SOCIAL WORK SERIES
DISASTERS
AND THE
AMERICAN RED CROSS
IN DISASTER RELIEF
^fv«-i By
jf BYRON DEACON
General Secretary, Philadelphia Society for
Organizing Charity (on Leave of Absence)
Division Director of Civilian Relief for Pennsylvania
^lol (p?
F.7. 5H
NEW YORK
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
1918
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY
THE RIJSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
WM • r. FELL CO ■ PRINTBBB
PHILADELPHIA
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. Introduction 7
II. Disasters at Sea 13
III. Coal Mine Disasters 42
IV. Floods 68
V. Fires 106
VI. Tornadoes 150
VII. Principles of Disaster Relief . .166
VIII. Organization for Disaster Relief . .196
Appendix A. Regulations Recommended by the
Illinois State Board of Health for the Pre-
vention of Sickness 216
Appendix B. General Policies and Regulations
Governing a System of Disbursement and
Accounting for the Ohio Flood Relief Com-
mission Funds and the Funds of the American
Red Cross to be Expended in Ohio . . .217
Index , 221
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PREFACE
JUST as the last proofs of this little book were being
corrected came the tragic news of the HaKfax dis-
aster, re-enforcing Mr. Deacon's plea for the fullest pos-
sible measure of preparedness in advance of such public
calamities.
The American Red Cross has administered, during
the past fifteen years, millions of dollars for the relief
of hundreds of thousands of sufferers from disaster in
this country and abroad. Not alone has it met imme-
diate needs, but it has oftentimes, after disasters,
devoted months of cooperative effort to the reconstruc-
tion of a place and the restoration of its people. In the
course of this work, a method and a technique have been
developed which deserve to be recorded for the benefit
of all who may be called upon to imdertake like responsi-
bilities. The experience slowly gained has been locked
too long within the personal knowledge of those who
have marked out the way, and to the author of these
pages we are indebted for a drawing together, for the
first time, of the significant things about the different
forms of disaster relief. These he puts clearly, force-
fully, and in brief compass.
Upon an understanding of the principles and methods
herein set down must depend not only the ready admin-
istration of supplies and money in times of emergent
PREFACE
need, but also success in the later work of rehabilitation.
In these few chapters the essential problems presented
in calamities of very diverse types are explained, to-
gether with the procedures now known to be best cal-
culated to deal with them effectively.
To the inexperienced reader as well as to the student
of the subject, the volume will commend itself by its
aptness of illustration and by its combination of common-
sense with ready sympathy. To the officers and mem-
bers of Red Cross Chapters, and to those social workers
who are quick and generous in their response to every
call for service when disaster comes, it will be invaluable.
W. Frank Persons
Director General of Civilian Relief, American Red Cross
DISASTERS
INTRODUCTION
/^WING to the fact that disasters are widely
^^ scattered geographically and vary greatly
in nature and extent, probably very few persons
realize the frequency with which they occur, the
staggering aggregate of destruction to human life
and property resulting, and the huge problems of
relief and reconstruction involved. Because of
their magnitude and dramatic character, calami-
ties like the San Francisco and Salem fires, the
Ohio River and Galveston floods, the Omaha tor-
nado, the Cherry coal mine fire, and the sinking
of the steamship Titanic are remembered by
everyone. But it is not a matter of common
knowledge that, within a score of years, disasters
— some of them not so well remembered because
they happened when the mind of the public was
preoccupied — have cost thousands of lives, have
7
DISASTERS
affected by personal injury or destruction of
property no fewer than a million and a half per-
sons, and have laid waste property valued at over
one billion dollars; or that the expectation, based
on past experience, is that each year no less than
a half dozen such catastrophes will occur in the
United States.
Fortunately disaster rarely strikes the same
community twice in a generation. Hence when
it comes there is locally no established precedent
or well matured plan for ameliorating the re-
sultant distress. It is by no means true, how-
ever, that the knowledge of relief measures which
have been found effective in practice is utterly
lacking or that it is not available for the
guidance of the hapless communities which find
themselves faced with the grim tasks of emer-
gency relief. The chief repository of this knowl-
edge is the American Red Cross, which since
1905 has actively participated in disaster relief
operations in many parts of the United States
and abroad. Its prestige and quasi-official status,
its organization reaching into every part of
the country, its equipment for mobilizing aid
8
INTRODUCTION
and skilled workers, and its extensive experience
in this field have more and more caused the Red
Cross to be regarded as the nation's chief re-
liance for organizing and directing the work of
relief following disaster.
The purpose of this book is to interpret the
experience of the Red Cross in disaster relief in
terms of the problems met, of the methods that
produced the best results, and of the principles
upon which such methods were based — doing
all this for the benefit of those who will have to
deal with future disaster relief operations. With
this object in view, it has seemed inappropriate
to attempt a history of disasters or to discuss
their causes or prevention. Study has been lim-
ited to the calamities which have occurred with-
in the borders of the United States during the
last twelve years, and to the relief operations fol-
lowing thereafter in which the Red Cross has
had a part. No claim of comprehensiveness is
made even within these limits. Suggestiveness
rather than comprehensiveness has been the
goal. The method of presentation has been to
group the disasters by principal types — such as
9
DISASTERS
disasters at sea, mine disasters, and so on — and
to discuss each type in terms of some particular
disaster about which adequate information was
available and which seemed not only to embody
the characteristic problems of its class but also
to reflect a discriminating, effective relief ad-
ministration. The principles that have emerged
are then summarized, together with the impor-
tant details of organization, in the closing chap-
ters.
The sources from which the material was
drawn are published and unpublished official re-
ports, documents on file in the offices of the Red
Cross in Washington, original case records, maga-
zine articles, and the letters and personal state-
ments of men and women who have had especially
broad experience in this field.
Little further by way of explanation seems
necessary, though it may be well to add that, in
grouping disasters by types, the characteristic
features of relief and service under a given type
are named even when they have appeared earlier.
This has been done, at the risk of some repetition,
in order to make each chapter a source of ready
10
INTRODUCTION
suggestion for one who must act suddenly in a
similar emergency. If certain principles are
emphasized more than once, it is for this reason.
It should be explained also, in view of the
frequency with which the Red Cross has under-
taken the task not only of directing and guiding
the policies of large relief operations but of con-
ducting the later and more difficult operation of
restoring as many of the victims as possible to
their normal condition, that the policy of the
organization is never to impose its services upon
a disaster-stricken community. In case of ca-
lamity it seeks first to determine whether the
burden of relief and reconstruction can be borne
by the community itself; if so, it then seeks
assurance that the local committee is proceeding
along lines which promise reasonably prompt
and complete amelioration. If this does not
seem to be the case, the Red Cross tenders its
services in an advisory capacity, its extensive
experience placing it in an exceptionally favor-
able position to offer sound counsel. If, on the
other hand, it is evident that the work is too
great to be undertaken by the locality, the
II
DISASTERS
organization offers to enter into partnership
with local forces, bringing to bear its experience,
trained workers, and machinery for raising funds
on a national scale and for dispensing comfort
and relief promptly and effectively. Merging
quietly with the local agencies already at work,
often making its entry the occasion for consoli-
dating them, and assuming only that degree of
leadership which is freely accorded by the com-
munity, it rarely fails to win cordial support for
methods of administration which, through in-
sight and experience, have slowly grown in per-
manence and value.
It is not wholly improbable that in the months
which lie just ahead disasters may occur which
will be due directly or indirectly to the war —
explosions in munition factories and the sinking
of merchant craft, army transports, or other
naval vessels by mines or torpedoes. Should
such misfortunes befall, they will necessitate the
employment of measures of emergency relief
and service such as the American Red Cross
exists to provide, and about which many others
besides the representatives of this particular
body will need to be informed.
12
n
DISASTERS AT SEA
^ I ^HE instinctive impulse to help which al-
-*" ways manifests itself in communities where
disasters occur is a most powerful factor in set-
ting going and shaping the first efforts at rescue
and relief. Great emergencies rarely fail to
evoke a swift response directed to the exigent
tasks of rescue and first aid to the injured and
helpless. Those at hand instinctively move to
do the things momentarily necessary. In the
first hours after calamity the resources of zeal,
devotion, and self-effacing service seem bound-
less. It frequently happens that self-appointed
rescue and relief workers band themselves to-
gether in impromptu committees, under the
leadership of some forceful personality, each
group operating independently of the others and
each essaying such activities as seem to it of
immediate importance.
A typical example of this almost creative im-
13
DISASTERS
pulse to help, each according to his gift, is fur-
nished by an account of the swift rescue work
following the sinking of the steamer Eastland,
on July 24, 1915, when the crowding of passen-
gers on one side of the unballasted vessel caused
it to turn completely over while still at its dock
in the Chicago River. Over 800 persons, chiefly
women and children, lost their lives as they were
setting forth on a pleasure excursion.
The side of the big steamer had scarcely struck the
water before a policeman had telephoned the "still
alarm" to the fire companies and police departments.
Immediately fire companies and police details, a half
hundred patrol wagons and many ambulances rushed to
the rescue. Steamboat whistles summoned life boats
from the nearby vessels and tugs in river and harbor.
From docks and bridges men dove for the sinking people
and threw everything that could float to those still strug-
gling on the surface of the stream. Firemen scaled the
slippery hull of the overturned steamer to rescue the
hundreds who had been caught in the cabins, staterooms
and lower decks where they had sought refuge from the
rain.
The steel plates of the steamer resisted the sledges
and axes of the firemen, but a police sergeant happily
thought of the oxweld acetylene machines by which he
had seen great steel girders wrecked. Commandeering
a passing automobile he rushed the device from a wreck-
14
DISASTERS AT SEA
ing company yard to the firemen's assistance. Through
the holes burned and chopped in the steamer's side, scores
were rescued.
While the official forces of the city were thus deployed,
volunteer cooperation was promptly and effectively
extended. Warehouse floors were cleared to make room
for the dead and for those who might be resuscitated.
Great department stores ordered their auto trucks to re-
port for service to convey the bodies of the dead to tem-
porary morgues. They also sent hundreds of blankets
with which to cover the living. Pulmotors were hurried
from the gas and electric companies, with crews to assist
the doctors in trying to resuscitate every body recovered.
Within an hour or two the office force of the Western
Electric Company (many of whose employes and their
families were victims of the Eastland) had a registration
and inquiry bureau in operation near the disaster.*
It is in ways like these that the community
responds, each person or group instinctively
seeking to apply the skill or resources he hap-
pens to possess. During those first hours of
stark tragedy and suspense following disaster
there is little opportunity for maturing and ap-
plying a carefully thought-out plan of action.
Nevertheless, as has been said, there seems to
* Taylor, Graham: "The Eastland Disaster," Survey,
August 7, 1915, p. 410.
15
DISASTERS
be a kind of unplanned, unconscious harmony
among those who spring to the immediate and
obvious tasks of rescue and first aid. But when
the supreme moment passes and the pressure of
horror and sympathy is removed, it becomes
necessary to reinforce instinctive with planned
action, impulsive effort with organization. Un-
fortunately the unplanned harmony so effective
and constructive at first rarely seems to carry
over into the later stages and processes of relief
and reconstruction. The continuing activity of
those whose services were invaluable at first
occasionally complicates the later tasks of re-
habilitation and creates obstacles for the relief
committee and its executive. It was the felt
want of a comprehensive working plan and a co-
ordinating influence that should follow hard
upon the heels of the first emergency phase of
disaster relief that created the necessity for an
association that could immediately mobilize its
rescue workers and efficiently care for individuals
or communities overtaken by disaster. The
Red Cross is such an association. Because of its
organization and experience it is prepared to
i6
DISASTERS AT SEA
supply the comprehensive working plan and the
coordinating influence required.
Late on the evening of Sunday, April 14, 1912,
in mid-ocean, the steamship Titanic, on her
maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York,
struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom within
four hours thereafter. The steamer, which was
the largest and finest passenger craft that had
ever been built, carried a total crew and passen-
ger list of over 2000 persons, including men and
women of wealth and prominence as well as
immigrants from all over Europe, coming to
this country to make their homes. Many of the
women and children and some men were put
into such boats as could be launched. After a
night of drifting about on an icy sea, those who
survived, to the number of 706, were picked up
by the Carpathia, which had come to the rescue
in response to the call of the sinking ship, and
were finally landed in New York.
This appalling tragedy profoundly impressed
the imagination and stirred the sympathies of
the whole world, while from the standpoint of
2 17
DISASTERS
relief -giving it produced a situation fraught
with great and unique difficulties, and through
the work of rehabilitation of the destitute sur-
vivors set a high and permanent standard for
marine relief administration.
The call for help sent out from the sinking
ship had been relayed by sister craft throughout
the northern waters, and reports of the collision
with an iceberg appeared in the morning and
evening papers of the large cities on April 15,
to be confirmed the following morning by the
almost unbelievable news of the sinking. Com-
mittees to collect funds immediately sprang
into existence both here and abroad. Antici-
pating the arrival of a large number of bereft
and destitute persons in the port of New York,
the mayor appealed locally for contributions,
announcing that they would be administered
by the American Red Cross Emergency Relief
Committee. Money raised in other cities and
forwarded to him was also turned over to this
committee. In all, a total of $161,600 was en-
trusted to it, in addition to which special funds
were raised by the New York American , the
18
DISASTERS AT SEA
New York Stock Exchange, and the Women's
Relief Committee, this last organization being
a temporary body created specially to succor the
Titanic survivors. In England far larger sums
were collected in aid of passengers and crew, the
amount reaching the sum of $2,250,000. Since
the survivors would be landed in New York
City, however, immediate relief would have to
be undertaken from this side of the water, and
it eventually devolved upon the Red Cross
Emergency Relief Committee of the New York
Charity Organization Society, an institutional
member of the Red Cross,* to administer most
of the money collected in the United States.
* Recognizing that it was essential to have at instant
command for relief work after disasters the service of
trained workers, the American Red Cross entered into a
formal agreement in 1908 with certain charity organiza-
tion societies in the larger cities of the United States, whose
standards of work were recognized to be high, which pro-
vided that "Upon call from the Director General of Civil-
ian Relief, an Institutional Member (as these societies are
called), to the extent of its ability, shall send one or more
trained agents to assist in the Red Cross emergency relief
work in any part of the United States." Since that time
there have been few disasters of magnitude in which social
workers drafted from Institutional Members have not had a
large part in the tasks of emergency relief and rehabilitation.
19
DISASTERS
Three days elapsed between the sinking of the
Titanic and the arrival of the Carpathia with the
survivors. This time was used to perfect prep-
arations. The Red Cross Emergency Commit-
tee added to its members representatives of the
Women's Relief Committee and other persons
who by virtue of their experience or position
were likely to be specially helpful. It also,
to assist the director in formulating suitable
measures of aid in particular cases, appointed
a consultation committee, consisting of men and
women prominent in the philanthropic and
business life of the city. A division of work was
arranged between the Women's Relief Com-
mittee and the Red Cross, the former assuming
responsibility for providing shelter and meeting
the more immediate and temporary wants of the
survivors, the latter undertaking to minister
to their more permanent needs. A staff of ex-
perienced workers from the social agencies of
New York was enlisted, an office was secured
for headquarters, and the necessary blanks and
records were made ready.
As the survivors landed, those not otherwise
20
DISASTERS AT SEA
provided for were sent to the shelters (various
charitable institutions) selected by the Wom-
en's Relief Committee, and there received such
medical and material aid as the particular cir-
cumstances of each required. Within two days
all these survivors- had been interviewed by
social workers representing the Red Cross at
their places of temporary shelter or at the office
of the committee, and necessary information
obtained concerning their names, destination,
relatives, physical condition, and property losses.
As promptly as they were able to travel or word
was received from their relatives, they were sent
on to their respective destinations in many parts
of the United States. For those who needed such
help, railroad fare, clothes, and cash grants suffi-
cient for a month's maintenance were provided
by the Women's Relief Committee.
When the immediate wants of the survivors
had been met, the most important part of the
Red Cross work began; namely, that of apply-
ing the funds and other helpful resources at its
command so that the unfortunate families' more
permanent needs should be met and their future
21
DISASTERS
welfare safeguarded to the fullest extent possible.
During the course of its work the committee
came into possession of information respecting
493 different individuals and family groups. Of
these 112 were more properly a charge upon the
English funds, while 55 were, in the opinion of
the Red Cross, in no need of financial assistance.
Of the 326 aided on this side of the water, 196
required and received relief because of crippling
property losses, and 130 because of the drowning
of breadwinners. About three-fourths of the
money expended went to families of the last
group. The purpose of the committee was not so
much to indemnify for losses sustained, as to in-
vest funds and services in ways which promised
best for the future welfare of each individual case.
In executing this purpose the committee neces-
sarily relied upon workers, both on its own staff
and those of charity organization societies and
other social agencies throughout the country,
who were trained and experienced in the task of
dealing sympathetically and helpfully with hu-
man misery and misfortune.
A most striking and impressive feature of the
22
DISASTERS AT SEA
work of this committee was the delicate consid-
eration and painstaking skill with which it
applied its funds and its helpful counsel and
ministrations to the individual need and cir-
cumstances of each person and family bereaved,
injured, or who had sustained a severe property-
loss. The dispatching of a special representa-
tive to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to assist on behalf
of its beneficiaries in identifying and reclaiming
the bodies of relatives recovered from the sea, is
an instance of this consideration which took into
account the feelings as well as the material re-
quirements of the bereaved families.
A consultation committee,* to which reference
has been made, was an important factor in en-
abling the Red Cross to carry out its policy of
planning for the welfare of each family in ac-
cordance with accurate knowledge of its needs,
resources, limitations, and hopes, and expending
its funds and services in carrying out these plans.
Its members had been selected with the purpose
* For material in this part of the chapter, grateful
acknowledgment is made to one of the workers most
actively engaged in Titanic relief work.
23
DISASTERS
of bringing into harmonious working relations
all those connected with the complicated relief
situation, including representatives of local He-
brew, Roman Catholic, and Protestant relief
societies, and other persons who were having
direct relations with the beneficiaries of the fund.
Thus the Commissioner of Immigration at New
York was asked to serve on the committee be-
cause he was making decisions concerning the
entrance into the country of the foreign-born
survivors.
From the nature of this particular disaster,
the consultation committee had a difficult task.
Much of the information about the families had
to be obtained by correspondence. In most in-
stances when the committee first considered their
problems, the survivors were en route to various
points in the United States. As has been said,
such persons had been interviewed and prelimi-
nary facts obtained before they left New York.
But in many other cases, the families made de-
pendent by the loss of breadwinners were scat-
tered throughout the states, and all information
concerning them had to be obtained by corre-
24
DISASTERS AT SEA
spondence. This added greatly to the difficulty of
getting necessary facts as well as the information
— often indirect — which gives a true picture of
the family situation.
In cases of small material loss where no de-
pendency resulted, the consultation committee
did not go into the details of each case, but ap-
proved the action of the director as reported by
him. This group included a number of unmar-
ried young men and women, mostly steerage
passengers, coming here to obtain work as domes-
tics and laborers, whose loss was that of ward-
robes and small sums of money. They were
provided with sufficient funds to replace neces-
sary clothing and to cover expenses until they
should begin to receive wages.
In each case, however, where family dis-
organization assumed a grave or complex form,
the consultation committee was called in and
studied in detail all the information that could
be obtained with regard to the family. In some
instances members of this committee were
familiar with the community in which the family
lived and were most helpful with suggestions.
25
DISASTERS
One such example was that of an invalid woman
whose husband, returning from a business trip
to England, had lost his life. She had claim to
certain property in New Mexico which she wished
to improve at considerable expense. A member
of the committee happened to be familiar with
the section of New Mexico in which this property
was located and knew about land values there.
He was of invaluable assistance in the effort to
safeguard the interests of this widow.
The advantage of being able to command the
services of prominent people who are at the same
time informed concerning relief methods and in
sympathy with the spirit in which the work is
done is obvious when public funds are being
handled, and when there are always disgruntled
persons trying to get public audience for un-
informed criticism. The advantage is equally
obvious in dealing with the recipients of relief,
who, when there is a question of judgment at
issue, accept the decision of a group of people
with better grace than they would that of an
individual.
In many instances after the families had dis-
26
DISASTERS AT SEA
persed, the personal services which the staff of
the Red Cross in New York could no longer
render were performed for them by the workers
of charity organization societies and kindred
agencies elsewhere, as well as by ministers and
other persons whose interest was enlisted. Thus
at long range and for many months the Red
Cross, through its correspondents, continued its
contact with the Titanic families, keeping in-
formed of their changing circumstances and pro-
viding the funds and other forms of assistance
required.
A clear understanding between the Red Cross
and those administering the English funds had
immediately been found to be necessary in order
to prevent duplication, to assure an equitable
distribution, and to make certain that those en-
titled to relief should receive it from the most
appropriate source. The English public was
naturally most concerned with the plight of the
families of its countrymen, while in the United
States thought of the needs of surviving Ameri-
cans and the dependents of those who had per-
ished was upp)ermost. By cable, with the help
27
DISASTERS
of the American ambassador to Great Britain,
an agreement was reached whereby the Red
Cross assumed charge of all claimants living in
North and South America, including immigrants
and other survivors intending to remain here,
while the English funds were made available for
sufferers in other parts of the world. Frequent
cable communication was necessary in making
plans for those families which had dependent
relatives both here and abroad. Another prob-
lem which the Red Cross was obliged to solve
was that of effecting an exchange of informa-
tion with the New York Stock Exchange, the
New York American ^ and others who were ad-
ministering funds independently, so that plans
and grants could be made with full knowl-
edge of what was being done in each case by
them.
The appended stories, one that of a family
whose breadwinners went down with the Titanic,
the other of a lad who was as real a survivor
as imagination could make him, illustrate well
the patient, painstaking, discriminating methods
used by the committee and the large number
28
DISASTERS AT SEA
and variety of agencies with which it was neces-
sary to cooperate in the course of its work.
Mrs. Zacharias,* a Syrian woman of substantial quali-
ties, who had lost her husband and two older sons, had
come to this country seven years before and established
herself as a peddler. She lived with her brother, who was
a huckster in a moderate way of business, in a small town
in Pennsylvania. The husband had recently sold a farm
in Syria, realizing from it, in addition to the cost of his
transportation, $1500, which he carried with him in cash
and which of course was lost.
There were three children still in Syria, a daughter
aged 21 and a boy and girl respectively 12 and 8 years
old, all of whom were affected with trachoma, and be-
cause of this could not be admitted to the United States.
They were cared for by the woman's mother, whom the
brother in this coimtry supported. The first suggestion
made by the consultation conmiittee was that Mrs.
Zacharias should return to her children in Syria. She
was offered a regular cash allowance if she would do this,
but she preferred instead to have the children treated and
cured of their disease and brought to this country. She
felt that returning to Syria would be an extreme hardship,
what with the danger from the Turks, the constant dis-
turbance of the country, and the impossibiHty of making
a Uving there without the aid and protection of her
husband.
The children in Syria were said to be living two days'
* A pseudonym.
29
DISASTERS
journey from a hospital, in a part of the country where
traveling was most difficult. The woman's brother, who
was an energetic, intelUgent man, offered to go to Syria,
take the children to a hospital, and bring them back
with him to this country when cured, provided his ex-
penses were paid. He would leave his business in the
hands of an assistant, and. would ask no compensation for
his time. It was finally decided by the committee to
undertake this responsibility — it being the only comfort
that could be given to the mother, who was nearly de-
mented from sorrow over the loss of her husband and
sons. One of the members of the Red Cross Committee
found that there were several hospitals in Beirut where
the children could be treated. At the end of June the
brother started for Syria. In the meantime arrangements
were made by cable and letter for the children's recep-
tion in Beirut, and for their treatment.
After considerable delay, due to unexpected difficul-
ties in obtaining the necessary hospital treatment for
the children, the uncle and children returned to America,
arriving at New York in December, 191 2. The two
younger children had so far improved that they were ad-
mitted at once, but the older girl was detained at EUis
Island on account of the condition of her eyes until the
following July, when she, too, was admitted. While she
was in the hospital on Ellis Island, it was discovered that
she was suffering from an abscess on her arm, which she
had had for eight years. The care she received effected
a permanent cure of this trouble.
