as a result of evil living. Before the fire vicious habits were

reported as responsible for 9.2 per cent of all the cases of distress.

4. OCCUPATIONS OF APPLICANTS

In the table that follows all applicants for relief for the second

period are classified by general occupation.

TABLE 105.--APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES CLASSIFIED

BY GENERAL OCCUPATIONS, AS REFUGEES WITH AND WITHOUT REHABILITATION

RECORD, AND AS NON-REFUGEES. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909

=====================+=========================+======+========+=====

Occupation | APPLICANTS WHO HAD LIVED|Appli-| Appli- |Total

| IN BURNED AREA | cants| cants | of

+---------+---------+-----+ who | whose | all

| | | |burned| is |

---------------------+---------+---------+-----+------+--------+-----

Professional service | 44 | 38 | 82| 45| 6 | 133

Public service | 11 | 7 | 18| 10| .. | 28

service | 574 | 366 | 940| 252| 13 |1,205

Unskilled labor | 255 | 372 | 627| 288| 20 | 935

Transportation | 94 | 110 | 204| 83| 10 | 297

Trade | 172 | 114 | 286| 109| 15 | 410

mechanical industries| 579 | 460 |1,039| 371| 30 |1,440

occupations | 24 | 32 | 56| 30| 3 | 89

Unknown | 127 | 617 | 744| 554| 116 |1,414

---------------------+---------+---------+-----+------+--------+-----

Total | 1,880 | 2,116 |3,996| 1,742| 213 |5,951

---------------------+---------+---------+-----+------+--------+-----

[Illustration: A street, showing close quarters in camp

WASHINGTON SQUARE CAMP]

In between 23 and 24 per cent of the cases, the facts of occupation were

not stated in the records. A study of the cases remaining proves how

widely need distributed itself through all economic classes in the

community. The persons enumerated were engaged in about 200 different

callings.

Of the 4,537 persons for whom data concerning occupation were secured,

32 per cent were employed in the manufacturing and mechanical

industries, 27 per cent were in personal and domestic service, and 21

per cent were in unskilled labor. The proportion of applicants in trade

was 9 per cent and in transportation between 6 and 7 per cent. Less than

3 per cent of the applicants were in professional service or in

miscellaneous occupations and less than 1 per cent in public service.

Whether considered as having lived within or without the burned area, no

striking difference appears in the proportion in each group of

occupations.

The facts concerning the occupations of the needy show that the mass of

poverty in San Francisco centered, as might be expected, in the same

occupations before the fire as afterwards. The data for both periods are

presented in Table 106.

TABLE 106.--GENERAL OCCUPATIONS OF APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF FROM ASSOCIATED

CHARITIES, BEFORE FIRE AND AFTER FIRE[237]

=======================================+=========================

Occupational group |APPLICANTS IN EACH SPECI-

| FIED OCCUPATIONAL GROUP

+------------+------------

| Number | Per cent

+------+-----+------+-----

|Before|After|Before|After

| fire |fire | fire |fire

---------------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----

Professional service | 67| 133| 6.1| 2.9

Public service | 13| 28| 1.2| .6

Personal and domestic service | 259|1,205| 23.4| 26.6

Unskilled labor | 243| 935| 22.0| 20.6

Transportation | 85| 297| 7.7| 6.5

Trade | 107| 410| 9.6| 9.0

Manufacturing and mechanical industries| 297|1,440| 26.8| 31.8

Miscellaneous occupations | 36| 89| 3.2| 2.0

---------------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----

Total | 1,107|4,537| 100.0|100.0

---------------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----

[237] Data are not available as to the occupations of 443 of the 1,550

persons applying for relief before the fire, and of 1,414 of the 5,951

persons applying for relief after the fire.

In the two years before April 18, 1906, as in the two years following

June 1, 1907, the largest percentage of persons was engaged in those

vocations which are grouped as mechanical and manufacturing trades, as

unskilled labor, and as personal and domestic service. The proportion of

applicants in these three groups combined was, however, smaller before

the fire, totaling 72.2 per cent before the fire as compared with 79 per

cent in the later period. This is possibly due, in part, to the fact

that the proportion of persons whose occupation was unknown was larger

before the fire than after. The proportion of demand for help from

persons in professional and public service was larger before the fire

than after, for applicants in these occupations constituted 7.3 per cent

of the cases in the period from April, 1904, to April, 1906, and only

3.5 per cent of the later cases. The disaster only slightly affected the

proportion of persons in need who were in transportation employment or

in trade. Before the fire 7.7 per cent of all applicants were in

transportation employment and 9.6 per cent in trade, and after the fire

6.5 per cent were in transportation employment and 9 per cent in trade.

No specific data as to income are offered, because after some brief

experimentation a study of income seemed futile. A person applying for

aid may understate his income because he is humanly open to the

temptation of trying to make as good a case for himself as possible, or

may overstate it because he does not take into account the amount of

irregularity to which he as a weekly or daily wage-earner is subject. In

about 3000 of the cases in which income data were available for study,

the potential earning power could have been in every case safely

estimated by the occupations. The income for the average breadwinners,

most of them semi-skilled, may be said to have approached during the

periods stated the sum of $15 to $20 per week, an amount that represents

something near the minimum earning power of the wage workers in San

Francisco, a class of persons paid more highly than in any other part of

the United States. For instance, among the American families burned out

who were given aid, 32 gave their earning power at $10 to $15 per week,

27 at $15 to $20, and 21 at $20 or over.

It is of course of fundamental importance that the relief agent should

know the total income of the families or individuals applying for aid.

Only by learning what the income actually or approximately is can

treatment be made to fit actual need. The record hurriedly written under

pressure of work may fail to reveal the facts used by the investigator

in determining treatment. The record may not, therefore, show the actual

sum of knowledge held and used as the basis for treatment. The record,

on the other hand, may be no more meager than was the investigation that

it records. In the latter case, investigation, as well as treatment, has

been in the hands of an agent who has lacked either time or training, or

both, to do work such as is called for by the present standards of

adequate case work.[238]

[238] See Part III, p. 173, for method of determining income of

persons owning their own business.

Summarizing the facts concerning the character of the cases and the

situation that forced these individuals to seek aid, it would appear

that the cases group themselves into three leading types.

1. Dependency because of abnormal conditions.

2. Dependency because disaster had converted semi-dependency into

complete dependency.

3. Dependency because character and circumstance, irrespective of

abnormal conditions, induced dependency.

