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

Chapter XV: Part I: , p. 25 ff (1)

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The total cash donations, $8,921,452.86, given in Table 1, do not include the $2,500,000 appropriated by Congress, which was disbursed in the first two months for food, clothing, bedding, shelter, etc., nor an estimate of the numerous independent funds which were probably expended within the first month, nor of the enormous quantity of supplies donated by the people of the country. These supplied the first needs of the destitute and enabled the Committee to save its cash for later and more permanent forms of relief.

TABLE 2.--CASH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE RELIEF OF SAN FRANCISCO, TO JUNE 1, 1909, RECEIVED BY THE FINANCE COMMITTEE OF RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS, AND ITS SUCCESSOR, THE CORPORATION, AND BY AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS, BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

===========================+=============+=============+=============
Country of origin | Received by | Received by | Total
| Finance | the American|
| Committee | National Red|
| of Relief | Cross |
| and Red | |
| Cross Funds | |
| and the | |
| Corporation | |
---------------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------
San Francisco | $413,090.83| .. | $413,090.83
About 2500 cities and towns| | |
of the United States | 5,261,898.35|$2,967,079.90| 8,228,978.25
Austria (Sec’t’y Amer. | | |
Embassy at Vienna) | .. | 50.00| 50.00
Australia | 385.96| .. | 385.96
Belgium | 50.00| .. | 50.00
Canada | 145,097.15| 315.50| 145,412.65
Cape Colony (Americans) | .. | 464.00| 464.00
Ceylon | .. | 32.33| 32.33
China | 40,000.00| .. | 40,000.00
Cuba | 5.00| 729.30| 734.30
England | 6,522.58| 48.30| 6,570.88
France (Amer. Chamber of | | |
Commerce, Paris, $20,850) | 20,850.00| 385.08| 21,235.08
Germany | 50.00| .. | 50.00
Japan | 98,960.10| 146,000.00| 244,960.10
Mexico | 14,286.44| 193.87| 14,480.31
Russia | 51.45| 147.57| 199.02
Scotland | .. | 50.40| 50.40
United States of Colombia | | |
(Americans) | 200.00| .. | 200.00
---------------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------
Total |$6,001,447.86|$3,115,496.25|$9,116,944.11
---------------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------

The donations mentioned in Table 2 do not include $100,000 given to the University of California Hospital by the Massachusetts Association for the Relief of California.

It appears from the figures of the two preceding tables that while on June 1, 1909, money to the amount of $9,116,944.11 had been contributed for the relief of San Francisco, $8,921,452.86 had been received by the Finance Committee of Relief and Red Cross Funds and by the Corporation. This difference between the amount donated and the amount received by the local organizations to which the work of relief had been entrusted is explained by the fact that not all the money contributed through the American National Red Cross had been paid over to the Finance Committee or to the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds by June 1, 1909. The disposition made of the money contributed through the American National Red Cross is shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3.--DISPOSITION OF CASH CONTRIBUTED FOR THE RELIEF OF SAN FRANCISCO THROUGH THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS, TO JUNE 1, 1909[44]

Total donations made through the American
National Red Cross $3,115,496.25
Remitted to San Francisco to June 1,
1909 $2,920,005.00
Administration expenses, purchase of
relief supplies, and transportation
of refugees 47,073.35
Sent to Italy (for Messina earthquake
sufferers, 1909) 50,000.00
-------------
Total disbursements to June 1, 1909 3,017,078.35
-------------
Balance available from donations, June 1, 1909 $98,417.90

[44] For detailed account of receipts and disbursements see Sixth
Annual Report, American National Red Cross, 1910, pp. 60-152.

The statement shows that of the $3,115,496.25 donated through the American National Red Cross up to June 1, 1909, $2,920,005.00 had been remitted to San Francisco. The balance received but not remitted was therefore $195,491.25,[45] of which $97,073.35 was disbursed directly by the Red Cross. It will be seen that this balance equals the difference between the total amount donated for the relief of San Francisco and the amount of the cash donations received to June 1, 1909.

[45] Subsequent to June 1, 1909, the sum of $100,545.65 was forwarded
to San Francisco, this sum comprising the $98,417.90 above mentioned,
together with a portion of the accrued interest and a delayed
contribution.

2. DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD

Food was of course the first necessity, and out of the need to supply it grew the whole machinery of relief. Before the noon of Thursday, April 19, the Citizens’ Committee had appointed a sub-committee on relief of the hungry, with Rabbi Voorsanger as chairman, to furnish food for the entire population, which for a time fell into a series of long bread lines. In these lines rich and poor, Italian, German, Swedish, Chinese, and native fared alike. The only question was one of need. From the mayor and the military officers down to the humblest families in the Potrero, there was a good-humored acquiescence in the hardships of the situation, and an optimism that was inspiring. Supplies in sufficient quantities were rushed to the city, and the danger of suffering from lack of food was averted.

The sub-committee began the distribution of food April 20. It at once called on the army to furnish an officer, two companies of infantry, and a troop of cavalry to guard rather than to distribute what supplies had become available. It took steps to get flour from points around the bay and studied the situation as to the bakeries, some of the largest of which had been burned or damaged. Repairs were being made to some of those damaged, and a daily output of 50,000 loaves of bread was shortly to be expected.