During all this time Mrs. Zacharias received from the
30
DISASTERS AT SEA
Red Cross regular financial assistance. In all, somewhat
over $4,000 was expended on behalf of this family by the
Red Cross. Part of this sum was used for bringing the
children here and for their treatment, and the remainder
was placed in a trust fund from which the pension pay-
ments were made. From other rehef sources the family
received over $1700.
In accompUshing the results just narrated a vast deal
of patient, untiring effort was necessary. Not only were
95 letters received, 107 letters written, and seven cable-
grams exchanged in the process, but various kinds of co-
operation were sought and secured from the following
agencies:
Two hospitals in Beirut
The ticket-agent in a Pennsylvania town
The ticket-agent of the White Star Line, New York
City
Austrian American Line, Steerage Department
Ottoman Consul General, New York City
Secretary of the U. S. Department of Commerce and
Labor
National Director, American Red Cross
Consul General, Marseilles, France
United States Commissioner of Immigration, Ellis
Island
Bishop of the Maronites, Syria
United States Consul at Tripoli
United States Consul at Beirut
On the Monday following the wreck of the Titanic,
31
DISASTERS
"Daniel Burk"* appeared in the office of the Red Cross
Emergency Relief Fund and asked for assistance, claim-
ing to be a survivor of the Titanic. He said his father
had been dead a long time, and when his mother died
two months before, having no relatives in England, he
and his sister had decided to come to America. During
the confusion of filling the life boats he was saved and
his sister Catherine was lost. Yes, he was the boy whom
Mrs. Astor had covered with her coat to make him look
like a woman, so that he would not be thrown overboard.
He described his sister minutely, her clothing, and the
jewelry she wore, speaking particularly of a locket which
bore her initials, "A. C. B."
His story was corroborated by the Titanic 's passenger
list which had the names of Daniel and Catherine Burk,
and by the Carpathia's, which recorded Daniel as saved
but Catherine as lost ; also by the newspaper accounts of
how Mrs. Astor had thrown her coat over a boy in a life
boat. Furthermore he explained that he had stayed on
the S.S. Carpathia all night when the ship arrived, and
had left the next morning, wandering into the Mills
Hotel where he was still stopping and where he had met a
blind man who had been much interested in his story.
The blind man told the hotel manager about the boy, and
it was he who sent him to the Relief Committee, after
taking him to a clothing store and supplying him with an
outfit of mourning.
Daniel seemed immature for the age he gave (nineteen)
and was left in the care of the manager of the hotel. In a
* A pseudonym.
32
DISASTERS AT SEA
day or two the committee was advised by telephone that
the young man had disappeared. On the same morning
another Daniel Burk appeared at the office of the com-
mittee, showing his Titanic ticket and other documents
which seemed to prove conclusively that he was the sur-
vivor of the wreck! He, too, had a sister Catherine, but
she had been in New York for some years and was alive
and well. Ultimately it proved to be this boy whom Mrs.
Astor had saved. A few minutes later the first Daniel
Burk was again brought to the committee's room by a
man who said that his twelve-year-old son had struck
up an acquaintance with him. It seemed that the two
boys had played together all day, despite the difference
in their ages. This statement strengthened the suspicion
that the first "survivor" was sub-normal. He was sent
to the Society for the Protection of Children from Cruelty
for a mental examination. A day later the doctor's re-
port stated that the boy, although nineteen years old in
body, was a high grade imbecile about fourteen years old
in mind. His story was the fabrication of an irresponsible
mind.
In the meantime further inquiry had been made. A
cable from Chester, England, where the boy said he was
bom, stated that no one from that town had sailed on the
Titanic. A sister of Catherine Burk was found in Boston,
who claimed and buried the girl's body which had been
brought to Halifax on the steamship Mackay-Bennett.
She denied that this boy could be her brother because her
brother was not feeble-minded and was alive in Ireland.
And so it proved that "Daniel Burk" was neither the
3 33
DISASTERS
Daniel Burk who sailed on the Titanic nor the brother of
the Catherine Burk who had also sailed on the ship
and been lost.
Faced with all this, the boy still claimed to be of Eng-
lish birth and a survivor of the wreck. He was accord-
ingly sent to the United States Commissioner of Immigra-
tion at Ellis Island, as, if he were an Englishman, his
feeble-mindedness would require his deportation. There,
faced with the danger of being sent to England, he in-
vented some new stories, one of which proved to be in
part true. He gave his real name, the names of his
father and mother, who he said were dead, and the date
and place of his birth in a New England town. The
name, place of birth, and date were verified, but the par-
ents and aunt, with whom he said he had lived of recent
years, were unknown in the town. Since he could not be
persuaded to give any further information, he was re-
turned to the office of the Red Cross Committee, as it
seemed clear that he was not an alien. Since he was not
a Titanic survivor, he was placed in the care of the New
York Department of Public Charities which sent him to
the Hospital for Feeble-Minded Children on Randall's
Island.
The Director of the Red Cross Committee next asked
the Massachusetts Society to Protect Children from
Cruelty to search police and court records in various cities
to see if the boy might have run away from home. Fi-
nally it was discovered that, more than two years before,
a boy corresponding in age and bearing the real name of
this boy had been committed to a reformatory in Massa-
34
DISASTERS AT SEA
chusetts. A representative of this institution came to
New York, and upon seeing the boy identified him at
once as one of their charges who had run away fourteen
months earlier, and was able to give the present address
of his parents, who were living. In the meantime, how-
ever, "Daniel Burk" had become ill with pneumonia and
could not be removed from the hospital on Randall's
Island. He recovered from that disease but it was then
discovered that he was seriously ill with tuberculosis.
He was later removed to his parents' home where he died
in September, 191 2. It was never possible to ascertain
where he had wandered during his fourteen months*
absence from the institution, what he had done in New
York, or how he had become obsessed with the idea that
he had been a passenger on the Titanic.
"Daniel Burk" had no claim on the Titanic Relief
Fund as a survivor, but his claim upon the sympathy
and help of the committee was not disregarded. Through
the personal service rendered and the patient investiga-
tion and cooperation of many individuals and agencies
he was returned to his family in time, at least, to have
their care before he died. Had he been turned adrift
as an impostor or simply given money to speed him on
his way, he might now be lying in an unknown grave and
his family uncertain of his fate.
This story brings out some of the complications of ad-
ministering the Titanic Relief Fund. In this one case
the Red Cross, two charity organization societies, two
societies for the prevention of cruelty to children, the
federal immigration bureau, a department of public
35
DISASTERS
charities, a reformatory for delinquent boys, the town
officials of Chester, England, and of a New England vil-
lage, the Mills Hotel, New York, were all essential agents
in the process. If the boy's story had been truth instead
of romance, other questions would have been raised;
for instance, as an alien minor, who should act as his
guardian? Should he remain here or be returned to his
former home?
Another of the large maritime disasters was
the burning of the steamship Volturno at sea,
October lo, 19 13. Her passengers were for the
most part Poles and Austro-Hungarians coming
to the United States in search of opportunity
for work and homemaking, or in order to join
husbands or parents. There were 562 passen-
gers on the Volturno, of whom 103 were lost.
Of the 459 who were saved, 348 eventually came
to the port of New York on 14 different ships,
a number of them having first been landed at
various European seaports. Ninety-one of the
rescued were landed in Canada. Many of the
survivors were obliged to remain in New York
for weeks before missing relatives could be found.
The relief operations were in charge of the
Red Cross Emergency Committee of the New
36
DISASTERS AT SEA
York Charity Organization Society, the prob-
lems and the administrative procedure being in
general very similar to those characterizing the
relief work following the sinking of the Titanic.
One of the problems, however, which was
peculiar to the Volturno disaster, was the work
of reuniting families whose members in many
instances were picked up by different ships,
each ignorant that the others had been saved.
The following stories taken from the Com-
mittee's published report* illustrate the diffi-
culties and the patient and skillful effort involved
in identifying and reuniting the members of
these separated families.
Perhaps the most affecting reunion was that of Mr.
and Mrs. Romaine Vorsack.f They had started to the
United States in their old age. They were saved from
the Volturno by different boats. The husband arrived
in New York first. His wife was landed at Philadelphia.
Each believed the other dead. They had no friends in
* Emergency Relief by the American Red Cross after
the Burning of the S.S. Volturno, Oct. lo, 19 13, adminis-
tered by the Emergency Relief Committee of the Charity
Organization Society of the City of New York. Report
of the Committee, 19 14.
t A pseudonym.
37
DISASTERS
this country and no relatives in the old country. They
were heartbroken. It was late in the evening when Mrs.
Vorsack arrived in New York from Philadelphia. She
was taken immediately to the Hebrew Sheltering and
Immigrant Aid Society where her husband was staying.
He was told to come downstairs, that a visitor had come
to see him on a matter of urgent business. When he was
brought face to face with his wife, he could hardly be-
lieve that it was she. The old man and woman were so
overjoyed that they cotdd not think of sleep that night,
and sat up until morning talking over their experiences.
Mr. Vorsack had work in Nova Scotia. They were pro-
vided with transportation, clothing, and a small sum for
the purchase of household effects.
A mother with three children, a boy of six and two
girls, one four and the other two years of age, had taken
passage on the Volturno to join her husband in Cleve-
land. The four-year-old girl, Geneviva, was picked up
by the Kroonland and brought to New York. For a
long time she had refused to say a single word. She
would have nothing to do with the other children who
had been rescued. There was nothing upon her clothing
or about her that offered any clue to the identity of her
parents. She was taken to the Nurses' Settlement, where
she fell ill with an attack of measles.
After every expedient had been tried to obtain infor-
mation from the Uttle girl, and three weeks had passed,
a Polish maid employed at the Settlement won her con-
fidence. The child said that her father lived in America,
that she had a sister, and that her father's name was
38
DISASTERS AT SEA
Jacob. The records of the steamship company were
searched for a man with that name who had inquired
concerning his wife and three children. Such a man was
found. Meanwhile the mother with the baby girl and
the boy had arrived on another ship and had been de-
tained at Ellis Island because the baby had measles.
The mother was immediately notified that Geneviva
was saved, but would not believe the message until
Commissioner Uhl showed her the Httle girl's picture.
Both children recovered quickly, and the reunited family
were sent to their home in Cleveland.
Valentine Rouletski,* eighteen months old, was de-
livered in health and safety to his parents in Minneapolis
by a Red Cross nurse on the tenth of January. This
youngster was the last of those who survived the wreck
of the steamship Volturno to reach his destination. On
the day of the disaster he was rescued by a ship which
carried him and his four brothers and sisters back to
Liverpool. His parents, rescued by two different ships,
were landed in New York and Philadelphia but were
speedily reunited. The children did not know whether
their parents had been saved or not, and the parents were
equally in doubt concerning the fate of their children.
Upon arrival in Liverpool the children were all sent to
the offices of the Uranium Steamship Company in Rotter-
dam, whence they had embarked, to await news of their
parents. Inquiry by the Red Cross Committee brought
to the parents the news of the arrival of the children in
Rotterdam. Arrangements were made at once to have
* A pseudonym.
39
DISASTERS
the children sent to New York. Valentine, however,
became ill with measles. His sickness was prolonged,
and in November his four brothers and sisters were for-
warded to New York without him, and thence taken by
an attendant to the parents in Minneapolis. When in
January Valentine was finally placed in his parents'
arms he cried bitterly when separated from the nurse who
had cared for him on the last stage of his journey. The
care given to this infant during his journeys by land and
sea is indicative of the sympathy and interest with which
those in helpless suffering were treated by the agents of
the steamship company and by all others with whom the
Red Cross Committee has been associated in this rescue
work.
Some of the lessons to be learned from the dis-
asters which have been discussed in this chap-
ter and which apply to other types of disaster
as well are: that the instinctive action which
commonly carries us successfully through the
exigencies of rescue and first aid must be sup-
planted by reasoned, organized action for the
succeeding tasks of relief and rehabilitation;
that by virtue of its experience and organization
the Red Cross is prepared to provide that ele-
ment of direction and integration of relief activi-
ties which is indispensable, and that more and
40
DISASTERS AT SEA
more the public is coming to rely upon it. In
disaster relief, centralization of effort involves
utilizing the particular experience useful in the
situation at hand — as exemplified in the forma-
tion of the Titanic consultation committee. If
we are really to aid families to recover from dis-
aster we must plan carefully and individually
for each family, patiently and skillfully working
for and with them. And finally, if we have eyes
to see them, the helpful services of a large num-
ber and variety of agencies are at our command
in carrying out these plans.
41
Ill
COAL MINE DISASTERS
AMONG the disasters which have been of
"^ ^ most frequent occurrence and most costly
of human lives are those resulting from fires and
explosions in coal mines. Reports of the United
States Bureau of Mines* show that coal mine
fatalities in the United States for the period of
January i, 1900, to December 31, 1916, numbered
39.036. During the same period there were 15
coal mine disasters in this country in each of
which 100 or more men were killed. Between
January i, 1908, and December 31, 1916, the
American Red Cross had either served or ten-
dered its services in 1 1 mine disasters, in which
the casualties aggregated 1437. The most ap-
palling chronicle of such disasters is that for the
year beginning December i, 1907. On the 2nd
* Department of the Interior Bulletin No. 115, pages
8 and 9, and pages 7 and 25 of the Department of the In-
terior publication entitled "Coal Mine Fatalities in the
U. S., 1916."
42
COAL MINE DISASTERS
of December 36 men lost their lives at Naomi,
Pennsylvania; four days later at Monongah,
West Virginia, 359 men were killed; on Decem-
ber 16 at Yolande, Alabama, the toll was 43
lives ; the Darr mine explosion at Jacob's Creek,
Pa., on December 19 killed 238, and in the fol-
lowing November, 256 men met death in the
St. Paul mine fire at Cherry, Illinois — a total of
932 fatalities in these five calamities.
If it can be said that any circumstance at-
tending such disasters was fortunate, it was that
they exercised a profound influence upon public
opinion to demand new effort and legislation
both for the prevention of industrial accidents
and for the more equitable distribution of the
burden of individual loss and community relief
which they involve. Moreover, the experience
gained in dealing with the extensive and com-
plicated relief problems presented contributed
greatly to establish disaster relief procedure
upon a sounder and more standardized basis.
There is a marked similarity in the relief
problems presented by mine disasters. A brief
description, therefore, of the measures taken fol-
43
DISASTERS
lowing the Cherry mine fire will perhaps serve
to show what are the typical problems and the
policies and procedure which have proved effec-
tive in this kind of disaster relief.
Cherry, Illinois, owed its existence wholly to
the St. Paul Coal Company, whose mine afforded
the sole means of employment which the town
offered. Like other mining settlements, it was
not so much a self-maintaining community as
a dependent adjunct of a large industrial enter-
prise. The fifteen hundred people at Cherry for
the most part were immigrants, Italians and
Slavs preponderating. A large proportion of
them could not speak English. The miners were
men in the prime of life, able-bodied and in-
dustrious; but, as is so often the case among those
who follow this hard and hazardous occupation,
many of them expended their earnings as fast
as they were received, in careless, self-indulgent
ways. Cherry's seventeen saloons, each paying
an annual license fee of $500, suggest where a
large part of their earnings went.
The fire which started in the St. Paul Mine on
November 13, 1909, and continued for several
44
COAL MINE DISASTERS
months, cost the lives of 256 miners — one-half
of the men of Cherry. One hundred and eighty-
eight of the disaster victims left families. These
families contained 170 women and 469 children.
Only 24 of the children were over sixteen years
old, 218 were over five and under sixteen, and
227 were under five years of age. Seven of the
children through the death of their fathers be-
came full orphans.
Spontaneously, as always happens after mine
calamities, the "minute men of the coal pits"
mustered and began the dangerous work of
rescue. Fellow miners of the victims and mine
inspectors, consciously and unflinchingly facing
death, went down into the mine to do the pathet-
ically little which was humanly possible, and
there eleven of them were trapped by the fire
and killed. The spirit of these rescue volun-
teers is typified by the Italian laborer who, offer-
ing his services to a Slovak member of a rescue
crew to help in the hazardous task of recovering
the dead bodies, said in his broken English that
everyone was the brother of the other, no matter
to what nationality he belonged.
45
DISASTERS
There near the mine mouth, in the grey dawn,
all day long, and through the night, stood the
wives and mothers of the men in the mine.
Babies were in the arms of many of the women,
and little children clung to their skirts. Hope
fading, they waited in dumb agony. Now and
again some overwrought watcher at the shaft
would " burst the bonds of frozen grief and shriek
out her fears in wild, formless cries."
When this great tragedy laid hold of the minds
and hearts of the people of the country, funds,
food, and clothing began to pour in upon Cherry.
Relief committees sprang up in numerous cities
and towns throughout Illinois, and churches and
newspapers collected money and goods. Within
twenty-four hours after the disaster a local
committee called the Cherry Relief Committee
was organized. Its members were the mayor of
Cherry, the manager of the St. Paul Coal Com-
pany, the president and a member of the state
board of the United Mine Workers of Illinois,
and the president of the United Mine Workers of
Cherry. The following day the National Direc-
tor of the American Red Cross and the superin-
46
COAL MINE DISASTERS
tendent of the United Charities of Chicago ar-
rived and were appointed members of the com-
mittee.
The first step taken by the committee was to
locate the families of the entombed miners. All
of these families living in or near Cherry were
promptly visited, and where immediate material
needs were found, these were relieved. This work
was begun by a volunteer staff consisting of
a local minister and church workers and six
nurses sent from Chicago by the Visiting Nurse
Association. After a few days the tasks they
had begun were taken up by three trained, ex-
perienced workers from the United Charities of
Chicago, an institutional member of the Red
Cross, and by nurses provided by the St. Paul
Coal Company.
Several of the numerous committees which had
been formed in various parts of the state when
news of the disaster first spread, sent repre-
sentatives to Cherry, not all of whom, unfor-
tunately, saw the wisdom of working in close
association with the Cherry Relief Committee.
These persons were characterized by their
47
DISASTERS
simple, abiding faith in the efficacy of cash and
food and clothes to meet all human needs what-
soever. One of these committees came to Cherry
from a neighboring town with a supply of cloth-
ing which it distributed from street corners to
all who passed. It is not recorded whether men's
garments preponderated in this distribution,
as they did in another mining disaster which
destroyed half of the male population of a small
mining settlement. A few days before Christ-
mas, another committee came bearing sleds
which were given to the boys who were lucky
enough to be on hand when the distribution took
place. Afterward, one lad who had been given a
sled was heard to complain bitterly because he
had received but one, while a companion had
received seven, and was doing a driving trade
selling his surplus stock to the boys who had
received none. One effect of the operations of
these advocates of the direct, unquestioning
relief method was to promote first idleness and
then discontent among some of the miners who
had been thrown out of work by the accident
and whom the Cherry Relief Committee was
48
COAL MINE DISASTERS
trying to persuade to take employment else-
where, but could not because they preferred to
live on the bounty of these small, independent
relief committees. Later, when these distribu-
tions ceased, the men sought to force the Cherry
Relief Committee to assume support of their
families.
In this particular respect, as in many other
respects, the Cherry experience is typical. In-
discriminate giving of money, food, and clothes
by committees working independently of one an-
other has almost invariably taken place during
the first weeks following mine disasters. These
activities are always futile and usually demoral-
izing. However, by patient, tactful handling,
it is not infrequently possible to induce such
groups to withdraw from the field, or, where
they have a potential usefulness, to absorb them
into the central committee. In the relief work
after the Cincinnati mine explosion,* a special
representative of the American Red Cross was
able to effect a consolidation of several such free-
* Ninety-six men were killed in this disaster, which
occurred on April 23, 19 13, at Finleyville, Pa.
4 49
DISASTERS
lance committees, and an arrangement that no
member would provide material relief to any
family until the case had been considered and
this course approved by the entire committee.
Under this arrangement, the Red Cross workers
formed the medium of contact between the
committee and the afflicted families.
Another illustration of the helpful impulse
which is not wholly helpful in its expression is
the quantities of food and clothing which, as has
been said, were sent to Cherry from many quar-
ters. The receiving, storing, and distributing
of these supplies caused the relief committee
much labor and no little embarrassment. A
station was opened, and the food and cloth-
ing were delivered in wagons to the homes of
the families on requisition of the committee's
workers. With the wise end in view of moving
steadily toward the restoration of normal con-
ditions in the community, the committee dis-
continued this relief station at the earliest prac-
ticable moment, and subsequently gave material
aid by means of orders on local merchants.
Supplies could have been purchased at lower
50
COAL MINE DISASTERS
prices from wholesale dealers in Chicago, but in
the judgment of the committee, this considera-
tion was outweighed by the advantages of abol-
ishing a conspicuous relief center, of enabling the
families to resume dealings with their preferred
tradesmen, and of re-establishing disturbed busi-
ness conditions on a normal basis. Still later,
after the families had recovered somewhat from
the distraction of their grief and had resumed
a more nearly normal attitude toward their do-
mestic life, the committee took a further step
forward in its relief policy by making weekly
cash grants to those who required them. These
grants were adjusted to the family budget, while
other sources of revenue than the fund, and spe-
cial dietetic requirements, were taken into con-
sideration.
The Cherry disaster by no means plunged the
victims' families into immediate and acute des-
titution. In fact, in most instances their finan-
cial condition for several months following the
calamity was more favorable than it was before.
To suppose them to have been generally de-
pendent upon the funds and supplies given by
51
DISASTERS
the outside public is to err. They possessed
certain resources which enabled most of them
to meet their immediate material needs without
outside assistance. Under the system of wage
payments in force at Cherry, and rather gen-
erally in the mining industry, a miner works a
month before receiving wages, and at the end
of the first month receives two weeks' pay.
Thereafter he is paid at the first and middle of
each month, but always while he remains with
the company, payment for service is a half
month behind actual service given. The Cherry
fire occurred on November 13, and three days
later the miners, including the families of the
entombed men, received wages for the last half
of October. Again on December i, they were
paid for the first half of November. So for a
month following the disaster, the families re-
ceived wages just as though it had never oc-
curred. Furthermore, all the men killed were
members of the United Mine Workers, and from
this organization each family received a death
benefit of $150. These death benefits in most
instances were paid during December. A num-
52
COAL MINE DISASTERS
ber of the decedents also carried life insurance,
and policy payments were begun in December.
The St. Paul Coal Company paid funeral ex-
penses, allowed the families to occupy company
houses rent free, and provided free fuel. Later,
the company, although under no legal compul-
sion to do so, settled with most of the claimants
without litigation, on the basis of the British
Compensation Act, for three times the annual
wage of the breadwinner. It should be said
in passing that the St. Paul Coal Company in
providing emergency relief was only acting in
conformity with the customary practice of com-
panies operating coal mines in which disasters
occur, although its voluntary application of the
British Compensation Act as a basis of settle-
ment was a new and great step forward. Pre-
cedent fully justifies those who are in charge of
relief operations after mine disasters in turning
to the operating company in the confident ex-
pectation that it will assume responsibility for
meeting the cost of emergency relief.
These resources then — the wages due, death
benefits and insurance, the provision of shelter
53
DISASTERS
and fuel, and substantial cash settlements by
the employing company in partial discharge of a
recognized moral responsibility — enabled most
of the families to meet their own needs for sev-
eral months. The actual need of material as-
sistance at this time was limited to a few and
the expenditures required were relatively small.
However, funds and supplies had been contrib-
uted for relief, and strong pressure of public
opinion was on the committee to distribute them
with dispatch. To its credit be it said that the
Cherry Relief Committee, as it grew in experi-
ence and influence, gradually educated public
opinion away from this narrow doctrine of hasty
help toward the acceptance of a policy broader
and more considerate of the real needs, and
better calculated to preserve and advance the
welfare of the crippled families. Material relief
giving began on the low plane of indiscriminate
street-corner "hand-outs," passed successively
through the relief station and grocery -order and
cash-grant stages, and ended in a plan which pro-
posed to make permanent and adequate provi-
54
COAL MINE DISASTERS
sion for the needs of the families during all the
years of their enforced dependence.
The first seven months following the Cherry
fire may be regarded as the period of temporary
relief. The giving during this period had ref-
erence only to the families' immediate require-
ments and was to tide them over until funds were
in hand and plans completed for more permanent
assistance. The temporary relief period was
unduly prolonged by delays on the part of the
Illinois legislature and the United Mine Workers
in appropriating funds for permanent assistance.
