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

Chapter XXX: Part VI: The Residuum of Relief: the Aged, the Infirm, and the Handicapped (1)

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I. INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP 321

1. History of Its Establishment 321
2. Administration 324
3. General Statistics 327

II. RELIEF AND NON-RELIEF CASES 335

1. General Analysis 335
2. Applicants and Non-applicants for Relief and Rehabilitation 336

III. RESULTS 356

INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP

1. HISTORY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT

Owing to the general confusion in the city, the emergency character of the relief, and the constant shifting and changing of the homeless population immediately after the earthquake and fire, the first grouping of the refugee camps was entirely accidental. No classification by age, condition, or special need was possible. But among the first naturally to be differentiated were the aged and the infirm, who must be cared for until friends or relatives could assume their support. If they proved ultimately to be friendless as well as homeless and incapable of self-support, provision would have to be made for permanent care. As early as June these classes were sent to Camp 6,[253] the Speedway, and plans for sheltering those who would require public relief during the ensuing winter were discussed. By the end of July their housing became a pressing problem.

[253] For description of the official camps, see Part I, p. 78 ff.

In 1906 the city and county of San Francisco had an almshouse accommodating about 900 persons, situated on a fine tract of land about one mile southeast of Golden Gate Park. Some of its buildings were very old and insanitary, the standard of care was low, and it was full to overflowing. After mature consideration the Corporation finally determined to build a Relief Home on this tract and to present it to the city as a permanent provision for aged dependents; but since it seemed probable that the new building could not be finished before the summer of 1907[254] it became necessary to provide at once temporary barracks for the shelter of the aged and infirm.

[254] The building of the Relief Home was authorized September 18,
1906, but on account of shortage of lumber and delay due to abnormal
labor conditions it was not ready for occupancy until January, 1908.

At that time the cost of lumber, transportation, and labor was excessive, and there was the added difficulty of quickly finding a suitable location. The generous offer of Thomas H. Williams, president of the California Jockey Club, to give free use of the race track buildings, relieved the pressure on the Corporation to make provision for the winter. At Ingleside race track there were 26 stables, each 40 x 160 to 220 feet, containing from 20 to 40 box stalls apiece. The buildings were already piped for water, partially sewered, easily accessible by street car, and in such condition that they could be made ready for occupancy in a short time and at a relatively small cost.

The offer was at once accepted, and the Department of Lands and Buildings was authorized to make the necessary alterations. The stalls were thoroughly renovated to serve as single rooms for inmates. They were cleaned and disinfected, windows were put in, the floors were covered with canvas and the walls with building paper. The hay lofts were converted into dormitories. The buildings were connected with the main sewer to the ocean and each was equipped with toilets, baths, hot and cold water, and a large heating stove. The section to be used as a kitchen was furnished with four large army ranges, and the dining room with a number of long tables and benches, and with enamelware dishes. Simple furniture for each room and for the dormitories, a butcher shop, and storage warehouse, completed the preparations for those who were fairly able-bodied. For the sick a hospital section with a separate kitchen was established, to be used in addition to the annex of St. Luke’s Hospital already on the grounds. Finally, one section was set aside as a social and reading room, and another for religious services.

While these preparations were under way, a great diversity of opinion existed as to how many aged and infirm and handicapped refugees would finally remain to be cared for at Ingleside. The population of Camp 6, where the decrepit and semi-able-bodied refugees were concentrated, had been at the beginning of July 756 persons, and was over 800 when Ingleside Camp was ready early in October. It was expected to have added to this latter number a few persons from each of the other camps as these were abandoned, and to subtract a few who did not belong in the special classes for which Ingleside was intended. September 5, Rudolph Spreckels, chairman of the Department of Camps and Warehouses, estimated the final number at 500, because whenever the food kitchens had been closed only a few persons had applied to be admitted to Camp 6.[255] Seats for about 700 were provided in the dining room at Ingleside.

[255] San Francisco _Chronicle_, Sept. 6, 1906.

In the autumn, as fast as the cottages[256] were completed, the tents were abandoned and the families removed to the cottages. Those not capable of self-support or who had no relatives to care for them were assigned to Camp 6, to be sent to Ingleside when it should be ready. Some of this residue refused to go to Camp 6, and managed to find friends or work at the last moment,[257] so that when the inmates of Camp 6 were finally removed to Ingleside between October 8 and October 29, there remained to enter only 400 from Camp 6, and 84 from all the other camps,--a total of less than 500. The subsequent condemnation of the old City and County Hospital followed by the accidental burning of one of the almshouse buildings in the spring of 1908 made it necessary to send some inmates of both these institutions in March, 1908, to Ingleside Camp, which had been closed following the transfer of the aged and infirm in January to the Relief Home. One hundred and thirty-one almshouse inmates were about to be moved to Ingleside in the latter part of October, 1907, when the politicians discovered that this would deprive the almshouse men of their residence and invalidate their vote in the impending election. Some of the newspapers spoke of it as “a political job to deprive registered voters of the suffrage which had been enjoyed for years” and the transfer was finally postponed till after election. These 131 almshouse inmates are not included in the detailed statistics which follow.

[256] See Part I, pp. 82 and 85 ff.

[257] See preceding reference, also, for part taken by Associated
Charities in reducing number of the residue chargeable on the new
institution.