The ruling was made that after the committee on relief of the hungry had received the quantity of bread it needed, the bakers might sell the remainder at not more than 10 cents a loaf, in quantities of not more than five loaves to one person. The committee was furthermore authorized by the Citizens’ Committee to levy on all supplies wherever found. The following notes show the general trend of the work during the first week.

Soldiers gave aid and protection

RELIEVING THE HUNGRY]

On Friday, April 20, while the fire was still spreading, the general distribution was begun. About 25 wagons were impressed which were used in the distribution of the provisions seized by order of the committee. Refugees were standing in line at the Golden Gate Park Lodge; the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Page and Stanyan Streets; St. Mary’s Cathedral, Van Ness Avenue and O’Farrell Street; at Jefferson and Columbia Squares, and at the corners of Fifth and Mission Streets and 24th and Douglas Streets, where food stations had already been established by the citizens. The committee made use of these for its own distribution, choosing the Young Men’s Hebrew Association as its base for general distribution.

The bakeries that day furnished 35,000 loaves of bread. The chief difficulty lay in transporting to the city the supplies that were available--5,000 tons of flour at Vallejo and many carloads of donated goods at Oakland.

On Saturday, April 21, the day the fire was brought under control, the city was reported to be divided into districts. Five bakeries were in operation and a committee from Fresno appeared before the Citizens’ Committee to announce that it had brought six carloads of supplies. Committees from some nearby communities put themselves under the direction of the Citizens’ Committee, but the general efficiency of the distribution was lowered by the fact that still other out of town committees undertook to make independent distributions.

On Sunday, April 22, arrangements had been made to have bread baked in the towns of the Santa Clara Valley. It was found necessary to carry into effect the committee ruling to prevent alleged exorbitant retail charges for bread.

On Monday, April 23, there was an abundance of supplies for present use and an over-supply of milk.

On Tuesday, April 24, there was a shortage of sugar and coffee. Sixty food stations had been established. No stores were found on investigation to be charging exorbitant prices for food, but some of the refugees were trying to get more than their share of food. Confusion was still being caused by the work of the independent relief committees.

When two days later the committee on relief of the hungry made its final report to the Finance Committee there had been established 128 stations and sub-stations, a warehouse in the Moulder School, Page and Gough Streets, and a branch warehouse at Spear and Howard Streets. It had had printed a card for the use of the applicant at the food station and had determined that rations, except in cases of emergency, should be issued to each person at intervals of three days. Every card carried a statement of the amount of food required by a person for a day, as follows:

Fresh beef, 1¹⁄₄ lbs. or bacon or ham, ³⁄₄ lb.

Salt fish, ³⁄₄ lb. [Probably as a substitute for meat and not in
addition to it.]

Fresh or canned vegetables, 1 lb.

Flour, 18 oz., or bread, 22 oz.

Rice, ¹⁄₈ lb. or beans, ¹⁄₄ lb.

Sugar, ¹⁄₁₀ lb.

Coffee, ¹⁄₁₀ lb.

Special diet,--eggs, butter, milk, fruit,--was also issued.

This ration was more liberal than that adopted by the army.[46]

[46] See Appendix I, p. 379 ff. This General Orders No. 18, is an
important document to be read in connection with any facts given about
the army methods.

During the trial week the distribution of food was made to the refugees either from the stations or at the various camps or shelters. Though a fixed ration was agreed on there could be no certainty of delivery, as the quantity and variety of the food supply was indeterminate. The committee in making its report could give only an approximate estimate of the goods it had seized. It anticipated that claims would be made against it as well as against the United States army, the state militia, the police department, and the various volunteer organizations which had without authorization seized goods.

It arranged to pay the bakeries at a rate of 5 cents a loaf for the 255,630 loaves of bread which had been supplied by them to the committee, part of the payment to be made in flour, and to pay the Milk Dealers’ Association at a rate of not more than 20 cents a gallon for milk supplied by it. The committee had employed between three and four hundred men and as many trucks to transport supplies, but it did not know the extent of its obligation for the use of the latter.

During the first week after the disaster there was a growing inclination to turn to the army for the direction of the relief work. Though the army in common with every other body of persons had suffered serious losses, its efficiency as an organization could not be impaired even though the extent of the aid it could immediately give were lessened.

To the military reservations which lay outside the burned district refugees immediately fled in numbers, and on April 19, the day the committee on relief of the hungry began its work, Major Krauthoff issued from a depot established by him in the Presidio such food as could be spared from the Presidio itself and from Forts Mason and Miley. The great army warehouses, which had stored $2,000,000 worth of supplies, were burned, but along with the committee on relief of the hungry the army began to confiscate supplies for use on the reservations. It also purchased from the posts in the Departments of California and the Columbia 900,000 rations, the first shipment of which arrived on April 21. On that same day a steamer from Stockton put in at Fort Mason with donations of provisions and blankets. These were immediately distributed among 20,000 refugees.

The committee on relief of the hungry had not been given full authority nor had its powers been defined. It had no machinery adequate for the handling of a great bulk of supplies, and it was hindered by the crossing of efforts on the part of unauthorized agencies.

