San Francisco Relief Survey; the organization and methods of relief used after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906

by Unknown

Tents and shacks

Early Shelters in Jefferson Square

It is not possible to compare these figures closely with the nationality of the population of San Francisco as given in the United States Census of 1900, because the census figures are for individuals, while these are for families, the nationality of the family being inferred from the nationality of its head. In the census figures the native born children of a German or Irish father appear as born in the United States, while in the refugee figures such a family group appears as a unit among the foreign born. In this way it is evident that if the refugee figures could have been made up on the same basis of individuals instead of families, they would have shown a considerably higher proportion than they do of native born, and a correspondingly lower proportion of nearly all the foreign nationalities. Possibly the native born children of foreigners would raise the percentage of native born among the refugees to an even higher percentage than they had in the total population of the city. A few comparisons, however, it is safe to make. The Irish and Italians are represented much more strongly among the refugees than their proportions in the population would require; while on the other hand, a population of over 10,000 Chinese[69] was represented by only 20 families drawing rations. In [Table 20] the nationalities are arranged in the order of their importance in the population of the city in 1900. Only the first three groups maintained the same relative position among the refugees.

[69] See [Part I], [p. 95].

TABLE 20.—NATIONALITY OF POPULATION OF SAN FRANCISCO IN 1900, COMPARED WITH NATIONALITY OF HEADS OF FAMILIES AMONG REFUGEES IN 1906

Country of birth	POPULATION OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1900— INDIVIDUALSOF EACH SPECIFIED NATIVITY		REFUGEES, 1906— HEADS OF FAMILIES OF EACH SPECIFIED NATIVITY
	Number	Per cent	Number		Per cent
United States	225,897	66.0	6,229		41.7
Germany and Austria	37,035	10.8	2,264		15.1
Ireland	15,963	4.7	2,140		14.3
England and Scotland	11,956	3.5	972		6.5
China	10,762	3.1	20		0.1
Sweden, Norway, Denmark	9,591	2.8	709		4.7
Italy	7,508	2.2	1,208		8.1
Canada	5,199	1.5	167		1.1
France	4,870	1.4	400		2.7
Switzerland	2,085	0.6	104		0.7
Japan	1,852	0.5	31		0.2
Russia	1,511	0.4	125		0.8
Mexico	1,459	0.4	75		0.5
Australia	1,096	0.3	24		0.2
Other countries	5,998	1.8	495		3.3
Total	342,782	100.0	14,963	[70]	100.0

[70] Total number of families for whom the nationality of the head of the family was given; in 4,475 cases this information was omitted.

TABLE 21.—NATIONALITY OF HEADS OF FAMILIES AMONG REFUGEES, BY CIVIL SECTIONS, MAY, 1906. NUMBERS

Country of birth	NUMBER OF HEADS OF FAMILIES OF EACH SPECIFIED NATIONALITYIN CIVIL SECTIONS							Total
	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII
United States	1,015	354	790	1,106	736	177	2,051	6,229
Germany, Austria	331	85	264	413	289	158	724	2,264
Ireland	234	80	228	249	432	169	748	2,140
Italy	66	14	698	59	90	114	167	1,208
England and Scotland	169	48	103	133	125	61	333	972
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark	78	39	88	51	108	113	232	709
France	95	11	79	46	27	31	111	400
Canada	24	9	12	31	10	6	75	167
Russia	11	10	7	28	29	6	34	125
Switzerland	18	2	28	9	11	8	28	104
Mexico	24	..	42	3	3	1	2	75
Japan	6	..	11	11	..	..	3	31
Australia	3	2	3	2	6	1	7	24
China	3	2	9	6	..	..	..	20
Other countries	57	15	142	105	46	56	74	495
Total	2,134	671	2,504	2,252	1,912	901	4,589	14,963
Unknown	456	142	593	325	308	1,975	676	4,475
Grand total	2,590	813	3,097	2,577	2,220	2,876	5,265	19,438