In the end, besides the $100,000 state appro-
priation, which was drawn from the state treas-
ury as required, approximately $179,000 became
available for rehabilitation work, over a third
of which was contributed by the United Mine
Workers of Illinois and of America.
This fund was administered by the Cherry
Relief Commission, which succeeded the Cherry
Relief Committee and represented in its person-
nel those controlling the above mentioned funds.
The money, except the state appropriation, was
held in trust for the commission by the Northern
55
DISASTERS
Trust Company of Chicago, and that part not
immediately required was invested in safe se-
curities. Members of the commission served
without remuneration, but three social workers
were employed on a part time basis, one acting
as executive secretary of the commission and the
others as visitors. Payments from the fund
were made by vouchers drawn by the executive
secretary and approved by the president or the
secretary of the commission.
The period of permanent relief was entered
upon when the commission adopted the follow-
ing plan which divided the families of the de-
cedents into two classes: those who received
"pensions" or regular allowances; and those
who received "lump sum" grants. The first
class, for the most part, consisted of widows
residing in the United States, whose children
were all under the age of fourteen years. The
plan contemplated a payment of pensions until
the eldest child in each family should reach the
age of fourteen. When the family consisted of
three or more children, payments were to be con-
tinued until the second or third child became of
56
COAL MINE DISASTERS
legal working age. The schedule of payments
was $20 a month for a widow with one child
under fourteen, and $5 per month for each addi-
tional child under fourteen. The second class
consisted of childless widows, of those who had
one or more children over fourteen, as well as
children under that age. The dependent rela-
tives of all unmarried victims, all dependents
residing abroad, and all others whose losses,
traceable directly to the disaster, warranted the
commission in making grants, also came within
this class. A childless widow, if under fifty,
received $300, if over fifty, $500. The widow
with children both over and under fourteen re-
ceived $100 for a thirteen-year-old child, $125
for a child of twelve, and so on by $25 annual
increases for each decreasing year of age, down
to the age of five; for each child five years or
under she received $300. Full orphan children
aged five years or under received $400 and the
scale decreased $25 with each increasing year of
age, terminating with $150 at the age of fifteen.
When a widow of the first class remarried,
her pension ceased and a "lump sum" payment
57
DISASTERS
of $ioo was made her, plus $25 for each child
under fourteen. Should prolonged illness in-
crease the expenses of a family in the first class,
the commission might make a special grant to
meet them. On the death of a widow, the pen-
sion was to cease and settlement to be made with
the family in accordance with the schedule for
orphan children. On the death of a pensioned
child, its pension was also to cease. An allow-
ance was made for funeral expenses of $75 for a
widow and $50 for a child. No funds received
from the commission were to be applied by fami-
lies to the payment of debts. All jjensions were
to be paid as wages were paid, semi-monthly.
The rigidity of this elaborate and ingenious
plan was mitigated by the provision that the
commission reserved the right "to deal with any
beneficiary" as might "appear wise and just,
without regard to either class." In fact, at the
very outset the commission was obliged to de-
part from its plan to pension all families in the
first class for the reason that the funds in hand
were not sufficient to make possible payments on
the basis of the schedule adopted. At the end
58
COAL MINE DISASTERS
of three years, however, through the termination
of pensions by reason of deaths, remarriage, or
removal to Europe, the state of the fund not
only made possible the pensioning of all eligible
families at schedule rates but the adoption of a
more liberal pension plan by which the allow-
ance was to continue until the youngest child in
each family attained legal working age.
This, briefly, was the schedule of financial
aid devised and applied at Cherry. It marked
a great advance over earlier disaster relief prac-
tice in the emphasis it placed on securing the
economic future of the afflicted families and in
the adoption, as a means to this end, of the pen-
sion plan of payments in place of the then pre-
vailing "lump sum" basis of settlement. But
no one must make the mistake of supposing that
the success of the disaster relief administration
at Cherry lay in the particular fiscal scheme and
schedule of payments which were adopted. It
has just been pointed out that the commission
reserved the right to disregard its own formula
whenever it seemed wise and just to do so, and
did not in fact apply the original schedule, at
59
DISASTERS
first because funds were not available and later
because funds were available and circumstances
warranted more liberal allowances. So, in prac-
tice, the schedule of payments was not rigidly
applied, and was really simply a convenient
scale for measuring the needs of each family in
turn against the needs of all the others and in
relation to the available relief funds. Families
were not fitted to the scale, but the scale to the
families. The spirit in which this system of
relief was administered is reflected in the words
of the National Director of the American Red
Cross who devised it: "The goal always in
plain view must be the restoration of normal
living conditions as soon as possible, but there
need be no rigid adherence to any particular
route in traveling toward that goal."
The policy of the Cherry Relief Commission
was not one of indemnifying the families for the
loss of wage-earners, but of equipping them to
live healthy, happy, useful, normal lives in spite
of their misfortune. The members perceived
that financial aid, adjusted in amount and dura-
tion to the needs of the individual families, was
60
COAL MINE DISASTERS
an important and indispensable means to this
end, but they did not fail to see clearly that other
factors were at least equally important.
What were some of these other factors?
Health was one. Physical and nervous illness,
precipitated by grief, excitement, and exposure,
was particularly rife during the first weeks fol-
lowing the disaster. Tuberculosis was found in
some of the families. The Cherry children ex-
hibited no immunity to the diseases which are
usual among children. Instances were not lack-
ing of maternal ignorance of proper feeding of
infants, with resultant malnutrition. The pro-
vision of medical, surgical, and nursing service,
hospital and sanatorium care, practical instruc-
tion in hygiene and sanitation and dietetics,
were ways in which the commission discharged
its responsibility for safeguarding the welfare of
families on the health side.
The education and recreation of children are
also factors of the greatest importance to family
welfare. Like everything else in Cherry, the
normality of child life was rudely interrupted
and disorganized by the disaster. The fathers'
6i
DISASTERS
deaths removed a disciplinary influence from
many homes. In the shock and distraction of
the tragedy, school was forgotten, and not until
two weeks after the fire did it reopen. Lured by
the excitement, the children of the village per-
sistently congregated at the mine mouth. Tru-
ancy and delinquency increased.
To meet this situation an experienced play-
ground worker from Chicago was secured to act
as truant officer and recreation organizer. The
truants were attracted back to school through
announcements of baseball games to be played
on ice in the school yard. The interest aroused
by these school yard games was transferred in-
side the school house by a story hour conducted
by one of the Red Cross workers. It was found
that the children were hungry for stories. Story
books were contributed and after circulating
among the children formed the nucleus of a per-
manent school library. When the date set for
unsealing the mine shaft was announced, the
day was selected for the organization of an ath-
letic association and for a girls' party, and many
of the children were thus spared the harrowing
62
COAL MINE DISASTERS
experience of witnessing the dead bodies being
brought forth from the pit.
This emphasis by the Red Cross workers on the
importance of school created a new and deeper
interest in public education among the people
of Cherry. Not a few children as old as twelve
and thirteen years were found who had never
attended school, chiefly because no one had ever
sought to bring home to the parents a sense
of the importance of educating their children.
No service rendered by the Red Cross to that
stricken village was more constructive than that
performed by its workers in stimulating the
widows to undertake the discipline of their chil-
dren, and in quickening the community interest
in both school and play.
After all, a husband and father is more than an
earner of wages. And a relief committee which
sets not gifts of money and food and clothing,
but the promotion of human welfare as its goal,
will scarcely rest content even when it has de-
vised a more or less satisfactory substitute for
the pay envelope. The husband and father sup-
ports his family in a moral and aflfectional sense
63
DISASTERS
as well as economically. He is an exemplar of
worthy ambitions. Family welfare consists in
things of the spirit as well as in earnings and
spendings. If the families of Cherry, many of
whom are now scattered to other communities
in this country and abroad, are living usefully
and faring well, it is in part because these truths
were not forgotten by those who served them in
their extremity.
It is highly improbable that provisions for per-
manent financial relief so extensive as those made
at Cherry will ever again be required. Full
protection is now provided by the workmen's
compensation laws in force in all the states and
territories except Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The
existence of workmen's compensation laws does
not mean, however, that all responsibility for
safeguarding the welfare of families of mine dis-
aster victims has been met. There remain many
opportunities for making the future of such fam-
ilies, as of families overcome by other calamities
elsewhere, more secure. Some of these possibil-
64
COAL MINE DISASTERS
ities are: arousing the afflicted members from
their stunning sorrow and heartening them to
face life courageously; helping the widows to
plan thoughtfully and wisely for the future ; pro-
viding industrial training which will fit them
to contribute to family income; advising them
in the expenditure of death benefit, settlement,
and insurance funds, which are likely to be much
larger than they have been accustomed to handle ;
affording protection against predatory and un-
scrupulous lawyers and agents; giving experi-
enced counsel regarding the discipline and edu-
cation of children ; and where removal to other
communities is necessary, as frequently happens,
assisting the family to establish its new home
amid wholesome surroundings and putting its
members in touch with helpful influences and
agencies. Without these kindly personal services
the compensation principle is a barren thing.
Certain conclusions which may be useful to
those who will have to do with future mine dis-
aster relief operations can be drawn from past
experience in this type of disaster relief service.
A number of the more important ones, some of
5 65
DISASTERS
which apply naturally to other types of calamity,
follow: Coordination and centralization of the
relief forces are indispensable. There is always
the delicate and necessary task of eliminating
or absorbing "free lance" committees. Prompt
organization of a thoroughly representative com-
mittee is of prime importance. The employing
company and the miners* union should be repre-
sented on this committee. Mining companies
very generally recognize a responsibility for pro-
viding temporary aid to the victims* families.
The central committee should not relieve the
employer of a responsibility he recognizes and is
prepared to discharge. For this reason, and also
because the families usually receive back wages
and death benefits, large donations of cash and
supplies for emergency relief are not likely to be
needed. It is unnecessary and unwise to estab-
lish relief stations. Funds contributed for relief
should not be distributed as benefits or to in-
demnify for loss, nor should they be partitioned
among families on a pre-arranged, arbitrary plan
— so many dollars for so many dependents in
such and such a degree of relationship to the
06
COAL MINE DISASTERS
deceased. On the other hand, they should be
given when and where they will meet actual
need and safeguard and promote family welfare.
Compensation laws in many of the states now
make provision for permanent financial assist-
ance from relief funds no longer necessary. In
addition to money relief, the services of experi-
enced social workers are indispensable.
67
IV
FLOODS
1\ /TINE and sea disasters present relief prob-
'*•'*• lems involving long continued financial
assistance and friendly oversight of the families
they affect. Property losses figure only very
incidentally in the work of relief and rehabilita-
tion. It is a loss of wage-earners which con-
stitutes the chief disability in these instances.
Relief operations after floods, on the other hand,
are less protracted; property losses are an im-
portant factor; and the number of persons
affected is usually very much larger. Problems
of sanitation and public health and law and order
also loom larger in disaster relief following floods.
Between May, 1908, and the end of 1916 the
American Red Cross participated in relief work
following 18 floods, the greatest of these inunda-
tions being the Mississippi flood of 19 12 and
the Ohio River flood of 191 3. The latter has
been selected as the basis for discussion of flood
68
FLOODS
disaster relief because it appears to involve all
the problems encountered in relief operations
after smaller floods and also because it was there
that the organization and administration of re-
lief were brought to their highest level.*
In area affected and number of persons
plunged into dependency, the Ohio Valley flood
of the spring of 1913 presented the greatest dis-
aster relief problem with which the American
Red Cross has ever had to deal. Beginning on
Easter Sunday, March 23, and lasting five days,
unprecedentedly heavy rains fell over a large
part of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, upon soil al-
ready partially saturated by a moderate rainfall.
A peculiarity of this storm was that the area
of heaviest precipitation, which for the first
twenty-four hours was in northwestern Ohio,
over the watershed where several of the tribu-
taries of the Ohio take their rise, moved steadily
southward during the three succeeding days,
following the crest of the flood started by the
* The discussion of Ohio Valley flood relief work in this
chapter is based on an unpublished report prepared for the
Red Cross by Winthrop D. Lane.
69
DISASTERS
first days' downpour and constantly augmenting
it. The effect of the deluge was thus much
greater than it would have been if the storm had
remained concentrated for the whole period over
the headwaters of the streams, each day's precipi-
tation having a chance to run off before the next
day's fall.
Beginning, then, with the upper stretches of
the northern tributaries of the Ohio, and moving
southward to that river and thence to the Missis-
sippi, the same tragic history was repeated day
after day. While rain fell in what seemed at
times a veritable cloudburst, rivers burst their
banks, inundated the cities, towns, villages, and
farmlands along their borders, and drove the
terrified people to the nearest hilltop. The water
poured into houses, ruined furniture, under-
mined foundations, wrecked walls, floated many
wooden buildings from their sites, overflowed
privy vaults and cess pools, and deposited a
mass of mud and wreckage over the whole
flooded area. Seventy thousand dwellings were
damaged and 3000 totally destroyed. About 600
persons were drowned and 320,000 rendered
70
FLOODS
temporarily dependent. Thousands of head of
live stock perished. Light, water, and gas sup-
plies were cut off in scores of communities, and
railroad, telephone, and telegraph service was ex-
tensively interrupted. The property damage in
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
West Virginia, as estimated by the United
States Geological Survey, exceeded $188,000,000.
Ohio sustained the chief loss in both lives and
property, the latter being estimated at over
$90,000,000.
Scores of thousands of people were driven
from their homes with nothing but the clothes
on their backs, or forced to flee in the night
without time to gather even sufficient garments
to cover them and protect them from the cold.
For days, the residents of many flooded towns
were congregated in buildings beyond the reach
of the water, or were living in shelters they had
hastily improvised on the higher land. Vast
stores of food in private dwellings and business
places were destroyed. The provision of shel-
ter, food, and clothing for the refugees was the
first staggering problem of emergency relief.
71
DISASTERS
The initial steps in meeting this problem were
perforce taken by the communities themselves.
Local relief committees, which seemed to come
into existence spontaneously, arranged shelter
for the refugees in school houses, churches, fac-
tories, and private houses. Clothing and food
were collected and disbursed from relief stations.
In many places, merchants turned over their
entire stock of goods, or where necessary the
committee commandeered such supplies as were
available. In an incredibly short time, contri-
butions of food and clothing began to arrive
from neighboring towns and from the adjacent
countryside. In most places it soon became
evident that in order to make the very limited
supplies cover even the most urgent needs, the
distribution would have to be systematized.
Neighborhood committees therefore began to con-
solidate and centralize their work in bodies repre-
sentative of the whole community ; to keep care-
ful records of money and goods received, and
to judge which applicants were in greatest need,
so that their needs could be met first.
The sharp urge of self-preservation was the
72
%
FLOODS
sole and sufficient organizer of these first steps
in emergency relief, and the prompt teacher of
the lesson that
"It ain't the individual nor the army as a whole
But the everlastin* team work of every bloomin' soul"
which is the indispensable condition of success in
meeting human needs. The minister of Dayton
who was driven about on his errands of mercy
in a brewery wagon is not the extreme instance
of the lengths to which cooperation went.
The National Guard was called out in Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois to prevent looting and dis-
order and to assist in purchasing, transporting,
and distributing supplies. The action of many
local authorities in closing saloons was an im-
portant factor in minimizing lawlessness and
disorder.
News of the deluge and the many thousands
in distress spread rapidly to all parts of the
country. From every direction came offers of
help, and relief funds and supplies were started
on their way to the beleaguered territory. The
governor of Ohio appointed the Ohio Flood Com-
mission to receive and administer relief funds
73
DISASTERS
and supplies sent to that state. This commis-
sion was soon after given official status by the
state legislature, which appropriated $250,000
to be expended by it. In Indiana and Illinois,
the governor named prominent citizens as cus-
todians of the funds and supplies sent for relief
in those states. The President of the United
States issued a national appeal for money and
goods to be administered by the Red Cross.
The total relief expenditures of the Red Cross
and the several state and local committees were
over $3,200,000, of which $1,350,000 was sub-
scribed through the Red Cross. An additional
$500,000 was contributed directly to the local
committees in the afflicted cities and towns, and
was expended through the Red Cross or in har-
mony with its plans and methods. The value of
contributed goods exceeded $1,000,000, and that
of food, blankets, tents, and sanitary supplies
distributed by the United States Army and Navy
was over $750,000.
First among the forces which came to the aid
of the flooded states from without was the United
States Army with its medical officers, hospital
74
FLOODS
corps, field hospitals, relief and sanitary supplies.
Supply bases were established at Cincinnati and
Columbus. The chief problem which confronted
the army and state representatives at the out-
set was that of discovering where the greatest
need existed, where local agencies were least
competent to cope with it, and how, in the dis-
organized condition of transportation, to get sup-
plies to these communities. By rail and boat
army rations, blankets, and tents, in charge of
officers, were started forward over the crippled
lines of transportation and distributed at first
chiefly in the more remote towns and villages
already inundated. After a few days the army
ranged ahead of the flood crest, stocking com-
munities in anticipation of need and thus pre-
venting much of the privation suffered during
the earlier days by those who lived on the upper
stretches of the rivers and had been reached by
the flood before outside aid could be brought to
them. Every few days the army base from
which river relief operations were directed was
moved farther down the stream, until after a
period of about three weeks it was established
75
DISASTERS
at New Orleans. River steamers loaded with
supplies were kept in readiness to be sent to
points of danger or need. Many of the vessels
remained for days near the places where it was
feared levees might break, prepared to rescue
lives, to transport refugees to places of safety,
or to provide food and blankets.
Emergency relief presented no more serious
problems than those of sanitation and the pre-
vention of disease. The flood had broken sew-
ers, befouled water supplies, scattered garbage,
and washed abroad the contents of privy vaults
and cesspools. The decaying bodies of drowned
animals lay in yards and streets. In Dayton,
after the waters subsided, 1500 dead horses, and
dogs, cats, and chickens innumerable were found.
The congregation of large numbers of refugees
and the absence of sanitary disposal facilities
afforded ideal conditions for the spread of infec-
tious diseases. In most places it proved necessary
to supplement the efforts of local health authori-
ties. Some lacked an adequate appreciation of
the menace to health that existed, but usually
what was required was a larger sanitary force,
76
FLOODS
medical supplies, disinfectants, and means of in-
oculation. Representatives of state boards of
health, United States Army sanitarians, and Red
Cross nurses came to their aid. In Ohio, for
instance, on the first day of the flood, the State
Board of Health met and drew up special sanitary
and health regulations, and arranged for a can-
vass of every community within the flooded area
by members of its staff. Similar measures were
adopted in other states. Proclamations were
issued and town meetings held to emphasize the
importance of sanitary precautions.* The mea-
sure most emphasized was that all drinking water
be boiled ; the next, that disinfectants be spread
liberally over all flood deposits which could not
be promptly buried, burned, or removed. Many
carloads of lime were sent to the flooded com-
munities by the Red Cross, the United States
Army, and state health boards. Vaccination and
inoculation against smallpox and typhoid were
also strongly urged.
The Red Cross nurses, of whom 228 had been
* See Appendix A, page 216, for a copy of the regulations
recommended by the Illinois State Board of Health.
77
DISASTERS
sent into the flooded region through the co-
operation of over one hundred local Red Cross
committees throughout the country, were a par-
ticularly important means of disseminating sani-
tary instructions. These nurses manned emer-
gency hospitals and dispensaries, and made house
to house canvasses in many communities to dis-
cover unreported cases of sickness. The United
States Army detailed 60 members of the medical
corps to sanitary duty and provided two army
field hospitals fully equipped, as well as large
quantities of vaccine virus, and medical and surgi-
cal dressings sufficient to last a division of 20,000
men one month.
On the morning of March 29, after having
spent three days in circuitous and interrupted
travel from Chicago, the National Director of
the American Red Cross arrived in Columbus,
Ohio. His experience is typical of the difficul-
ties met by many Red Cross workers who sought
to enter the flooded areas during the early days.
Without awaiting summons, several of the vet-
erans of earlier disaster relief operations had
started for the scene of the disaster, and other
78
FLOODS
experienced social workers and executives were
hurriedly called.
The first step of the National Director after
reaching Columbus was to call on the governor
and tender the services of the American Red
Cross. That day Red Cross headquarters were
opened in the state house. The next step was
to get information as to the extent and nature
of the destruction caused by the flood, without
which it was impossible to know where and how
to employ the resources at the command of the
Red Cross. No such information being then
available, it was necessary for the Red Cross to
set about getting it. This was done by sending
agents into the communities along the Ohio and
its tributaries, directing them first to those places
which were rumored to be most desperately af-
fected. These agents made hurried estimates
of the extent of damage and the probable num-
ber of families in need, and these findings, when
filed with the National Director at Columbus,
afforded a basis for the assignment of relief
workers and supplies. In a few communities
there were resources or resident social workers
79
DISASTERS
of experience, so that Red Cross supplies or
workers were unnecessary. In most places, how-
ever, the assistance of the Red Cross was clearly
needed, and to those places, agents and supplies
were assigned. Gradually, either through its own
agents or through local committees whose meth-
ods and aims were in harmony with those of
the Red Cross, the whole flooded area was cov-
ered by individuals and groups responsible for
assisting in the work of relieving temporary
needs and making plans for the more permanent
aid which would follow. A few communities,
such as Dayton and Hamilton, Ohio, required a
staff of several social workers, others the full
time of a single worker; in many instances the
services of one worker were divided among sev-
eral communities; elsewhere it was possible, as
in the Muskingum Valley and parts of the Ohio
Valley, for one worker to cover long stretches
of sparsely settled territory. Sixty-six workers,
experienced in dealing with families in adversity,
were used by the Red Cross in this way, their
services ranging from a few days to several
weeks. They were procured from institutional
80
FLOODS
members of the Red Cross and from other social
agencies in Ohio and neighboring states.
By the time the Red Cross had completed this
provisional organization, the National Director
had succeeded in reaching an agreement with
the governor and the Ohio Flood Commission,
which was responsible for administering the
state appropriation and other funds raised by
private subscription, whereby these funds and
those of the Red Cross were consolidated and to
be disbursed according to Red Cross principles
by the National Director, subject to certain fis-
cal "regulations," a copy of which is to be found
at the end of this book.* In Indiana, where
the necessity for relief expenditures was much
less than in Ohio, the Red Cross and the state
funds were administered separately, but the ter-
ritory was divided on a plan which left six com-
munities which were the heaviest sufferers to
the Red Cross, while the governor's committee
took charge of the remainder of the state. In
the other states the Red Cross dealt directly with
the local committees.
* See Appendix B, page 217.
6 81
DISASTERS
While the National Director was negotiating
these agreements as to division of territory, and
effecting a centralization of administrative re-
sponsibility, and while the Red Cross agents in
the field were gauging the extent of need and
assisting local committees in the work of tempo-
rary aid, policies were being formulated to govern
the distribution of relief. The number of the dis-
tressed, the extent and nature of their need, the
resources and intelligence of local relief com-
mittees, the size of the central fund and whether
the grants from it should be in proportion to
loss or in proportion to need, were the impor-
tant factors entering into the determination of
a policy. Naturally the extensive experience
of the Red Cross enabled its representatives
to bring to bear on these questions a knowledge
of the measures which had already proved prac-
ticable and beneficial in disaster relief. This
hard-won knowledge and experience is one of the
most valuable contributions of the Red Cross
to the communities which are wrestling with
calamities, enabling them at the outset to avoid
repeating the mistakes made elsewhere and to
32
FLOODS
adopt certain general principles and methods
whose validity has been abundantly tested.
The first of these principles, equally applicable
whether the disaster be fire, flood, shipwreck, or
tornado, and whether scores or scores of thou-
sands be affected, is that the unit of relief is the
family. Individual and community welfare are
bound up inextricably with that of the family.
Whatever is done to meet family needs and to
promote family welfare at the same time meets
the needs and advances the welfare of both the
individual and the community.