The Finance Committee, as has been said in Chapter I, was the committee of power, and might have assumed responsibility for perfecting an adequate relief organization, but as it realized that its efforts could not be as quickly effective as those of the army, it, as well as the mayor, called on the army to assume control of the relief work. General Greely consented and on April 29 took charge of the food issues and gradually put the work under the direction of 64 officers and 500 enlisted men.

Major C. A. Devol, depot quartermaster, who took over the tremendous task of unloading cars and boats and transporting supplies to and from warehouses,[47] quickly introduced order and economy into the work. Major C. R. Krauthoff, in charge of the commissary department, was also able soon to reduce to an efficient routine his work of receiving donated supplies, of purchasing, selling, and storing supplies, and of issuing properly balanced rations.

[47] See Appendix I, p. 383 ff. See also Part I, pp. 8 and 30.

In the report made in July, 1906, to the War Department, Colonel Febiger, who from April 29 had charge of the organization of relief stations, and later became chief of the Bureau of Consolidated Relief Stations, which had been established by the army to facilitate the relief work, said that on taking charge he had found, after a most thorough investigation, no instance of extreme suffering from lack of food or shelter, but many instances of repeating, so that the number of rations issued was in excess of the needs of the population. With no accepted general organization bringing about the co-ordinating of relief, there was of necessity an exaggerated estimate of the needy.

General Greely, who during his Arctic explorations had learned what extreme suffering from hunger and cold meant, had the city canvassed on May 13 in order to find any case of destitution which might have been overlooked. All of his inspectors, with 30 officers in addition to the officers directly connected with the relief work, were ordered to make a special effort to learn of persons in absolute need of food and decent clothing or of bed and shelter. The result was that but two such cases were reported.

During the early days orders were issued forbidding all householders to light fires in their houses. Cooking, in consequence, was done in the street over open fires or on rusty stoves which belched smoke out of short sections of pipe. In those days only candles were permitted for light and they had to be extinguished at 8 p.m.

RELIEF STATIONS AND REGISTRATION

As stated in Chapter I,[48] the northern part of the city was, for purposes of policing, put under military control the third day after the disaster. Later, for purposes of relief, the city was divided into seven sections, whose boundaries were made coterminous with those of the army districts. On May 8, each section was supplied by the army with an officer who made regular reports to the headquarters of the Bureau of Consolidated Relief Stations, and with a physician who was responsible for sanitation and for diet prescriptions. Nine depots and sub-depots were open for storage of food supplies.

[48] See Part I, pp. 11-12.

A row of street kitchens

FIRES IN HOUSES WERE PROHIBITED]

To give some idea of the character and origin of the relief stations a table of the relief stations of Civil Section VI is given:

TABLE 4.--CHARACTER OF LOCATION, ORIGIN, AND DATES OF OPENING AND CLOSING OF RELIEF STATIONS OF CIVIL SECTION VI

[49] Approximate.

There is no information to show that any one of these sub-stations had been established by the committee on relief of the hungry. As may be borne in mind, the number of stations in use on April 26 was reported by the committee on relief of the hungry to be 128; three days later, on taking charge, the army reported 177; early in May the number dropped, as is shown by Table 5, to 112.

TABLE 5.--RELIEF STATIONS IN THE SEVEN CIVIL SECTIONS ON MAY 3 AND ON JUNE 3, 1906

========================================+========+=========+=========
CIVIL SECTION | Food | Food |Hot meal
------+---------------------------------+stations|stations |kitchens
Number| Headquarters |on May 3|on June 3|on June 3
------+---------------------------------+--------+---------+---------
I |Presidio entrance | 19 | .. | 4
II |Oak St. near Stanyan | 8 | 3 | 3
III |3055 Van Ness Ave. | 5 | 4 | 3
IV |Hamilton School, Geary and Scott | | |
| Sts. | 35 | 10 | 4
V |Buena Vista School, 18th and York| | |
| Sts. | 9 | 3 | 4
VI |24th St. and Potrero Ave. | 21 | 5 | 2
VII |25th and Guerrero Sts. | 15 | 8 | ..
----------------------------------------+--------+---------+---------
Total | 112 | 33 | 20
----------------------------------------+--------+---------+---------

Dr. Devine as representative of the American National Red Cross had appointed a civil chairman to be responsible for the receiving and investigation of applications. After May 1, the responsibility for the distribution of supplies was divided at each section between the military officer and the civil chairman. The civil chairman determined who should receive relief and the military officer made the necessary requisition on the Bureau of Consolidated Relief Stations.

The records of relief distribution are incomplete and there is no means of determining accurately from week to week the number of persons who received food, clothing, and other supplies, medical care and shelter. The most complete records[50] are furnished by the official camps. Colonel Febiger in his July report, already quoted, says that “313,145 persons were on May 2 estimated to be receiving rations, though this number should probably be reduced to 300,000 to make allowance for repeaters.” General Greely made estimate that the number of cases of fraudulent repeating was not more than 3 per cent of the whole.

[50] For report sheet forms see Appendix II, pp. 430 and 431.

