In deciding the merits of claims the supervising and judicial committees appointed sub-committees of experienced men to supplement their own technical knowledge. Many claims for liquor destroyed by soldiers and citizens were presented, but the Finance Committee decided to pay no liquor claims. The enormous disbursements for automobile service and for transportation of supplies were made chiefly in payment of emergency claims. Claims of various sorts were paid by the War Department out of the Congressional appropriation of $2,500,000. Other claims were paid by the state. As the Relief Corporation could get no information about such claims it is possible that there were duplicate payments.
2. SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTING—A NOTE
The accounting system of the Relief and Red Cross Funds has been criticized because it did not readily yield information as to the amounts expended for various purposes, and because it was complicated. The first seems a fair criticism, for contributors to funds and the public in general are more interested in the cost of various forms of relief than in the state of the appropriations. The system of appropriations to the departments for different purposes was based on carefully prepared budgets. It was good for controlling expenditures and for keeping a check on departments and bureaus. For those not directly connected with the work, additional information in simple form might easily have been given. The intricacy of the accounting, however, seems justified by the results. It was devised to make the handling of the money as secure as possible. So far as the local auditors and the auditor of the War Department have been able to discover there was only one transaction that looked like misappropriation of money. About $1,000 received by a camp employe from certain authorized sales was for a short time kept back. The apparent shortage, easily detected by the accounting department, was made good.
Considering the extraordinary conditions under which the work was organized, such a showing is remarkable. When men undertake the thankless task of handling a large relief fund, if they have a keen sense of responsibility and a realization of the difficulties ahead they will wish to disburse the fund through a system which is as safe as possible. It is worth while for them not only to prevent misappropriation but even the appearance of it. The employes of such a committee will find satisfaction, when accused of graft and stealing,—an accusation suffered many times by the San Francisco workers,—in showing their accusers just how the money is guarded and that it is impossible for them to steal. A system that insures such security is worth the extra cost.
3. THE CONTROL OF DONATIONS
As a result, primarily, of the publication of sensational stories in the press of the country, the plans of the Corporation were at times seriously embarrassed by the withholding of funds by eastern committees and by the possible danger of those funds being dispensed by independent agencies.
The studies in rehabilitation show that the suspension of grants on August 20, 1906, the period of arrested progress, had a serious effect upon the rehabilitation work. It caused a change of relief policy so that families given grants in one period were treated differently from those in another. It meant for many families a long wait from August 20 to the middle of October when the embargo was lifted. The Corporation had worked out a wise, comprehensive program on the basis of estimated income and then suddenly had to question whether the income might not be $3,000,000 less. Inevitably every department suffered from uncertainty and hesitation. The results of such an intolerable condition were more clearly perceived in rehabilitation than in the other work, but what the withholding of funds meant in reduced efficiency would be hard to estimate.
The two most important funds, those of Massachusetts and the New York Chamber of Commerce,[94] were eventually transferred, the latter with the restriction that it be used for business rehabilitation. Only a number of small funds were permanently held, but the harm was done. The warning should be heeded in future disasters. It is possible for a relief committee, when its work is hardest, to be tied up because of a few newspaper stories which may or may not have foundation in fact.
[94] Action of the New York Chamber of Commerce taken October 2, 1906, and transmitted in the form of a resolution to the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds.—The resolution provided for the transfer of $500,000 to the Corporation “to be devoted by said Corporation for the purposes and uses of making grants of money or its equivalent, to individual sufferers from the disaster for purposes of rehabilitation, in such sums and by such methods as its Rehabilitation Committee may approve; and that no part of it should be used for the payment of any pending claims or obligations incurred prior to such transfer of funds, or for the maintenance of camps, or for ordinary emergent relief, or for the erection of barracks or cottages, or for the maintenance of persons therein, it being assumed that the contribution already made from this fund ($267,500) and the sum subscribed in other ways will enable the Corporation to accomplish these necessary and worthy objects.”
The investigator sent by the Massachusetts committee because of the newspaper stories, after investigation cordially endorsed the work of the Relief Corporation and made but few criticisms.