It is plain that each group requires a separate treatment and that in

estimating the character and utility of the relief measures applied,

each class will have to be kept in mind. A conscientious effort was made

to find how many of the applicants belonged to both periods of

treatment, but the results of the efforts were so inconclusive that they

cannot be given.

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.

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| Amount of

|grants or| grants

| orders | 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.

[Illustration: 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|Amount of

| grants | 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 |Grants or pensions of

or pension |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.

[Illustration: 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 | Appli-| Appli- |Total

| HAD LIVED IN | cants | cants |

| BURNED AREA |who had| whose |

+---------+---------+ not | former |

--------------------------+---------+---------+-------+---------+-----

more relief money | 54 | 36 | 21 | 3 | 114

justified | 29 | 4 | 1 | .. | 34

along without help | 143 | 149 | 61 | 15 | 368

helped | 27 | 54 | 30 | 2 | 113

use desired | 19 | 31 | 25 | 2 | 77

aid offered | 24 | 27 | 11 | 3 | 65

unpracticable | 19 | 14 | 26 | 1 | 60

application | 25 | 30 | 43 | 5 | 103

knowledge of applicant | 10 | 3 | 13 | 8 | 34

Pauperization feared | 7 | 3 | 3 | .. | 13

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

found | 13 | 40 | 36 | 14 | 103

to other societies | 53 | 68 | 73 | 19 | 213

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.

PART VI

THE RESIDUUM OF RELIEF

THE AGED, THE INFIRM, AND THE HANDICAPPED

PART VI

THE RESIDUUM OF RELIEF: THE AGED, THE INFIRM, AND THE HANDICAPPED

PAGE

I. INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP 321

1. History of Its Establishment 321

2. Administration 324

3. General Statistics 327

II. RELIEF AND NON-RELIEF CASES 335

1. General Analysis 335

2. Applicants and Non-applicants for Relief and Rehabilitation 336

III. RESULTS 356

INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP

1. HISTORY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT

Owing to the general confusion in the city, the emergency character of

the relief, and the constant shifting and changing of the homeless

population immediately after the earthquake and fire, the first grouping

of the refugee camps was entirely accidental. No classification by age,

condition, or special need was possible. But among the first naturally

to be differentiated were the aged and the infirm, who must be cared for

until friends or relatives could assume their support. If they proved

ultimately to be friendless as well as homeless and incapable of

self-support, provision would have to be made for permanent care. As

early as June these classes were sent to Camp 6,[253] the Speedway, and

plans for sheltering those who would require public relief during the

ensuing winter were discussed. By the end of July their housing became a

pressing problem.

[253] For description of the official camps, see Part I, p. 78 ff.

In 1906 the city and county of San Francisco had an almshouse

accommodating about 900 persons, situated on a fine tract of land about

one mile southeast of Golden Gate Park. Some of its buildings were very

old and insanitary, the standard of care was low, and it was full to

overflowing. After mature consideration the Corporation finally

determined to build a Relief Home on this tract and to present it to the

city as a permanent provision for aged dependents; but since it seemed

probable that the new building could not be finished before the summer

of 1907[254] it became necessary to provide at once temporary barracks

for the shelter of the aged and infirm.

[254] The building of the Relief Home was authorized September 18,

1906, but on account of shortage of lumber and delay due to abnormal

labor conditions it was not ready for occupancy until January, 1908.

At that time the cost of lumber, transportation, and labor was

excessive, and there was the added difficulty of quickly finding a

suitable location. The generous offer of Thomas H. Williams, president

of the California Jockey Club, to give free use of the race track

buildings, relieved the pressure on the Corporation to make provision

for the winter. At Ingleside race track there were 26 stables, each 40 x

160 to 220 feet, containing from 20 to 40 box stalls apiece. The

buildings were already piped for water, partially sewered, easily

accessible by street car, and in such condition that they could be made

ready for occupancy in a short time and at a relatively small cost.

The offer was at once accepted, and the Department of Lands and

Buildings was authorized to make the necessary alterations. The stalls

were thoroughly renovated to serve as single rooms for inmates. They

were cleaned and disinfected, windows were put in, the floors were

covered with canvas and the walls with building paper. The hay lofts

were converted into dormitories. The buildings were connected with the

main sewer to the ocean and each was equipped with toilets, baths, hot

and cold water, and a large heating stove. The section to be used as a

kitchen was furnished with four large army ranges, and the dining room

with a number of long tables and benches, and with enamelware dishes.

Simple furniture for each room and for the dormitories, a butcher shop,

and storage warehouse, completed the preparations for those who were

fairly able-bodied. For the sick a hospital section with a separate

kitchen was established, to be used in addition to the annex of St.

Luke’s Hospital already on the grounds. Finally, one section was set

aside as a social and reading room, and another for religious services.

While these preparations were under way, a great diversity of opinion

existed as to how many aged and infirm and handicapped refugees would

finally remain to be cared for at Ingleside. The population of Camp 6,

where the decrepit and semi-able-bodied refugees were concentrated, had

been at the beginning of July 756 persons, and was over 800 when

Ingleside Camp was ready early in October. It was expected to have added

to this latter number a few persons from each of the other camps as

these were abandoned, and to subtract a few who did not belong in the

special classes for which Ingleside was intended. September 5, Rudolph

Spreckels, chairman of the Department of Camps and Warehouses, estimated

the final number at 500, because whenever the food kitchens had been

closed only a few persons had applied to be admitted to Camp 6.[255]

Seats for about 700 were provided in the dining room at Ingleside.

[255] San Francisco _Chronicle_, Sept. 6, 1906.

[Illustration: INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP]

In the autumn, as fast as the cottages[256] were completed, the tents

were abandoned and the families removed to the cottages. Those not

capable of self-support or who had no relatives to care for them were

assigned to Camp 6, to be sent to Ingleside when it should be ready.

Some of this residue refused to go to Camp 6, and managed to find

friends or work at the last moment,[257] so that when the inmates of

Camp 6 were finally removed to Ingleside between October 8 and October

29, there remained to enter only 400 from Camp 6, and 84 from all the

other camps,--a total of less than 500. The subsequent condemnation of

the old City and County Hospital followed by the accidental burning of

one of the almshouse buildings in the spring of 1908 made it necessary

to send some inmates of both these institutions in March, 1908, to

Ingleside Camp, which had been closed following the transfer of the aged

and infirm in January to the Relief Home. One hundred and thirty-one

almshouse inmates were about to be moved to Ingleside in the latter part

of October, 1907, when the politicians discovered that this would

deprive the almshouse men of their residence and invalidate their vote

in the impending election. Some of the newspapers spoke of it as “a

political job to deprive registered voters of the suffrage which had

been enjoyed for years” and the transfer was finally postponed till

after election. These 131 almshouse inmates are not included in the

detailed statistics which follow.

