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.
II
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