At no time was the number of inmates higher than 809. Altogether 1,287 names were registered on the index book during the fifteen months of its existence. This discrepancy of approximately 500 between the highest number and the total population of Ingleside represents the movement of the more able-bodied and least permanent residents of the camp. In the detailed study of cases it will appear that a certain number of adults were sent to Ingleside who did not properly belong there or whose rehabilitation had been postponed by the withholding of the relief funds. Besides these, a few refugees waiting to hear from friends were admitted for a short period; and a few transient men and women stayed for less than a month, leaving in many cases no record except a name. In short, out of the total of 1,287 persons at Ingleside during 1906 and 1907, not more than half belonged to the aged, infirm, and handicapped classes for which permanent provision would have to be made.

2. ADMINISTRATION

Ingleside Model Camp was organized October 8, 1906, by Captain Julius N. Kilian,[258] of the United States Army. On January 1, 1907, the command was transferred to C. M. Wollenberg[259] who had been up to that time chief clerk in the Department of Camps and Warehouses.

[258] Captain Kilian had been in charge of the Moulder School
Warehouse. See Part I, p. 37.

[259] Mr. Wollenberg continued in charge during the consolidation of
Ingleside with the almshouse and, having qualified under the civil
service law in July, 1908, became the permanent superintendent of the
Relief Home.

Besides being old, infirm, or incapacitated to some degree, the classes assembled at Ingleside were inevitably the most discontented of all the refugees. During the months of Captain Kilian’s administration certain conditions prevailed that made his task exceptionally difficult. All the inmates had been torn from their habitual grooves of life and had suffered shock and considerable hardship; many had feebly but vainly tried to get back into old niches and could not adapt themselves to new ones. Some had applied for rehabilitation only to be gently told that they were too old to begin again or that their plans were impracticable; others had found their friends and relatives to be neglectful; still others, the last precipitate of the social confusion, were a semi-vicious, irresponsible, and idle lot who were at Ingleside only because they could not find food and shelter in their old disreputable haunts. All, regardless of capacity or need, were convinced that they were being deprived of their “just and equal share” of the millions contributed by a philanthropic public.

Among this heterogeneous company, many of whom had fallen into vulgar and disorderly, if not vicious, habits during six months of irresponsible camp life, it was Captain Kilian’s task to establish good feeling, health, and discipline. The restoration of order began with the enforcement of cleanliness and decency. When the inmates grabbed their food from the dishes on the table they were summarily relegated to what became known as the “hog table”; when they fought among themselves, or railed at the employes, or returned drunk from a visit to friends outside, they were warned; if the offense was repeated, they were ejected from camp. During the first three months 30 were ejected, and in the following year from five to 10 persons a month were sent away. Of the total of 70 persons sent away from the camp the majority (30 men and 10 women) were ejected for drunkenness; the remainder for stealing, vulgar conduct, and insubordination. It was found necessary to discipline and finally to discharge for intoxication a considerable number of employes as well as refugees. The strict insistence upon sobriety meant a better grade of helpers for the camp.

The restlessness of the inmates and the accessibility of Ingleside to five saloons at the gate and to the street cars made a rather strict regulation of admission and discharge necessary. When inmates overstayed their passes they were required to show cause on their return, and were sometimes refused re-admission. As a consequence, some ran away and others who went out on passes never returned. A curious result of the confusion after the fire is revealed by the easy movement of persons from the old almshouse to Ingleside. It appears that 59 of the 1,287 inmates of Ingleside had been in the almshouse at some time before the fire; and that 114 inmates ran away from the almshouse or were discharged at their own request between April, 1906, and January, 1907. Those familiar with the conditions of both institutions believe that between 100 and 200 persons left the almshouse and went to refugee camps to pose as earthquake sufferers, to return ultimately to the almshouse either directly or through Ingleside.[260]

[260] The almshouse records of this period do not show accurately the
movement of the inmates. It is probable that a much larger number left
than they indicate.

When Captain Kilian was recalled to regular military duty in January, 1907, he left a camp of about 660 refugees comfortably housed, well fed, and under excellent discipline. He had not, however, undertaken to solve one of the most important problems, the employment of inmates within the camp. During the military period, paid employes performed the greater part of the labor necessary to the maintenance of the camp. Mr. Wollenberg on taking charge required, as he had a smaller staff of employes, a definite amount of labor, varying according to the physical condition of each inmate. This policy served both as a disciplinary measure and as a means of natural selection. The comparatively ablebodied were ejected from camp if they refused to work, so that the population gradually sifted down to the aged, the infirm, and the incapacitated who had no relatives to care for them. Besides the routine duties necessary to keep the camp in sanitary condition, other work was provided. Twelve acres of ground were planted in potatoes, cabbages, and turnips at a cost of about $100. The yield was over $600 worth of vegetables. A dairy was established to provide the camp with milk; furniture was made by the men for the new Relief Home, to be opened in January, 1908. Tailoring and carpentry shops and a shoe repairing shop afforded work at a fair wage. A sewing department was organized by Lucile Eaves,[261] with an equipment of 20 sewing machines and materials in bulk from the relief supplies. Every woman who could sew was expected to be in the sewing room twice a week, and during fifteen months over 6,000 garments and 754 curtains for the Home were made and distributed. The Woman’s Alliance provided social recreation at least once a week, as well as books and magazines.

[261] See Part I, p. 88.

