IITHE METHODS OF RELIEF EMPLOYED

[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 forTable 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]

[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]

[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.

Largely rebuilt. Washington Square restored to park usesTelegraph Hill and Washington Square

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]

[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 comparativeyouth 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 inTable 103gives 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

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 inTable 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

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 habitsthose 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.

In thetablethat 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

A street, showing close quarters in campWashington Square Camp

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 inTable 106.

TABLE 106.—GENERAL OCCUPATIONS OF APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF FROM ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, BEFORE FIRE AND AFTER FIRE[237]

[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 reliefagent 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]SeePart 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.

Thepreceding 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 givenlaterit was thought best not to make, would have determined the point for any great number of cases.

Table 107shows 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

[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. 127ff., should be read in connection with this discussion.

[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. 127ff., should be read in connection with this discussion.

The relief given by the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to June, 1909, can be divided from the point of view of material service rendered into three principal types of aid:

1. Moving camp cottages to permanent locations.2. Giving aid.(a) In sums less than $50, or in kind. (Emergency and temporary relief.)(b) In the form of care for the destitute sick.(c) By finding work for the unemployed.3. Administering pensions and grants.(a) Grants made by the Rehabilitation Committee previous to the assumption of work by the Associated Charities.(b) Grants or pensions made by the Associated Charities from money donated by the Corporation on advice of the Rehabilitation Committee.

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 inTable 108.

TABLE 108.—EMERGENCY AND TEMPORARY RELIEF GIVEN IN MONEY OR IN ORDERS BY ASSOCIATED CHARITIES. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909[243]

[243]Because of the fact that many persons received a number of grants, the total number of grants as shown in this table necessarily exceeds the number of persons receiving relief, as given in other tables in this Part.

1. The start2. Well under way3. Joining two cottages4. The completed dwellingRemoval from the Camp

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 followingtableshows 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

InParts IandIIaccounts 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 applicantswas 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.

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