TABLE 6.--DAILY ISSUES OF RATIONS FROM APRIL 19 TO MAY 12, 1906

==============+=================+==============+=================
Date |Number of persons| Date |Number of persons
| (estimated) | | (actual)
--------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------------
1906 | | 1906 |
April 19 | 100,000 |May 1 | 313,117
20 | 150,000 | 2 | 313,117
21 | 200,000 | 3 | 279,631
22 | 225,000 | 4 | 230,207
23 | 250,000 | 5 | 264,570
24 | 270,000 | 6 | 262,027
25 | 290,000 | 7 | 233,989
26 | 306,000 | 8 | 223,915
27 | 310,000 | 9 | 222,313
28 | 315,000 | 10 | 204,637
29 | 315,000 | 11 | 186,960
30 | 315,000 | 12 | 147,232
--------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------------
Daily average | 253,833 |Daily average | 240,143
--------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------------

Care has been taken to verify the estimate of the issues, which has called for some reduction of the totals as given in earlier reports. This accounts for the slight discrepancy between Colonel Febiger’s figure for May 2 and that given in the table.

The reason for the large increase in numbers in the bread line in the days immediately after the disaster is that householders had by then exhausted their private stock and could not make purchases, as most of the goods in retail stores had been confiscated; nor could food be prepared in private houses until chimneys had on inspection been found safe. From a week to two or three months, according to the location and the activity of the inspection, the fire prohibition held. In towns across the bay people with money in bank had difficulty in securing food because the banks were temporarily closed and the retail stores could not determine when they would be able to replenish their stock.

As the number in the bread line in the early part of May represented two-thirds of the population of a city that had been raised to a high degree of prosperity by the industry and thrift of its citizens, there would have been rapid decrease in the number of applicants for rations even had there been no concerted plan to reduce numbers. Pressure was brought from without, however, which, as is shown in the following paragraph, did accelerate the citizens’ return as a body to the normal means of making provision for creature needs.

In order that the smaller traders might be encouraged to resume business and the funds be reserved in a great measure to give permanent relief, the representatives of the army and the American National Red Cross co-operated during late April and early May in a strenuous effort to lessen the number supplied with rations. The attractiveness of the free food issues was diminished by reducing the ration items to meat, bread, and vegetables for all applicants in sound health except such as were living in the camps under military control. The number of the stations was rapidly reduced, as shown by Table 5. After the middle of May, except in cases of invalidism, rations were issued but three times a week, and an offer was made of a final issue of a month’s rations to any one who would accept that in place of the regular allowances. These measures served to concentrate in the permanent camps those refugees who were to continue as charges on the relief administration. The work of concentration was hindered, however, by the numerous private relief stations throughout the city which could be persuaded only gradually to send their patrons to the public relief stations. An Associated Charities worker who knew well the people in one large section of the city went through the tents with a soldier and demanded the return of extra bacon, canned goods, and potatoes, which had been laid in by thrifty refugees who had made use of both public and private food stations.

The Red Cross began within the first week of the disaster a general registration of the refugees. As substantially every one in the city was at that time dependent on the relief stations for food, the natural way of getting access to the refugees was through the distribution of rations. Carl C. Plehn, professor of finance in the University of California, whose experience as director of the census of the Philippine Islands suggested special fitness for the work, undertook to prepare a plan, organize the force, and superintend the work of a registration bureau. The force consisted of some 200 volunteers from among the public school teachers, an intelligent and capable, even though inexperienced, group of enumerators. Their regular employment stopped on April 18, but their salaries were paid to the end of the school year. Though the service given was very unequal and largely unsatisfactory, if judged by the standard of a census bureau or a charity organization society, it is doubtful whether at the time so high an average of efficiency could have been obtained in any other way.

On April 27 Professor Plehn submitted a tentative plan for the registration. By May 7 the cards[51] and instructions had been printed, a force of 175 persons was in the field, and the work was well under way. Ten days later 20,000 cards had been filled out and the canvass was practically completed as far as it could then be carried.

[51] See Appendix II, pp. 425 and 426.

After excluding duplicates as far as they could be detected, the 19,438 cards, which represented the same number of families or household parties, distributed the 84,703 persons included among the seven sections as follows:

TABLE 7.--FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS REGISTERED IN THE SEVEN CIVIL SECTIONS, MAY, 1906

=======+===================+==================
|FAMILIES OR PARTIES| INDIVIDUALS
| REGISTERED | REGISTERED
Section+--------+----------+--------+---------
| Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent
-------+--------+----------+--------+---------
I | 2,590 | 13.3 | 10,206 | 12.1
II | 813 | 4.2 | 3,076 | 3.6
III | 3,097 | 15.9 | 12,473 | 14.7
IV | 2,577 | 13.3 | 10,737 | 12.7
V | 2,220 | 11.4 | 8,384 | 9.9
VI | 2,876 | 14.8 | 14,896 | 17.6
VII | 5,265 | 27.1 | 24,931 | 29.4
-------+--------+----------+--------+---------
Total | 19,438 | 100.0 | 84,703 | 100.0
-------+--------+----------+--------+---------

The 84,703 individuals were 28,319 men, 32,650 women, 22,795 children, and 939 persons who were entered under the heading, “Aged, etc.”[52]