In spite of the shock of fire and earthquake, and in spite of the discomforts of camp life in the preceding summer, the health of the inmates of Ingleside Model Camp was exceptionally good. This was no doubt due to the regularity of life, the good food, the strict enforcement of sanitary regulations, and the prompt medical attention. The camp hospital, which contained an average of 30 patients during the first few months, was enlarged in July, 1907, to make room for its quota, 35, of the City and County Hospital patients, and thereafter averaged 77 patients. During thirteen months only 49 deaths occurred at Ingleside, and most of these were due to old age. There were, however, 24 deaths in hospitals to which patients were sent from Ingleside. This rather small number does not fully represent the proportion of deaths to the number of inmates, as the personnel of the camp was constantly changing. Of the 1,287 inmates of Ingleside 164 were known to be dead three years after the fire.

For the accommodation of its almshouse charges at Ingleside the city agreed to pay 30 cents a day per inmate, at the time that it was costing 38.6 cents a day to maintain an inmate in the almshouse. The average cost a day per inmate at Ingleside during 1907 was 50 cents. The total cost of Ingleside Model Camp for approximately fifteen months was:

Construction $36,230.59
Operation and maintenance $173,573.19
Care of almshouse inmates $21,447.04

3. GENERAL STATISTICS

The Ingleside records which constitute the basis of the tables that follow were merely admission cards made out by the commanders of camps. They give information with regard to sex, age, marital condition, nativity, occupation, address on April 17, 1906, and the name and address of a relative or friend who should be notified in case of death. The cards were obviously not intended for sociological purposes. They often do not give some of these simple facts, and are not uniform in statement; but they have been supplemented by information taken from the records of an investigator at Camp 6, and from the cases on file in the Associated Charities and the Rehabilitation Committee offices. The records have been further amplified through interviews with a number of employes who were for a long time at Ingleside, and are most of them now employed at the Relief Home. The greatest care has been taken not to draw unwarrantable conclusions from incomplete and uncertain data.

Aside from placing on record a brief history of Ingleside Model Camp, the main purpose of this study has been: first, to find what proportion of the inmates of Ingleside had been self-supporting before the fire of 1906 and what proportion were at that time potential almshouse inmates; second, to examine critically the treatment of those aged and infirm persons who awaited at Ingleside the outcome of their applications for rehabilitation; and third, to determine whether any number of those now dependent upon public relief could have been saved from that fate.

Tables 113 and 114 show concisely the conjugal condition of the Ingleside population and the extent to which the inmates differed in this respect from the aged, infirm, and incapacitated population in the San Francisco almshouse during the thirty-five years preceding 1906, and from the general population of California.

TABLE 113.--INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP BY CONJUGAL CONDITION AND SEX[262]

===============================+======================================
Conjugal condition | PERSONS WHOSE CONJUGAL CONDITION WAS
| AS SPECIFIED
+------------+------------+------------
| Males | Females | Total
+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----
|Number| Per |Number| Per |Number| Per
| | cent| | cent| |cent
-------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----
Single | 385 | 53.3| 90 | 20.7| 475 | 41.1
Married | 77 | 10.7| 67 | 15.4| 144 | 12.5
Widowed | 166 | 23.0| 218 | 50.3| 384 | 33.2
Divorced, separated or deserted| 13 | 1.8| 15 | 3.5| 28 | 2.4
Unknown | 81 | 11.2| 44 | 10.1| 125 | 10.8
-------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----
Total | 722 |100.0| 434 |100.0|1,156 |100.0
| | | | | [263]|
-------------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----

[262] These figures relating to conjugal condition were taken from the
rough admission statements of persons admitted to Ingleside and do not
exactly correspond with the figures presented in Tables 119 and 120,
which were take from the files of the Relief Committee and the
Associated Charities. The latter probably correspond more nearly to
the facts.

[263] The 131 inmates who were transferred to Ingleside from the
almshouse, as has been stated, are not included in this study.

The preponderance of men is characteristic of all refuges for the aged and infirm, partly because old women can earn a bare living by petty domestic services long after the age at which old men can maintain themselves at hard labor; partly because relatives, however poor, are more loath to allow an aged woman than an aged man to become dependent on public charity. As regards family ties, the table shows further the isolated condition of this group. Two-fifths of them may be assumed to have had no living children; the remainder had had six months to rejoin their children but had failed to do so.

The conjugal condition of the Ingleside population is compared in the following table with that of the inmates of the almshouses of the United States in 1903-04, as well as with the general population of the state in 1900.

TABLE 114.--CONJUGAL CONDITION OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP, COMPARED WITH CONJUGAL CONDITION OF INMATES OF ALL ALMSHOUSES OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1903-4 AND OF THE GENERAL POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA 15 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER, IN 1900

=================================+==========+===========+=============
|Inmates of|Inmates of |General popu-
|Ingleside | all alms- | lation of
|Model Camp| houses of |California,
| |the United | 15 years
| | States |of age and
| |1903-4[264]|over, 1900
---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------
Number considered | _1,156_ | _163,176_ | _1,095,222_
---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------
Per cent: | | |
Single | 41.1 | 52.1 | 41.2
Married | 12.5 | 16.0 | 49.3
Widowed | 33.2 | 27.8 | 8.1
Divorced, separated or deserted| 2.4 | 1.3 | .8
Unknown | 10.8 | 2.8 | .6
---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------
Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0
---------------------------------+----------+-----------+-------------

[264] The figures given relate to paupers in almshouses December 31,
1903, and to paupers admitted during the year 1904.