[256] See Part I, pp. 82 and 85 ff.

[257] See preceding reference, also, for part taken by Associated

Charities in reducing number of the residue chargeable on the new

institution.

At no time was the number of inmates higher than 809. Altogether 1,287

names were registered on the index book during the fifteen months of its

existence. This discrepancy of approximately 500 between the highest

number and the total population of Ingleside represents the movement of

the more able-bodied and least permanent residents of the camp. In the

detailed study of cases it will appear that a certain number of adults

were sent to Ingleside who did not properly belong there or whose

rehabilitation had been postponed by the withholding of the relief

funds. Besides these, a few refugees waiting to hear from friends were

admitted for a short period; and a few transient men and women stayed

for less than a month, leaving in many cases no record except a name. In

short, out of the total of 1,287 persons at Ingleside during 1906 and

1907, not more than half belonged to the aged, infirm, and handicapped

classes for which permanent provision would have to be made.

2. ADMINISTRATION

Ingleside Model Camp was organized October 8, 1906, by Captain Julius N.

Kilian,[258] of the United States Army. On January 1, 1907, the command

was transferred to C. M. Wollenberg[259] who had been up to that time

chief clerk in the Department of Camps and Warehouses.

[258] Captain Kilian had been in charge of the Moulder School

Warehouse. See Part I, p. 37.

[259] Mr. Wollenberg continued in charge during the consolidation of

Ingleside with the almshouse and, having qualified under the civil

service law in July, 1908, became the permanent superintendent of the

Relief Home.

Besides being old, infirm, or incapacitated to some degree, the classes

assembled at Ingleside were inevitably the most discontented of all the

refugees. During the months of Captain Kilian’s administration certain

conditions prevailed that made his task exceptionally difficult. All the

inmates had been torn from their habitual grooves of life and had

suffered shock and considerable hardship; many had feebly but vainly

tried to get back into old niches and could not adapt themselves to new

ones. Some had applied for rehabilitation only to be gently told that

they were too old to begin again or that their plans were impracticable;

others had found their friends and relatives to be neglectful; still

others, the last precipitate of the social confusion, were a

semi-vicious, irresponsible, and idle lot who were at Ingleside only

because they could not find food and shelter in their old disreputable

haunts. All, regardless of capacity or need, were convinced that they

were being deprived of their “just and equal share” of the millions

contributed by a philanthropic public.

Among this heterogeneous company, many of whom had fallen into vulgar

and disorderly, if not vicious, habits during six months of

irresponsible camp life, it was Captain Kilian’s task to establish good

feeling, health, and discipline. The restoration of order began with the

enforcement of cleanliness and decency. When the inmates grabbed their

food from the dishes on the table they were summarily relegated to what

became known as the “hog table”; when they fought among themselves, or

railed at the employes, or returned drunk from a visit to friends

outside, they were warned; if the offense was repeated, they were

ejected from camp. During the first three months 30 were ejected, and in

the following year from five to 10 persons a month were sent away. Of

the total of 70 persons sent away from the camp the majority (30 men and

10 women) were ejected for drunkenness; the remainder for stealing,

vulgar conduct, and insubordination. It was found necessary to

discipline and finally to discharge for intoxication a considerable

number of employes as well as refugees. The strict insistence upon

sobriety meant a better grade of helpers for the camp.

The restlessness of the inmates and the accessibility of Ingleside to

five saloons at the gate and to the street cars made a rather strict

regulation of admission and discharge necessary. When inmates overstayed

their passes they were required to show cause on their return, and were

sometimes refused re-admission. As a consequence, some ran away and

others who went out on passes never returned. A curious result of the

confusion after the fire is revealed by the easy movement of persons

from the old almshouse to Ingleside. It appears that 59 of the 1,287

inmates of Ingleside had been in the almshouse at some time before the

fire; and that 114 inmates ran away from the almshouse or were

discharged at their own request between April, 1906, and January, 1907.

Those familiar with the conditions of both institutions believe that

between 100 and 200 persons left the almshouse and went to refugee camps

to pose as earthquake sufferers, to return ultimately to the almshouse

either directly or through Ingleside.[260]

[260] The almshouse records of this period do not show accurately the

movement of the inmates. It is probable that a much larger number left

than they indicate.

When Captain Kilian was recalled to regular military duty in January,

1907, he left a camp of about 660 refugees comfortably housed, well fed,

and under excellent discipline. He had not, however, undertaken to solve

one of the most important problems, the employment of inmates within the

camp. During the military period, paid employes performed the greater

part of the labor necessary to the maintenance of the camp. Mr.

Wollenberg on taking charge required, as he had a smaller staff of

employes, a definite amount of labor, varying according to the physical

condition of each inmate. This policy served both as a disciplinary

measure and as a means of natural selection. The comparatively

ablebodied were ejected from camp if they refused to work, so that the

population gradually sifted down to the aged, the infirm, and the

incapacitated who had no relatives to care for them. Besides the routine

duties necessary to keep the camp in sanitary condition, other work was

provided. Twelve acres of ground were planted in potatoes, cabbages, and

turnips at a cost of about $100. The yield was over $600 worth of

vegetables. A dairy was established to provide the camp with milk;

furniture was made by the men for the new Relief Home, to be opened in

January, 1908. Tailoring and carpentry shops and a shoe repairing shop

afforded work at a fair wage. A sewing department was organized by

Lucile Eaves,[261] with an equipment of 20 sewing machines and materials

in bulk from the relief supplies. Every woman who could sew was expected

to be in the sewing room twice a week, and during fifteen months over

6,000 garments and 754 curtains for the Home were made and distributed.

The Woman’s Alliance provided social recreation at least once a week, as

well as books and magazines.

[261] See Part I, p. 88.

In spite of the shock of fire and earthquake, and in spite of the

discomforts of camp life in the preceding summer, the health of the

inmates of Ingleside Model Camp was exceptionally good. This was no

doubt due to the regularity of life, the good food, the strict

enforcement of sanitary regulations, and the prompt medical attention.

