The United Irish Societies was given this privilege, on probation, for a period of two weeks from July 28, 1906. On July 31, 1906, the privilege was extended to the German General Benevolent Society, and on August 6, 1906, to the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul and the Italian Relief Committee.
To say that the results were unsatisfactory is but to voice the unanimous sentiment of the then created Corporation and of the responsible workers in the Rehabilitation Committee office. The paid and voluntary workers of the Associated Charities had, under the instructions given them by the section agents and the Rehabilitation Committee, developed certain standards of investigation. Weak as these standards may have been in certain particulars, still they were standards. The visitors were getting, at the least, a coherent account of the condition of each family and were securing, in the main, such data as enabled the Committee to act intelligently. It is true that in a great many cases there was no time to corroborate the statements of applicants, but some picture of the family was presented and some plan that bore on its face a promise of success. The records that came from the so-called auxiliary societies were generally bare and fragmentary. The cards were not filled out and in some cases almost the only thing that the Committee got was the simple recommendation,—so much money for this purpose or for that. Paucity of facts particularly marked the recommendations of the United Irish Societies. A further characteristic was, that because of a lack of understanding of the rough-and-ready standards that had been set, the recommendations called for a higher scale of expenditure than the Committee could possibly approach. For instance, their recommendations for furniture rehabilitation ran from $300 to $500, while the cases presented by the sections ran from $100 to $300. A great many cards had to be returned to the auxiliary societies for reconsideration and additional information.
The claim had been that to receive recommendations directly from these relief societies would be to facilitate the work of the Rehabilitation Committee; instead, the work was hindered. Many applications had to be twice considered, and many were duplications. Some families were in the habit of applying at every place that would receive applications, a difficulty that developed through application by the same persons at the central office and at one or more section offices. Duplications increased when applications were received at the relief societies’ offices.
As soon as the first returns showed that the records were unsatisfactory, the Rehabilitation Committee had the superintendent prepare a circular entitled “Requirements for Satisfactory Investigations for the Rehabilitation Committee.” The representatives of the different societies were then called together informally to discuss the circular. Extracts from it are:
“Present and past earnings of breadwinners in the family are also necessary to judge fairly as to present conditions. The same may be said regarding occupation and physical condition.”
“The same detailed statement is required under the head of Resources. It often happens that without any deception an applicant does not think of some resource which is available.”
“A request upon the card for information as to what the breadwinners are now doing, in addition to the request upon the card for present earnings, is for the purpose of ascertaining whether the breadwinners are back in their original occupations or are doing the best they can in any occupations in which they could fit.”
But the time was fast approaching when the Rehabilitation Committee should be held in the dark as to the extent of its resources. With the general suspension of applications on August 20, 1906, came an end to the very unsatisfactory arrangement with the auxiliary societies. After that time applications were received from auxiliary societies, but they were treated the same as were applications from any other source.
It is well to examine a little the records of the work of the auxiliary societies. Taking the one that worked the longest, the United Irish Societies, we find 1,046 applications received directly from it. Of this number 582 were duplications of applications already received through the regular channels. The net result for the 582 was probably delay rather than speed. Grants to the number of 858 were made for a sum of $121,742.91, an average grant in round numbers of $142 to a person. The average Rehabilitation Committee grant to May 27, 1907, had been $109.44 to a person. To make a more illuminating comparison: Most of the United Irish Societies’ applications were for household rehabilitation. The average grant of the Rehabilitation Committee for such purposes to May 30, 1907, had been $105.77. An interpretation put on the discrepancy in the amount of grants is, that as the recommendations from the societies were so disproportionately large they could not be brought, even after scaling down, to the common standard set by the rehabilitation workers. Certain personal elements also tended to create friction; but there is no reason to go into this aspect of the matter simply because the definitive stand taken by the Committee was, that as the responsible distributors of the funds they and their agents alone should make investigations. This important work could not be delegated and the fact was finally accepted that the work of investigation, to be well done, must be done by a salaried force. This point is one, as was said before, on which there was emphatic agreement on the part of all the members of the Committee.