The second principle is that relief should be
proportioned to need, not to losses. The object
of relief is to protect and advance human wel-
fare against forces which threaten it. Quite aside
from the impossibility of restoring losses from
the fund which had been collected for use in re-
lieving the families affected by the flood, or
from any relief fund which conceivably could be
amassed, the fact remains that the object of
protecting and advancing human welfare can
not be accomplished in that way as well as by
adjusting relief to need. Even if property losses
83
I
DISASTERS
were completely restored, it does not follow
that the former conditions of life would be re-
established. They would not in the case of a
family which lost in addition to property a wage-
earner upon whom it depended ; they would not
in the case of a family whose house and furni-
ture were destroyed and whose head suffered an
impairment of earning power through sickness
or injury due to the flood; they would not for
those whom the flood had orphaned. Illness
resulting from exposure could scarcely be classed
as a flood loss, but it may, nevertheless, create
need which clearly calls for relief. In fact it
is quite possible to duplicate former possessions
without really touching the most obvious needs.
Not infrequently those who lose least, need most.
After all, ability to earn is more important to
family welfare than accumulated possessions be-
yond those necessary to maintain a healthful,
comfortable existence. Relief apportioned to
loss leaves out of account entirely the factor of
earning ability. Disaster then involves losses
which can not be restored by cash payments, as
well as those which can, and the former are apt
84
I
FLOODS
to be as numerous and vital to family welfare as
the latter. The principle of adjusting relief to
need rather than to losses is based upon such
considerations as these, which have been amply
attested by experience.
A third principle adopted in this disaster, and
which is valid and indispensable in all relief
work, is that of cooperation between the Red
Cross and the stricken communities and families.
This involves the fullest possible utilization of
the resources for self-help in each community
and each family. It would be inexpedient and
demoralizing for the Red Cross to undertake to
do things for people and places which they could
do as well or better for themselves. The resolute
courage with which a community, visited by a
disaster, sets about meeting the crisis by its own
efforts; its prompt and righteous resentment of
attempts by "outsiders" to take over the re-
sponsibility which it feels rests primarily with
itself, are at once a great asset and a great ob-
stacle to the Red Cross in establishing coopera-
tive relations. As has already been stated, it
is the policy of the Red Cross always to avoid
85
DISASTERS
imposing itself upon a community as an outside
agency and also to avoid attempts to dictate
methods and measures. It aims rather to merge
quietly with the local agencies already at work
and to encourage local initiative and responsi-
bility to the fullest extent, giving freely of its
experience and assuming only that degree of
leadership which is freely accorded by the com-
munity. Local groups have much readier access
than strangers to essential information about the
circumstances of families whom the disaster has
affected. Moreover, each place usually has pre-
ferred channels of action peculiar to itself, and
it is the part of wisdom to use the agencies which
enjoy public confidence and approval, whenever
possible.
The family as the unit, need as the basis, and
cooperation as the method, were thus the princi-
ples on which the flood relief policies of the Red
Cross were formulated.
While the Red Cross agents were making the
preliminary surveys of damage and need, in
most places the distribution of food from relief
stations was still going on. This means of re-
86
FLOODS
lieving need was clearly necessary while the flood
lasted, and even after it subsided, until houses
could be occupied, stores put in order and re-
stocked, banks opened, and business resumed.
In not a few places, however, the distribution of
supplies from these stations continued longer
than need required. This was no doubt due in
large part to the lassitude and depression which
naturally followed when the tremendous strain
under which the populace had been living re-
laxed somewhat. There was a pause, as it were,
while courage and energy were being gathered to
face the staggering task of reconstruction. It
was at this juncture, when all flood sufferers had
been provided with food, shelter, and clothing,
when the sick and injured were receiving medical
care, when the cleaning of streets, dwellings,
stores, and sewers was well under way, that the
Red Cross began to press for the closing of relief
stations and the supplementing of emergency
relief measures by those designed to restore the
stricken families to normal life. Large supplies
of relief and the machinery for their distribu-
tion— relief stations, food depots, and bread
87
DISASTERS
lines — are indispensable adjuncts of relief ad-
ministration only under the most extraordinary
circumstances, such as those which prevailed
along the Ohio Valley during the deluge and for
the few days immediately following, or those in
San Francisco after the great earthquake and
fire. If maintained longer than is absolutely
necessary, they tend to defeat the ultimate ob-
ject of relief, which is the restoration of normal
conditions of life. They exercise this influence
in two ways: by encouraging families to rely
upon assistance rather than upon their own
efforts they undermine independence and delay
a return to self-support; by providing free the
necessities for which families could afford to pay
they retard the return of trade to normal con-
ditions. In point of fact these evil influences
were noted in more than one of the flooded com-
munities. When families which asked for noth-
ing saw neighbors no worse off than themselves
receive food and clothing, they concluded that
they, too, were entitled to a share of the sup-
plies, and proceeded to see that they got it.
In one place, a well-to-do citizen rode to the
88
FLOODS
relief station in his automobile and carried away
the rugs that had been issued to him, presumably
to help restore him to a normal life. The clos-
ing of the relief stations, which in most com-
munities took place in about a week after the
waters subsided, marked the close of the period
of emergency aid. Thus far, it had been neces-
sary to deal with the affected families in huge
groups, to consider only their most elemental and
urgent needs, and in meeting these to treat all
applicants with little regard to individual differ-
ences in circumstances.
The work of the Red Cross during the period
of reconstruction or rehabilitation which fol-
lowed was characterized in this disaster as in all
others by its object of helping families back to a
normal standard of living, and by its method of
securing accurate and comprehensive informa-
tion about the needs of families and bringing to
their aid not only money but counsel and service
carefully adjusted to their peculiar circumstances
and requirements.
The first step of the Red Cross agents in the
work of rehabilitation was to secure and record
89
DISASTERS
information as to the name and number of
persons in each family, the social status of the
head of the household, property losses due to
the disaster, the natural resources, wage-earning
capacity, relatives likely to prove helpful, the
family's own plan for the future, and such other
facts as would determine whether aid was needed,
and in what amount and form. Such informa-
tion was collected respecting no less than 6,500
families. This gigantic undertaking was be-
gun in many places before the emergency relief
distribution had ceased, many of the interviews
taking place at the relief stations in private
rooms provided for the purpose, or at the places
of temporary shelter. In the smaller communi-
ties where the circumstances of each resident
were largely a matter of common knowledge, the
process of inquiry was more simply and quickly
completed than in the larger towns and cities.
While the means of collecting information
varied in the different communities, that used
in Hamilton, Ohio, is in some respects typical.
When the trained social workers detailed by
the Red Cross arrived in Hamilton, they divided
90
FLOODS
the flooded area into 29 small districts, each
containing from 30 to 50 houses. Four workers
were assigned to each district; school teachers,
members of the United States Army hospital
corps, nurses and other local volunteers being
used. Every day these workers met at relief
headquarters and turned in the cards which had
been filled out. These cards were at once sorted
into three classes: those recording conditions
that called for immediate help ; those indicating
no pressing need but a probability that later
assistance of a more permanent sort would be
required ; and those indicating that no help would
be required. Each night the Red Cross agents
attended to the needs of families in the first
class. Later, those reported as needing rehabili-
tation were visited again and a more detailed
investigation made. For this purpose the city
was redivided into three sections, each in charge
of a trained social worker directly representing
the Red Cross. Each investigator reported her
findings to her section chief, who in turn made
her own recommendations to the Red Cross agent
91
DISASTERS
in general charge, in whom was vested exclusive
power of final decision.
Naturally it was not always easy to persuade
local relief committees that this careful inquiry
into the circumstances of each family was not
mere "red tape," and to make clear to them the
very direct relation between accurate and com-
plete information about every case and a just
and effective distribution of the relief fund. In
the few communities where relief was granted
virtually on the unsupported assertion of each
applicant as to his own losses and needs, the
subsequent dissatisfaction among the recipients
themselves usually convinced the local commit-
tee of its error in judgment. In general it is the
testimony of the Red Cross workers who served
in the Ohio flood relief that lax investigation and
easy access to relief artificially stimulated the
demand upon funds, created hopes which were
doomed to disappointment, and worked injus-
tice to those in greatest need.
In a relief work of such immense scope, extend-
ing to many scores of communities scattered over
four states and varying in size from hamlets to
92
FLOODS
large industrial centers, some having but a few
families affected by the flood, some numbering
their refugees by tens of thousands, it must be
evident that the methods used and the degree
of efficiency attained varied considerably. Con-
sidering its extent, however, the remarkable
thing about the administration of the Ohio flood
relief was not its varieties but its uniformity.
Over all the widely scattered places, in some de-
gree, the Red Cross influence or control extended.
Where its funds were expended, it enforced ac-
curate accounting and careful reports of results
achieved. The methods employed by local Red
Cross agents in requisitioning on the central fund
and accounting for disbursements, and the rela-
tion between the Red Cross fund and those of
local committees, are explained in the "regula-
tions*' to which reference has been made.*
Not everyone is competent to make such a
thorough inquiry or investigation of the circum-
stances and needs of all affected families as is a
prerequisite of just and wise use of relief funds
and of safeguarding family welfare. If those who
* See Appendix B, page 217.
93
DISASTERS
are trained and experienced are not available in
sufficient numbers, volunteers should be chosen
with the greatest discrimination; they should
serve under the direction of experienced workers ;
the schedules used in investigation should be suf-
ficiently comprehensive to cover all information
likely to be required, so that repeated inquiries
will not be necessary in order to get information
which could just as well be covered in a single
interview. The information about the circum-
stances and losses and needs of flood victims is
everywhere an important means of reaching de-
cisions.
If, when the waters had subsided, it had been
possible for the families to return to their homes
and at once resume their usual life, the need of
relief would have ceased with the floods. But
the effect of the flood was not merely to drive
people from their houses but to damage the
houses and the furnishings as well. As has
been stated, 70,000 dwellings were damaged and
3,000 completely wrecked.
"Some of these damages were so unique, so peculiarly
the result of the flood, as to be worth noting. Thus,
94
FLOODS
stairways and partitions were broken by boats being
brought into houses to rescue their occupants. Plaster
fell from ceilings injured by refugees huddled together
on the rafters above for two days and a night. Roofs
needed reshingling where people had chopped their way
out. Porch roofs must be repaired where damaged by
horses seeking in vain a foothold, or by ladders stretched
from neighboring houses as an exit to safety." *
The number of houses entirely destroyed or so
extensively wrecked as to be uninhabitable was,
after all, a small proportion of those flooded.
The chief damage wrought by the waters and the
deposits of mud and wreckage they left inside
houses was the destruction of furniture, and
without stoves, cooking utensils, dishes, beds,
bedding, tables, and chairs, housekeeping could
not be resumed. Consequently the first task of
restoring the flood sufferers to normal life was to
help them replace the necessary articles of furni-
ture.
The methods employed necessarily varied in
different places, according to the size of the prob-
lem and the experience or ingenuity of those
* Quoted from a manuscript report on flood relief work
in Dayton by Dr. E. T. Devine.
95
DISASTERS
responsible for its solution. In the smaller places
where most of the families who had sustained
losses were known personally to the members of
the relief committee, it was a simple matter to
judge needs and to meet them. Hamilton, Ohio,
where 30,000 persons had been driven from their
homes by the flood, affords an illustration of
methods used in some of the larger communities.
The Red Cross agents called together the furni-
ture dealers of the town and explained to them
that the committee desired their cooperation in
providing furniture for those of the flood sufferers
who were needy. A number of the dealers readily
agreed to fill Red Cross orders at a price 20 per
cent above cost, although a margin of 50 per cent
is usually figured in fixing the selling price. The
information collected and recorded by investiga-
tors about the circumstances, losses, and needs of
each family was used here, as almost everywhere,
as a basis for deciding which families should be
given furniture and what articles should be sup-
plied. No attempt was made to replace lost or
damaged pieces; the aim was simply to provide
indispensable furnishings of a plain but substan-
96
I
FLOODS
tial quality. The Red Cross issued a printed or-
der on one of the merchants who had entered into
the agreement, in the name of each family, speci-
fying the articles of furniture to be supplied.
This order was signed by the flood sufferers when
the goods were delivered, and became a receipt in
the hands of the dealer. A duplicate of each order
was retained by the Red Cross, and the original
orders, attached to bills presented by the dealers,
were checked against these before payment was
made. In many places, cash grants made directly
to the families were preferred to orders on dealers.
The ownership of a house represents for most
people, perhaps, the consummation of long years
of struggle and sacrifice, and for that reason
wholesale destruction of homes is one of the most
discouraging losses a community can face. The
repairing and rebuilding of homes damaged or
destroyed by the flood was the heaviest financial
task undertaken by the Red Cross, and a task
which bore a most vital relation to the rehabili-
tation of the stricken families. Those families
whose homes were not yet fully paid for were in
the worst case, because interest and payments
7 97
DISASTERS
Still had to be met, the damaged property could
not be sold, and the family itself still required
shelter. The only thing to do was to repair the
dwelling and add the cost to the mortgage. In
Dayton, nine- tenths of those to whom money
was granted for repairs already had mortgages
on their property.
In meeting this situation the Red Cross acted
on a well defined policy. It was agreed that its
funds should not be put into temporary edifices —
mere makeshifts for homes — but that the houses
erected should be as substantial as possible. It
was evident from the discrepancy between the
funds available and the amount necessary to
repair and rebuild throughout the flooded area
that all the Red Cross could hope to do was
to supplement the efforts of individual families
to re-establish their homes. In many cases the
small contribution which was all it was able to
make toward repairs and rebuilding was the
means of removing the "last straw" and making
the burden bearable. In repairing property, it
was necessary to proceed on the policy of limit-
ing grants to the minimum amount necessary to
98
FLOODS
make a house habitable. Moreover, particular
care had to be exercised to see that grants went
to owners and not to renters, so that landlords
who were able to meet their losses were not re-
imbursed from the relief funds.
In every way possible people were encouraged
to form their own plans in housing reconstruc-
tion. They were urged to buy their own ma-
terial, to negotiate with contractors, and to over-
see the work.
The Red Cross first gave its attention to the
repairing of slightly damaged dwellings. These
could quickly be made habitable, and many
families were thus restored to their homes within
a comparatively short time after the flood. In
general, long-time work, such as rebuilding and
extensive repairs, was left to the local commit-
tees. This had the advantages of freeing more
of the Red Cross funds for small repairs, and of
leaving the work which required supervision for
a long period of time in the hands of local people,
who could remain in charge after the Red Cross
withdrew.
The basis of all decisions about grants to in-
99
DISASTERS
dividual families was a careful and thorough
investigation of the needs and resources of each.
The amount of the mortgage, the possession of
other property, both real and personal, relatives
who were willing to help, earning capacity, and
other evidences of the family's ability to weather
its difficulties, were taken into consideration.
But farmers as well as residents of towns and
cities suffered from the flood. Their loss, in
crops, live stock, damaged buildings, fences, and
agricultural implements, and the washing off of
the fertile top soil, is estimated by the United
States Weather Bureau at over $6,649,000 in
Ohio alone. It was the plight of the town and
city dwellers which chiefly engaged the atten-
tion and sympathy of the country, for they had
the means of articulating and communicating
their suffering and needs. No aid was rushed to
the stricken farmers and not until the first needs
of the towns and cities had been met was it real-
ized that residents of the rural districts shared in
the claim to succor. In automobiles and afoot,
special agents of the Red Cross canvassed the
100
FLOODS
isolated countrysides in an attempt to find every
family in need which had not been reached by
the ministrations of local committees. The pro-
cedure of recording information, determining
needs, and adjusting help to these, differed in no
essential respect from that employed in the cities,
except that the services of experienced farmers
were used in determining what seeds, imple-
ments, and other equipment, and in what
amounts, were required. No attempt was made
to replace losses; all that could be done was to
meet the immediate needs and give a new start
to those who lacked resources to do this for them-
selves.
In those instances where families suffering
from the flood had been self-employing, the prob-
lem of putting them in the way of helping them-
selves involved assisting them to make a new
start in the business by which they had earned a
livelihood. The Red Cross, in conformity with
its policy of extending its scale of disbursements
only as fast as funds were available for new pur-
poses, did not, save in a very few instances,
undertake the rehabilitation of business until
lOI
DISASTERS
nearly three months after the flood; and its
service in this field was limited to those small
business enterprises which bore an especially
vital relation to the maintenance of particular
families and whose proprietors were clearly un-
able without outside aid to re-establish them.
The Red Cross suggested for the general guid-
ance of local committees that the possession of
assets over $2,000 be regarded as indicative of
ability to recover without grants from the relief
fund, and that grants be limited to $500. In
some instances committees were able to help
rehabilitate small enterprises by inducing credi-
tors to cancel a part of their claims.
Those who lost their lives in the flood were for
the most part women and children; relatively
few were wage-earners. Some of the families
of wage-earners who were drowned required as-
sistance for the balance of their lives, or until
children became old enough to earn. For many
of these substantial sums were set aside to be
paid in regular allowances, and wherever pos-
sible the associated charities was asked to act as
trustee of the fund and to provide friendly over-
102
FLOODS
sight. In some cases the whole sum was paid
directly to the family or to relatives to be ex-
pended in its behalf. A Dayton mother who
had lost a son who was her main support was
granted $250 by the Red Cross to establish her
in the rooming house business. In another case,
a sum was set aside for an aged woman of Day-
ton who was particularly dependent upon a son
who was drowned but who had some income from
property, to be used if she should later become
needy. For a colored family consisting of a
widow and two sons aged eight and twelve years,
made fatherless by the flood, the Red Cross pro-
vided $600 to be used under the supervision of
the Dayton Associated Charities to supplement
the woman's earnings.
The last act of the Red Cross before with-
drawing from the flooded region was to call upon
the local committees to review the work they had
done with a view to making final grants to fam-
ilies whose earlier aid had proved inadequate,
either because the extent of their needs had been
underestimated or because funds were not at the
time available to do all that needed to be done.
103
DISASTERS
The balance of the funds was used in the recti-
fication of these inadequacies, and thus served to
accelerate the return to normal conditions of life.
To recapitulate, flood disaster relief, in com-
mon with that of all disasters, has the following
features : coordination and centralization of relief
forces are essential ; relief administration divides
itself into two periods — first, emergency relief,
and second, rehabilitation; the family is the
unit of relief; need, not loss, is the basis of relief;
there must be the fullest possible utilization of
community and family resources for self-help;
accurate determination of need, family by fam-
ily, is the only basis for a just and effective dis-
tribution of relief; in addition to needs which
can be met by money gifts, there are others
which can be met only by wise counsel and de-
voted, intelligent personal service. Unlike mine
disasters or shipwrecks, flood relief presents
problems of sanitation and health protection,
law and order, the rehabilitation of houses and
household goods. In floods, as in other disasters
which devastate large areas, the services of the
United States Army are indispensable in protect-
104
FLOODS
ing health and organizing the transportation and
distribution of relief supplies. When floods or
other disasters affect vast numbers of persons,
volunteers must be relied upon to provide a large
part of the service required, but unless they can
be chosen with great discrimination, they may
prove a hindrance rather than a help. Trained
social workers, Red Cross nurses, and others with
experience in the treatment of families in distress
are the "backbone" of the relief organization.
105
FIRES
^ I ^HE fires which have proved so devastating
■*• of life and property as to prompt the
benevolent intervention of the American Red
Cross have been of two kinds — forest fires and
city fires. The latter fall into two classes: (i)
fires which, while confined perhaps to a single
building, result in appalling destruction of hu-
man life and frequently threaten prolonged eco-
nomic hardship for the victims' families ; and (2)
fires which destroy extensive residence and busi-
ness areas and chiefly through the loss of prop-
erty bring distress to a large proportion of the
population.
The Grover Factory Fire of Brockton, Massa-
chusetts, which occurred in 1905, and the Tri-
angle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York
City in 191 1, are examples of the first class, while
the second is illustrated by the Chicago fire of
106
FIRES
1 87 1, the San Francisco conflagration of 1906,
and the Chelsea and Salem, Massachusetts, fires
of 1908 and 1 9 14 respectively. Between Jan-
uary I, 1905, and December 31, 19 16, the Red
Cross assisted either in an advisory capacity or
by active administrative participation or con-
trol in organizing and directing disaster relief
following 10 city and five forest fires.
Section I of this chapter will touch upon the
relief problems peculiar to forest fires; section II
will review the work administered by the Red
Cross Emergency Relief Committee of the New
York Charity Organization Society after the
Triangle fire, by way of illustrating relief prob-
lems and methods in city fires of the first type
mentioned in the preceding paragraph; and
section III will outline very briefly some of the
relief measures which experience in San Fran-
cisco, Chelsea, and Salem has shown to be of
fundamental importance in dealing with city
fires which devastate large areas. A compre-
hensive and detailed treatment of the organiza-
tion and methods of relief used after the San
Francisco earthquake and fire is to be found in
107
DISASTERS
the San Francisco Relief Survey.* This volume
is noteworthy not only as an exhaustive history
of that particular disaster, but as the most ex-
tensive and thorough critical study of disaster
relief that has ever been made. All students of
such relief, particularly those who are especially
interested in that following city-wide fires, will
find the San Francisco Relief Survey a rich and
indispensable source of information and prac-
tical guidance.
I. — ^The forest fires in which the Red Cross
has rendered most active service are those which
occurred in Michigan and Minnesota in October,
1908, and in Minnesota in October, 1910. The
first burned a strip along the shore of the penin-
sula about 75 miles long and 15 to 25 miles wide;
the fire of 1910 devastated about 1,600 square
miles in the northern part of Minnesota. Sev-
eral villages were wiped out in both cases. For-
est fires almost always occur in the fall of the
year, and generally devastate large areas. It is
not alone timberlands but farms in clearings
* San Francisco Relief Survey. New York, Russell Sage
Foundation Publication, Survey Associates, 1913.
108
FIRES
enfolded by the forests, and villages and small
towns adjacent, which are ravaged by the flames.
These often spread with a rapidity and burn with
a fierce intensity (refugees have been heard to
declare that the very air was on fire) which pre-
clude the possibility of saving buildings, house-
hold goods, live stock, crops, and, indeed, oc-
casionally human life itself.
Chisholm, Minnesota, for instance, a town
of probably 5,000 inhabitants, was literally de-
stroyed in an hour. A sudden shift of wind had
sent a shower of burning leaves and embers over
the town, which, in a moment, set fire to almost
every building. After the fire was over, not more
than 65 structures of any kind were left stand-
ing.
The fact that forest fires usually happen in
the autumn and in regions where winter sets in
early, gives great urgency to the need for shel-
ter, while the destruction of crops, including the
hay and grain harvest, usually makes it neces-
sary to provide for the needs of the homesteader
and his live stock through the winter and spring,
until his land begins to produce once more, and
109
DISASTERS
to equip him with seeds for the spring planting
as well as with agricultural implements.
It is with the greatest difficulty that the di-
mensions of the relief problem are determined
because the homes of the lumbermen and home-
steaders often lie deep within the forest, widely
separated from one another and from the villages
and towns, and because the latter are difficult of
access from centers of population. The diffi-
culty is illustrated in the northern Minnesota
fires of 1 910, where, in order to send a wagon-
load of provisions through to a small settlement
twelve miles distant from a base of supplies,
fifteen axmen worked day and night, for two
days, to clear away the masses of fallen trees
from the forest roads.
The primitive, isolated character of the com-
munities and the absence of organized means of
articulating their suffering and need place upon
the larger centers of population an especial re-
sponsibility for acting in their behalf in collecting
and forwarding funds and supplies and in organ-
izing relief forces.
In effecting a relief organization, the impor-
IIO
FIRES
tance of the centralization of administrative re-
sponsibility for the collection and disbursement
of funds should be borne in mind. After the
Minnesota forest fires of 1910, a representative
of the American Red Cross promptly visited
the fire stricken area, estimated the extent and
nature of the need, and reported to the Presi-
dent of the State Board of the Red Cross, who
was the governor of Minnesota. The governor
at once issued a proclamation calling upon the
public to provide funds and supplies. The proc-
lamation designated a treasurer to whom money
contributions should be sent, and indicated to
what destinations and in whose care goods should
be forwarded. It also emphasized the fact that
after immediate needs had been met, there would
remain the equally important and more costly
work of reconstruction.
The services of the state militia have been
found exceedingly valuable in preserving order,
preventing looting, transporting and distribut-
ing supplies, and enforcing sanitary regulations.
The burial of horses, cows, and other animals
killed by the fire is an important sanitary pre-
III
DISASTERS
caution, as is also the destruction of infected
outhouses.