[52] This classification was adopted for the purpose of determining
the number of rations required by the family, and for that reason the
dividing line between children and adults was placed at twelve years,
the allowance for a child under twelve being placed at half the
standard ration. “Men” and “Women” meant respectively the number of
males and females twelve years of age and over, who were not aged and
infirm. The heading, “Aged, etc.” (see card, Appendix II, p. 425), was
an unfortunate one for statistical purposes, especially as on some of
the cards it was printed “Ages, etc.” It was intended to be used, as
the instructions to the enumerator clearly stated, for recording the
“number of persons so old, sick, or crippled, as to be presumably
unable to support themselves by labor.” This information would have
had much practical value, but the cards show plainly that the
ambiguity of the heading on the card was not corrected in the
enumerators’ minds (as such ambiguity can rarely be corrected) by the
careful explanation in the instructions. In many cases, when an entry
was made under it, it was the ages of the children; in other cases it
was apparently the number of adults in the party who were not
immediate members of the family. The figures which have been tabulated
are only of significance as recording so many additional adults. They
do not indicate the proportion of aged and infirm, or the amount of
physical disability among the refugees.

The information recorded on the registration cards varies in completeness and value on account of the great diversity in carefulness and capability among the persons who collected it. Many of the cards were filled out intelligently and conscientiously; many are wholly unsatisfactory. Taken together, however, they give a rough picture of that quarter or third, whichever it may have been, of the city’s population which was still, in the middle of May, dependent on the general distribution of food for its daily supplies; and they reflect to some extent the dislocations that were brought about by the disaster, in residence, occupation, and circumstances.

It was not the primary object of the registration to furnish material for a description of the refugees, but to establish a uniform system of food distribution which should prevent waste by cutting out repeaters, apportioning the number of rations to the size of the family, and cutting off persons as they reached a position where they no longer needed to be dependent. Other purposes were also in mind. At the beginning, in fact, the efforts seem to have been made to provide a record of the persons who received relief, for historical purposes and for aid in determining their future needs. It was also hoped that the registration could be made of practical value to the state labor commissioner, in the free employment bureau[53] which had been opened. In part for this last reason, information was asked about former occupation and former employer, union membership, and present employment.

[53] A free employment bureau at Hearst School in charge of State
Labor Commissioner Stafford closed its office May 29, 1906, after four
weeks’ work, during which time employment was found for over 1,100 men
and 93 women. See 12th Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of the State of California, 1905-06. For brief mention of
the work of the employment bureau see _Charities and the Commons_,
June 2, 1906, p. 304.

Relief station, Mission District

DISTRIBUTION OF RELIEF SUPPLIES]

The registration was made at the relief stations, the cards being filled out when applicants came for rations. If the applicant did not live within the boundaries of the section served by the station to which he had come he was referred to the proper station. When the applicant had been registered he was given a food card[54] bearing a serial number, good for ten days, which stated conspicuously, so that the attendants could see, even before he reached the counter, the number of rations to which his family was entitled, and showed uncanceled the dates on which the card would be honored. The food card number was entered on the registration card, which was kept at the relief station. Each time rations were drawn the date for which they were drawn was canceled on the card. After the registration had been completed at any station no rations were issued except on presentation of a food card.

[54] A reproduction of the card is shown in Appendix II, p. 427.

By this system abuses were controlled: no one could draw supplies from two or more stations, nor two or three times on the same day from the same station, nor for more persons than he represented; able-bodied men, for whom by this time there was abundant opportunity of employment, could be cut off; and at the expiration of the ten-day period the merits of the case could be reviewed before granting a renewal of the food card.

It was through its success in establishing a uniform and workable system of food distribution that the first registration was most valuable. It did not prove to be of much service in aiding applicants to find employment, in giving a record of the entire work of relief, or in furnishing a basis for the rehabilitation work. That it failed in realizing all that was hoped from it in these directions was due partly to changes in the labor situation, which soon made efforts to supply employment superfluous; partly to some ambiguity and lack of definiteness in the headings on the card, and the omission of some essential items; but chiefly to the many omissions on the part of the enumerators, the lack of uniformity in their interpretation of the headings on the card, and the large amount of carelessness they exhibited in recording the information that was secured. The inexperience of the enumerators in investigation, the immense difficulty of supervising them adequately when the automobile and the wagon were the only means of transportation between the far-scattered stations, and the necessity for getting the whole work done as speedily as possible, so that there was no time for correcting mistakes or training investigators, are the simple explanations of these defects.

If all the circumstances are taken into consideration--the number of persons affected by the disaster, the extent of the territory to be covered, the difficulty of getting about, the confusion which still existed among the many elements of the relief organization, and the inexperience in relief work of those who made the registration, both university professors and public school teachers--the results obtained were surprisingly satisfactory. The registration would have justified itself if it had done nothing more than systematize the food distribution and contribute toward the reduction of the bread lines. This it undoubtedly did.