The camp hospital, which contained an average of 30 patients during the

first few months, was enlarged in July, 1907, to make room for its

quota, 35, of the City and County Hospital patients, and thereafter

averaged 77 patients. During thirteen months only 49 deaths occurred at

Ingleside, and most of these were due to old age. There were, however,

24 deaths in hospitals to which patients were sent from Ingleside. This

rather small number does not fully represent the proportion of deaths to

the number of inmates, as the personnel of the camp was constantly

changing. Of the 1,287 inmates of Ingleside 164 were known to be dead

three years after the fire.

For the accommodation of its almshouse charges at Ingleside the city

agreed to pay 30 cents a day per inmate, at the time that it was costing

38.6 cents a day to maintain an inmate in the almshouse. The average

cost a day per inmate at Ingleside during 1907 was 50 cents. The total

cost of Ingleside Model Camp for approximately fifteen months was:

Construction $36,230.59

Operation and maintenance $173,573.19

Care of almshouse inmates $21,447.04

3. GENERAL STATISTICS

The Ingleside records which constitute the basis of the tables that

follow were merely admission cards made out by the commanders of camps.

They give information with regard to sex, age, marital condition,

nativity, occupation, address on April 17, 1906, and the name and

address of a relative or friend who should be notified in case of death.

The cards were obviously not intended for sociological purposes. They

often do not give some of these simple facts, and are not uniform in

statement; but they have been supplemented by information taken from the

records of an investigator at Camp 6, and from the cases on file in the

Associated Charities and the Rehabilitation Committee offices. The

records have been further amplified through interviews with a number of

employes who were for a long time at Ingleside, and are most of them now

employed at the Relief Home. The greatest care has been taken not to

draw unwarrantable conclusions from incomplete and uncertain data.

Aside from placing on record a brief history of Ingleside Model Camp,

the main purpose of this study has been: first, to find what proportion

of the inmates of Ingleside had been self-supporting before the fire of

1906 and what proportion were at that time potential almshouse inmates;

second, to examine critically the treatment of those aged and infirm

persons who awaited at Ingleside the outcome of their applications for

rehabilitation; and third, to determine whether any number of those now

dependent upon public relief could have been saved from that fate.

Tables 113 and 114 show concisely the conjugal condition of the

Ingleside population and the extent to which the inmates differed in

this respect from the aged, infirm, and incapacitated population in the

San Francisco almshouse during the thirty-five years preceding 1906, and

from the general population of California.

TABLE 113.--INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP BY CONJUGAL CONDITION AND

SEX[262]

===============================+======================================

Conjugal condition | PERSONS WHOSE CONJUGAL CONDITION WAS

| AS SPECIFIED

+------------+------------+------------

| Males | Females | Total

+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----

|Number| Per |Number| Per |Number| Per

-------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----

Single | 385 | 53.3| 90 | 20.7| 475 | 41.1

Married | 77 | 10.7| 67 | 15.4| 144 | 12.5

Widowed | 166 | 23.0| 218 | 50.3| 384 | 33.2

Divorced, separated or deserted| 13 | 1.8| 15 | 3.5| 28 | 2.4

Unknown | 81 | 11.2| 44 | 10.1| 125 | 10.8

-------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----

Total | 722 |100.0| 434 |100.0|1,156 |100.0

| | | | | [263]|

-------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----

[262] These figures relating to conjugal condition were taken from the

rough admission statements of persons admitted to Ingleside and do not

exactly correspond with the figures presented in Tables 119 and 120,

which were take from the files of the Relief Committee and the

Associated Charities. The latter probably correspond more nearly to

the facts.

[263] The 131 inmates who were transferred to Ingleside from the

almshouse, as has been stated, are not included in this study.

The preponderance of men is characteristic of all refuges for the aged

and infirm, partly because old women can earn a bare living by petty

domestic services long after the age at which old men can maintain

themselves at hard labor; partly because relatives, however poor, are

more loath to allow an aged woman than an aged man to become dependent

on public charity. As regards family ties, the table shows further the

isolated condition of this group. Two-fifths of them may be assumed to

have had no living children; the remainder had had six months to rejoin

their children but had failed to do so.

The conjugal condition of the Ingleside population is compared in the

following table with that of the inmates of the almshouses of the United

States in 1903-04, as well as with the general population of the state

in 1900.

TABLE 114.--CONJUGAL CONDITION OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP,

COMPARED WITH CONJUGAL CONDITION OF INMATES OF ALL ALMSHOUSES OF THE

UNITED STATES IN 1903-4 AND OF THE GENERAL POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA 15

YEARS OF AGE AND OVER, IN 1900

=================================+==========+===========+=============

|Inmates of|Inmates of |General popu-

|Ingleside | all alms- | lation of

|Model Camp| houses of |California,

| |the United | 15 years

| | States |of age and

| |1903-4[264]|over, 1900

---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------

Number considered | _1,156_ | _163,176_ | _1,095,222_

---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------

Per cent: | | |

Single | 41.1 | 52.1 | 41.2

Married | 12.5 | 16.0 | 49.3

Widowed | 33.2 | 27.8 | 8.1

Divorced, separated or deserted| 2.4 | 1.3 | .8

Unknown | 10.8 | 2.8 | .6

---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------

Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0

---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------

[264] The figures given relate to paupers in almshouses December 31,

1903, and to paupers admitted during the year 1904.

The percentage of single persons at Ingleside was about one-fifth less

than in the almshouses of the country at large. This difference is due

probably to the fact that the Ingleside Camp did not admit

children.[265] Under no one of the three classifications was the number

of single persons shown to be less than 41 per cent. The percentage of

widowed persons at Ingleside was about one-fifth more than in the

almshouses at large, and four times as great as in the general

population of the state. The discrepancy between the number of widowed

and married persons at Ingleside in comparison with the almshouses of

the United States may be accounted for by the fact that a number of

so-called “widowed” persons reported at Ingleside were separated or

deserting partners.

[265] A few children were at Ingleside with their mothers for a short

period while awaiting the completing of plans, but they are not

included in the 1,156 cases upon which this table is based.

Table 115 shows the ages of the inmates as compared with those of

inmates of the San Francisco almshouse and of all almshouses during the

periods specified.