The services of railways adjacent to and within
the burned districts can also often be counted
upon to carry supplies and workers to the field
of operations ; to provide empty cars for storage
purposes and occasionally to furnish men and
officials accustomed to obeying and executing
orders. In the Michigan forest fire, in October,
1908, the president of a railway not only gave
substantially all of his own time, but "detailed
the general superintendent of the road, the chief
engineer, the district passenger and freight agent,
and other men of proved ability. The railroad
company also facilitated in every way the ship-
ment of supplies of all kinds and put into service
a daily relief train which transferred supplies as
required from one relief station to another, car-
ried the relief workers back and forth, etc."
The rehousing of refugees after forest fires has
been accomplished through the erection of cheap
shacks which can be quickly built. The shack
used after the Michigan fires of 1908
consisted of unplaned lumber, long upright boards form-
112
FIRES
ing the walls, rough boards forming the roof and floor, and
the entire exterior of the structure covered with tar build-
ing paper. Each shack was 14 x i6 feet, and contained
three small rooms. . . . The procedure was for the
farmer to receive the lumber, paper, windows, hardware,
etc., for the shack and haul it to his farm. Then one car-
penter would be sent to the place to direct operations,
and with the farmer and his neighbors helping, the shack
would be quickly completed. These shacks cost com-
pleted only $50.*
After the Minnesota forest fires of 19 10, which
left about 2,500 persons homeless, the customs
duty on lumber from Canada was waived so that
needed supplies at minimum cost might be
promptly brought to the scene of the disaster.
The houses built cost from $100 to $200. It
was also found necessary, in these disasters, to
provide shelter for live stock.
The principles and methods of relief which
apply to city-wide fires in the main apply here,
and since they will be discussed in the third sec-
tion of this chapter, it is perhaps superfluous to
touch upon them at this point.
II. — On Saturday afternoon, March 25, 191 1,
* Bulletin of the American Red Cross, January, 1909,
page 13.
8 113
DISASTERS
a fire occurred in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fac-
tory, on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of
the Asch Building, Washington Place, New York
City, which cost the lives of 147 persons, chiefly
women and girls, seriously injured 12, and
slightly injured 60 more. One hundred of the
dead were found crowded against the doors to
the elevators and stairways, which employes
stated were locked, while 40 jumped the 1 10 feet
to the ground. The building, which was fire-
proof, was not burned.
By ten o'clock on Monday, March 27, the
Red Cross Emergency Relief Committee of the
New York Charity Organization Society, an in-
stitutional member of the American Red Cross,
was ready to begin its work of succor to the
families of the victims. On Sunday, the chair-
man had called a meeting of the committee, se-
cured a temporary office, and arranged with the
mayor for the immediate issuance of an appeal
through the newspapers on behalf of the Red
Cross. Police lists of the dead and injured were
promptly secured, and within three days the
relief committee's staff of trained workers, en-
114
FIRES
listed from the social agencies of the city, had
visited all the families whose names appeared on
these lists.
In all, 1 66 cases came under the care of the
committee. In 94 of these there had been one
or more deaths, and in the remainder the ser-
vices of the committee were required because of
conditions growing out of physical or nervous
injury which the victims had suffered. Most of
the families of the dead and injured were Jewish
and Italian immigrants who had but recently
come to this country. Their incomes were
largely derived from the labor of the girls and
women who had lost their lives and whose em-
ployment, at best, was of a seasonal character.
Not a few of the victims were contributing to the
care of parents abroad or were earning money
to bring to America fathers and mothers or
sisters and brothers. Others were, at great
self-sacrifice, making possible the education of
younger children. Very few of these families
had been recipients of charity before the fire,
and indeed, had the fire relief fund not been
raised, it is probable that their most urgent
115
k
DISASTERS
needs would have been met without recourse to
charitable agencies by their own sacrifices and
those of their relatives and friends. The exist-
ence of the relief fund, however, undoubtedly
prevented the lowering of the standard of living
which would have taken place if the families of
the victims and their relatives and friends had
attempted to weather the calamity unassisted.
To the standing Red Cross Emergency Relief
Committee were added, as is customary, several
persons whose counsel and service were likely
to be of especial value in this particular disas-
ter. In addition, a consultation committee was
formed to act in an advisory capacity with the
executive in considering the needs of individual
cases and suggesting appropriate plans of as-
sistance. But as usual, under the institutional
form of organization, the power of final decision
was vested exclusively in the executive.
The committee did not administer its funds
with the aim of compensating for losses of cloth-
ing and other personal property (though this
was done in a few instances), nor did it proceed
after the manner of an insurance company by
Ii6
I
FIRES
paying a predetermined arbitrary sum for the
life of every person lost. Neither did it give
relief only to those who would otherwise in all
probability have been dependent upon charitable
agencies. But, carefully considering the stan-
dard of living of each family and the part which
the deceased or injured person had borne in
maintaining that standard, and considering,
too, the opportunity of developing potentialities
of self-help within the family, the committee
planned its grants and allowances to meet re-
sidual wants and in ways calculated to evoke
latent possibilities of self-support. The needs
of dependents abroad were considered on the
same basis. In some cases, provision was made
for the payment of allowances at regular inter-
vals ; in other instances, the payment of a lump
sum was believed to be a more constructive form
of aid because it contributed more directly to
self-support. For example, in one family, in-
stead of paying at regular intervals a sum to
take the place of the deceased daughter's wages,
upon which the family had chiefly depended for
support, the committee granted a substantial
117
DISASTERS
amount to set the father up in business, thus en-
abling him to earn a livelihood for his family
thereafter.
The policy of adjusting relief to the needs
of each family involved the utmost care in col-
lecting and recording essential information re-
specting their circumstances. The family's own
statement was naturally of prime importance,
but it was necessary also to have the point of
view of the priest, rabbi, or pastor, of school
teachers, physicians, relatives, and others ac-
quainted with its hopes and plans for the future,
its past record of successes and failures, its ele-
ments of strength and weakness. In this dis-
aster, as in others, the Red Cross was able to
obtain valuable information and guidance re-
specting the needs and circumstances of relatives
living in foreign countries, as well as assistance
In seeing that relief funds got into the hands of
those for whom they were intended, through the
consulates of those countries and from the Ameri-
can consular offices abroad. The Jewish Coloni-
zation Association, with headquarters in Paris,
was used in making investigations of the Jewish
Ii8
FIRES
relatives in Europe who were supposed to be
dependent, wholly or in part, upon fire victims.
The agents and correspondents of this associa-
tion were able to obtain and forward information
about the amount of assistance which had been
sent, and whether the relatives were in fact de-
pendent upon this.
The passionate sympathy with which the public
responded to the mayor's appeal gave the Red
Cross alone $103,899, while the Ladies' Waist-
makers Union secured contributions amounting
to several thousand dollars. Of the sum in its
hands, the Red Cross expended $81,126 in relief,
of which $12,818 went to provide emergency
and temporary aid. Approximately half of the
latter sum was used to reimburse families for
funeral expenses and the balance to tide them
over until some plan of more permanent assis-
tance could be formed, or where this was not
required, for some special need which, unaided,
they could scarcely have met without great hard-
ship. The administrative expenses were $1,937.
In the judgment of the committee, the $81,126
mentioned met the needs of the Triangle victims,
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DISASTERS
and after due consideration it was decided to
transfer the residue of the amount contributed
to the contingent relief fund of the American
Red Cross, to be used in disasters which in their
nature do not evoke so quick or generous public
response but where the suffering caused is as
grievous.
The following cases illustrate the ways in
which the committee used its funds in providing
temporary relief:
A married woman, the wife of a carpenter who had
no steady work, suffered contusions and shock. A six-
teen-year-old daughter living at home earned $4.00 a
week, and a boy and a girl, aged twelve and ten years,
were with relatives in Italy. It was estimated that $50
would reimburse the mother for wages lost, and this sum
was given by the committee.
An Italian girl, aged eighteen, next to the eldest of a
family of seven children, was incapacitated for two or
three weeks by the shock. Her wages represented one-
third of the family income. The Red Cross gave $50
to make good the wages lost and to replace lost clothing.
A Russian was badly burned and strained in making
his escape from the building. Neuritis in a severe form
developed. The family consisted of a wife and four chil-
dren, the eldest a boy of sixteen who had just started to
work. $160 was given to meet current living expenses,
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FIRES
and a few months later, the Red Cross paid the cost of
transportation to California, $275.20, where they had
relatives and friends who were willing to help them get a
new start and where it was hoped the man's health would
improve.
An Italian girl of sixteen who was killed was survived
by her parents and four brothers and sisters, two of
whom were wage-earners. A few days after the fire, the
mother gave birth to another child. The father owned a
half interest in a small, growing business. The Red
Cross contributed $150 toward the cost of the funeral
and $100 for the mother's lying-in expenses. Since the
family had not suffered an appreciable economic loss
through the daughter's death, it was deemed unneces-
sary to render further assistance.
Another of the victims was a Roumanian girl of
twenty-three, the oldest of a family of six children. She
was supporting herself and a younger sister, recently come
over from Europe and apprenticed to a dressmaker, and
in addition was sending regular remittances to her par-
ents in Roumania. She had a brother in New York who
was barely able to support himself. The Red Cross
learned through a correspondent in Europe that the
family had lost their home in a fire a few days before.
The family income — the combined earnings of the father,
a brother of seventeen, and a younger sister — averaged
only 13 francs a week. It was clear that the family was
dependent on the money sent by the oldest girl, and that
they were in need of substantial financial aid. Money
was sent to them at intervals, through the son in New
121
DISASTERS
York, pending receipt of more complete information
from Europe, and a final grant to the family of $300 was
made on Jmie 5. Provision was also made for the sister
in New York, in the form of a monthly allowance which
lasted imtil she was earning enough to enable her to pay
board in an uncle's family. The total amount which this
family received from the Red Cross funds was $585.
Provision for more permanent needs in some
cases took the form of regular allowances ad-
ministered for the Red Cross by a responsible
charitable agency. The arrangement made pos-
sible that element of elasticity which is so in-
dispensable in the administration of relief — the
adjustment of aid to changing need and the re-
inforcement of financial help with friendly over-
sight and counsel.
This method is illustrated by the case of a Russian
who was killed in the fire. He left a wife and two chil-
dren, four and two years of age. The wife was practically
helpless — could speak no English, had no near relatives
in this country except a sister as helpless as herself, and
no way of supporting herself. After the fire, she and her
children and sister went to live with a cousin. This cou-
sin was far too poor, however, to stand the additional
burden, and as the woman decided to return to Russia,
where she had a brother and sister, the Red Cross en-
gaged her passage, secured passports and other ofl5cial
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FIRES
papers, arranged to have someone meet her at all points
in Russia where it was necessary to change cars, and de-
cided to pay her a sum of money sufficient to establish
her in business. The plans were no sooner completed
than a letter came from her brother telling her of rumors
of pogroms and a foreign war, and warning her not to
return. She was so frightened that she decided to re-
main in the United States. A few days later, however,
she decided that she would go through with the original
plans. Again all arrangements were made for her return,
and again she decided to stay in this country. Then the
case was turned over to the United Hebrew Charities
of New York which was given $1050 from Red Cross
funds to meet the family's current expenses and a trust
fund of $4000 for the two little children.
The case of a Russian family in which the eighteen-
year-old daughter was killed is another example of the
elasticity of the committee's methods. The dead girl
had five brothers and sisters, three of whom were of
working age, but capable of earning only very small
wages. The mother was in poor health. As the father
was in Russia at the time of the fire, it was necessary to
continue temporary relief grants until his return in July
before permanent plans were made for the family. He
was a man of about middle age, and of more than average
intelligence, and the committee decided to grant his re-
quest to be established in a smaU business. $1000 was
placed with the United Hebrew Charities to be adminis-
tered for this purpose.
The administration of relief in the case of the
123
DISASTERS
Triangle fire is noteworthy, first, because of the
virtually complete success in centralizing relief
funds and responsibility, and second, because
the fund raised was, in relation to the need, so
ample that it was possible to make exceptionally
liberal provision for the affected families. Be-
sides the Red Cross, the Ladies' Waistmakers
Union was the only body to raise and administer
relief, and the aid provided by this union was
given only to members. There was the fullest
measure of cooperation between the union and
the Red Cross. It is believed that the prompt
and decisive action of the Red Cross committee
in assuming full responsibility for administering
relief, and the full measure of confidence reposed
by the public in this committee because of its
representative and responsible character, ex-
plains the absence of the numerous relief agencies
which usually spring into existence after such
disasters.
III. — Probably the most notable city fires
which have occurred in the United States, from
the standpoint of extent of area devastated,
124
FIRES
value of property destroyed, and number of
families rendered homeless, are: the Chicago
fire of October, 1871 (about three and one- third
square miles burned over, 17,450 buildings de-
stroyed, estimated property loss $192,000,000,
300 lives lost, 100,000 persons made homeless) ;
the San Francisco fire of April, 1906 (burned
area 11. 14 square miles, 28,188 buildings de-
stroyed, estimated property loss $500,000,000,
498 lives lost, 200,000 persons made homeless);
the Chelsea, Massachusetts, fire of April, 1908
(287 acres burned, 2,835 buildings destroyed,
estimated property loss $17,000,000, 19 lives lost,
about 16,000 persons made homeless) ; the Salem,
Massachusetts, fire of June, 1914 (burned area
300 acres, 1,792 buildings destroyed, estimated
property loss $14,000,000, two lives lost, about
16,000 persons made homeless).
The abrupt flight of men, women, and chil-
dren from their dwellings and places of employ-
ment to refuges in parks and open spaces, their
houses and furniture perforce left a prey to the
flames, the separation of families in the haste
and confusion of the rout, the agony of fear and
125
DISASTERS
suspense until they are reunited, the utter de-
pendence upon others for shelter, food, and
clothing — this drama of the refugee is a charac-
teristic which the city-wide fires have in com-
mon. Fires such as these work sudden, violent,
extensive, and prolonged interruption of the nor-
mal community life. They destroy vast stores
of food and other necessities, dislocate transpor-
tation, disorganize business, throw thousands out
of employment, and create relief problems which
the prostrate community is unable to meet with-
out outside assistance.
With scarcely less rapidity than the advance
of the flames or the flight of the refugees comes
the formation of relief forces, first within the ill-
fated city itself and then, as the news of the
calamity spreads and seizes on the imagination
and sympathy of the public, in other cities and
towns and states. Not a few impromptu local
committees, each rallied around some forceful
man or woman and each working independently
of the others, enter the field and essay such re-
lief activities as seem to them of most impor-
tance. No doubt in the very first days following
126
^
FIRES
disaster, these little bands render substantial
help in meeting the great press of obvious and
immediate needs, but their period of real use-
fulness is short-lived, and by continuing to main-
tain a separate existence after it has passed, as
usually happens, they seriously hamper the exe-
cution of more comprehensive relief measures.
The imperative first step in the organization
of the relief forces which must be taken by the
fire-stricken community is the appointment of a
provisional central relief committee. The mem-
bership of this committee should include citizens
of such commanding prominence as to assure
the entire confidence of the community. It is of
primary importance that men and women of
broad experience in philanthropic and civic
work should have a place on it, since they more
than any other group in the community know
the helpful resources of the city and how to in-
voke them in behalf of those in distress. The
prompt appointment of a central committee
and the immediate announcement of its crea-
tion by official proclamation of the chief munici-
pal officer establishes confidence through the
127
DISASTERS
assurance it gives that relief plans are under way
and in the hands of responsible persons. It also
operates as a deterrent of the tendency to mul-
tiply relief committees and provides an official
medium for the collection and disbursement of
relief funds and supplies.
The provisional nature of the committee
should be clearly understood, since freedom to
form a more permanent organization after the
relief problems created by the calamity have
been gauged and the persons most capable of
forming and executing the policies of rehabilita-
tion have been discovered, is an indispensable
element of effective administration. Moreover,
the way is left open to place on the permanent
committee representatives of outside forces, such
as the commonwealth, committees appointed by
other municipalities and trade bodies, officers
and special agents of the American Red Cross,
and individuals from other parts of the coun-
try who have had wide experience in disaster
relief. The experience of San Francisco, Chel-
sea, and Salem bears uniform testimony to the
fact that the individuals and agencies who join
128
^i
FIRES
hands with the community from without have
given aid in the formation of local policies and
have brought vision and constructive ability to
the work of relief and rehabilitation.
It is inadvisable to attempt at the outset an
elaborate and detailed relief organization. In
San Francisco, where this was done, the adminis-
tration of relief was handicapped and retarded.
The completion of organization should await de-
termination of the extent and nature of the prob-
lems to be solved and the forces which can be ap-
plied to their solution. This does not mean that
the central committee should not act with the
utmost promptitude and decision — for prompt
and decisive action is the key to the control of
the situation. It does mean, however, that the
committee should, at the beginning of relief oper-
ations, confine itself to the execution of tasks of
immediate importance.
Among the first duties of the committee are to
see that the military are called out, to keep order,
and to be responsible for feeding and sheltering
refugees. In San Francisco the United States
Army, and in Chelsea and Salem the National
9 129
DISASTERS
Guard, rendered extensive and efficient service.
While the United States Army and the state
militia are not relief agencies, they nevertheless
possess discipline and organization and com-
mand of supplies which enable them to feed and
shelter large bodies of refugees more promptly
and adequately than could be done if the task
depended upon the formation of a special relief
body. The city should be placed under martial
law. The military officer in command should be
made a member of the central committee and
power to seize needed supplies should be vested
in the committee; saloons should be closed, the
sale of liquor strictly prohibited, and looting
severely penalized.
Food and shelter are the necessities which
must first be provided. Many of the fugitives
will find temporary shelter for themselves with
relatives or friends, or will be taken into the
homes of strangers. In Chelsea, the night after
the fire, relief workers were struck with the sud-
den disappearance of a large proportion of the
refugees, and in San Francisco there was an
immediate and extensive exodus of refugees to
130
FIRES
suburban points. But large numbers, and where
the stricken city is inaccessible to other com-
munities, the vast majority, will depend upon
the relief forces for the provision of food and
shelter. Many of the fugitives will take refuge
in churches, schools, and other public buildings,
as well as in parks, public squares, and vacant
lots. These people must be marshalled and colo-
nized in refugee camps, at first in tents and later
in frame barracks or inexpensive small cottages.
Administration of these camps should be dele-
gated to the military.
Wholesale feeding of the refugees will be at
first inevitable, and it too should be undertaken
under the direction of the military. If the food
supplies given prove inadequate, supplies should
be confiscated. It may also be necessary to com-
mandeer trucks for their carriage. None so well
as the army can handle at the outset the tre-
mendous task of organizing the unloading, stor-
ing, local transportation, and distribution of
relief supplies, but later the work can be con-
tinued by civilians as one of the administrative
branches of the central committee.
131
DISASTERS
Moreover at the earliest possible moment,
as has already been noted, wholesale distribu-
tion of food from relief stations should be sup-
planted by orders for groceries, as well as cloth-
ing and other necessaries, on the relief stores,
and as soon as possible on local merchants. In
San Francisco a food card was issued to each
family. The card bore the name of the author-
ized recipient, the name of the station at which
it was to be presented, and the date of issue and
expiration. Each card was good for ten days,
and when rations were drawn, the margin of the
card which bore the numerals from i to 31 was
punched to indicate the date. One or more
social workers should be assigned to each relief
station for the purpose of interviewing and advis-
ing all applicants and recording essential informa-
tion regarding them. Through these means food
distribution can be systematized, supplies con-
served, repeaters eliminated, rations adjusted to
the size of families and to special dietary require-
ments, food charged for or discontinued when
families recover a measure of independence, and
the ground prepared for the more careful con-
132
FIRES
sideration and individualized treatment of need
which characterize the rehabilitation period.
The distribution of clothing, blankets, bed-
ding, cooking utensils, etc., has been at the out-
set, like the distribution of food, wholesale and
indiscriminate. Within a very short time, how-
ever, it should be possible to introduce a system
of requisitions on the central relief warehouse.
Transportation is the fourth major task of
emergency relief. It has been said already that
a large number of refugees flee the city, even
before the conflagration is over. There are many,
however, who are held there by lack of means
but who wish to go to relatives or friends else-
where, or to communities where they believe
opportunities of employment await them. A
bureau of transportation should be created, for
which an operating official of a railroad would
perhaps make a satisfactory executive. There
should be associated with him, however, a social
worker, for the reason that the problem of trans-
portation is one not merely of securing reduced
rates and of seeing that people are assisted
through the details of schedules, tickets, etc.,
133
DISASTERS
but primarily of determining whether the wel-
fare of the applicant will be advanced by sending
him to the desired destination and of making sure
that he will not there become a public charge.
Among the tasks of emergency relief, that of
safeguarding health is of vast importance. Army
medical officers and Red Cross nurses will pro-
vide adequate sanitary supervision and medical
care in the official refugee camps. Special sani-
tary regulations should be prepared and exten-
sively circulated. Civil health officers should be
made responsible for the most intensive sanitary
inspection and rigid enforcement of these regula-
tions outside the camps. These measures bear
such an intimate relation to the protection of
health that a community cannot afford to leave
the],task in the hands of political job holders. It
is advisable for the central committee to detail
to each relief station a physician or group of
physicians whose services shall be available for
medical examination and treatment of the sick.
Nurses should be assigned to the districts, where
they can render important service in the conser-
vation of health by reporting all cases of sus-
134
FIRES
pected infectious disease and by interpreting the
sanitary regulations.
The establishment of an employment bureau
to facilitate the placement in other industries of
those whose regular employment has been in-
definitely suspended by the fire is a necessary
part of relief administration. During the emer-
gency period, it may be advisable for the execu-
tive committee to grant the employment bureau
a sum to be disbursed as wages to those men and
women for whom it seems wise to provide tem-
porary work instead of relief. The work should
be necessary and in the public interest but of a
kind that can not be undertaken under munici-
pal auspices and is not properly a charge against
a private corporation or individual. A danger
to be guarded against is the tendency of such
employment to delay the return of men to per-
manent jobs.
The period of emergency relief must be re-
garded as having terminated when temporary
shelter has been provided for the homeless in
army tent camps, barracks, and other avail-
able places, when the distribution of food and
135
DISASTERS
clothing has been extended to cover all current
needs, health having been safeguarded meanwhile
by rigid enforcement of sanitary regulations,
inspection, prompt isolation of those suffering
from infectious disease, and an impromptu
medical and nursing organization, and when
transportation to other communities has been
arranged for those who appear likely to provide
for themselves more quickly and completely by
removal from the stricken community. At this
point, relief admiijistration passes to the tasks of
rehabilitation. There is always danger that the
emergency status may be continued longer than
necessary and consequently that the starting of
rehabilitation may be unduly delayed. Such de-
lay involves extensive waste of funds, prolongs
the discomforts and privations of refugees, and
retards the return of the community to normal
life. These grave evils can be avoided only by
instituting early in the emergency period a study
of the rehabilitation problem and the formula-
tion of definite plans. It is especially important
that the relief committee associate with it for this
purpose representatives of the American Red
136
FIRES
Cross and others who have had experience in re-
habilitation work in other large disasters.
The object of rehabilitation relief is to assist
families to recover from the dislocation induced
by disaster and to regain their accustomed social
and economic status. Emergency aid takes into
account only present needs : rehabilitation looks
to future welfare and aims not to restore losses
but to open opportunities. The relation of the
recipient to the giver of emergency aid is one of
passive acceptance, but in rehabilitation relief
the relationship must be one of active and in-
telligent cooperation. Neither those who are
incapable of self-help nor those who possess the
resources or enterprise to recover from misfor-
tune without assistance are proper candidates
for rehabilitation relief.
The more lasting distress caused by city-wide
fires arises from the destruction of houses and
household goods and the suspension of business,
employment, and wages. Therefore the tasks
of rehabilitation lie in the direction of stimulat-
ing the return of workers to employment as
rapidly as business recovery opens industrial
137
DISASTERS
Opportunities (curtailing and discontinuing re-
lief at the earliest practicable moment bears a
vital relation to restoring normal business con-
ditions) ; of assisting artisans and small proprie-
tors to resume self-support, by grants and loans
for tools or business equipment ; and of promot-
ing the rebuilding and refurnishing of homes.