An indication of the effectiveness of the first registration, as may be seen in Table 11,[55] is the sudden drop in the number of persons who received rations after May 12, a decrease of 21 per cent on that day against an average daily decrease for the five preceding days of slightly over 7 per cent. The marked drop of May 16 is, however, in part due to the stimulation to self-help caused by putting into effect the order that rations should be issued only three times a week. The general use of the food card was an important factor in bringing about the reduction; another, the rapid increase in the number of persons gaining self-support. One special use to which the so-called first registration was put was to determine who should receive special diet. The diet included meat, fresh milk, butter and eggs, vegetables, and fruit, and was prepared for the sick, the aged, and for mothers with infants. The method of its distribution varied in the different sections and from time to time, but the policy was to subject its distribution to more direct control from the central office than the ordinary rations. Issues of special diet were not finally discontinued until October 1, a few days before the closing of the last kitchen.

[55] See Part I, p. 53.

A second general registration[56] was made in June by the American National Red Cross staff of workers with the aid of the camp commanders. General Greely appreciated the need of having a more complete case record of the individuals who were making use of the camps, in order that a restriction of numbers might be judiciously and expeditiously made. The relief workers outside the camps, also, realized clearly the need of a more adequate registration as a basis for intelligent rehabilitation work.

[56] See Part II, p. 115. For registration card, see Appendix II, pp.
428 and 429.

HOT MEAL KITCHENS

The Bureau of Consolidated Relief Stations, acting on the advice of the Finance Committee, opened its first kitchen in Lobos Square about the middle of May to serve hot meals both to refugees and to persons able to pay for their food. From immediately after the disaster kitchens had been established by voluntary relief committees as the best means of feeding the people living in or near the camps. One such committee, that of Los Angeles, sent equipment to furnish five kitchens, with a representative, Mr. Desmond, of the Desmond Construction Company, to put them in operation. They were intended freely to furnish food and they gave timely aid in the early days.

When the Bureau opened its own community kitchens,[57] the experiment was made as a distinctive part of the effort to reduce the long bread lines. The kitchens were intended to test the needs of those applying for free food, because the number of those willing to accept relief in food was expected to suffer diminution when a common eating room was offered. They were also to give a convenient eating place to persons able to pay but not able to provide their own food, with the privilege of sitting at separate tables and of ordering a better quality of food than that furnished at the free tables. They were also to serve to the aged and infirm better food than had been supplied to them before. The kitchen system was intended to be economical and sanitary. Sanitary inspection could be made more thorough when in each encampment there should be one general kitchen rather than scattered individual kitchens for the preparing of free rations. Insistence on the first article of the new experiment--the common eating room--made Section VII, in the part of the city known as the Mission, unwilling to open a kitchen. It successfully opposed the step because it was one that the Mission workers felt would degrade the people and tend to destroy the privacy of family life.

[57] For partial list of kitchens and dates of closing, see Sixth
Annual Report of the American National Red Cross, 1910, p. 43.

It must be borne in mind that the kitchen system was introduced after the bread line had been reduced to less than one-half its greatest length, and that it threw into conspicuous relief those who were without power to re-establish themselves or unwilling to try to do so.

The hot meal kitchens caused no sudden drop in the amount of food distributed. On May 12 when, as has been already commented upon, there was a marked decrease in the number of persons receiving rations, there were but five kitchens in operation; but the new method did effectively help to weed out those who no longer needed free rations. Colonel Febiger wrote late in June that “by the operation of these hot food camps thousands of dollars were saved for future relief; probably 95 per cent of the 15,000 persons now being supported by food relief were absolutely in need of it, those not in need either having withdrawn or having been forced out.”

The kitchens were at first run exclusively by the Desmond Construction Company under contract with the Bureau of Consolidated Relief Stations; that company, which had already made its experiment, having been the only one willing to undertake what was considered by the contractors to be an undesirable job. When by June 21 the number of kitchens had been gradually increased to 27, two other contractors were operating under the Bureau.

The Bureau and the Red Cross provided police protection, furnished sites for the kitchens, and supplied fuel and water. Each contractor provided his own buildings or tents, equipment, and service. The contractor agreed to furnish a wholesome meal, and to submit his daily menu to the relief officials for approval.

In Golden Gate Park

HOT MEAL KITCHENS]

The following is a typical daily menu:

BREAKFAST DINNER
Hot Hash, or Hot Mush and Milk Hot Soup, or Roast Beef or Hash
Bread or Hot Biscuit One Vegetable, Bread
Coffee, and Sugar Coffee, and Sugar

SUPPER
Soup, or Irish Stew
Bread or Hot Biscuits
Tea, and Sugar

Meals were supplied to any person who was ready to pay cash or who possessed a meal ticket. The meal tickets were issued daily by the Red Cross and were redeemed by it by payment made to the contractor in cash or in kind from the relief supplies. The original plan was to serve ten-cent free meals with provision for granting an extra five-cent purchase to such persons as might be considered in need of extra food.

Certain kitchens within the Presidio reservation are not reported on later than July 11, when they were furnishing about 1,200 meals a day. One thousand meals a day would probably be a liberal estimate for the remainder of the time, thirty days, that these Presidio kitchens were to remain open, but such an estimate is not included in Table 8.

TABLE 8.--MEALS SERVED BY HOT MEAL KITCHENS, FROM MAY TO OCTOBER, 1906, INCLUSIVE

From the data on hand we can estimate the proportion of ten-cent meals at 12.1 per cent and fifteen-cent meals at 87.9 per cent.