TABLE 115.--AGE DISTRIBUTION OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP,

COMPARED WITH AGE DISTRIBUTION OF INMATES OF SAN FRANCISCO ALMSHOUSE

DURING A TEN-YEAR PERIOD, AND OF INMATES OF ALL ALMSHOUSES OF THE UNITED

STATES, IN 1903-1904

=========================+============+============+==============

Age period | INMATES OF | INMATES OF |INMATES OF ALL

| INGLESIDE | SAN FRAN- |ALMSHOUSES OF

| MODEL CAMP | CISCO ALMS-|UNITED STATES

| | HOUSE 1894-| 1903-1904

| | 1906[266] | [267]

+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------

|Number| Per|Number| Per| Number| Per

-------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------

Less than 10 years | .. | .. | ..| ..| 7,151| 4.4

years | 2 | .2| 17| .2| 5,706| 3.5

years | 22 | 1.9| 159| 2.1| 13,835| 8.5

years | 67 | 5.8| 386| 5.1| 16,402| 10.1

years | 114 | 9.9| 775| 10.3| 21,358| 13.1

years | 226 | 19.6| 1,457| 19.4| 26,448| 16.2

years | 412 | 35.6| 3,008| 40.1| 31,810| 19.5

years | 235 | 20.3| 1,446| 19.3| 26,237| 16.0

years | 49 | 4.2| 231| 3.1| 9,715| 6.0

90 years and over | 5 | .4| 20| .3| 1,344| .8

Age unknown | 24 | 2.1| 9| .1| 3,170| 1.9

-------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------

Total |1,156 |100.0| 7,508|100.0|163,176| 100.0

-------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------

[266] Figures for ten years. No report was published for the year

1900-1901.

[267] The figures given relate to paupers in almshouses, December 31,

1903, and to paupers admitted during the year 1904.

As Ingleside Model Camp was established to house the aged, the infirm,

the handicapped, and the convalescent, it was to be expected that as

many as 92 per cent of the inmates should be over forty years of age, 82

per cent over fifty, and 62 per cent over sixty years of age.

[Illustration: The Reading Room

The Sewing Room

INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP]

Table 116 shows that for many years the foreign born have been more than

twice as numerous in the almshouses as in the general population of

the city and county of San Francisco. The proportion of foreign born

found in the Ingleside figures would undoubtedly have been materially

larger than the 53.8 per cent reported if it had been possible to

distribute Ingleside’s 29.1 per cent “unknown” between native and

foreign born. This result corresponds to the figures for the whole

country in which the foreign born whites have a much larger

representation in the dependent than in the general population. It must

not be overlooked, however, that dependence may be due quite as much to

the fact of belonging to the unskilled wage-earning class as to being a

foreigner.

TABLE 116.--NATIVITY OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP, COMPARED WITH

NATIVITY OF INMATES OF SAN FRANCISCO ALMSHOUSE DURING A TEN-YEAR PERIOD,

AND OF THE GENERAL POPULATION OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO IN

1900

============================+=======+=========+==========

Country of birth |Inmates| Inmates | General

| of | of San |population

|Ingle- |Francisco| of city

| side |almshouse| and

| Model |during 10| county

| Camp | years, | of San

| |1894-1906|Francisco,

| | [268] | 1900

----------------------------+-------+---------+----------

Number considered |_1,156_| _7,433_ | _342,782_

----------------------------+-------+---------+----------

Per cent born as specified--| | |

United States | =17.1=| =27.1= | =65.9=

Foreign countries | | |

Canada | .9 | 1.6 | 1.5

China | .2 | .3 | 3.1

England | 4.2 | 5.1 | 2.6

France | 1.6 | 3.0 | 1.4

Germany | 9.9 | 9.8 | 10.3

Ireland | 24.0 | 37.2 | 4.7

Italy | 1.1 | 1.3 | 2.2

Mexico | .9 | .. | .4

Norway | .6 | .7 | .6

Scotland | 2.0 | 1.3 | .9

Sweden | 1.4 | 2.0 | 1.5

Switzerland | .9 | 1.3 | .6

Other foreign countries | 6.1 | 9.2 | 4.3

----------------------------+-------+---------+----------

Total | =53.8=| =72.8= | =34.1=

Unknown | =29.1=| =.1= | =..=

----------------------------+-------+---------+----------

Grand total |=100.0=| =100.0= | =100.0=

----------------------------+-------+---------+----------

[268] No report was published for the year 1900-1901.

The proportion of Irish in the Ingleside camp was about five times as

great as in the general population of San Francisco, but only about

two-thirds as great as in the San Francisco almshouse. The Germans, on

the other hand, constitute a slightly larger proportion of the general

population than of either the Ingleside inmates or inmates of the San

Francisco almshouse. The English have contributed considerably more than

their proportionate quota to Ingleside and to the almshouse.

Occupation is quite as important as nationality, age, or infirmity, in

determining what individuals in a given locality are likely to become

dependent. The table presented below shows the facts on this point:

TABLE 117.--OCCUPATIONS OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP[269]

========================================+===============

Occupation |PERSONS OF EACH

| SPECIFIED

| OCCUPATION

+------+--------

|Number|Per cent

----------------------------------------+------+--------

Laborers | 139| 13.2

Domestics | 85| 8.1

Cooks and cooks’ helpers | 67| 6.4

Housekeepers | 63| 6.0

Dressmakers and seamstresses | 44| 4.2

Lodging-house and boarding-house keepers| 30| 2.8

Nurses | 25| 2.4

Carpenters and carpenters’ helpers | 24| 2.3

Peddlers | 23| 2.2

Clerks | 18| 1.7

Bakers | 15| 1.4

Agents and canvassers | 14| 1.3

Teamsters | 14| 1.3

Waiters | 14| 1.3

Painters and painters’ helpers | 13| 1.2

Tailors and tailoresses | 13| 1.2

Miners | 12| 1.1

Cannery workers | 12| 1.1

Laundry workers | 12| 1.1

Sailors | 10| .9

Machinists | 10| .9

Shoemakers and cobblers | 9| .9

Storekeepers | 9| .9

Teachers | 9| .9

Blacksmiths | 9| .9

Other occupations | 362| 34.3

----------------------------------------+------+--------

Total | 1,055| 100.0

----------------------------------------+------+--------

[269] Information relative to occupation was not secured for 101 of

the 1,156 inmates.

The table reveals an occupational distribution of Ingleside inmates

materially different from that found in the typical almshouse. At

Ingleside, as in most permanent institutions for adult dependents, the

laboring and domestic classes constituted the chief element, but the

proportion of persons in these classes seems to have been smaller than

is generally the case. Of the 123,647 inmates of almshouses in the

United States in 1904 who were classified according to occupation by the

census office, 59,119, or 47.8 per cent, were reported as

non-agricultural laborers or as servants. The persons classified as

cooks, laborers, and servants admitted to the San Francisco almshouse

from 1869 to 1894 numbered 5,330, or 41.4 per cent of the 12,879 persons

admitted who were nineteen years of age or over and had had occupations.

