The pension was given most often to persons who, because of the catastrophe, fell into dependency from which, unaided, it was impossible for them to extricate themselves. The unanswered question in connection with these pension cases was: What sum of money, in San Francisco, constituted an adequate monthly sum for the support of a needy family? If a semi-dependent, how much should have been spent before it could be proven whether the power of self-support was latent or was lacking? No one knew, as the community’s best practice furnished no guide. The Rehabilitation Committee and the Associated Charities acted on the general principle of granting such pensions as they felt they could afford. The Associated Charities hoped, moreover, that if the sum of $15 to $25 given as a pension were not sufficient, the usual neighborhood help would gradually develop so as to eke out the amount given. The pensions were most often given in the form of money, but in some cases in weekly food orders. The following pension case is illustrative:
A Greek aged thirty-five deserted his wife and five children under thirteen years of age at the time of the fire. Before the disaster the family was known to the Associated Charities as one in which the man was not meeting his responsibilities. The oldest child, a boy, was a decent, serious little chap; the second, also a boy, was so wild that he had later to be sent to a reformatory; and the three youngest were sickly, weak-eyed little creatures. When the woman made application immediately after the disaster she was given $75 for clothing. She was lost in the big body of refugees, but when found again in the fall of 1908, though pitifully destitute, was making a brave effort to support her children. The eldest boy was given a position as office boy at the Associated Charities at $4.00 a month, a baby from the children’s agency was put to board in the home at the rate of $11 a month, and $150 was appropriated, to be given in monthly sums of $20. With this monthly income of $35, $10 of which went for rent, she was enabled, having judgment in expenditure, to get along.
As is brought out in [Part VI], an unusual number of old people had been thrown on the community for care. To some of these, who were invalids, pensions were given so that they need not go to the Relief Home.
In the two-year period covered by this study, from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, the total receipts of the San Francisco Associated Charities amounted to $252,046.75.[246] As has been stated above,[247] this money was contributed almost exclusively by the Corporation and the Board of Trustees of Relief and Red Cross Funds. The Associated Charities disbursed, in the period dealt with, $236,303.72,[248] of which sum $180,577.78, or 76.4 per cent, was expended directly on relief work, and $55,725.94 was expended on salaries and other administrative expenses.[249] The expenditure for salaries amounted to $41,560.21 for the period,—a monthly average of $1,351.80 for the last seven months of 1907, of $2,023.19 for the year 1908, and of $1,563.86 for the first five months of 1909.
[246] A statement of the receipts of the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to September, 1912, inclusive, is given in [Appendix I], [p. 419].
[248] The sum of $31,224.11 expended through the Associated Charities for the payment of what were known as the “Red Cross Pensions” is not included in this total.
[249] A statement of the disbursements of the Associated Charities from June, 1907, to September, 1912, inclusive, is given in [Appendix I], [pp. 419]-[421].
Data are not available for a complete classification of disbursements according to the nature of the relief afforded. It is impossible to state separately the expenditure for the purposes termed in this Part “emergency and temporary relief” and “aid given the unemployed.”
It appears from data available that there was a total expenditure by the Associated Charities for housing, from June 1, 1907, to June 1, 1909, of $59,556.06.[250]