The first report of meals paid for is for June 28. Those who patronized these restaurants paid from 10 to 20 cents for their meals, the average price being 15 cents. The extent to which this opportunity was utilized is shown in Table 9.

TABLE 9.--FREE AND PAID MEALS SERVED BY HOT MEAL KITCHENS ON SPECIFIED DATES IN 1906

===========+==========+==================
Date |Free meals| PAID MEALS SERVED
| served +------+-----------
| |Number|Per cent of
| | | free meals
-----------+----------+------+-----------
June 28 | 16,666 | 617 | 3.7
July 1 | 14,087 | 423 | 3.0
August 1 | 15,202 | 191 | 1.3
September 1| 7,484 | 82 | 1.1
-----------+----------+------+-----------

The last paid meal was served on September 19, 1906. The last kitchen closed was that at Speedway Camp, where the final meal was served October 10, 1906.

Frequent complaints were made that the kitchens supplied food which lacked in quality and variety, was poorly cooked, and served on fly-infested tables in unsanitary rooms. In some instances the complaints were justified, but the army inspections were thorough, and the contractors on the whole lived up to the contracts. Some of the complaints were made not by those who were using the kitchens but by those who were critical of the kitchen system itself.

It is not possible to estimate the total value of the food distributed. For food and its distribution the Relief and Red Cross Funds expended $1,226,567.16. The army report gives $259,811.20 as expended for subsistence stores, but this is not a complete statement of the disbursements made by it from the appropriation from Congress. These sums do not include an estimate of the value of donations in kind that were used as such and not sold. General Greely in his report stated that in the food donations distributed by the army there were about 2,000,000 complete rations, which had to be increased by substitutions and by purchase to supply the 3,873,745 rations distributed by the army during May and June. Two commodities that had been donated in excess of need were flour and potatoes.

TABLE 10.--EXPENDITURES OF SAN FRANCISCO RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS FOR PURCHASE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD, TO MAY 29, 1909

Purchases of food
Groceries $560,205.77
Meat 182,798.74
Bread 84,436.10
Milk, fresh 33,032.64
Fruits and Vegetables 25,029.01
Flour 21,848.14
Miscellaneous 8,029.43
-----------
Total $915,379.83

Distribution of food
Stoves, hardware, kitchen utensils, dishes,
fuel, etc. $30,540.72
Labor of all kinds 39,968.72
Drayage, etc. 14,787.10
-----------
Total 85,296.54

Hot Meal Kitchens 204,446.54
Bureau of Special Relief 21,444.25
-------------
Grand total $1,226,567.16

TABLE 11.--PERSONS TO WHOM RATIONS WERE ISSUED IN MAY AND JUNE, 1906

======+=========+=======+=========
Date |Number of| Date |Number of
| persons | | persons
------+---------+-------+---------
1906| | 1906|
May 1| 313,117 | May 24| 62,239
2| 313,117 | 26| 39,432
3| 279,631 | 29| 54,883
4| 230,207 | 31| 44,289
5| 264,570 |June 2| 42,374
6| 262,027 | 5| 39,084
7| 233,989 | 7| 35,237
8| 223,915 | 9| 34,268
9| 222,313 | 12| 29,621
10| 204,637 | 14| 22,753
11| 186,960 | 16| 22,295
12| 147,232 | 19| 16,608
13| 139,405 | 21| 16,246
14| 126,970 | 23| 15,451
16| 97,886 | 26| 15,340
18| 91,812 | 28| 15,339
22| 73,163 | 30| 15,353
------+---------+-------+---------

Among the persons who received rations, as indicated in the table and chart, are included both those to whom raw rations were issued and those who were served with free meals at the hot meal kitchens.

3. DISTRIBUTION OF CLOTHING

Of secondary urgency was the demand for clothing. The requests for clothing were fewer than those for food, though many refugees fled from the burned areas with no clothing except nightgowns or calico slips, a poor protection from the cold nights and chilly April mornings and evenings.

The records of distribution are incomplete. General Greely estimated the number of persons who received clothing at 200,000. Much of the clothing donated bore the wellknown mark of the charity gift in kind. The second hand clothing in many cases was, to repeat General Greely’s comment, “more or less of a burden on the Red Cross.” Some was useless; some required to be cleaned and disinfected. The new clothing was, in the words of Captain Bradley, who had charge of its distribution, “of old and dead stock of mediocre and poor quality.” Part of the shoes and articles of clothing supplied from the army stores and charged against the appropriation from Congress were of obsolete pattern. The same criticism was made of some of the household goods donated. A large number of the cots, for instance, were worthless or of poor quality. There was the further handicap to the distributor, of not knowing what donations were to be expected or when they were to be received. This uncertainty meant serious delays in supplying the need and severe criticism of the administrators, but the latter did not feel themselves justified in making purchases of clothing in large quantities when clothing similar to that ordered might, later, be received as a gift.

The memory is vivid to some of those who worked in the refugee camps during the midsummer of 1906, of the children in striped sweaters and gay Tam-o’-Shanters. The caps were not suitable for summer wear, but they had been sent in large quantity with the sweaters to be distributed. The mental picture of Golden Gate Park with its scattered barracks and tents pitched close to ornamental lakes and neglected flower beds is accentuated by the note of high color given by the sweaters and caps.