The percentage of single persons at Ingleside was about one-fifth less than in the almshouses of the country at large. This difference is due probably to the fact that the Ingleside Camp did not admit children.[265] Under no one of the three classifications was the number of single persons shown to be less than 41 per cent. The percentage of widowed persons at Ingleside was about one-fifth more than in the almshouses at large, and four times as great as in the general population of the state. The discrepancy between the number of widowed and married persons at Ingleside in comparison with the almshouses of the United States may be accounted for by the fact that a number of so-called “widowed” persons reported at Ingleside were separated or deserting partners.

[265] A few children were at Ingleside with their mothers for a short
period while awaiting the completing of plans, but they are not
included in the 1,156 cases upon which this table is based.

Table 115 shows the ages of the inmates as compared with those of inmates of the San Francisco almshouse and of all almshouses during the periods specified.

TABLE 115.--AGE DISTRIBUTION OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP, COMPARED WITH AGE DISTRIBUTION OF INMATES OF SAN FRANCISCO ALMSHOUSE DURING A TEN-YEAR PERIOD, AND OF INMATES OF ALL ALMSHOUSES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN 1903-1904

=========================+============+============+==============
Age period | INMATES OF | INMATES OF |INMATES OF ALL
| INGLESIDE | SAN FRAN- |ALMSHOUSES OF
| MODEL CAMP | CISCO ALMS-|UNITED STATES
| | HOUSE 1894-| 1903-1904
| | 1906[266] | [267]
+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------
|Number| Per|Number| Per| Number| Per
| | cent| | cent| | cent
-------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------
Less than 10 years | .. | .. | ..| ..| 7,151| 4.4
10 years and less than 20| | | | | |
years | 2 | .2| 17| .2| 5,706| 3.5
20 years and less than 30| | | | | |
years | 22 | 1.9| 159| 2.1| 13,835| 8.5
30 years and less than 40| | | | | |
years | 67 | 5.8| 386| 5.1| 16,402| 10.1
40 years and less than 50| | | | | |
years | 114 | 9.9| 775| 10.3| 21,358| 13.1
50 years and less than 60| | | | | |
years | 226 | 19.6| 1,457| 19.4| 26,448| 16.2
60 years and less than 70| | | | | |
years | 412 | 35.6| 3,008| 40.1| 31,810| 19.5
70 years and less than 80| | | | | |
years | 235 | 20.3| 1,446| 19.3| 26,237| 16.0
80 years and less than 90| | | | | |
years | 49 | 4.2| 231| 3.1| 9,715| 6.0
90 years and over | 5 | .4| 20| .3| 1,344| .8
Age unknown | 24 | 2.1| 9| .1| 3,170| 1.9
-------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------
Total |1,156 |100.0| 7,508|100.0|163,176| 100.0
-------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+------

[266] Figures for ten years. No report was published for the year
1900-1901.

[267] The figures given relate to paupers in almshouses, December 31,
1903, and to paupers admitted during the year 1904.

As Ingleside Model Camp was established to house the aged, the infirm, the handicapped, and the convalescent, it was to be expected that as many as 92 per cent of the inmates should be over forty years of age, 82 per cent over fifty, and 62 per cent over sixty years of age.

The Sewing Room

INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP]

Table 116 shows that for many years the foreign born have been more than twice as numerous in the almshouses as in the general population of the city and county of San Francisco. The proportion of foreign born found in the Ingleside figures would undoubtedly have been materially larger than the 53.8 per cent reported if it had been possible to distribute Ingleside’s 29.1 per cent “unknown” between native and foreign born. This result corresponds to the figures for the whole country in which the foreign born whites have a much larger representation in the dependent than in the general population. It must not be overlooked, however, that dependence may be due quite as much to the fact of belonging to the unskilled wage-earning class as to being a foreigner.

TABLE 116.--NATIVITY OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP, COMPARED WITH NATIVITY OF INMATES OF SAN FRANCISCO ALMSHOUSE DURING A TEN-YEAR PERIOD, AND OF THE GENERAL POPULATION OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO IN 1900

============================+=======+=========+==========
Country of birth |Inmates| Inmates | General
| of | of San |population
|Ingle- |Francisco| of city
| side |almshouse| and
| Model |during 10| county
| Camp | years, | of San
| |1894-1906|Francisco,
| | [268] | 1900
----------------------------+-------+---------+----------
Number considered |_1,156_| _7,433_ | _342,782_
----------------------------+-------+---------+----------
Per cent born as specified--| | |
United States | =17.1=| =27.1= | =65.9=
Foreign countries | | |
Canada | .9 | 1.6 | 1.5
China | .2 | .3 | 3.1
England | 4.2 | 5.1 | 2.6
France | 1.6 | 3.0 | 1.4
Germany | 9.9 | 9.8 | 10.3
Ireland | 24.0 | 37.2 | 4.7
Italy | 1.1 | 1.3 | 2.2
Mexico | .9 | .. | .4
Norway | .6 | .7 | .6
Scotland | 2.0 | 1.3 | .9
Sweden | 1.4 | 2.0 | 1.5
Switzerland | .9 | 1.3 | .6
Other foreign countries | 6.1 | 9.2 | 4.3
----------------------------+-------+---------+----------
Total | =53.8=| =72.8= | =34.1=
Unknown | =29.1=| =.1= | =..=
----------------------------+-------+---------+----------
Grand total |=100.0=| =100.0= | =100.0=
----------------------------+-------+---------+----------

[268] No report was published for the year 1900-1901.

