Assistance can be given in a limited way only, and for the same line of business, and the committee reserves the right to deny any applications.
Applicants can address a letter or postal card to Business Committee, Gough and Geary, San Francisco, giving name and address. Blanks will be sent immediately, which must be filled and returned by mail. No applications will be received after November 30, 1906.
Personal calls and applications cannot be received.
[155] See [Appendix II], [p. 443].
The blanks sent to applicants were framed so as to help the applicant to explain clearly on what scale he had been doing business up to the time of the disaster, what was the present relation of his assets to his liabilities, and on what scale he proposed to re-establish. He was directed to present letters from wholesalers or others with whom he had had business relations. As a part of the subsequent investigation, it was often possible for the committee’s visitors to secure written statements from creditors or from wholesalers, stating definitely what terms they were willing to make for the payment of old debts or for the establishment of new credits.
An applicant’s plan for re-establishment was not considered complete until it included a proposed definite location. Before making a grant for a lodging house or shop, the location for either of which is important, the committee usually required the applicant to secure a definite option on a reasonably good location. One of the most important functions of the visitors on the staff was to visit and to determine the merits of these proposed locations. Every effort was made to prevent an applicant from starting business in a poor but costly location merely as an excuse for securing an allowance from the relief funds.
The general aim of Committee VI was to supply the right sort of man with money enough to pay one month’s rent, to buy the necessary fixtures, and to cover a deposit on stock or on machinery or instruments. The applicant went into debt for the rest of his equipment, with the idea of discharging the debt little by little from the profits of the business.
2. THE STUDY OF RESULTS
Between October, 1906, and April, 1907, Committee VI considered 2,032 applications. Applicants to the number of 464 were refused aid of any nature; 111 applicants were given aid, but for purposes other than business; and 1,226 were given business aid in amounts ranging from $50 to $500.[156] The remaining 231 cases were withdrawn or taken over by other committees. Most of the applicants, many of whom collected little or no insurance upon property destroyed by the fire, represent the class that prefer a very modest living in an enterprise of their own to better wages working for others. There were those, too, who by reason of age or other infirmity had small prospect of holding their own as wage-earners, and can hardly be said to have had the choice between the two ways of making a living.
[156] Committee VI made about one-fourth of all the business grants that were made. The total number of cases in which grants were made was 4,916, and the total sum granted was $872,437.20. See [Tables 40] and [41], [pp. 157] and [158].