Accurate information regarding the present
and previous income of each family, its physi-
cal condition, previous occupation, amount of
losses, resources in savings, insurance, real prop-
erty, ability and inclination of relatives to help,
and its own plan for the future, is the essential
basis for determining whether rehabilitation
grants should be made and in what amount and
for what purpose. If experienced social workers
are in charge of district relief offices, much of
this information can and should be recorded
through interviews with members of families
who apply at these stations during the emer-
gency relief period. But interviews with mem-
bers of families should be supplemented when-
ever possible through reference calls by social
workers upon those who can throw further
138
FIRES
light upon the family situation — not because of
mistrust of the family's own statement, but be-
cause experience has shown that full data from
varied sources enhance the helpfulness of relief.
San Francisco demonstrated that even in disas-
ters affecting scores of thousands, it is possible
to make investigations which will include at
least one source of information besides the fam-
ily itself and that the effectiveness of aid varies
directly with the thoroughness of investigation.
The nature and extent of the rehabilitation
problem can be gauged in part from the records
made in the district stations during the emer-
gency period. And since it is assumed that a
persistent effort will be made to reduce the vol-
ume of applications at relief stations at the earli-
est possible moment, the inclusiveness of regis-
tration will be determined by the promptness
with which it was instituted. But not all who
will need rehabilitation assistance will have ap-
plied for emergency aid. It may therefore be
necessary to adopt some means of reaching those
in the refugee camps who have not been regis-
tered, to determine whether they are able, un-
139
DISASTERS
assisted, to re-establish themselves. One way of
accomplishing this would be to undertake a gen-
eral census of unregistered refugees. It should
be recognized, however, that this may result in
artificially stimulating applications for relief.
When the size and nature of the reconstruc-
tion work and the sum available for this purpose
have been determined, or at least approximated,
the relief committee should prepare a rehabili-
tation budget, estimating the sum required for
each branch of work, and on the basis of appro-
priations authorized by the executive committee,
should adopt tentatively a schedule of grants to
be made to refugees for housing, business, and
other rehabilitation purposes. It should also de-
termine which activities are of most vital impor-
tance in restoring families to normal channels
of life, and press first for the accomplishment of
these. While grants ought, so far as possible,
to be adjusted to the requirements of individual
families, for the purpose of starting them toward
self-support by meeting just that part of the
burden they are unable to carry alone, neverthe-
less tentative limitation of grants is warranted
140
FIRES
as an expedient for avoiding liberal aid for the
early comers at the expense of later but equally
needy applicants, wherever an unknown volume
of later applications is anticipated or the ultimate
size of the relief fund is uncertain. It is advis-
able to require each candidate for rehabilitation
to form his own plans for the future and to indi-
cate definitely what use he proposes to make of
the grant in carrying out this plan. Naturally
before making a grant, the relief committee will
satisfy itself by an agent's investigation and its
own deliberations that the plan is feasible. A
follow-up study of the rehabilitation grants made
after the San Francisco fire led to the conclusion
that in many of the instances where recipients
of grants had not succeeded in becoming self-
supporting, the failure might have been averted
had the grants been reinforced by wise personal
counsel and guidance for a few weeks or months.
A most urgent and costly phase of reconstruc-
tion is that of withdrawing the refugees from the
official camps and other places of temporary
shelter and re-establishing them in permanent
dwellings. In San Francisco it was found that
141
DISASTERS
the refugee population fell into four classes, and
that it was necessary to make different provision
for the rehousing of each class. There were (i)
those who had previously been self-sustaining
and property owners; (2) those who, while not
owning property, had been self-supporting and
who possessed initiative; (3) the non-property
owners who evinced little stability or enterprise
or capability of making effective use of financial
aid for the erection of a permanent home; (4)
the chronic dependents.
The method employed in assisting the first
class was by offering to pay those who were
otherwise unable to rebuild 33^^ per cent of the
cost of a dwelling, provided the grant did not
exceed $500 and the house was built on their
own property within the burned district. The
procedure was for the applicant to submit his
plan for approval and if approved, upon com-
pletion of the house according to specifications,
the money was paid over.
The second class was helped by what was
known as "the grant and loan plan."
142
FIRES
The housing committee, assuming that theirs was
in the highest sense rehabilitation work, perfected a
thorough system of investigation of all applicants. It
defined its purpose to be: "to assist families in need of
proper shelter to obtain a home suitable to their wants
and in proportion to their earnings." In placing the
grants and loans, its theory was to give aid so as to stimu-
late the recipient to use it for the distinct benefit of his
family. In a case where a family had heavy burdens and
a limited income, money was granted outright. When
there was reason to believe that a recipient could repay
a part of the large amoimt needed, a grant was frequently
supplemented by a loan. ... In some cases the
applicant deposited part of the cost of the house to be
built, which was supplemented by a grant or loan. In
other cases, the applicant being unable to make a de-
posit, the committee bore the entire first cost of the house.
Many were aided who had no real estate before April,
1906, but purchased or leased a lot in order to build
. . . The loans ranged from $37 to $595, as the com-
mittee found it wise to . . . plan so that the amounts
given or loaned should be such as would meet the actual
needs revealed by a careful investigation. A reliable
bank was enUsted to see that the loans were properly
executed, mortgages recorded, and monthly instalments
collected.*
The grant and loan policy had the beneficial
* San Francisco Relief Survey, page 254. New York,
Russell Sage Foundation Publication, Survey Associates,
1913-
DISASTERS
effect of stimulating a large number to purchase
lots and erect homes of their own who otherwise
would scarcely have been likely to do so.
Class 3, by far the greatest in numbers, was
less capable of self-help than either of the pre-
ceding classes and was appropriately enough
the first to receive housing help. Within eleven
months of the fire, 19 tenements with a capacity
of 650 persons, 4000 three-room and 1500 two-
room cottages, had been built by the committee
at a cost of approximately $55 per room. A
large number of the cottages had served for
temporary shelter of the refugees, supplanting
tents at the approach of the rainy season. Ulti-
mately, over 5000 of these cottages became per-
manent homes, for the most part, of class 3
families, under an agreement whereby the occu-
pant was to pay for his cottage in monthly
instalments of approximately $6.00 for a three-
room and $4.00 for a two-room cottage. The
amounts paid in instalments were later refunded
to those who purchased lots to which they re-
moved their little homes.
Naturally among the first to be differentiated
144
FIRES
from the general mass of refugees had been the
homeless and friendless aged and infirm and
other dependents of the fourth class. The city
almshouse being overcrowded, when they were
removed from the special tent colony where they
were first sheltered they were placed in tem-
porary barracks until finally transferred to a
permanent home for the aged and infirm which
was erected by the relief committee.
Manifestly it is neither necessary nor possible
for a relief committee to undertake business
rehabilitation among the class of large or pros-
perous moderate sized proprietors. It is to be
presumed that these groups possess resources
which will make self-recovery possible. In busi-
ness rehabilitation the proper field of the com-
mittee is among those who previously had been
self-employing in a small way of business as
keepers of shops, stands, eating places, or lodg-
ing houses, as vendors, etc., who had sustained
total or seriously crippling loss of equipment
through the fire, and who had no other way
of supporting their families. At San Francisco
lO
145
DISASTERS
the rehabilitation committee formulated the fol-
lowing policy:
1. The committee is not disposed to set people up in
business in which they have not previously been engaged,
although it is possible some exceptions will have to be
made.
2. Estimates of amount necessary to start a business
must be cut to the lowest practical figure.
3. References and other evidence should be required
that applicant is capable and that request is reasonable.
The general aim of (the) committee . . . was to
supply the right sort of man with money enough to pay
one month's rent, to buy the necessary fixtures, and to
cover a deposit on stock or on machinery or instruments.
The applicant went into debt for the rest of his equip-
ment, with the idea of discharging the debt little by little
from the profits of the business.
Each applicant was obliged to "explain clearly on
what scale he had been doing business up to the time of
the disaster, what was the present relation of his assets
to his liabilities, and on what scale he proposed to re-
establish. He was directed to present letters from whole-
salers or others with whom he had had business relations.
As a part of the subsequent investigation, it was often
possible for the committee's visitors to secure written
statements from the creditors or from wholesalers, stating
definitely what terms they were willing to make for the
payment of old debts or for the estabhshment of new
credits. An applicant's plan for re-establishment was
146
FIRES
not considered complete until it included a proposed
definite location."*
The committee made over 1200 grants, ranging
in amount from $50 to $500.
A bureau of special relief, which should be es-
tablished before the emergency period is ended,
has been found to be an indispensable part of
organization for rehabilitation work. It is the
function of this bureau to meet the many and
often urgent needs which fall outside the scope
of housing and business rehabilitation. After
the food distribution from district stations has
been discontinued, the bureau of special relief
assumes responsibility for providing material aid
to those who continue to be in need. The re-
lief is provided by issuing orders on local mer-
chants; in San Francisco, the aid given by the
bureau of special relief covered,
"shelter, food (rations or restaurant meals), clothing,
furniture, tools, sewing machines, and medical aid of
all sorts, including special appliances, dentistry in emer-
gency need, and, upon a physician's prescription, special
diet."t
*San Francisco Relief Survey, pages 171 and 173.
t San Francisco Relief Survey, page 147.
147
DISASTERS
Following city-wide fires, it is necessary to dis-
trict the city for relief purposes. An office and
a staff of social workers must be maintained in
each district, under the executive direction of a
supervisor and the general oversight of the com-
mittee on relief and rehabilitation. In each dis-
trict there should be a consultation committee
composed preferably of those who, previous to
the disaster, were active in the social work of the
neighborhood. The function of these district
advisory bodies is to consider unusual and diffi-
cult family problems and to make constructive
suggestions respecting treatment.
Experience would seem to suggest the expe-
diency of organizing somewhat along the general
lines outlined below:
Central Committee (Provisional at first, later, when the
extent and nature of the relief problems have
been gauged and the organization requirements
definitely determined, permanent and incor-
porated)
a. Executive Committee (ofiicers of central commit-
tee and chairmen of sub-committees)
b. Finance Committee
c. Committee on Refugee Camps (at the outset,
148
FIRES
full administrative responsibility vested in mili-
tary, the commanding ofl5cer a member of the
executive committee)
d. Committee on Relief Supplies and Warehouses
(possibly under military administration at first)
e. Committee on Claims and Awards (to adjust
claims for requisitioned goods, etc.)
f. Committee on Health and Sanitation (unneces-
sary where local authorities have demonstrated
competence to cope with problems)
g. Committee on Relief and Rehabilitation
With sub-committees on Housing Rehabilita-
tion, Business Rehabilitation, Care of Aged
and Infirm, and Rehabilitation of Hospitals
and Charities
Administrative divisions:
District Relief Stations
Central Clearing House of Information
Bureau of Special Relief
Bureau of Employment
Bureau of Transportation
Bureau of Building Construction
149
VI
TORNADOES
'T^ORNADOES more frequently than any
-"" other type of disaster known have created
rehef problems for the Red Cross. From Jan-
uary I, 1906, to July 31, 1907, the Red Cross
figured either in an advisory or directive ca-
pacity in relief work following 64 tornadoes.
During five months of the last year, that is
between March 11 and July 31, 1917, 58 torna-
does in 10 states of the middle west claimed its
attention — a veritable epidemic of calamity.*
The most extensive devastation and distress
caused by any of the 64 tornadoes occurred in
Omaha, Nebraska, March, 1913; over 100 lives
were lost, 350 persons seriously injured, 2,100
rendered homeless, and a property loss esti-
mated at $4,000,000 sustained. The disaster,
* In their effect tornadoes are not to be distinguished
from heavy storms, such as those of Key West, Florida, in
1909, and of St. Helena Island, South Carolina, in 191 1, in
the relief work following which the Red Cross participated.
150
TORNADOES
however, which has been chosen as a basis for
discussing relief and organization problems in-
volved is that which befell New Albany, Indiana,
between three and four o'clock on the afternoon
of March 23, 19 17. Within five minutes the
tornado transformed one-third of the area of
that small city of 27,000 population into a mass
of debris, laying a belt of devastation three-
quarters of a mile wide by two and a half miles
long across the town. Forty persons were killed,
200 were injured, nearly 500 dwellings were dam-
aged, and 300 were totally destroyed. The esti-
mated loss was $1,025,500, $178,000 being in in-
dustrial plants and equipment, $580,000 in houses,
$250,000 in personal property, and $17,500 in
public utilities.
Immediately and spontaneously neighbors
and fellow townsmen sprang to the work of res-
cue and first aid. Before nightfall hundreds of
men and women were searching out and re-
moving the injured and imprisoned from the
wreckage. Throughout the night and all the
following day caring for the wounded and re-
covering the dead, sheltering and feeding the
151
DISASTERS
refugees, and salvaging goods from the ruins
were the engrossing, self-appointed tasks of the
automatically assembled relief forces.
On the evening of the disaster the mayor
called together a group of prominent citizens
from which a local relief committee was formed.
That night also, by order of the governor, a de-
tachment of the state militia numbering 200
officers and men entrained at Indianapolis for
the stricken city, where upon arrival they were
immediately detailed to prevent looting and pre-
serve order in the tornado-swept districts. Saloons
were closed and continued shut for ten days.
The morning following the tornado, a repre-
sentative of the Chicago office of the American
Red Cross arrived, having been notified of the
disaster by the president of the Indianapolis
chapter of the Red Cross. Following closely
after, and upon his summons, came a score of
social workers and 25 nurses from several cities
in Indiana and neighboring states. The local
committee, perceiving the valuable resources of
the Red Cross in workers already on the field
and in power to enlist financial aid, promptly
152
TORNADOES
accepted the overture of its representative to
unite forces. A relief organization was effected,
which admirably expressed the Red Cross policy
of giving full play to local initiative and respon-
sibility and of supplementing and safeguarding
these with its equipment and experience only in
so far as the requirements of the situation neces-
sitated and public sentiment sanctioned. The
representative of the Chicago office acted as gen-
eral executive. The chairman of each of the sub-
committees was a local man or woman, the
Red Cross agents serving as executive secre-
taries of the committees directly engaged in the
problems of relief and rehabilitation. For ex-
ample, they acted as secretaries of the sub-com-
mittees on relief distribution, funerals, visiting
nursing, and housing, while New Albany citizens
entirely officered the sub-committees on finance,
storage (of salvaged goods), and appraisal (of
property losses). The Red Cross was thus in a
position to administer that part of the relief
work which bore the closest relation to human
welfare in accordance with its principles, and at
the same time, through the local chairman of com-
153
DISASTERS
mittees, to secure the backing of the community
and to account to it, step by step, for what it did.
Two representatives of the state board of
health assumed responsibility for enforcing sani-
tary regulations and protecting health by prompt
attention to problems of water supply and broken
sewer and toilet connections.
For the most part the able-bodied members of
the families whose houses had been destroyed
found temporary shelter in private homes in New
Albany and the neighboring cities of Jefferson,
Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky, so that the
immediate and most pressing tasks that con-
fronted the committee were to provide medical
aid for the injured and burial for the dead. These
were performed by the intelligent and devoted
services of the physicians, business men, church
members, club women, and undertakers of New
Albany, whose activities were coordinated and
guided by the sub-committees on medical aid,
nursing, food, clothing, and funerals.* The nurs-
* The generosity of not a few owners of business and
pleasure motor cars in placing them at the disposal of the
committees greatly expedited many of the processes of
emergency relief.
TORNADOES
ing staff of the hospital where the severely injured
received treatment was augmented by Red Cross
nurses, who also provided home nursing service.
For several days meals were served to refugees
in a number of churches, but it was necessary to
maintain food and clothing stations for a short
time only.
Not infrequently in tornado relief work, the
salvaging of undamaged and slightly damaged
furniture and building materials assumes di-
mensions and an importance which make it
advisable for the committee to become respon-
sible for its organization and direction. Prompt
action is necessary to protect the "homeless
furniture" from the weather. In the disaster
under discussion 200 wagon-loads of household
goods, in useful condition, were recovered. This
work was in charge of a sub-committee which
provided tarpaulins under which the furniture
could be placed until removed and secured wag-
ons to transport it to a warehouse.
After the most pressing needs of the victims
had been met, one of the first steps taken by the
relief committee was the opening of an applica-
155
DISASTERS
tion bureau, in charge of an experienced Red
Cross worker. This bureau paved the way for
the replacement of the wholesale food and cloth-
ing distribution from church and relief stations,
and other relief practices which could meet only
the immediate, elemental, and common require-
ments of the sufferers, by a procedure which had
a regard for the peculiar need of each family or
person and which took into account not only
their momentary but their more permanent re-
quirements as well. Refugees were referred to
the bureau from relief stations or wherever they
could be found, were encouraged to make state-
ments of their circumstances, losses, and needs,
and were immediately visited at their temporary
abodes.
By no means all refugees reported to the ap-
plication bureau. Consequently it was neces-
sary to devise a means of reaching those who
had not applied but who might nevertheless be
equally in need of the ministrations of the com-
mittee. To accomplish this a card index list
was compiled from city and telephone direc-
tories, food and clothing stations, post office and
156
TORNADOES
insurance company records, of the names of all
families who had lived in the district devastated
by the tornado, and an effort made to find these
families at the places of temporary refuge. Ul-
timately it was known that 833 families had been
affected by the disaster. For purposes of ad-
ministration of relief during the latter part of the
emergency period and throughout the period of
rehabilitation the city was divided into four dis-
tricts, to each of which were assigned three or
four Red Cross workers, one of whom was des-
ignated supervisor. Since it was possible for
these district workers to operate from central
headquarters, without being inaccessible to the
families with which they were engaged, separate
district offices were not established and the
administrative problems were thus simplified.
A number of local volunteers, serving under the
direction of the experienced workers, rendered
valuable assistance. With the closing of the relief
stations, the providing of food and the meeting
of other emergent requirements were undertaken
by the district workers through a system of orders
on local merchants.
157
DISASTERS
A novel and interesting solution of the prob
lem of housing the refugees until they could re-
establish permanent homes was devised by the
committee on housing and moving. This com-
mittee induced the real estate dealers of the city
to compile a list of all the vacant houses and
apartments, and arranged temporarily to quarter
many of the homeless therein, of course providing
the indispensable articles of furniture.
The New Albany tornado caused loss in all
five of the ways in which it is possible for a
disaster to do so: by death, permanent injury,
temporary injury, personal property loss, and
real property loss. It is quite evident that a
family whose wage-earner loses his life and one
whose house blows down have certain common
requirements, such as food, clothing, shelter.
It is the purpose of emergency relief to supply
these. But it is equally evident that they also
have distinctive needs, the problems of one cen-
tering in the re-establishment of a dwelling, and
that of the other in the creation of some means
of support, financially, affectionally, morally, to
take the place of that hitherto provided by the
158
n
TORNADOES
head of the house. The differences extend fur-
ther, however, for manifestly not all widows'
families and not all homeless families present
identical needs and problems. The fact is,
each family presents distinctive needs and prob-
lems, varying with its individual losses, its re-
maining economic resources, the physical condi-
tion of its workers, its moral and educational
status, and the ideals and mutual affection of its
members. The object of emergency relief is to
meet the common, elemental needs as promptly
and fully as possible; the object of rehabilita-
tion is to help each family meet its peculiar needs
and realize its individual possibilities. Emergency
relief thinks and plans for present needs ; rehabili-
tation thinks and plans for enduring welfare.
In laying its plans for rehabilitation, the New
Albany Citizens' Relief Committee was wise
enough to perceive that it must not only possess
a great deal of information about the families it
proposed to aid, but that it must also know
them as individuals through close personal con-
tact. The following information was therefore
deemed necessary:
159
DISASTERS
The family name
Its address before the disaster
Its present address and the rent, number of rooms
occupied and the name of the landlord
Its nationality
The date of the committee's first contact with the
family and by whom made
Name, age, physical condition, and marital status of
each member
Name, relationship, and physical condition of others
living in the household
The weekly earnings, occupation, and name of em-
ployer of each worker, as well as other sources of
income — for example, boarders
The weekly expenses of the household
Losses — on house, other buildings, business equip-
ment, stock, tools, furniture, clothing, cash,
wages, etc.
Whether any member of the family lost his life
through the disaster, or was physically injured
and whether the injury was of a permanent or
temporary character
Value of property, encumbrances, fire insurance,
tornado insurance
Present resources in real estate, business, tools, fur-
niture, cash, savings, life insurance, accident
insurance, etc.
Debts prior to disaster and debts incurred through
disaster
Possible sources of aid, such as well-to-do relatives,
lodges, church, etc.
i6o
TORNADOES
Most of this information was procured by the
social workers brought to New Albany by the
Red Cross, in interviews with the victims them-
selves and with clergymen, physicians, and
others having personal knowledge of their affairs;
but in some cases the sub-committee on ap-
praisals, composed of local business men, under-
took special inquiries to establish facts regarding
ownership and value of real estate, amount of
loss, insurance, and other pertinent facts. The
equally important and more delicate responsi-
bility of establishing personal friendly contacts
with the unfortunates and winning their con-
fidence and cooperation in forming and carrying
out plans of rehabilitation was undertaken by
the agents of the Red Cross, men and women
chosen for their good sense, good judgment, and
real regard for people, and in whom long ex-
perience had yielded increment of these qualities.
Naturally it was necessary for the committee
to know in what amount funds would be avail-
able before it could complete its rehabilitation
plans. From appeals which had been issued
broadcast by the committee and through the
II i6i
DISASTERS
activities of the Red Cross chapters, approxi-
mately $193,000 had been obtained. About
$15,000 had been expended in emergency re-
lief, and the expenses of ministration and ad-
ministration amounted to $3,300. Consequently
about $175,000 remained for the work of re-
construction. Since the committee, according
to the accepted principles of Red Cross relief,
proposed to relate its aid not to loss but to need,
taking into account each family's resources in
property, savings, insurance, and capacity for
self-help, it decided that 128 of the 833 families
affected by the disaster possessed resources
which would enable them, without undue hard-
ship, to recover from their misfortunes inde-
pendently of the assistance of the committee,
notwithstanding the fact that the losses of not
a few equalled or exceeded those of families
that were aided. In 72 instances a cash grant
for a specific object, such as replacement of tools
or the payment of medical care of the slightly
injured, was the only form of assistance ren-
dered. $3,500 was expended for medical care,
medicine and supplies, and to take the place of
162
TORNADOES
wage losses in 144 cases of temporary injury.
The committee regarded the families in which
a wage-earner upon whom they had depended
wholly or in part for support had been killed or
permanently disabled as having first claim upon
its funds. A scale similar to that used at Cherry
(see page 57) was adopted as a basis of appor-
tioning funds among such families, but the scale
was used merely for general guidance and was
ignored whenever it made for the welfare of a
family to do so. $20,600 was appropriated to
the 46 families in this class, and according to
circumstances was paid over directly in lump
sums or was placed in trust and paid periodically
in the form of pensions. The balance of the
fund, approximately $150,000, was devoted to
aiding those who were prostrated by the loss of
household goods and houses, the majority of the
families affected by the tornado being in this
class, or by the loss of business equipment. The
principle on which the grants were made was
that in purpose they should serve to stimulate the
recipients to the maximum effort in their own
behalf speedily to recover independence, and that
163
DISASTERS
they should be in amount sufficient to provide
the economic basis for a fresh start.
Tornadoes, floods, and city-wide fires should
be classed together with respect to the relief
problems they involve and the type of organi-
zation required to meet them. Problems of
housing and feeding refugees, of law and order,
of sanitation and public health protection, are
common to them all. They are all alike also
in that the outstanding ultimate problem is to
re-establish families whose life has been suddenly
disorganized by property losses. They are to
be distinguished from coal-mine disasters, ship-
wrecks, and factory or tenement fires, in that the
chief problems in the latter are to provide for
the welfare of families who have suffered the
loss of one or more wage-earners. In the first
class the principal disability arises from property
loss, and the process of rehabilitation involves
effecting readjustments of the family in its re-
lations to real and personal property: in the
second, the principal disability arises from loss
of life, and rehabilitation involves readjust-
164
TORNADOES
ments of the family in its relations to self-sup-
port and self-direction and in the personal and
economic interrelationship of the members of the
family group.