The proportion of Irish in the Ingleside camp was about five times as great as in the general population of San Francisco, but only about two-thirds as great as in the San Francisco almshouse. The Germans, on the other hand, constitute a slightly larger proportion of the general population than of either the Ingleside inmates or inmates of the San Francisco almshouse. The English have contributed considerably more than their proportionate quota to Ingleside and to the almshouse.

Occupation is quite as important as nationality, age, or infirmity, in determining what individuals in a given locality are likely to become dependent. The table presented below shows the facts on this point:

TABLE 117.--OCCUPATIONS OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP[269]

========================================+===============
Occupation |PERSONS OF EACH
| SPECIFIED
| OCCUPATION
+------+--------
|Number|Per cent
----------------------------------------+------+--------
Laborers | 139| 13.2
Domestics | 85| 8.1
Cooks and cooks’ helpers | 67| 6.4
Housekeepers | 63| 6.0
Dressmakers and seamstresses | 44| 4.2
Lodging-house and boarding-house keepers| 30| 2.8
Nurses | 25| 2.4
Carpenters and carpenters’ helpers | 24| 2.3
Peddlers | 23| 2.2
Clerks | 18| 1.7
Bakers | 15| 1.4
Agents and canvassers | 14| 1.3
Teamsters | 14| 1.3
Waiters | 14| 1.3
Painters and painters’ helpers | 13| 1.2
Tailors and tailoresses | 13| 1.2
Miners | 12| 1.1
Cannery workers | 12| 1.1
Laundry workers | 12| 1.1
Sailors | 10| .9
Machinists | 10| .9
Shoemakers and cobblers | 9| .9
Storekeepers | 9| .9
Teachers | 9| .9
Blacksmiths | 9| .9
Other occupations | 362| 34.3
----------------------------------------+------+--------
Total | 1,055| 100.0
----------------------------------------+------+--------

[269] Information relative to occupation was not secured for 101 of
the 1,156 inmates.

The table reveals an occupational distribution of Ingleside inmates materially different from that found in the typical almshouse. At Ingleside, as in most permanent institutions for adult dependents, the laboring and domestic classes constituted the chief element, but the proportion of persons in these classes seems to have been smaller than is generally the case. Of the 123,647 inmates of almshouses in the United States in 1904 who were classified according to occupation by the census office, 59,119, or 47.8 per cent, were reported as non-agricultural laborers or as servants. The persons classified as cooks, laborers, and servants admitted to the San Francisco almshouse from 1869 to 1894 numbered 5,330, or 41.4 per cent of the 12,879 persons admitted who were nineteen years of age or over and had had occupations. It appears from Table 117 that 354, or 33.7 per cent, of the 1,055 Ingleside inmates classified according to occupations were laborers, domestics, cooks and cooks’ helpers, or housekeepers. In other words, the proportion of persons occupied as laborers or in domestic occupations seems to have been about one-third at Ingleside, as compared with slightly over four-tenths in the San Francisco almshouse and slightly less than one-half in the almshouses of the United States.

These comparisons must be accepted with some caution because of differences in the classifications of occupations applied to the three sets of data. A reasonable allowance for this factor does not, however, alter the distributions in such a degree as to invalidate the results obtained. The figures cited may be accepted as indicating with substantial accuracy differences in the general proportions of laborers and domestic workers.

For the purpose of this study the chief interest of the table of occupations lies in a few groups which are represented not at all or by only a few individuals in the permanent institutions for dependents, but which at Ingleside comprised about 13 per cent of the population. In these groups were dressmakers, seamstresses, lodging-house and boarding-house keepers, nurses, storekeepers, agents and canvassers, and teachers. These, plus an indefinite number that might be added from the other miscellaneous occupations, were undoubtedly for the most part accidental dependents. They, it might also be assumed, would be likely to regain self-support if given assistance by the Rehabilitation Committee.

But the inference from the general information given in the foregoing tables is that, apart from this comparatively small proportion, in respect to age distribution, proportion of the sexes, social status, and nativity, the inmates of Ingleside Model Camp did not differ essentially from the inmates of the San Francisco almshouse. It would have been interesting to know how long these persons had lived in California, but unfortunately this information is given in only about one-third of the cases. Ninety per cent of this third are recorded as having been more than ten years in the state. Since applicants might assume, however, that relief would be given more readily to old residents than to transients, it is probable that a number of the unknown were recent arrivals who were careful not to admit the fact.

In the detailed study of individuals which follows, the cases are classified with respect to dependence or independence before the disaster and with respect to relief afterward. It will serve to show to what extent conclusions have been justified.

RELIEF AND NON-RELIEF CASES

1. GENERAL ANALYSIS

In analyzing the material relating to the 1,156 persons known to have been in Ingleside Model Camp at some time, and included in this study, it must be remembered that practically all had already received relief in the shape of food, clothing, and shelter at other camps or in hospitals during the six months succeeding the fire. The word “relief” will be used hereafter to refer to specific aid refused or given outside of Ingleside.

After the primal necessities, food, clothing, and shelter have been provided, the factor of highest importance in determining what further relief shall be given is the family relation. With respect to family relationship, the inmates of Ingleside have been classified in the following table:

TABLE 118.--FAMILY RELATIONS OF INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP

In this table the divorced, deserted, and separated persons are included among the single and widowed because they required the same treatment.

