Chapter XXXII: Part I: Organization and the Emergency Period

We see among other things:

1. The importance of postponing the appointment of sub-committees until a strong central committee has been able to determine general policies and methods of procedure.

2. The wisdom of reducing the bread line and the camp population as quickly as possible after the disaster so that the relief resources may be conserved to meet the primary need of rehabilitation.

3. The value of utilizing for emergency administration a body so highly organized and so efficient as the United States Army, to take charge of camps, and to bring to points of distribution the supplies required for those in need of food and clothing.

4. The necessity of utilizing the centers of emergency distribution for the later rehabilitation work of district committees and corps of visitors.

5. The need of establishing a central bureau of information to serve from the beginning of the relief work as a clearing house, to prevent confusion and waste through duplication of effort.

6. The importance of legal incorporation for any relief organization that has to deal with so large a disaster.

7. The importance of a strict audit of all relief in cash sent to a relief organization. The impossibility of an equally strict accounting for relief in kind, because of the many leaks and the difficulties attendant upon hurried distribution.

8. The desirability that contributions, especially those in kind, shall be sent without restrictions, as only the local organization is able to measure relative needs at different periods of the work.

9. The recognition of the American National Red Cross, with its permanent organization, its governmental status, and its direct accountability to Congress for all expenditures, as the proper national agency through which relief funds for great disasters should be collected and administered; thus securing unity of effort, certainty of policy, and a center about which all local relief agencies may rally.