The Survey, Volume 30, Number 1, April 5, 1913

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

For the first time in the history of our great disasters, the country's machinery for relief has been found ready to move with that precision and efficiency which only careful previous organization could make possible. In the flood and tornado stricken regions of the Mississippi valley the Red Cross has given splendid evidence of the effectiveness of its scheme of organization and of its methods as worked out on the basis of experience at San Francisco, and as tested by the Minnesota and Michigan forest fires, the Cherry mine disaster, and the Mississippi Floods of last year.
Utilizing the largest and ablest charity organization societies which serve as institutional members, a force of executives and trained workers was instantly deployed. With foreknowledge of just what to do and how to do it, and without friction, these men and women have reinforced the spontaneous response to emergency of citizens and officials in the stricken communities.
Omaha's tornado had scarcely died down when Eugene T. Lies of the Chicago United Charities was on his way to the city. Ernest P. Bicknell, director of the National Red Cross, had reached Chicago, en route to Omaha, when news of the Ohio floods turned him back. The same news summoned Edward T. Devine from New York. It was Mr. Devine who organized the Red Cross relief work at San Francisco, following the earthquake and fire of 1908. Mr. Bicknell established headquarters at Columbus, itself badly in the grip of the waters. At Dayton Mr. Devine, C. M. Hubbard of the St. Louis Provident Association and T. J. Edmonds of the Cincinnati Associated Charities concentrated their services.
When Cincinnati and its vicinity needed help, Mr. Edmonds returned to his home city. The Omaha situation by this time could spare Mr. Lies for Dayton. To Piqua, Sidney and other Ohio and Indiana flood points went James F. Jackson of the Cleveland Associated Charities and other workers from various organizations. The news from the Ohio and other floods almost swamped that of an isolated disaster in Alabama where a tornado devastated the town of Lower Peachtree. To handle the relief at this point the Red Cross dispatched William M. McGrath of the Birmingham Associated Charities, who had seen service a year ago in the Mississippi floods.