2. APPLICANTS AND NON-APPLICANTS FOR RELIEF AND REHABILITATION

The transients at Ingleside who were single men and women merely waiting to hear from friends or of possible jobs, and a few families temporarily stranded, are for lack of full information omitted from the discussion that follows. The 28 mothers with young children, most of whom were at the camp a short time, have also been omitted because they were not representative of the classes for which Ingleside was maintained, and furthermore because the Associated Charities assumed responsibility for their treatment.

The 961 persons remaining fall into two general classes: families of aged adults, and detached people of both sexes. Since the problem of an old mother with an adult son or daughter is almost identical with that of an old married couple, they are studied together. These two general classes have been rearranged in the following table according as they applied or did not apply for relief to the Corporation before April 1, 1907, or to the Associated Charities[270] through which agency applications for relief on the part of Ingleside inmates were made after that date.

[270] See Part V, p. 298 ff.

TABLE 119.--INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP CLASSIFIED AS FAMILIES AND SINGLE AND WIDOWED MEN AND WOMEN AND AS APPLICANTS TO SAN FRANCISCO RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS, APPLICANTS TO ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, AND NON-APPLICANTS

=================================+====================+=======+=======
Applicants and non-applicants | FAMILY CASES |Single | All
| | and |persons
+---------+----------+widowed|
|Number of| Number |men and|
| families|of persons| women |
---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------+-------
(1) Applicants to S. F. R. and R.| | | |
C. F. to March 31, 1907 | 26 | 53 | 215 | 268
(2) Applicants to Associated | | | |
Charities from April 1, 1907 | 7 | 14 | 68 | 82
(3) Non-applicants | 13 | 26 | 585 | 611
---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------+-------
Total | 46 | 93 | 868 | 961
---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------+-------

Of the 585 single and widowed non-applicants, 425 were men and 160 women. The 93 persons included under family cases are identical with the 93 mentioned in Table 118 as aged couples or aged mothers each with an adult son or daughter.

(a) FAMILY CASES

The group of 46 families of 93 persons, 12 of whom only were under fifty years of age, will first be studied.

The treatment of aged couples, whether a husband and wife or an old mother with an elderly son or daughter, should differ from that of infirm single men and women because there are bonds of relationship to be conserved. So long as either partner shows any capacity for self-support it is a practical as well as a humane thing to try the experiment of re-establishing him or her. If in some or even in a majority of cases the experiment prove a failure, the risk is nevertheless one to be taken. The experiments in behalf of this group of 46 families had often to be made with very scant information as to the capacity of the applicants. In judging the results it must not be forgotten that all the institutions for the aged and infirm were full in the winter of 1906-07, and that a thorough investigation such as is usually made by a charity organization society before giving aid was then quite impossible.

* * * * *

1. Twenty-six of the families, comprising 53 adults, as shown by Table 119, applied to the Corporation for relief before April 1, 1907, and 20 of these received relief in addition to their home at Ingleside. Of the adults in these families, two-thirds were women of an average age of fifty-seven years, the other third, men of an average age of sixty-three years. More than half were permanently incapacitated by senility or by paralysis, lead-poisoning, blindness, deafness, severe hernia, the loss of a leg or an arm, or mental defect.

Of seven of the couples that received grants, the wife or husband died within a year after the fire, before the struggle to maintain themselves had more than begun. The following notes relate to six of the seven. A grant of $250 and a sewing machine was made to a paralyzed engineer and his wife. The wife had supported herself and her husband for several years by a little store which she re-established. After the husband died she continued to do well until she fell and broke her thigh. She was then sent to a hospital and from there to the Relief Home. A peddler of seventy-four who seemed to have had some savings received $150 to buy a stock of optical goods. The wife, who kept a rooming house at first successfully but after his death less so, applied to the Associated Charities in 1908 for more aid. The visitor, who refused assistance because the woman still had money from the husband’s life insurance, made the note: “The woman is a fraud and a fortune teller, but ill and pathetic.” Two families of this group, although chronic charity cases before the disaster, were helped to buy small amounts of clothing and furniture and in one case a seventy-five dollar wooden leg. The surviving partners, as might be expected, are now in the Relief Home. Two able-bodied wives, when deprived of their husbands by death, became self-supporting. One was a nurse, the other a washer-woman about fifty years of age. One received $22 to furnish a room, and the other was given clothing. The following notes tell briefly the story of one more of the 26 families. Three women of three different generations proved too heavily handicapped with sickness. The mother, who died of shock soon after the earthquake, has not been considered as among those applying for relief. The daughter had become poisoned while working in a lithographic shop and later developed tuberculosis. She and the grandmother, a seamstress, still able-bodied, were moved to a locality where the older woman could presumably get work, and were given a stove and a little money for comforts. But when the young girl also died, the old woman gave up the struggle and went to the Relief Home. Thus, of these 14 persons specifically mentioned, seven died within a year after the fire, four went to the Relief Home, while one became partially and two entirely self-supporting.

Besides the two families already described who received charitable aid before the fire, there were two other such among these applicants. One, an old mother and son, had lost furniture and personal effects estimated as worth $400. They applied for rehabilitation and a sewing machine in August, 1906. As the son was unmarried, able-bodied, and under forty years of age, the grant was refused on the ground that he should support his mother. Some months later, from the officers at Ingleside, it was learned that the man was industrious and had good habits, but was unable to keep regular work on account of being feeble-minded. A grant of $75 and a sewing machine was therefore made. A year later the Associated Charities found the man out of work and the mother feeble, and decided that the Relief Home was the place for her. It seemed inevitable that the son should arrive there when his only asset, muscular strength, should be used up.

