By August 1 the issuing of rations had been discontinued. The Department of Camps and Warehouses had taken over the bulk of the work of the short-lived Executive Commission, and the Rehabilitation Committee had been made responsible, under the gradual centralization of all relief, for the granting of all aid other than shelter and the relief-giving incidental to camp life. The Rehabilitation Committee was, however, in accordance with the policy it had adopted, steadying the number of applications made to it by camp families, by requiring an applicant to give proof that he had an assured dwelling before his request for household aid was considered. The immediate necessity was to define the relations between the Department of Relief and Rehabilitation and the Department of Camps and Warehouses. On August 6, 1906, the chairman of the latter department, Rudolph Spreckels, met with the Rehabilitation Committee, and after prolonged consideration the following definite agreement was reached:
The Department of Camps and Warehouses agreed:
1. To provide necessary food, clothing, and tent equipment to residents of camps.
2. To refer to the Rehabilitation Committee only such applicants as were believed to be prepared to leave the tents and to become undoubtedly self-supporting.
3. To make within the limits of the camp all investigations necessary to determine the current needs of the refugees.
4. To inform the Rehabilitation Committee of any applicant who had shown a readiness to leave the camp and to be rehabilitated.
The Rehabilitation Committee on its part agreed:
1. To follow the notification of an applicant’s readiness to leave a camp by an investigation of its own and to take such action as the inquiry would warrant.
2. To assume responsibility for supplying all relief outside of the camps, this full responsibility to be assumed not later than the end of August.