It appears from Table 117 that 354, or 33.7 per cent, of the 1,055

Ingleside inmates classified according to occupations were laborers,

domestics, cooks and cooks’ helpers, or housekeepers. In other words,

the proportion of persons occupied as laborers or in domestic

occupations seems to have been about one-third at Ingleside, as compared

with slightly over four-tenths in the San Francisco almshouse and

slightly less than one-half in the almshouses of the United States.

These comparisons must be accepted with some caution because of

differences in the classifications of occupations applied to the three

sets of data. A reasonable allowance for this factor does not, however,

alter the distributions in such a degree as to invalidate the results

obtained. The figures cited may be accepted as indicating with

substantial accuracy differences in the general proportions of laborers

and domestic workers.

For the purpose of this study the chief interest of the table of

occupations lies in a few groups which are represented not at all or by

only a few individuals in the permanent institutions for dependents, but

which at Ingleside comprised about 13 per cent of the population. In

these groups were dressmakers, seamstresses, lodging-house and

boarding-house keepers, nurses, storekeepers, agents and canvassers, and

teachers. These, plus an indefinite number that might be added from the

other miscellaneous occupations, were undoubtedly for the most part

accidental dependents. They, it might also be assumed, would be likely

to regain self-support if given assistance by the Rehabilitation

Committee.

But the inference from the general information given in the foregoing

tables is that, apart from this comparatively small proportion, in

respect to age distribution, proportion of the sexes, social status, and

nativity, the inmates of Ingleside Model Camp did not differ essentially

from the inmates of the San Francisco almshouse. It would have been

interesting to know how long these persons had lived in California, but

unfortunately this information is given in only about one-third of the

cases. Ninety per cent of this third are recorded as having been more

than ten years in the state. Since applicants might assume, however,

that relief would be given more readily to old residents than to

transients, it is probable that a number of the unknown were recent

arrivals who were careful not to admit the fact.

In the detailed study of individuals which follows, the cases are

classified with respect to dependence or independence before the

disaster and with respect to relief afterward. It will serve to show to

what extent conclusions have been justified.

RELIEF AND NON-RELIEF CASES

1. GENERAL ANALYSIS

In analyzing the material relating to the 1,156 persons known to have

been in Ingleside Model Camp at some time, and included in this study,

it must be remembered that practically all had already received relief

in the shape of food, clothing, and shelter at other camps or in

hospitals during the six months succeeding the fire. The word “relief”

will be used hereafter to refer to specific aid refused or given outside

of Ingleside.

After the primal necessities, food, clothing, and shelter have been

provided, the factor of highest importance in determining what further

relief shall be given is the family relation. With respect to family

relationship, the inmates of Ingleside have been classified in the

following table:

TABLE 118.--FAMILY RELATIONS OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP

====================================================+===============

Family relation | PERSONS IN

| EACH CLASS

+------+--------

|Number|Per cent

----------------------------------------------------+------+--------

Single and widowed men and women. | 868| 75.1

Aged married couples, or aged mothers, each with an | |

adult son or daughter | 93| 8.0

Mothers with young children | 28| 2.4

Transients, for whom only slight data, or no data at| |

all, are available | 167| 14.5

----------------------------------------------------+------+--------

Total | 1,156| 100.0

----------------------------------------------------+------+--------

In this table the divorced, deserted, and separated persons are included

among the single and widowed because they required the same treatment.

2. APPLICANTS AND NON-APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF AND REHABILITATION

The transients at Ingleside who were single men and women merely waiting

to hear from friends or of possible jobs, and a few families temporarily

stranded, are for lack of full information omitted from the discussion

that follows. The 28 mothers with young children, most of whom were at

the camp a short time, have also been omitted because they were not

representative of the classes for which Ingleside was maintained, and

furthermore because the Associated Charities assumed responsibility for

their treatment.

The 961 persons remaining fall into two general classes: families of

aged adults, and detached people of both sexes. Since the problem of an

old mother with an adult son or daughter is almost identical with that

of an old married couple, they are studied together. These two general

classes have been rearranged in the following table according as they

applied or did not apply for relief to the Corporation before April 1,

1907, or to the Associated Charities[270] through which agency

applications for relief on the part of Ingleside inmates were made after

that date.

[270] See Part V, p. 298 ff.

TABLE 119.--INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP CLASSIFIED AS FAMILIES AND

SINGLE AND WIDOWED MEN AND WOMEN AND AS APPLICANTS TO SAN FRANCISCO

RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS, APPLICANTS TO ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, AND

NON-APPLICANTS

=================================+====================+=======+=======

Applicants and non-applicants | FAMILY CASES |Single | All

| | and |persons

+---------+----------+widowed|

|Number of| Number |men and|

| families|of persons| women |

---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------+-------

(1) Applicants to S. F. R. and R.| | | |

C. F. to March 31, 1907 | 26 | 53 | 215 | 268

(2) Applicants to Associated | | | |

Charities from April 1, 1907 | 7 | 14 | 68 | 82

(3) Non-applicants | 13 | 26 | 585 | 611

---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------+-------

Total | 46 | 93 | 868 | 961

---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------+-------

Of the 585 single and widowed non-applicants, 425 were men and 160

women. The 93 persons included under family cases are identical with the

93 mentioned in Table 118 as aged couples or aged mothers each with an

adult son or daughter.

(a) FAMILY CASES

The group of 46 families of 93 persons, 12 of whom only were under fifty

years of age, will first be studied.

The treatment of aged couples, whether a husband and wife or an old

mother with an elderly son or daughter, should differ from that of

infirm single men and women because there are bonds of relationship to

be conserved. So long as either partner shows any capacity for

self-support it is a practical as well as a humane thing to try the

experiment of re-establishing him or her. If in some or even in a

majority of cases the experiment prove a failure, the risk is

nevertheless one to be taken. The experiments in behalf of this group of

46 families had often to be made with very scant information as to the

capacity of the applicants. In judging the results it must not be

forgotten that all the institutions for the aged and infirm were full in

the winter of 1906-07, and that a thorough investigation such as is

usually made by a charity organization society before giving aid was

then quite impossible.