Distribution of clothing, like the distribution of food, was quickly undertaken by independent groups of volunteers, who collected and gave out what could be got in the city itself. While the fire was spreading the army from its stores in the Presidio gave blankets and quantities of shoes, shirts, ponchos, and other clothing for men. As the donations from abroad began to arrive in large quantities they were quickly handed out without careful discrimination in sorting or adapting to individual needs.

On May 4 the army, in consultation with Dr. Devine, took charge of the organization of the clothing and household distribution. The Crocker School on Page Street was taken for use as a warehouse. A warehouse for second hand clothing exclusively was established ten days later in the Everett Grammar School, on Sanchez Street. Neither was adapted for use as a department store, but nine departments were organized, each in charge of an experienced clerk:

1. Men’s clothing and hats.
2. Men’s furnishings and underwear.
3. Women’s furnishings and underwear.
4. Boots and shoes.
5. Children’s clothing and hats.
6. Children’s underwear.
7. Bedding and furniture.
8. Household goods.
9. Tentage.

From the departments went during May a daily average of twenty truckloads; during June, eighteen. Among the household goods that had to be handled were towels, sheets, pillows, pillow cases, blankets, comforters, mattresses, stoves, cooking utensils, cutlery, dishes, brooms, wash tubs, washboards, boilers, irons, clotheslines, axes, chairs, tables, and sewing machines.

The method of distribution was similar to that for food. Each civilian chairman made requisition for the articles that were found by the superintendents of the stations to be needed within his section, and each requisition was filled so far as the warehouse stock would admit. The articles were sent to the separate stations for distribution. The army had charge of reception and distribution of goods; the Red Cross, of determining who should be entitled to aid. The first registration was used as a basis for determining need, but there was no uniform system of record and various forms are found to have been in use,--an instance of the necessity for a general, accepted form of registration and record.

WAREHOUSE FOR SECOND HAND CLOTHING]

It was planned to complete by the middle of July the general distribution of clothing and household goods by determining whether each refugee at that time had a decent supply which would prevent present suffering. After that date the Rehabilitation Committee was to consider further need of clothing and household goods in relation to general need of rehabilitation. The distribution did end practically on August 1, when those who had requisitions for articles that had not been furnished were given by the Rehabilitation Committee the cash value of the articles called for on their requisitions as far as approved by the civilian chairmen of their sections.

* * * * *

The later development of the methods of distributing clothing shows increased efficiency as greater experience was gained.

After August 15 the Bureau of Special Relief[58] had charge of filling orders for clothing for those living outside the camps whose needs were urgent but not great; the more important cases of need of clothing and household goods were cared for by the Rehabilitation Committee. From August 6 the residents of the camps were supplied with all necessary clothing through the Department of Camps and Warehouses, an arrangement which continued until the middle of October, after which issues of clothing were made by requisition through the department headquarters on the supply of clothing kept in Golden Gate Park. From December, 1906, the Department of Camps and Warehouses sent individual requisitions for clothing to the Bureau of Special Relief. Possibly these were such as it could not itself fill.

[58] See Bureau of Special Relief, Part II, p. 145 ff.

All issues of clothing were stopped on May 16, 1907, and the supply on hand was turned over to the Rehabilitation Committee, which distributed it among a number of institutions. It is probable, however, that for a long time only a very small quantity of clothing had been issued to meet the needs of the aged, infirm, and sick at Ingleside.[59] It is to be noted further that as early as August, 1906, issues were limited, and were made only to destitute persons whose circumstances could easily be investigated.

[59] See Part VI, The Residuum of Relief, p. 319 ff.

4. FURNISHING TRANSPORTATION

The rapid exodus of refugees from the city during the first week after the disaster meant a desirable lessening of the task of providing food, clothing, and shelter. The transportation work, which divides itself into four administrative periods, began the first day of the fire, when refugees were given free passage across the bay, down the peninsula, and to points far inland. No special arrangement was made. The transportation companies merely threw open their gates and let the people crowd into the boats and trains. The committee on transportation of refugees, a sub-committee of the Citizens’ Committee, had comparatively little work to do. It told the public that the railroads were ready to carry the people and it made inquiry as to the ability and willingness of other communities to care for refugees. From many communities, some distant, came quick, generous offers to care for definite numbers of people.

When the first period, the period of indiscriminate free transportation, ended on April 26, the Southern Pacific Railroad, the only railroad running out of the city and the one that in normal times carried the greater part of the suburban traffic by ferry and train to towns across the bay, had transported, according to an official report, the following number of free passengers:

TABLE 12.--PERSONS CARRIED FROM SAN FRANCISCO AS FREE PASSENGERS BY THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD, FROM APRIL 18 TO APRIL 26, 1906

The value of this service, according to the official report, was $456,000. The report states that on April 19 the refugees, most of whom went to Oakland and adjoining communities, left San Francisco at the average rate of 70 per minute. There is no report from any other transportation company. The 226,000 passengers carried to points around the bay included some thousands of persons that crossed more than once, many to go back and forth daily on public or private business, others, a considerable number, to view the fire and ruins.

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San Francisco Relief Survey; the organization and methods of relief used after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906Chapter XV: Part I: , p. 25 ff (1)

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