165
VII
PRINCIPLES OF DISASTER RELIEF
TT HAS been seen in the foregoing chapters
"■" that the social consequences of disaster are a
violent disruption of the normal life of the fam-
ily or community, due to death, injury, shock,
disease, or the destruction of dwellings, furni-
ture, places of business or business equipment;
and that it is the object of disaster relief to help
the afflicted regain their normal way of living as
promptly and completely as possible.
In shipwrecks, coal mine or munition plant
explosions, tenement or factory fires, the dis-
ability arises chiefly from loss of life and physical
injury; in floods, city wide fires, or tornadoes,
although loss of life and physical injury occur,
it is primarily property loss which disorganizes
family life. But whatever the disaster and
whether the consequence be loss of life, physical
injury, or damage to property, its effect is regis-
tered in family life and family welfare. The wel-
i66
PRINCIPLES
fare of the individual and that of the community
are both bound up with the welfare of the family.
That which threatens or weakens the family at
the same time similarly affects them. Conversely
that which helps or strengthens it strengthens
and helps them.
The first principle of disaster relief is that the
family must be the unit of treatment. Whether
the disaster victims number a few score or several
score thousands they must be dealt with family
by family. There is simply no other way.
Another principle is that each family must be
treated according to its peculiar circumstances
and needs. In other words the amount and
kind of relief in money or supplies and the nature
of the other services undertaken in its behalf
must be adjusted to the circumstances and quali-
ties which make one family unlike all others, as
well as those which it has in common with many
others. A study of the administration of relief
after many disasters of various kinds leaves one
in no doubt that success depends primarily upon
individualizing the plans and treatment of the
affected families.
r67
DISASTERS
Obviously the exigencies of disaster often ne-
cessitate at the outset treating people in the mass.
For example, after the San Francisco earth-
quake and fire, or the Ohio River floods, the com-
mon, elemental necessities of food, clothing,
and shelter for vast numbers of refugees claimed
first attention, and because they were common
and urgent needs, they could be met only by deal-
ing with the needy en masse. Bread lines, food
depots, and refugee camps are the characteristic
machinery of mass treatment.
Relief operations after every disaster divide
into two periods:
1. The period of emergency relief
2. The period of rehabilitation
It is the province of emergency relief to provide
for immediate, common needs. The promptness
and completeness with which they are met are
the sole tests of efficiency. The province of re-
habilitation is to help each family meet the
needs peculiar to it and return to its normal
manner of life. Its efficiency is tested by the
degree to which it succeeds in accomplishing
i68
PRINCIPLES
these results. Emergency relief plans and acts
to meet present needs, rehabilitation plans and
acts for ultimate welfare. All disaster relief
should be a process of evolving from dealings
with its victims en masse to treatment of them
as individual families. The wisdom of using
every means of hastening the progress from mass
to individual treatment is amply attested by the
experience in all successful disaster relief work.
It is to be regretted that the records of not a
few disaster relief operations bear witness that
while those responsible for directing them talked
in terms of individualized treatment and evi-
dently thought they were providing this sort of
treatment, in reality they had stopped at the
half-way house of group treatment. That is to
say, the tendency was to treat all widows alike,
all who suffered temporary or permanent dis-
ability alike, and all who experienced similar prop-
erty losses alike. This tendency appears to be
the result of two influences:
I. An inclination (unconscious, no doubt) to
escape the arduous, exacting, and pro-
tracted labor which a program of indi-
169
DISASTERS
vidualized treatment involves, by devis-
ing some short cut, and
2. A disposition to proceed as though the re-
lief committee were a compensation board
or an insurance company, and indemnify
for loss.
The following passage from the report of the Darr
Mine Relief Fund* well illustrates these in-
fluences:
It was decided that while the distribution should be
made with as much equity and safeguarding of the bene-
fits for the dependents as possible, it should be done
speedily, because of the temporary character of the com-
mittee and the lack of facilities for any other course of
action.
It was decided that distribution should be made ac-
cording to the degree of the dependence of the bereft
families; that no distinction be made between dependent
families residing in Europe and those residing in America,
the test being solely that of the support received from
the dead miner; that the receipt by the dependents
of other death benefits or insurance, or the ownership
of property, or other assets by the deceased, was not to be
* Darr Mine Relief Fund Report to the Executive Com-
mittee covering the collection and distribution of the public
fund for the dependents of the men killed by the explosion
in the Darr Mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company, De-
cember 19, 1907, p. II.
170
PRINCIPLES
considered, not only because it would be very difficult
to get reliable information, especially in the cases of
those residing in Europe, but also because such action
would be a discrimination against the foresight and self-
denial of those who had made provision for the future of
their families during their life-time.
The extracts from the report of the Brockton
Relief Fund in aid of sufferers from the Grover
Factory fire* which are printed below indicate
that its administration was based on different
and sounder principles.
The committee felt that it was a question of need; that
to grant aid where a competency was possessed would be
a misappropriation of funds; that to grant the same aid
to a widow with earning capacity and no one dependent
upon her as was given to a mother with a family of little
children and no visible means of support would be unjust;
and that a fair consideration of all the circumstances re-
quired that the urgency of the case should determine the
sum bestowed.
But it was not without much opposition and
* History of the Brockton Relief Fund in aid of sufferers
from the R. B. Grover and Co. factory fire, Brockton,
Mass., March 20, 1905. Prepared by Rev. Albert F.
Pierce, D.D., Secretary of the Advisory Committee, p.
52-53.
The Red Cross participated in the administration of
neither of these funds.
DISASTERS
adverse criticism that the committee succeeded
in maintaining its ground, for
It was argued that all should be treated alike; discrimina-
tion or invidious distinction should not be made; no one
had a sufficient competence, but everyone needed all
that could be given; to grant a less amount to some be-
cause they had economized and saved a little, and a
larger amount to others because they had saved nothing,
was, on the one hand, to tax thrift, and on the other to
put a premium upon indolence or waste.
It can not be too strongly emphasized, then,
that it is not the province of disaster relief to
employ its funds in restoring losses and com-
pensating for death or personal injury. Funds
for disaster relief are invariably subscribed in
response to representations of urgent and ex-
tensive need, and, although usually given with-
out restriction, it can scarcely be doubted that
the expectation of the donors is that they will
be used in relieving need. This would seem to
imply a moral obligation on the part of the
relief administration to apply the moneys en-
trusted to it to the purpose for which they were
intended. Now if compensation for loss re-
lieved need, or relieving need compensated for
172
PRINCIPLES
loss, if, in a word, the two processes were identi-
cal, there would be no relevancy in raising this
issue. But the fact is, the processes are quite
distinct. Apart from the impossibility of com-
pensating losses from any relief fund which has
ever been raised or is likely to be raised, the fact
remains that this is not the best or usually even
a very good way of relieving need and helping
families to recover from disaster. Former pos-
sessions may be replaced without touching the
most obvious needs; cash compensation for the
death of a wage-earner may or may not safe-
guard the future economic life of the beneficiary
family. It is neither charitable nor just to ap-
portion relief funds "share and share alike," or
arbitrarily, in accordance with the provisions
of indemnity schedules prepared (as they must
always be) without regard to an exact and pains-
taking determination of need case by case, and
based merely on a preconception of an equitable
distribution of the funds, where there is no
equality of need, nor of loss, nor of potentialities
of self-help. That relief should be adjusted to
173
DISASTERS
need, not loss, is an important principle of dis-
aster relief.
Disaster relief workers should entertain a pro-
found distrust of "short cut" policies, such as the
all too prevalent one of partitioning relief funds
among families in accordance with the provisions
of a prearranged, arbitrary fiscal schedule which
allots so many dollars per so many dependents of
such and such an age and degree of relationship
to the deceased or injured member of the family
group. Such a procedure is an inversion of
proper policy in that it forces the curves and
angles of individuality into the straight lines of
a rigid relief formula and fits the families to the
aid rather than the aid to the families. Naturally
plans for financial assistance of families must
relate not only to requirements but to the size
of available funds. Perhaps the reason those
who administer disaster relief funds not infre-
quently are inclined to set maximum limits in
advance to the aid which may be given each
family is that they fear, unless the funds are safe-
guarded, the early comers may enjoy liberal
help at the expense of later but equally needy
174
PRINCIPLES
applicants. But it is possible to protect the fund
without recourse to such an arbitrary arithmet-
ical method. A better way of safeguarding not
only the treasury but the welfare of the families
as well is to continue relief on a temporary basis
until all claimants have been registered, their
remaining needs, resources, and potentialities of
self-help studied, tentative plans formed for the
help of each, and the aggregate of aid involved in
carrying out these plans ascertained. Should
this sum exceed the fund available for rehabilita-
tion purposes, revision downward need not take
the form of a horizontal cut all along the line, but
rather those families should be cut most who need
least. This is a procedure in harmony with both
the principle of adjusting help to need and the
principle of individualized treatment.
When a disaster relief committee essays to
help the victims of calamity, it assumes a re-
sponsibility which is not discharged merely by
grants of money or supplies, no matter how lib-
eral these may be. It is responsible for conserv-
ing and promoting the welfare of the families
whose fortunes for the time depend in some de-
DISASTERS
gree upon its discretion, vision, foresight, and
kindly ministrations. In addition to aid in food
and shelter and cash, there are other forms of
service which the committee, conscious of its
obligations and opportunities, will not fail to
render. One of the most important of these is
the protection of health. The shock and expo-
sure which the victims of disaster so commonly
experience make them particularly susceptible
to disease and to mental and nervous disorders.
Such emergencies as childbirth must be provided
for. Problems of a legal nature will arise, as dis-
putes over insurance settlements, damage claims,
debts. There will be occasion to help anxious and
overburdened parents in a wiser treatment of
wa3rward and unruly children. New jobs will
have to be found for those whom the disaster has
thrown out of work and stunned into inertia.
Those who have been partially disabled will have
to be helped to fit themselves for employment
suited to their handicaps. There will be families
to move to cleaner and better houses, housewives
to instruct in purchasing and preparing food to
better advantage, mothers to be taught needed
176
PRINCIPLES
lessons in infant hygiene, men and women to
arouse from the apathy and despair into which
their misfortunes have plunged them and to be
heartened to face the future with hope and
courage.
The following story is typical of the substan-
tial, constructive nature of the kindly service
and counsel in crises and in the everyday affairs
of life which, no less than money aid, must be
provided for the victims of disaster:
Four and a half years ago, Michael Zemenciak* was
seriously injured in Baltimore harbor in a dynamite ex-
plosion which wrecked the steamship Alum Chine, on
which he was working as a stevedore. His wife and four
small children were found by a social worker of the Bal-
timore Federated Charities, which, as an institutional
member of the Red Cross, undertook the relief of the
disaster victims, living in two poorly furnished rooms on
the fourth floor of a very old and dirty tenement. Mrs.
Zemenciak, who was delighted to find that the worker
spoke her language, told her how before their marriage
she and Michael had lived in the same village in Russian
Poland. Their people were farming folk who owned the
land they tilled. As there were no schools within reach,
they had received little formal education. Michael and
she had come to the United States nearly a score of years
* A pseudonym.
12 177
DISASTERS
before, and after going their separate ways for ten years,
they were married at the church in the parish where they
still live. Michael had always worked as a laborer or
stevedore, except that occasionally during the berry or
tomato season he had been employed in the fields, taking
his family with him. These summer excursions were re-
garded by Mrs. Zemenciak and the children as pleasant,
healthful holidays.
At the time of the social worker's visit, on the day after
the accident, Mrs. Zemenciak found herself facing the
future with only $6.00 in her pocket and the prospect of
$3.00 a week from a church beneficial society. The only
relative in this country, her husband's brother, was un-
able to help financially, as his earnings were small and
he was supporting a family of his own.
The hospital reports of Mr. Zemenciak's condidon were
most discouraging. Aside from many cuts and bruises,
his sight was seriously impaired and his left arm prac-
tically useless. But perhaps the greatest difficulty was
an extreme mental depression, due to the severe nervous
shock. The Longshoremen's Union, of which he was a
member, had brought suit in his behalf against the em-
ploying company, though there was little hope of col-
lecting damages since the company was on the verge of
bankruptcy as a result of the many claims against it
after the explosion.
To the $3.00 a week which the family received from
the church society, a regular cash allowance from the
disaster relief fund was added. Together, these sufficed
to keep up the home. The social worker continued her
178
PRINCIPLES
visits to the family, and the burdened mother increas-
ingly relied upon her for guidance.
At the end of a month, Mr. Zemenciak was discharged
from the hospital, somewhat improved though still in
need of constant medical treatment. For the next two
years he continued under the care of an eye hospital.
At the end of that time the physicians' opinion was that
he was a physical wreck and would never again be self-
supporting. The sight of one eye seemed to be gone, and
his left arm still hung limply by his side. In fact, his
condition was so desperate that an attempt was made to
obtain for him his death benefit from the Polish Alliance
on the ground of total incapacity. The man himself
was utterly disheartened and seemed resigned to a life
of helpless dependence. Though able to be about, he
had lost all confidence in his ability to work. At this
juncture, the Federated Charities consultation committee
on Alimi Chine family problems, which had devoted
much thought and attention to the welfare of the Ze-
menciaks, suggested that work carefully adjusted to the
man's strength and disabilities should be tried as a means
of restoring in him some measure of self-reliance. Ar-
rangements were made with a workshop for the handi-
capped to give him employment, training and encourage-
ment, and a wage of $5.00 a week which was to be re-
funded to the workshop from the disaster relief fund.
This plan was not put into effect at once because an
unexpected opportunity to go to the tomato fields as a
"row boss" presented itself to Mr. Zemenciak. The
prospect seemed to interest him, and as the work ap-
179
DISASTERS
peared to be well adapted to his capabilities, the com-
mittee encouraged him to take the job for the summer.
In the fall he returned, having cleared $40 over expenses,
which was the first money he had earned since the acci-
dent. The improvement in mind and body was marked.
As soon as a vacancy occurred, Mr. Zemenciak began
work at the shop for the handicapped, where he remained
for a number of months. By that time he had partially
recovered sight in the affected eye and had learned to use
his left arm. More important still was the return of
self-confidence, a clear demonstration of which was that
he found his next job, in a shipyard, on his own initiative.
Since his wage was very low, it was supplemented by a
regular cash allowance from the relief fund. More re-
cently Mr. Zemenciak has taken a position with another
company which pays him $15 a week and offers some
prospect of advancement. With the increase in the fam-
ily income it is anticipated that they will gradually
become entirely self-supporting. The only compensa-
tion ever received by the family was $100 given by a
special order of the United States District Court from
the interest on some bank funds of the owners of the Alum
Chine.
The total amount of relief spent for the Zemenciaks
to date is $1,393.78; but the expenditure of this sum
would have availed Httle had it not been accompanied
by the devoted, intelligent service of the social worker,
of the consultation committee, and of the medical spe-
ciaUsts and others whose skill and interest were enlisted
in the family's behalf.
180
PRINCIPLES
Looking back over the history of this family during
the past four years, the turning point in its fortunes is
clearly seen to be the wise judgment of the consultation
committee that in carefully selected work lay the man's
salvation. How marked is the change in his mental
attitude is revealed by a statement recently made by the
social worker who has known him through the years of
his disability. She says that Mr. Z. is the type of man
who, although handicapped, does not intend to make less
than the average working man.
While this story concerns itself chiefly with the prob-
lems of Mr. Zemenciak, the changes wrought in Mrs.
Zemenciak and the children have been no less worth
while. At first a wretched housekeeper, she has learned
better standards of homemaking and motherhood. Her
old world prejudices have been so far overcome that she
now welcomes the visits of the district nurse, patronizes
the dispensaries, hospitals, and public baths in her neigh-
borhood, and perhaps most significant of all, at the birth
of her later children has had a physician instead of the
often careless midwife. The subtle influence of the
friendly relations established with Mrs. Zemenciak has
been an important factor in the Americanization of this
family.
It is hardly possible to conceive of a successful
administration of disaster relief without the active
participation in responsible positions of men and
women of good sense, sound judgment, and exper-
ience in dealing helpfully with people whose lives
i8i
DISASTERS
have become disorganized. Those possessing the
last qualification are most likely to be found
among the executives and field workers of social
welfare agencies, whose daily experience is in
almost exactly the sort of work which confronts a
disaster relief committee.
Many persons without special training and
experience in relief work, in their zeal to give
practical expression to their sympathy for the
afflicted, will volunteer their services to the
committee. Knowing that there is a tremen-
dous volume of work to do, they will naturally
feel aggrieved if their proffer of service is re-
jected. Some, if not given opportunities to serve
under the central organization, will set to work
independently, and in all probability will prove
to be one more affliction to the unfortunate
families and an added obstacle to coordinated
action. If there are enough experienced workers
on hand to assure prompt and full atten-
tion to all needs, the executive officers should
not hesitate tactfully to refuse to enlist the in-
experienced, or, better, to find work for them in
places where they will not deal directly with the
182
PRINCIPLES
disorganized families. In disaster relief opera-
tions like those following the Washington Place
fire and the sinking of the Titanic and Volturno,
the committee in charge had ample reserves of
trained service to draw on in the many experi-
enced workers of New York City's social wel-
fare agencies. Under such circumstances there
was no occasion to rely upon the inexperienced
volunteer for the delicate and complex tasks
of ministering to the hapless families. On the
other hand, after extensive disasters like the
Ohio flood or the San Francisco fire, the enlisting
of large numbers of wholly inexperienced persons
was an imperative necessity. Volunteers should
not be used in disaster relief unless they are
needed, because the work, to be effective, must
be done with a rapidity, disciplined steadiness,
and smooth team play which the inexperienced
cannot reasonably be expected to display. When
it is necessary to use those without previous
experience, they should be chosen with the great-
est discrimination. The qualities particularly
to be sought are readiness for self-obliterating
service, good judgment, poise, tact, initiative,
183
DISASTERS
a capacity to work with others and to work
under direction. Experience has shown that
volunteers work to best advantage under the
guidance of trained workers. Whenever pos-
sible, persons who are accustomed to training
and directing volunteers should be called upon to
take charge of this phase of disaster relief or-
ganization. If great care is exercised in their
selection, and patience and skill in their super-
vision, volunteers will respond to the challenge
of the work with a promptness and a substantial
record of accomplishment which will materially
lighten the burdens of the trained staff. The class
room training and field experience now being
given in Red Cross Home Service Institutes,
chapter courses, chapter home service commit-
tees, and other social welfare agencies through-
out the country, in preparation for service to
the families of soldiers and sailors, will doubtless
mean a larger, more disciplined reserve of volun-
teers available for service in future disasters.
To help families whose lives have been dis-
organized through calamity, it is necessary to
know certain things about their circumstances
184
1
PRINCIPLES
and needs. Just as it is necessary for a physi-
cian to diagnose the disease before treating the
patient, or for a lawyer to inform himself of the
essential facts of the case before counselling his
client, the reliief worker finds it necessary to
possess himself of information which will throw
light upon the nature and extent of each family's
need, in order to make a wise use of the funds
and other helpful resources at his command.
Facts about the present and the previous income
of the family, and the relation between these and
the necessary living expenses; about the work it
depended upon for a living, the physical condi-
tion of its members, the amount and kind of loss
it sustained in the disaster, its remaining re-
sources in savings, property, insurance; about
the ability and inclination of relatives, church,
or lodge to aid ; about the family's capacity for
self-reliance and self-help, its plans and hopes
for the future, must be established by careful
inquiry. Such inquiry should be undertaken
by experienced social workers. The process in-
cludes friendly interviews with members of the
family and with others, such as priest or pastor,
185
DISASTERS
physician, school teachers, relatives, former em-
ployers, acquainted with its record of successes
and failures, its elements of strength and weak-
ness. Experience has shown that full informa-
tion from varied sources enlarges the oppor-
tunity for making money aid and friendly ser-
vice helpful.
It is unnecessary to say that attention to
urgent needs must not be delayed until such
inquiries have been completed. Temporary aid
sufficient to meet immediate needs must be
provided at once. During the emergency period,
only such inquiry should be attempted as will
give assurance that the relief given is actually
meeting present needs. Without investigation,
however, it is impossible to adjust the relief and
service provided to the particular circumstances
and requirements of individual families. Only
by investigation can the principle of treating
families according to their distinctive needs be
realized, and no one who accepts this principle
can reasonably object to inquiry or social diag-
nosis.
Since the object of the money aid and the min-
i86
PRINCIPLES
istrations of the disaster committee is to tide
families over a crisis and help them back on the
road to normal life, care should be taken not to
do things for a family which it can and should do
for itself. It should be remembered that most, if
not all, of the families struck by disaster were
previously self-reliant and self-supporting. A lax,
rule-of-thumb policy on the part of the relief ad-
ministration may do irreparable injury by en-
couraging dependence upon sources of support
which have no relation to the efforts of the fam-
ily in its own behalf, thus subtly weakening the
spirit of sturdy independence without which the
family does indeed face disaster. A veteran of
disaster relief has wisely said that it is not the
giver but the recipient of relief who is the senior
partner in the enterprise of effecting a recovery
from calamity. As far as possible families should
be set to repairing their own fortunes ; only so is
the force of self-interest utilized, and hope and
ambition kindled. What the relief committee
can do for the victims of disaster is very little
compared with what they can and must do for
themselves. The insight which reveals to the
187
DISASTERS
social worker what not to try to do is no less
important than his more positive ministrations.
It is a disservice to do the thinking and planning
for families who are capable of doing this for
themselves. Rehabilitation relief helps people to
do things for themselves; it cooperates, opens
opportunities, places useful resources at their
disposal; but after all the determining factor,
the senior partner, is the family itself.
Disasters such as floods, city-wide fires, or for-
est fires, which leave large numbers of persons
homeless, involve problems of wholesale emer-
gency shelter, clothing and feeding of the refu-
gees, and special provision for the protection
of property, the preservation of law and order,
and for sanitation and health protection against
infectious diseases. The importance of skilled
service and of prompt and vigorous measures
for safeguarding health is incalculable. If local
health officers are unequal to the grave task, the
state board should assume charge without loss of
time. Ordinarily this phase of disaster work does
not fall within the province of the relief commit-
tee, but is appropriately assumed by specialists
1 88
PRINCIPLES
in the health field. It is however a responsibility
of the relief committee to see that the matter is
given immediate and adequate attention. Wher-
ever the emergency requires it, United States
army medical officers, field hospital units, and
prophylactic supplies can be used as they were
used after the San Francisco fire and the Ohio
flood. Red Cross nurses can render valuable ser-
vice, as they have in past disasters, not only by
nursing the injured but by giving instruction in
sanitation and interpreting sanitary regulations.
The United States Army and the state militia
should be relied upon to preserve law and order,
protect property and prevent looting. The train-
ing and discipline of the military, and the rapid-
ity with which it can be mobilized for disaster
service, make it an indispensable and most im-
portant part of the emergency forces. In some of
the largest disasters the army, in addition to pre-
serving order and protecting property and health,
has borne a large part of the responsibility for
organizing the transportation and distribution
of relief supplies and conducting refugee camps.
When the military is obliged to concern itself
189
DISASTERS
with the relief and sheltering of refugees, it is vi-
tally important that its policy and administra-
tion should be harmonized and coordinated with
those of the relief committee. It is commonly
found advisable to place the disaster-stricken
community or area under martial law, to close
saloons and to prohibit the sale of liquor.
The wholesale distribution of food and cloth-
ing from relief stations or in "hot meal kitchens"
and the sheltering of refugees in tents and bar-
racks are unavoidable in disasters which destroy
the homes and paralyze the normal domestic
processes of large numbers of people.
One of the most familiar sights comiected with relief
is the bread line. A motley throng of men, women, and
children straggle down the street, around a comer and a
block or two away. Card in hand and basket on arm,
patiently they stand, advancing slowly to their goal.
The supply station may be in some large armory, down
the length of which stretches an interminable coimter,
separating pyramids of comestibles from the waiting
refugees. At the entrance the cards giving the name of
the applicant and the nimiber of the family are scrutin-
ized by an inspector, who passes on their owners or turns
them back should suspicion be aroused. Down the long
coimter moves the line. Into the waiting baskets are
190
PRINCIPLES
stowed here a loaf of bread, there a package of tea, until
the rations for each are completed. Mrs. McGinnis may
stimible over small, black-eyed Giuseppe in her anxiety
to see if Mrs. Rosenbaum has a larger package of codfish
than she; and Madame Martine may protest in broken
English that she should have more sugar for her numerous
ofifspring, yet it is generally a silent, orderly procession
that accepts without thanks or comment what is given.