The second family had been in receipt of aid from several charities before the fire. It consisted of a deaf, partly paralyzed, and hard-drinking old carpenter and his ailing wife, both past sixty years of age. They claimed to have lost a thousand dollars’ worth of furniture and personal property but applied while at Ingleside for the small sum of $40 for special relief. Ten dollars was given. Six months afterward they applied to the Associated Charities. The man, who meanwhile had been earning $3.00 per day, had broken two ribs. The Associated Charities, therefore, paid their rent ($12) and in March, 1909, they were temporarily self-supporting. They were, however, the inevitably dependent family that if life were prolonged would find its way to the Relief Home.[271]

[271] Six months after the date when this was written they were in the
Relief Home.

The effect on family life of the presence of drunken husbands is a monotonous tale, but it is cheering now and then to hear of a decent wife rescued from her fate. A drunken old peddler and his old wife recovering from illness were granted $100 for furniture and clothing. Before they left Ingleside the camp commander urged that the woman be sent to her relatives in Pennsylvania “to escape the brutality of her husband.” Upon the relatives agreeing to care for her, transportation and $50 were given to carry her to them. The peddler drifted to the Relief Home.

Of quite another sort were the remaining nine of the 20 families that received relief. Although some of their members arrived at the Relief Home they came by another road, along which they struggled so courageously as to win the respect of all who knew them. In this better class are an aged German sign painter and his still more aged and very feeble wife. Before the fire he had been able to earn $20 a week, and although his eyesight was already failing, he asked the Corporation for tools, supplies, and a little rent. The visitor reported that there were three grown children,--a feeble-minded son, a crippled daughter who earned a bare living as a waitress, and a married son too poor to care for his parents. The feeble old mother was transferred to the Relief Home and $90 altogether was given the old man with which to re-establish himself. After a year, he too, overcome by his failing sight, submitted to be sent to stay with his wife in the Relief Home. When at the last moment he wept because he could not pay the rent in arrears, a benevolent society paid it in order that he might go conscience free.

Other families with an average advantage in age of at least ten years maintained themselves in spite of serious handicaps. A man who had many years before lost both legs, had prior to 1906 earned $45 per month as an elevator man. He asked for furniture and clothing. Although the wife was strong neither physically nor mentally, $150 was granted in care of the Associated Charities. Two and a half years later the wife was at work, the husband had just secured a permanent position as elevator man, and a little of the grant was left for emergencies. Another elderly couple, consisting of a blind husband and an able-bodied wife, who had earned together about $30 a month before the fire, received $150 for household relief and a news-stand. They went into business in a suburb and became self-supporting.

That kindly and influential friends are quite as useful as money to those in straits, is illustrated by the case of an old master mariner, disabled for many years, who was supported by his competent wife. Before the fire she kept a small notion store and was caretaker for a settlement club. On the recommendation of the settlement workers who knew her worth she received a grant of $115 and a refugee cottage which was erected on the grounds of a society for which she acted as janitress. She and her husband were then able to live comfortably in their cottage on her earnings of $25 per month.

The Dining Room

INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP]

A similar case is that of the family in which the Hebrew husband, although seventy-eight years old, had been able before the fire to earn a living for himself and his wife with a little cigar store. They were known as honest, industrious people to a society that recommended them for a grant of $150. Later, $77.50 worth of plumbing and repairs were added to their cottage. They promised to be self-supporting for some time. In case of need the Hebrew Board of Relief stood ready to make a monthly allowance so that they might never go to the Relief Home.

Other cases of which less is known were encouraging. A painter, his wife, and his wife’s sister, who received $50 for furniture, had not again applied for help. An old hunchback and his wife who received $80 for furniture and clothing, were given the use of land on the edge of the city by some friends, and for a while at least were made self-supporting by the proceeds of their chickens and their garden. Another family, exceptional in that both partners were under fifty years of age, received a grant of $250. The husband, a longshoreman, had had both arms broken, but two years after the fire the couple were again self-supporting. As they are exceptional also in having several young male relatives in the city, they are not likely to become dependent.

Another history is differentiated from the varied but generally pitiful struggles of old persons by its ending touched with romance. An old mother with a daughter nearing middle age lost furniture, clothing, piano, and paintings worth $1,000. They had earned a modest living, the mother by taking roomers, the daughter by teaching music. They were given a sewing machine and $300 with which to establish a rooming house. Within a year and a half the mother became so seriously demented as to prevent their keeping lodgers. They fell behind in the rent, the Associated Charities supplied food and after a severe struggle on the daughter’s part to keep her mother out of the insane asylum, the old woman was finally committed in the summer of 1908. Meanwhile a kindly lodger became interested in the younger woman, and after his references had been approved by the Associated Charities, the daughter married him.

A brief review of the circumstances and habits of five of the six families who applied for relief and were refused fully justifies the decision of the Rehabilitation Committee. The first was a woman of fifty whose husband, a man over eighty, had died at Ingleside in the autumn of 1906. She not only was fairly strong but had grown children quite able to give her a home. The second was an old couple by no means incapacitated who had kept a store and been pretty well-to-do before the fire. They were given a cottage and $50 for furniture before coming to Ingleside, but were refused business rehabilitation on the ground that the $500 insurance they had received was sufficient to re-establish them. In 1908 the Associated Charities gave them a stove and had some plumbing done in their cottage, but they were found to be grasping and untrustworthy. Two other couples were of the hard-drinking, intermittently-working, often-sick type, to whom rehabilitation can never be given with any prospect of success. Of these, a comparatively young couple were given $50 for furniture and clothing and were provided with employment. In the following two years husband and wife had been twice to the Associated Charities for help, and had been in and out of the county hospital. When last seen they were “living with friends.” The other couple, the man a drunkard and the woman a fakir, had a charity record, reaching back to 1896, in which they were described as being too incompetent to support themselves. They were forcibly removed from a wretched shack to Ingleside in the winter of 1907 and are now in the Relief Home.

