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

by Unknown

[106] These chairmen were the same men who had been serving since May as the civilian chairmen in their several sections.

The month of July was one that called for the exercise of discretion and tact, as it was a time when a large untried force had to be organized to visit families. A general superintendent of district work was appointed to bring about unity of ideals and standards in the sections and to cultivate a sympathetic understanding of the system on the part of all concerned in it. The position was held during July by one of the eastern workers and after August 1 by the general secretary of the Associated Charities. The section committees, mentioned above, made a strong and interested group of volunteers.

In one of the sections was to be found a group of workers who knew their neighborhood thoroughly,—a physician who had done active work among the poorer people previous to April 18, the president of a settlement, and the priest. These met together each day with others to go over the case work of the investigators who were studying the individual needs of refugees. Nowhere else could one get such an impression of the cosmopolitan character of San Francisco. The names of the investigators showed their origin,—Italian, Spanish, English, Scotch. These could speak to the refugees in their own tongues. One of the investigators was a trained nurse who had been at work in the neighborhood; another, an artist who had been the year before as far away from the Pacific Coast as the Albert Nyanza; the third, a student of economics. In still another section were to be found as investigators a force of college students. Seven of them were from Stanford University. They gave devoted service from April until the university opened in the autumn. They camped in the outer office and would work from early in the morning until late in the evening. They were often visiting at six in the morning and were to be found in the office writing reports at ten in the evening. Several teachers, a physician, and a trained nurse made up the rest of the group, which was guided at first by one of the most active and devoted local workers, a probation officer of the juvenile court.

In another section one felt the distinctive mark to be catholicity. The chairman of this committee was a Presbyterian minister and the assistant to the agent was a Unitarian minister who had given up his charge to devote himself for a year to the charitable work of the city. A Hebrew whose strong personal influence counted for much in dealing with the refugees of his faith; another Hebrew, a woman, who as a volunteer had done most important service in securing work for the refugees; an active worker in women’s clubs; and other men and women who had had experience as teachers and in business, completed this section committee.

In so large a group of investigators, brought into service at a time of high pressure, there were necessarily to be found many attitudes of mind toward the work and varying degrees of readiness to be instructed. What surprised those who had the task of fitting the visitors to their work was their adaptability. The committees met at short intervals to review, one by one, the stories and recommendations of the investigators, and to make their own decisions to be submitted for final action to the Rehabilitation Committee at headquarters.

The investigating force of the Rehabilitation Committee reached its highest number in August, 1906, when it numbered 96 persons on full and nine on half time. Sixty-five other persons were also employed, principally as clerks and messengers. The Committee from the start took the sensible ground that as far as possible there should be investigation of each applicant. The record card used in the sections was the second registration card, which as the reader knows, superseded the one adopted in the initial relief period.[107]

[107] See [Part I], [p. 49]. See cards in [Appendix II], [pp. 428] and [429].

The second registration was undertaken by the staff of workers gathered together by the American National Red Cross, who worked from the seven civil sections and recorded their investigations on the improved cards described below. These cards, which were kept on file at headquarters, were, from the time of the second registration to the end of the rehabilitation work, used by the various committees. They held the facts as to an individual’s own expectation of providing shelter for himself and family. Later these cards served to measure the degree of success each applicant had made in carrying out his own plan.

The second registration, though not to the same degree as the first, failed in completeness, so that many persons who applied later, not only to the Rehabilitation Committee but to the many other committees and departments, were given relief by those who were in ignorance of what help had already been extended. If registration had been accurate and complete from the beginning much saving of money and time would have been effected, and, of immeasurably greater importance, much better rehabilitation work could have been done. A thorough system of registration would have been opposed by many of the relief workers, as well as by the refugees, but the importance of securing, in beginning such a work, an accurate registration of names and references and of entering on the dated cards the facts of aid requested and given, cannot be over-estimated. The outstanding need of the later rehabilitation work was for a registration so inclusive that it might serve as a general confidential exchange of information[108] of the sums of relief given and the efforts made to rehabilitate individuals or families. One of those who had partial supervision of enumeration for the first registration has said that a more carefully prepared card and a rigid supervision of investigators could have secured the desired results even if the investigators were untrained. The lack of a well ordered bureau for confidential exchange of information led to serious duplication of inquiry and of grants.

[108] Registration as a means of holding and securing information was in use by various committees other than the Rehabilitation Committee.