A widow in wretched general health who was burned out, had received before June, 1907, in addition to the aid of the camp and bread line, $1.00 for expressage. She came to ask the Associated Charities in the late spring of 1908, for money to go into business. Even the staff, whose policy was to make the largest possible concession to plans made by the applicant, hesitated and proposed that she do something involving less personal responsibility. She refused, so some generous-hearted members of the Rehabilitation Committee interceded for her. Two grants were made therefore, contrary to the judgment of the society’s staff, of $150 and $200 respectively, to be used under Associated Charities supervision for business purposes. In June, 1909, the woman was reported to be dying in a hospital; the business enterprise had failed.

In finding work for applicants a standard rate of wages for standard work was insisted upon. For all work the quality of which was below par by reason of the delicate health, relative inefficiency, or character defect of the applicant, the employer was left to settle terms with the employe. The greater number of women were given the only employment of which the average untrained middle-aged woman is capable; domestic work, “day’s work,” and house cleaning were paid for at prices ranging from $1.50 per day to $2.00 per day, plain sewing at $1.60 per day, care of the sick at $10 per week.

The two periods of unemployment which came in February and October, 1908, and which came as an indirect result of the disaster, brought heavy problems.

On February 5, 1908, arrangement was made to give work to unemployed men. It was decided that work orders should be granted to those applying, preference being given to men with families. From February 5 to March 26, 1781 work orders of three days each were given, a total of 5343 days’ work. As there were a number of repetitions, 1781 work orders represented about 920 men at work during the—approximately—six weeks. The majority of the men were untrained. One hundred and ninety-eight who had training were classified as follows: Bricklayers and stone masons, 7; electricians, plumbers, machinists, and engineers, 44; upholsterers, 2; watchmakers, 3; painters, 11; butchers, 5; cooks and bakers, 13; carpenters, 74; teamsters, 22; clerks and bookkeepers, 17. About 15 per cent of the 198 were members of unions. Most of the applicants had large families dependent upon them. As they were chiefly men newly arrived in San Francisco who expected to profit by the demand for labor created by the rebuilding, they were in reality not a fair charge on the relief funds. Their only relation to the earthquake and fire was the fact of their having been attracted to the city after April, 1906, by what proved to be in their case a Will-o’-the-wisp. The Porto Ricans and the Russians lead in the number of those who had come to San Francisco after the fire, and these are followed in point of numbers by the Mexicans and the Spanish.

As to the kind of work provided, four plumbers, six carpenters (all union men), and some of the laborers were set to work on the camp cottages. Seventeen of the carpenters were given work on the new Associated Charities building then in process of construction. Other groups were given work by the Corporation in repairing the almshouse road, in taking apart buildings at Stanley Place, South Park, and Lobos Square, and in loading wagons with warehouse supplies to be taken to the Relief Home. At this time and in the similar crisis in October, preference was given to family men. The payment was made either in money, or in kind; sometimes in both. Ninety-seven per cent of the men were paid at the following rate for three days’ work: Meat order, $1.00; grocery order from the store room of the Associated Charities, $3.00; and cash $.50. In some few cases, to those who were sent to work on the almshouse road, carfare also was given. As the Associated Charities purchased all groceries at wholesale, it was able to give four dollars’ worth of groceries for the three-dollar order. Men with large families, if they had no other employment were allowed five days’ work each week instead of three.

In October, 1908, about one-third of the men given employment were put to work upon a temporary tuberculosis hospital which was being built at the Ingleside Track. Four hundred and forty-two dollars in labor was paid for building four large wards, a diet kitchen, medicine closets in each one of the wards, and the bath and toilet rooms. Two-thirds of the men worked either at the almshouse or at the quarry which was started and run for several weeks by the Associated Charities. Many of the men, however, resented being put at quarry work which they considered belonged to convicts. Their dissatisfaction, the physical inability of a large number of them to do such heavy labor, and the inclemency of the weather, which caused the work to be intermittent, made the experiment one that can not be classed as a notable success.

To carry on this work for the unemployed the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds made during February, March, and October, 1908, three appropriations of $5,000 each. Of this amount, $14,105.26 was expended in wages or equivalent aid to unemployed men and their families.

3. PERMANENT RELIEF

The work of relief was carried on with most care in the case of those applicants to whom money had been given in sums of over $50, in some instances in one grant, in others, in the form of pensions. Though numerically of relatively slight importance, these cases occupied so much of the attention of the force that they may justly be taken as most representative of policies and accomplishments. The amounts of the gifts are shown in [Table 110]. The grant was made most often to the family whose dependence was a result of the abnormal times.

TABLE 110.—GRANTS AND PENSIONS OF $50 AND OVER GIVEN BY THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES[245]