The last of this group was an old mother with an epileptic son of fifty, by occupation a cooper. They had lived on the verge of distress before the fire, and although the son afterward earned good wages for awhile cleaning bricks, it was not believed that he could long support his mother and himself. In the winter of 1907 both were obliged to go to the Relief Home.

* * * * *

2. The seven families at Ingleside who applied first to the Associated Charities for rehabilitation do not differ as a group in any way from the earlier applicants. Two are cases of old people neglected by their grown up children; two, of the chronically unfortunate and inevitably dependent class; and two couples, younger than those we have been considering, were forced to apply for help because the man in each family developed tuberculosis. One case only, foreigners of good birth and education, differs in the details of the struggle and in its solution. Both husband and wife were teachers who had scarcely made a living before the fire and who, being over sixty years of age, could not regain their clientele nor find new work. The Rehabilitation Committee through the Associated Charities sent them back to their native country where they will have a home with relatives.

If we turn from the picturesque, human aspect of the families who applied for rehabilitation or relief, to the financial, the brief summary is: (1) Twenty families of 41 persons, whose estimated total losses amounted to $10,000, asked for relief to the amount of $3,000 and were granted relief to the money value of $2,500. In addition they received shelter and food at Ingleside at a cost of $2,200. (2) After three years seven of the 41 individuals were dead, 10 were in charitable institutions, one was in an insane asylum, one was married, three were with relatives, and 19 were self-supporting.[272] Aside from the comfort afforded to each by the grants received, it may be said to have cost $132 apiece to make the 19 persons self-supporting. It must not be forgotten that while the effort was being made to gain self-support outside of the institution, the institution was spared the cost of maintaining each at a rate of not less than 50 cents a day.

[272] The data for all of the 20 families are not given in the
preceding pages. The 19 persons listed as self-supporting, it should
be borne in mind, were in several cases believed to be only
temporarily independent of charitable aid.

* * * * *

3. The last group of the families of adults to be considered is the 13 families containing 26 persons that did not apply for specific relief other than institutional care. They differ from those that did apply chiefly in being a little more infirm and incompetent and in having no children or relatives, apparently, to fall back upon. It is probable that some of them did not apply for rehabilitation because Ingleside Camp and the Relief Home seemed to be the only natural or desirable relief. Information is available as to the subsequent fate of only 19 of the 26 persons. Of these, four were known to be dead three years after the disaster, eight were in the Relief Home, one was in another home, four were self-supporting, and two had moved to the country.

(b) SINGLE AND WIDOWED MEN AND WOMEN

1. The 215 single and widowed men and women at Ingleside who asked for aid from the Rehabilitation Committee before April, 1907,[273] are roughly classified in Table 120.

[273] See Table 119, p. 336.

TABLE 120.--SINGLE AND WIDOWED INMATES OF INGLESIDE MODEL CAMP APPLYING TO THE SAN FRANCISCO RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS FOR REHABILITATION, BY NATURE OF REHABILITATION APPLIED FOR

BUSINESS REHABILITATION. Of the 46 persons in this group who applied for business rehabilitation, 29 were men and 17 were women. Eighteen of the 29 men received aid to the amount of $1,389, the largest individual grant being $200 to an attorney, aged thirty-one, who asked only for law books. This man is one of the small group who, three years after the grant was made, were known to be self-supporting.

No action was taken by the Committee in six cases, either because the applicants could not be found at the addresses given, because they refused the aid offered, or because the applications were received too late.

Grants were refused in five cases. In this group is a so-called attorney, a man who had fraudulently lived by his wits for years. Immediately after the fire this plausible old fakir was cared for by a religious society which asked for special clothing for him because he was “an odd size.” He applied to the Rehabilitation Committee for $1,500 to rebuild a lodging house he claimed to have owned. The visitor found that he had not owned a house and lot before the fire, that the old woman relative whom he professed to have supported was another fraud, and that his only real claim on charity was that he was too fat to wear ready made clothes. In the summer of 1909 he was again heard of at a summer resort earning his living by assisting an evangelist in religious meetings.

Three years after the grants were made the condition of the 18 men who were aided was ascertained to be as follows: three were found to be self-supporting; for four no definite information was obtained but they were believed to be independent; eight were dependent, and three had died. The eight dependent cases, all elderly men, were with one exception being cared for at the Relief Home; one was in an insane asylum.

A young seaman who is recorded as having died after being aided, committed suicide. He had had a leg amputated, had been in the hospital for sometime after the fire, and then had gone to Ingleside to convalesce. The Relief Committee gave him an artificial leg, and he was in and out of the Relief Home several times trying unsuccessfully to find work. On his return from one of the attempts he killed himself. The other two who died were elderly men.

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San Francisco Relief Survey; the organization and methods of relief used after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906Chapter XXX: Part VI: The Residuum of Relief: the Aged, the Infirm, and the Handicapped (1)

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