* * * * *

1. Twenty-six of the families, comprising 53 adults, as shown by Table

119, applied to the Corporation for relief before April 1, 1907, and 20

of these received relief in addition to their home at Ingleside. Of the

adults in these families, two-thirds were women of an average age of

fifty-seven years, the other third, men of an average age of sixty-three

years. More than half were permanently incapacitated by senility or by

paralysis, lead-poisoning, blindness, deafness, severe hernia, the loss

of a leg or an arm, or mental defect.

Of seven of the couples that received grants, the wife or husband died

within a year after the fire, before the struggle to maintain themselves

had more than begun. The following notes relate to six of the seven. A

grant of $250 and a sewing machine was made to a paralyzed engineer and

his wife. The wife had supported herself and her husband for several

years by a little store which she re-established. After the husband died

she continued to do well until she fell and broke her thigh. She was

then sent to a hospital and from there to the Relief Home. A peddler of

seventy-four who seemed to have had some savings received $150 to buy a

stock of optical goods. The wife, who kept a rooming house at first

successfully but after his death less so, applied to the Associated

Charities in 1908 for more aid. The visitor, who refused assistance

because the woman still had money from the husband’s life insurance,

made the note: “The woman is a fraud and a fortune teller, but ill and

pathetic.” Two families of this group, although chronic charity cases

before the disaster, were helped to buy small amounts of clothing and

furniture and in one case a seventy-five dollar wooden leg. The

surviving partners, as might be expected, are now in the Relief Home.

Two able-bodied wives, when deprived of their husbands by death, became

self-supporting. One was a nurse, the other a washer-woman about fifty

years of age. One received $22 to furnish a room, and the other was

given clothing. The following notes tell briefly the story of one more

of the 26 families. Three women of three different generations proved

too heavily handicapped with sickness. The mother, who died of shock

soon after the earthquake, has not been considered as among those

applying for relief. The daughter had become poisoned while working in a

lithographic shop and later developed tuberculosis. She and the

grandmother, a seamstress, still able-bodied, were moved to a locality

where the older woman could presumably get work, and were given a stove

and a little money for comforts. But when the young girl also died, the

old woman gave up the struggle and went to the Relief Home. Thus, of

these 14 persons specifically mentioned, seven died within a year after

the fire, four went to the Relief Home, while one became partially and

two entirely self-supporting.

Besides the two families already described who received charitable aid

before the fire, there were two other such among these applicants. One,

an old mother and son, had lost furniture and personal effects estimated

as worth $400. They applied for rehabilitation and a sewing machine in

August, 1906. As the son was unmarried, able-bodied, and under forty

years of age, the grant was refused on the ground that he should support

his mother. Some months later, from the officers at Ingleside, it was

learned that the man was industrious and had good habits, but was unable

to keep regular work on account of being feeble-minded. A grant of $75

and a sewing machine was therefore made. A year later the Associated

Charities found the man out of work and the mother feeble, and decided

that the Relief Home was the place for her. It seemed inevitable that

the son should arrive there when his only asset, muscular strength,

should be used up.

The second family had been in receipt of aid from several charities

before the fire. It consisted of a deaf, partly paralyzed, and

hard-drinking old carpenter and his ailing wife, both past sixty years

of age. They claimed to have lost a thousand dollars’ worth of furniture

and personal property but applied while at Ingleside for the small sum

of $40 for special relief. Ten dollars was given. Six months afterward

they applied to the Associated Charities. The man, who meanwhile had

been earning $3.00 per day, had broken two ribs. The Associated

Charities, therefore, paid their rent ($12) and in March, 1909, they

were temporarily self-supporting. They were, however, the inevitably

dependent family that if life were prolonged would find its way to the

Relief Home.[271]

[271] Six months after the date when this was written they were in the

Relief Home.

The effect on family life of the presence of drunken husbands is a

monotonous tale, but it is cheering now and then to hear of a decent

wife rescued from her fate. A drunken old peddler and his old wife

recovering from illness were granted $100 for furniture and clothing.

Before they left Ingleside the camp commander urged that the woman be

sent to her relatives in Pennsylvania “to escape the brutality of her

husband.” Upon the relatives agreeing to care for her, transportation

and $50 were given to carry her to them. The peddler drifted to the

Relief Home.

Of quite another sort were the remaining nine of the 20 families that

received relief. Although some of their members arrived at the Relief

Home they came by another road, along which they struggled so

courageously as to win the respect of all who knew them. In this better

class are an aged German sign painter and his still more aged and very

feeble wife. Before the fire he had been able to earn $20 a week, and

although his eyesight was already failing, he asked the Corporation for

tools, supplies, and a little rent. The visitor reported that there were

three grown children,--a feeble-minded son, a crippled daughter who

earned a bare living as a waitress, and a married son too poor to care

for his parents. The feeble old mother was transferred to the Relief

Home and $90 altogether was given the old man with which to re-establish

himself. After a year, he too, overcome by his failing sight, submitted

to be sent to stay with his wife in the Relief Home. When at the last

moment he wept because he could not pay the rent in arrears, a

benevolent society paid it in order that he might go conscience free.

Other families with an average advantage in age of at least ten years

maintained themselves in spite of serious handicaps. A man who had many

years before lost both legs, had prior to 1906 earned $45 per month as

an elevator man. He asked for furniture and clothing. Although the wife

was strong neither physically nor mentally, $150 was granted in care of

the Associated Charities. Two and a half years later the wife was at

work, the husband had just secured a permanent position as elevator man,

and a little of the grant was left for emergencies. Another elderly

couple, consisting of a blind husband and an able-bodied wife, who had

earned together about $30 a month before the fire, received $150 for

household relief and a news-stand. They went into business in a suburb

and became self-supporting.

That kindly and influential friends are quite as useful as money to

those in straits, is illustrated by the case of an old master mariner,

disabled for many years, who was supported by his competent wife. Before

the fire she kept a small notion store and was caretaker for a

settlement club. On the recommendation of the settlement workers who

knew her worth she received a grant of $115 and a refugee cottage which

was erected on the grounds of a society for which she acted as

janitress. She and her husband were then able to live comfortably in

their cottage on her earnings of $25 per month.

[Illustration: The Kitchen

The Dining Room

INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP]

A similar case is that of the family in which the Hebrew husband,

although seventy-eight years old, had been able before the fire to earn

a living for himself and his wife with a little cigar store. They

were known as honest, industrious people to a society that recommended

them for a grant of $150. Later, $77.50 worth of plumbing and repairs

were added to their cottage. They promised to be self-supporting for

some time. In case of need the Hebrew Board of Relief stood ready to

make a monthly allowance so that they might never go to the Relief Home.

