From April 18, 1904, to April 18, 1906, 1840 cases had applied for aid at the office. There was therefore a nearly fourfold increase in applications during the two post-disaster years under comparison. There are no data to show the sequence of increase or decrease of cases for the earlier period. The number of monthly applications during 1908 and 1909 was as follows:
TABLE 96.—NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS TO THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES FOR ASSISTANCE, BY MONTHS. 1908 AND 1909[227]
| Month | 1908 | 1909 |
|---|---|---|
| January | 474 | 229 |
| February | 815 | 237 |
| March | 417 | 219 |
| April | 219 | 145 |
| May | 172 | 135 |
| June | 195 | 274 |
| July | 146 | 113 |
| August | 152 | 97 |
| September | 115 | 84 |
| October | 173 | 42 |
| November | 126 | 161 |
| December | 150 | 183 |
| Total | 3,154 | 1,919 |
[227] As the figures in this table are for the calendar years 1908 and 1909, the totals do not correspond with the figures for the period from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, presented in other tables in this Part. While there were some inconsistencies between various records consulted, as to the number of applications per month, it is believed that the figures presented are approximately correct.
Although for three of the months of 1909, June, November, and December, there was an increase of applications over the corresponding months of the previous year,—an increase of 41, 28, and 22 per cent respectively,—the work for 1909 as a whole, compared with 1908, decreased 39 per cent.
In relating the facts found in the case records of applicants from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, 815, or 12 per cent, of the 6766 records are omitted,—107 because they were found to be the records of cases belonging not to the Associated Charities but to other relief societies; 606 because they were not relief society records, but were those of cases cared for in the City and County Hospital which for reasons of office organization were, during a number of months of the year 1907, filed with the Associated Charities’ records; 102 because they were too incomplete to give the required data. The facts drawn from the remaining 5951 cases are compared with 1550 cases of the earlier pre-disaster period. Two hundred and ninety cases, or 15.8 per cent, of the 1840 cases of that period (April 18, 1904, to April 18, 1906), had to be omitted, some because they were records of cases handled by other relief societies, and a larger number because the statement cards lacked sufficient data to permit tabulation. The large number of cases marked “Unknown” throughout this study makes it incontestably plain that the records are lacking in many details. Though admirably complete as compared with those before the fire, and much more so during the years 1908 and 1909 than during 1907, yet data have failed with regrettable frequency.
TABLE 97.—ASSOCIATED CHARITIES CASES CLASSIFIED AS HAVING LIVED OR NOT HAVING LIVED IN THE BURNED AREA, AND BY NUMBER AIDED, AND NUMBER REFUSED AID. JUNE 1, 1907, TO JUNE 1, 1909[228]
| Classes of applicants | Appli- cants aided | Appli- cants re- fused aid | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applicants who had lived in burned area: | |||
| With rehabilitation record | 1,309 | 571 | 1,880 |
| Without rehabilitation record | 1,512 | 604 | 2,116 |
| Total | 2,821 | 1,175 | 3,996 |
| Applicants who had not lived in burned area | 1,303 | 439 | 1,742 |
| Grand total | 4,124 | 1,614 | 5,738 |
[228] Data are not available as to the former place of residence of 123 of the 4,247 applicants aided, and of 90 of the 1,704 applicants who were refused aid.
One point on which the records in many cases fail to supply information is as to whether or not the applicant had been burned out. In the previous studies of this Survey no division has been made of the refugees into the two classes of those who lived within or without the burned area, because dependency as a result of the disaster was known to be due not alone to having been in the first named class. Since one of the vital points of this study, however, is to determine how much of the relief work of the Associated Charities during the second of the two-year periods was due, directly or indirectly, to the earthquake and fire, an effort has been made to reach the point by dividing the 5,738 applicants about whom the fact was known into two groups: 3,996, or 69.6 per cent, of whom had lived within the burned area; 1,742, or 30.4 per cent, of whom had lived without. The further classification given in [Table 97] reveals the interesting fact that a large number of persons who had lived in the burned area made no recorded application for rehabilitation until after June, 1907.