| Branch of work | Amount required |
|---|---|
| Rehabilitation | $1,250,000 |
| Hospitals | 100,000 |
| Industrial Centers | 15,000 |
| Special Relief (General Relief) | 250,000 |
| Transportation | 10,000 |
| Administration | 100,000 |
| Total | $1,725,000 |
[115] On August 11, 1906, the balance sheet of the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds showed that a total of $5,599,466.02 had been received by that body; that deducting expenditures and immediate liabilities there was an actual cash balance of $2,105,309.74. This total was not all available for the uses of the Rehabilitation Committee but was the only source of support for the Department of Camps and Warehouses, the Department of Lands and Buildings, both of which required large sums, and all other activities of the Relief Corporation.
What the estimate for rehabilitation was based upon it is difficult to say, though the original estimate of $1,500,000 may have again been in mind. By August 16, applications to the number of 4,635 had been passed upon by the Committee, involving a total disbursement of a little over $300,000 and an average grant of about $80 a case. About 10,000 applications were pending and there were still three or four thousand families in the camps who would eventually have to be assisted by the Committee. Upon this basis a total of $1,120,000 would be required, and this may have been the basis for the estimate. Prospective applications from persons living outside the camps were not taken into account.
No action was taken when the estimate was presented, but at the meeting of the Committee on August 20 the chairman again presented a detailed report regarding funds available for the Corporation. After a very extended discussion it was agreed that it would not be safe for the Rehabilitation Committee to take further action until it knew something more definite regarding the amount of money it would receive and the amount that would be called for by the applications on file. The Committee decided therefore to notify the sections, the societies that were authorized to investigate applications for relief, and the press, that after August 20 no more applications for rehabilitation and relief would be received until all the cases pending had been investigated and disposed of. After this date no official notice was ever given of the readiness of the Committee to again receive applications.
Applications for medical aid, and in special instances for food, were to be received, however, as before, at the section stations. This action, which was momentous, inaugurated the third period of work,[116] which extended from August 20 to November 4, 1906. A large number of applications was received later and all the applications on file were in the course of time duly considered and made whenever necessary the subject of grants, the amount of money used for rehabilitation being in the end considerably larger than was estimated. August 20 is the sinister date which appears and reappears in the later chapters, when the subject of delay in the rehabilitation work is discussed.
[116] See [Part II], [p. 111].
The superintendent of the Rehabilitation Committee at that time prepared detailed instructions for the force at the main and at the section offices. These instructions were adopted later by the sub-committees of the centralized system. The instructions provided that future applications and those pending but not yet investigated, for medicine, medical aid, special diet, food, tools, and sewing machines, be referred to the Bureau of Special Relief, and that they be considered with reference to the relative disability of the applicants, in the following order:
1. Aged and infirm.
2. Sick and temporarily disabled.
3. Unsupported women and children (families without male breadwinners and with the burden of support resting heavily on the women or children).