Other cases of which less is known were encouraging. A painter, his

wife, and his wife’s sister, who received $50 for furniture, had not

again applied for help. An old hunchback and his wife who received $80

for furniture and clothing, were given the use of land on the edge of

the city by some friends, and for a while at least were made

self-supporting by the proceeds of their chickens and their garden.

Another family, exceptional in that both partners were under fifty years

of age, received a grant of $250. The husband, a longshoreman, had had

both arms broken, but two years after the fire the couple were again

self-supporting. As they are exceptional also in having several young

male relatives in the city, they are not likely to become dependent.

Another history is differentiated from the varied but generally pitiful

struggles of old persons by its ending touched with romance. An old

mother with a daughter nearing middle age lost furniture, clothing,

piano, and paintings worth $1,000. They had earned a modest living, the

mother by taking roomers, the daughter by teaching music. They were

given a sewing machine and $300 with which to establish a rooming house.

Within a year and a half the mother became so seriously demented as to

prevent their keeping lodgers. They fell behind in the rent, the

Associated Charities supplied food and after a severe struggle on the

daughter’s part to keep her mother out of the insane asylum, the old

woman was finally committed in the summer of 1908. Meanwhile a kindly

lodger became interested in the younger woman, and after his references

had been approved by the Associated Charities, the daughter married him.

A brief review of the circumstances and habits of five of the six

families who applied for relief and were refused fully justifies the

decision of the Rehabilitation Committee. The first was a woman of fifty

whose husband, a man over eighty, had died at Ingleside in the autumn of

1906. She not only was fairly strong but had grown children quite able

to give her a home. The second was an old couple by no means

incapacitated who had kept a store and been pretty well-to-do before the

fire. They were given a cottage and $50 for furniture before coming to

Ingleside, but were refused business rehabilitation on the ground that

the $500 insurance they had received was sufficient to re-establish

them. In 1908 the Associated Charities gave them a stove and had some

plumbing done in their cottage, but they were found to be grasping and

untrustworthy. Two other couples were of the hard-drinking,

intermittently-working, often-sick type, to whom rehabilitation can

never be given with any prospect of success. Of these, a comparatively

young couple were given $50 for furniture and clothing and were provided

with employment. In the following two years husband and wife had been

twice to the Associated Charities for help, and had been in and out of

the county hospital. When last seen they were “living with friends.” The

other couple, the man a drunkard and the woman a fakir, had a charity

record, reaching back to 1896, in which they were described as being too

incompetent to support themselves. They were forcibly removed from a

wretched shack to Ingleside in the winter of 1907 and are now in the

Relief Home.

The last of this group was an old mother with an epileptic son of fifty,

by occupation a cooper. They had lived on the verge of distress before

the fire, and although the son afterward earned good wages for awhile

cleaning bricks, it was not believed that he could long support his

mother and himself. In the winter of 1907 both were obliged to go to the

Relief Home.

* * * * *

2. The seven families at Ingleside who applied first to the Associated

Charities for rehabilitation do not differ as a group in any way from

the earlier applicants. Two are cases of old people neglected by their

grown up children; two, of the chronically unfortunate and inevitably

dependent class; and two couples, younger than those we have been

considering, were forced to apply for help because the man in each

family developed tuberculosis. One case only, foreigners of good birth

and education, differs in the details of the struggle and in its

solution. Both husband and wife were teachers who had scarcely made a

living before the fire and who, being over sixty years of age, could

not regain their clientele nor find new work. The Rehabilitation

Committee through the Associated Charities sent them back to their

native country where they will have a home with relatives.

If we turn from the picturesque, human aspect of the families who

applied for rehabilitation or relief, to the financial, the brief

summary is: (1) Twenty families of 41 persons, whose estimated total

losses amounted to $10,000, asked for relief to the amount of $3,000 and

were granted relief to the money value of $2,500. In addition they

received shelter and food at Ingleside at a cost of $2,200. (2) After

three years seven of the 41 individuals were dead, 10 were in charitable

institutions, one was in an insane asylum, one was married, three were

with relatives, and 19 were self-supporting.[272] Aside from the comfort

afforded to each by the grants received, it may be said to have cost

$132 apiece to make the 19 persons self-supporting. It must not be

forgotten that while the effort was being made to gain self-support

outside of the institution, the institution was spared the cost of

maintaining each at a rate of not less than 50 cents a day.

[272] The data for all of the 20 families are not given in the

preceding pages. The 19 persons listed as self-supporting, it should

be borne in mind, were in several cases believed to be only

temporarily independent of charitable aid.

* * * * *

3. The last group of the families of adults to be considered is the 13

families containing 26 persons that did not apply for specific relief

other than institutional care. They differ from those that did apply

chiefly in being a little more infirm and incompetent and in having no

children or relatives, apparently, to fall back upon. It is probable

that some of them did not apply for rehabilitation because Ingleside

Camp and the Relief Home seemed to be the only natural or desirable

relief. Information is available as to the subsequent fate of only 19 of

the 26 persons. Of these, four were known to be dead three years after

the disaster, eight were in the Relief Home, one was in another home,

four were self-supporting, and two had moved to the country.

(b) SINGLE AND WIDOWED MEN AND WOMEN

1. The 215 single and widowed men and women at Ingleside who asked for

aid from the Rehabilitation Committee before April, 1907,[273] are

roughly classified in Table 120.

[273] See Table 119, p. 336.

TABLE 120.--SINGLE AND WIDOWED INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP APPLYING

TO THE SAN FRANCISCO RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS FOR REHABILITATION, BY

NATURE OF REHABILITATION APPLIED FOR

============================+================

| Applicants for

Nature of relief applied for| relief of each

|specified nature

----------------------------+----------------

Business rehabilitation | 46

Household rehabilitation | 43

Transportation | 27

Special relief | 38

Hospital care | 11

General relief | 50

----------------------------+----------------

Total | 215

----------------------------+----------------

BUSINESS REHABILITATION. Of the 46 persons in this group who applied for

business rehabilitation, 29 were men and 17 were women. Eighteen of the

29 men received aid to the amount of $1,389, the largest individual

grant being $200 to an attorney, aged thirty-one, who asked only for law

books. This man is one of the small group who, three years after the

grant was made, were known to be self-supporting.

No action was taken by the Committee in six cases, either because the

applicants could not be found at the addresses given, because they

refused the aid offered, or because the applications were received too

late.

San Francisco Relief Survey; the organization and methods of relief used after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906 · 第 11 / 14 章