It is difficult at first to keep fraudulent applicants out
of the bread line, for in the earlier days one must go on
the principle "better let a hundred impostors be fed than
one honest man go hungry." For this reason, and for a
still stronger one, bread lines should be done away with
as early as possible. They are a constant reminder of
an abnormal condition and tend to prolong the depen-
dency of the people.*
At the earliest possible moment, wholesale, in-
discriminate relief methods should be discon-
tinued. If they are maintained beyond the time
when it is possible to make other, more discrimi-
nating provision for the refugees, it is an evidence
of inefficiency on the part of the relief committee.
They have, if unduly continued, a tendency to
defeat the ultimate object of disaster relief in that
* Boardman, Mabel T.: Under the Red Cross Flag at
Home and Abroad, pages 159-160. Philadelphia, J. B.
Lippincott Co., 19 15.
DISASTERS
they undermine independence and delay a return
to self-support. They also retard the return of
trade to normal conditions.
The issuing of orders for food and clothing on
relief stores or on local merchants, to be delivered
to refugees at their temporary abodes, is the
logical step after the mass provisioning of the
bread lines. This step should be followed at the
first practical moment by cash grants sufficient to
enable the family to provide for its own imme-
diate needs for a few days or a week, these grants
to be continued from time to time (except, of
course, in instances where they have been used
unwisely or abused), or until the family is no
longer in need of temporary aid.
The financial aid for rehabilitation purposes
may take the form of a lump sum payment, that
is, the whole sum allotted to the family turned
over in one payment; or it may be in the form
of a pension or regular allowance, paid weekly or
monthly. Lump sum payments are appropriate
in cases where they are likely to be the means of
enabling the recipients to become self-supporting
or to recover a normal standard of living, and
192
PRINCIPLES
are usually designated by the committee for a
specific purpose, as for business equipment, house
repairs, industrial re-education. Regular allow-
ances are commonly provided for families whom
the disaster has deprived of breadwinners and are
given for the purpose of keeping the home to-
gether. Naturally widowed mothers are the most
frequent recipients of regular allowances. Be-
cause the payments often continue over a num-
ber of years, long after the disaster relief com-
mittee has concluded its work, the sums from
which regular allowances are paid are generally
placed in trust for the family in some substantial
banking institution, or with a responsible social
agency. The latter arrangement is usually better
because it admits more readily of that element of
elasticity which is so important in the adminis-
tration of relief, and also because it assures an
active, friendly interest in the family.
Not infrequently the relief committee will have
to decide whether or not to grant the application
of individuals or families for assistance in remov-
ing to some other community. The principles on
which such cases should be decided are: "That
'3 193
DISASTERS
the applicant's condition and prospects will be
substantially improved by sending him to the
place in question" ; and, "That the applicant will
have such resources for maintenance at the point
of destination as will save him from becoming
dependent upon charity."*
The important things with respect to the man-
agement of relief funds, so obvious that it is un-
necessary to discuss them, are: that these funds
should be centralized, that the treasurer should
be bonded, that disbursements should be by
voucher, that the system of accounting should be
well organized and in competent hands, and the
accounts audited.
No disaster relief committee has fully dis-
charged its responsibility to the public until it
has published a report of its work. The report
should include not only the treasurer's statement
and the list of contributors and contributions, but
a critical discussion of the policies and methods
employed in relief and rehabilitation, and a dis-
* Telegraphic Code and Transportation Agreement and
Rules, p. 8. Issued for Committee on Transportation of
the National Conference of Charities and Correction, New
York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1910.
194
PRINCIPLES
criminating record of the social results of its ac-
tivity. The publication of a report should be re-
garded by the committee as a prerequisite of its
discharge from its public trust, and also as a con-
tribution to those who in the future will find them-
selves in similar positions of trust.
195
VIII
ORGANIZATION FOR DISASTER RELIEF
/COORDINATION of effort and centralization
^■^^ of responsibility and funds are the indispen-
sable conditions of effective relief. The creation
of a central committee vested with full responsi-
bility for planning and executing relief measures
is the imperative first step in organization. Where
there are relief committees operating indepen-
dently, it is a matter of primary importance
either that they be induced to withdraw from
the field, or, when they have useful potentiali-
ties, that they be merged with the central com-
mittee.
The membership of the central committee
should be thoroughly representative of the ele-
ment of leadership in the official, business, pro-
fessional, labor, and philanthropic groups of the
community. It is of especial importance that
men and women of broad experience as execu-
tives or directors of philanthropic agencies should
196
ORGANIZATION
be included, since they, perhaps more than any
other class, are familiar with the problems in-
volved in the treatment of those whose lives have
become disorganized, and the methods of mobil-
izing help in their behalf. If the disaster has af-
fected chiefly people of a particular nationality or
religion, generous representation should be given
the affected group. The prompt appointment of
the committee will tend to deter the multiplica-
tion of independent bodies, to establish public
confidence by the assurance it gives that relief
measures are under way and in competent hands ;
and it will provide a responsible medium for the
collection and distribution of relief funds and sup-
plies. It is advisable to have the mayor, or the
governor, or whoever under the circumstances is
the appropriate official, appoint the committee,
bespeaking for it the moral and financial support
of the public.
The committee at first selected should be re-
garded as provisional and subject to enlargement
or reorganization later as more is known of the
extent of the problems it confronts. To it should
be added from time to time local persons or those
197
DISASTERS
from outside the community, who, by reason of
their sound judgment, influence, experience, or
technical knowledge, will strengthen the organi-
zation. Local citizens whose association with so-
cial welfare agencies has given them a perception
of the difficult and delicate problems involved in
ministering to human need will do well to act
promptly to secure the appointment on the com-
mittee of men and women who, possessing other
requisite qualifications, will emphasize the so-
cial welfare as against the business side of the
committee's work. Representatives of the Amer-
ican Red Cross should have a place on the com-
mittee and an active part in formulating policies
and in the administrative work. Its broad expe-
rience in disaster relief and demonstrated ability
to bring to bear skilled workers and financial sup-
port enable it to be of the greatest assistance to
the local committee.
A headquarters should be opened at once,
with a staff of workers sufficiently large to insure
prompt attention to the multitude of inquiries
and demands which will pour in. "Nothing is
more discouraging," says a veteran disaster relief
198
ORGANIZATION
worker, "or more productive of complaint than
long delay in obtaining attention or information.
Promptness is vital. Quick decision at the risk of
occasional error is preferable, in the first hours,
to extended deliberation and discussion." If the
disaster has affected a large territory, district of-
fices will probably be required, as was the case
at San Francisco, in order to bring the relief sup-
plies and workers within easy reach of the disas-
ter victims in all parts of the community.
Sub-committees should be formed correspond-
ing to the divisions into which the work naturally
falls. These committees should be the adminis-
trative arms of the organization. They should be
small and consist only of active workers. It is the
province of the central committee to create sub-
committees, to coordinate their activities and to
maintain a general supervisory relationship to
them. When the central committee is large, its
supervisory functions may with advantage be
vested in an executive committee. If the execu-
tive committee is composed of the officers of the
central committee and the chairmen of sub-com-
mittees, it will tend to focus responsibility. In
199
DISASTERS
calamities which create extensive problems of
feeding and sheltering refugees, sanitation, and re-
housing, the committee arrangement would prob-
ably be somewhat as follows, although, since nice
adjustment to the particular problems and con-
ditions with which it has to deal is the essence of
efficient organization, it should be clearly under-
stood that these are only general suggestions
which must be adapted to meet particular situa-
tions:
Central Committee
Executive Committee and sub-committees on
Finance
Relief Supplies
Refugee Camps
Relief and Rehabilitation
Transportation
Employment
Health and Sanitation
Housing Rehabilitation
Business Rehabilitation
Appraisals, Claims, and Awards
A plan of organization which has not infre-
quently been tried with success is to have local
persons as chairmen and Red Cross representa-
tives as secretaries of sub-committees. Past ex-
200
ORGANIZATION
perience points to the wisdom of entrusting the
establishment and management of refugee camps
to the military, and it is sometimes advisable at
the outset also to depend upon the military to
organize the collection, storage, and distribution
of supplies, although after the period has passed
in which swift, mass action is at a premium, it
will probably be advisable to transfer the man-
agement to civilians. A committee on health and
sanitation will be unnecessary where local or state
authorities have demonstrated their competence
to handle these problems, nor will committees on
transportation and employment be necessary in
situations which do not involve an extensive exo-
dus of refugees to other communities, and the find-
ing of jobs for large numbers whose regular em-
ployment has been indefinitely interrupted by the
disaster. Unless the problems of employment and
transportation loom large, they can be handled
best by the committee on relief and rehabilita-
tion. The duties of the committee on appraisals,
claims, and awards are to appraise property
losses, investigate questions of title to and en-
cumbrances on property, and to adjust disputes
20I
DISASTERS
and claims arising from the seizure of supplies for
relief purposes. A discussion of the functions of
the committees on housing rehabilitation and
business rehabilitation is to be found in Chapter
V, pages 142-147.
The committee on relief and rehabilitation is
the keystone of the organization. If it is to be
adequately done, this work must be in the hands
of able, experienced persons. It is not overstat-
ing the case to say that the primary test of the
efficiency of the central committee lies in the
type of person selected to administer this depart-
ment of its work. Well equipped persons are
available and can always be secured through the
Red Cross. The committee on relief and rehabili-
tation is the means by which individual treat-
ment of the affected families supplants mass mea-
sures of relief. It is contemplated that emergency
food and clothing needs will be met by the com-
mittee on relief supplies, and temporary shelter
provided by the committee on refugee camps.
However, should the committee on relief and re-
habilitation come into action before these most
urgent physical needs have been met, its first
202
ORGANIZATION
efforts will naturally be addressed to alleviating
them. When this has been accomplished, the
committee must institute at once a registration of
all applicants. Registration is the key to orderly
and effective disaster relief. Although it tends
to prevent fraudulent or innocent "repeating,"
a more positive service is the greater promptness
and discrimination in meeting pressing needs
which it makes possible, and the foundation it
lays for the later tasks of rehabilitation. It is of
inestimable importance that it should be begun
at the very outset of the emergency relief work.
The earlier it is begun, the greater will be its bene-
fits to the applicants themselves. Until a regis-
tration system is set going, the relief committee's
relation to applicants is essentially passive — they
must take the initiative ; but with the system at
work, after the initial application the committee
is in a position through its social workers to act
on its own initiative and discretion in meeting
the subsequent needs of each registered family.
Thus it is soon possible to do away with the long
lines of waiting suppliants at relief headquarters
or district stations.
203
DISASTERS
The process of registration involves recording
on cards just that minimum of information neces-
sary to arrive at a working knowledge of each
family's present circumstances and needs. A con-
versation of a few minutes with each applicant
by a social worker will afford a good starting
point for obtaining the insight needed for treat-
ment. In many cases the first information will
come not through personal interviews with mem-
bers of the victims' families, but through reports
from hospitals, refugee camps, the morgue, news-
papers, relatives, or neighbors. Cards should be
made out in duplicate for each family which ap-
plies and for each case reported, one card be-
ing placed in an alphabetical file and the other
turned over to the field worker who is to take up
the treatment of the family to which it applies.
If applications for relief are received in more than
one place, the registration card should probably
be made out in triplicate, one for the field worker,
one for the district office file, and one for the cen-
tral office file. The existence of several stations
for the distribution of relief makes necessary a
clear-cut division of the field and the reference of
204
ORGANIZATION
all applicants to the station in whose district they
live; otherwise it is impossible to prevent du-
plication. When families apply at a district other
than that to which they belong a registration
card should be made out and filed with the cen-
tral registration bureau, which will at once trans-
mit a duplicate to the district station to w^hich
application should be made. A street directory —
that is, a card index of families filed by street and
number of present domicile — will be found useful
in facilitating the identification and location of
refugees. The registration bureau should be oper-
ated as a sub-division of the committee on relief
and rehabilitation.
Simultaneously with the establishment of a
registration bureau, a bureau of special relief
should be created under the committee on relief
and rehabilitation. To this bureau should be re-
ferred all families whose immediate needs can not
be met by the wholesale methods of food and
clothing distribution and shelter in refugee camps
which obtain at the time. For example, it will
arrange maternity care for the expectant mother,
nursing and medical attention for the sick, or pro-
205
I
DISASTERS
vide special diet; and, by issuing grocery orders,
finding rooms and paying rent, and in other ways,
it will begin to reduce the bread lines and the
population of refugee camps. In general the bu-
reau of special relief will prove a means of assur-
ing early in the period of emergency relief indi-
vidual attention for a limited number of families
whose circumstances particularly require it. It
bridges the gap between mass measures of relief
and the organization of a system of adjusting aid
to the distinctive needs of each family. Needless
to say, the work of the bureau of special relief re-
quires the services of an adequate staff of trained
social workers.
In disasters like the San Francisco fire or the
Omaha tornado which affect extensive areas and
great numbers of people, it is necessary to dis-
trict the territory for relief purposes. An office
and a staff of workers will be maintained in each
district. Where there is no need of establishing
separate district offices, it will nevertheless usu-
ally be found advisable to detail each field worker
or group of workers to a specified district. The
district system will be an administrative arm of
fio6
ORGANIZATION
the committee on relief and rehabilitation, super-
seding the bureau of special relief, which will have
held the field until the latter has been organized,
and whose force of workers, augmented by others,
will staff the district offices. It will operate under
the supervision of a director who may find it ex-
pedient to delegate some of the supervisory au-
thority to a supervisor of districts.
Comprehensive and exact information about
the needs and circumstances of each family is the
basis of helpful service. It is an important part of
the duties of the field workers to procure these
data. The kind of information required will vary
with the type of disaster, the particular disaster,
and the particular family. For instance, informa-
tion relating to property losses is especially im-
portant in fire, flood, and tornado relief, but such
data are usually wholly unnecessary after coal
mine disasters. The Red Cross has devised a
card which is perhaps as well adapted for general
use as possible, considering the widely different
kinds of losses and disabilities caused by different
types of disaster. It is very necessary that com-
plete and accurate records should be kept. In
207
DISASTERS
addition to entries on the card there should be a
chronological narrative of further facts learned
from time to time about each family's changing
circumstances and needs. Decisions made and
action taken should be recorded and all cash re-
lief should be entered by amount and date, and
the purpose designated.
In each district, a consultation committee will
be a necessary part of the organization. The pur-
pose of this committee is to assist the district
superintendent with counsel and suggestions in
forming wise plans of aid for families whose
rehabilitation presents especially difficult prob-
lems. It hears the facts and advises. The com-
mittee should be composed of a carefully selected
group of perhaps six to twenty men and women
representing the church, the medical and legal
professions, business, and experienced volunteer
social service. It is particularly desirable to have
on the committee those who are familiar with the
people and the social conditions of the district in
which they serve.*
* A fuller discussion of the consultation committee is to
be found in Chapter II, pages 23-26.
208
ORGANIZATION
The committees on housing and business re-
habilitation will find in the committee on relief
and rehabilitation the machinery for adjusting
their general measures of housing and business re-
construction to the particular requirements of
each family.
The diagram on page 2 lo is a graphic represen-
tation of the organization of a committee on re-
lief and rehabilitation for work in a calamity of
great magnitude.
Needless to say, a much simpler type of organ-
ization than that thus far discussed will be found
appropriate in the smaller disasters. The re-
quirements of organization for relief operations
following disasters at sea, in coal mines, or fac-
tory or tenement fires can be met by a
Central Committee
Director
Consultation Committee
Staff consisting of a registrar, field workers,
clerks and stenographers
Obviously the extent and nature of the calamity
are the factors which will determine the size and
form of the relief organization. Unduly elabor-
14 209
DISASTERS
210
ORGANIZATION
ate organization is an obstacle to effective admin-
istration.
Preparedness is a present day slogan. It is ad-
vocated for purposes of national and military de-
fense, for international industrial competition;
and, through workmen's compensation, many of
the United States have already prepared to miti-
gate for workmen's families the financial disaster
which follows death or injury from industrial ac-
cidents. It is pertinent to inquire, Why not pre-
pare for disaster relief before disasters occur?
As a matter of fact, certain communities are be-
ginning to perceive the need and the practicabil-
ity of such preparations.
An illustration is the action recently taken by
the Civilian Relief Committee of the Metropoli-
tan Chapter of the Red Cross in Boston, in creat-
ing a committee on emergency relief.* It is the
function of this committee to act within the terri-
* As these pages are being revised for the press, news
comes of the terrible disaster in Halifax. The value of
the preparation described in this paragraph is well illus-
trated by the fact that Boston had supplies and expert
relief workers on the way to Halifax a few hours after the
disaster occurred.
211
DISASTERS
tory of the chapter in disasters or other emergen-
cies which involve the organization and adminis-
tration of reUef and which are too large for local
authorities and agencies to handle alone. The
committee has about a score of members, some of
whom were selected for their experience as execu-
tives of social welfare organizations, others be-
cause of experience in previous disaster relief
operations, and the remainder because of their
ability, by virtue of personal or official position,
to bring to bear through the committee in time of
stress the support of representative groups and
organizations. The chairman of the committee is
a prominent citizen who has had experience in
disaster relief work at Chelsea, Salem, and San
Francisco. Within the membership of this com-
mittee a relief squad has been formed, composed
of persons of technical training and experience
who are pledged to active service in emergencies.
Each member has a definite responsibility. One
is responsible for keeping track of public build-
ings in different communities which would be
available for sheltering refugees, or as relief head-
quarters ; another, for furnishing emergency food
212
ORGANIZATION
supplies (an arrangement has been entered into
with milk dealers and bakeries to supply and de-
liver commodities on short notice). The medical
member of the squad, who is connected with the
State Board of Health, is responsible for a quick
survey of health conditions and needs. Through
another member who is head of the District Nurs-
ing Association, a force of nurses is assured. It is
the province of two other members of the squad
to establish a registration system, a supply of
cards for the purpose being kept on hand.
It is contemplated that the police authorities,
city or town officials, or any one who knows of the
squad's preparedness to act in emergencies, will
give it prompt notice of situations which are
likely to require its service. The plan includes
such important details as how to call the squad
into action, by telephoning, day or night, to des-
ignated exchanges which will relay the message
to all members of the squad ; and a scheme for the
swift mobilization of the members by means of a
specially arranged motor service.
Such advance preparations are entirely feasible
for all communities and are strongly to be recom-
213
DISASTERS
mended. Red Cross chapters now exist in all
parts of the United States, and by a procedure
not unlike that adopted in Boston, the Red Cross
contemplates the establishment of a system of
disaster relief preparedness which will be uni-
form, and will include practically the entire area
of the United States. By reason of its nation-wide
organization and its extensive experience in the
field of disaster relief, the American Red Cross is
the logical agency under which to establish such a
system.
The steps in organization will include, in the
larger communities, the creation of an emergency
relief committee under the chapter Committee on
Civilian Relief; in the smaller places perhaps all
purposes will be served by forming the emergency
relief committee directly under the chapter. In
personnel the committee must be of a thoroughly
representative and responsible character. Its
membership should include, if they are available,
men and women who have had experience in dis-
aster relief, and also those who are experienced in
handling problems of charitable relief through
their connection with efficient social welfare agen-
214
ORGANIZATION
cies. It should proceed at once to form definite
plans of action for times of emergency. It should
have standing arrangements for medical and nurs-
ing service ; it should know where to turn for re-
lief supplies ; how to proceed in having the mili-
tary called out. It should enter into an agreement
with the executives of social welfare agencies to
detail trained workers for relief service. Plans
for establishing a registration bureau should be
matured and a supply of cards for the purpose
kept on hand. General arrangements for issuing
appeals for financial aid; for collecting, trans-
porting, and distributing relief supplies ; for sum-
moning the assistance, when needed, of other
chapter emergency relief committees ; and for re-
porting to the national headquarters of the Red
Cross, should also be made. Finally the com-
mittee should seek, through newspaper publicity
and addresses by its members, to create public
sentiment which will result in its acceptance by
the public as the agency upon which it will rely
for the organization and direction of relief in
great emergencies.
«I5
APPENDIX A
REGULATIONS RECOMMENDED BY THE ILLI-
NOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTH FOR THE
PREVENTION OF SICKNESS
1. Boil all drinking water and that used to wash vege-
tables eaten raw.
2. Pump out all cisterns and wells that have been flooded,
washing the walls thoroughly and disinfecting them by
the free use of lime.
3. Wash all floors and walls thoroughly and disinfect by
rinsing with solution of permanganate of potash, i to
5,000 parts of water, or scrubbing with a strong solu-
tion of lye.
4. Dry thoroughly every flooded room by keeping fires
going day and night and keeping the rooms well ven-
tilated.
5. Clean out all cellars thoroughly, whitewash all flooded
premises not painted.
6. Place lime freely all about premises.
7. Avoid typhoid fever by being inoculated with anti-
typhoid serum, which will be furnished free. This
should be done by your attending physician.
8. Every city should comply with these regulations at
once and urge his neighbor to do so, thus upholding
the efforts of the Health Board and the council to pre-
vent sickness and death.
216
APPENDIX B
GENERAL POLICIES AND REGULATIONS GOV-
ERNING A SYSTEM OF DISBURSEMENT AND
ACCOUNTING FOR THE OHIO FLOOD RELIEF
COMMISSION FUNDS AND THE FUNDS OF THE
AMERICAN RED CROSS TO BE EXPENDED IN
OHIO
1. There is to be organized under the supervision of Mr.
Ernest P. Bicknell, National Director of the Red
Cross,* a local committee in each of the principal cities
of the Ohio flood district. The local committees are
to have supervision over all matters arising in con-
nection with the relief and rehabilitation work in
their respective localities subject to these regulations.
These committees are to be fully instructed regarding
the policies approved by the Commission and the Red
Cross and are to be in direct relations with Mr. Bick-
nell.
2. A local treasurer is to be appointed for each local
committee, whose duty it will be, subject to these regu-
lations, to disburse such sums as may be assigned to
him.
3. All disbursements in behalf of the Ohio Flood Relief
Commission shall be made by Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell,
National Director of the American Red Cross, as the
* Such work now comes under the Department of Civ-
ilian Relief of the American Red Cross, W. Frank Persons,
Director-General.
15 CI7
APPENDIX B
agent and attorney of the Commission, in accordance
with Red Cross principles; that is, with the needy
family as the unit to be served and its rehabilitation to
be forwarded as far as funds and the great extent of the
loss allow. This, with the hope that every city and
other community will, by private and public benevo-
lence, care for local problems to the fullest extent pos-
sible. Local disbursements are to be made by the
local treasurer on the requisition of the local Red
Cross representative, subject to the provisions of
Section 9, hereinafter set forth. It must be borne in
mind by all affected communities that the money con-
tributed is for an emergency only, whereas the prob-
lem of rehabilitation is a continuing one, especially in
the case of the old and afflicted, and it is therefore
urged that this occasion be used by the communities
which have suffered, for the development of strong
organizations for mutual help, commonly called char-
ity societies, and that all citizens and officials be urged
to cooperate for the highest encouragement of such a
spirit and for the highest efficiency. It would be a
great and lasting misfortune if the efforts of this Com-
mission to apply the funds donated by the sympathetic
public and state should deprive any family of its proper
self-respect, or halt in any degree its desire for self-
help and independence. It would, indeed, be a much
greater misfortune if that should result to any com-
munity as a whole. The Commission hopes for the
heartiest cooperation in the solution of its great prob-
lem from all the local committees and other authorities.
A definite sum of cash is to be forwarded to each of
the said local treasurers, by the Treasurer for the
Commission, when approved by Mr. Bicknell. The
218
APPENDIX B
amounts so forwarded are to be kept on deposit by
local treasurers subject to their order, and weekly re-
ports with receipted vouchers are to be forwarded to
the Treasurer for the Commission at Columbus for
approval by Mr. Bicknell as to propriety of expen-
diture and for audit. Upon approval and audit of
weekly vouchers, the Treasurer for the Commission
will forward to local treasurers such additional amounts
as may be approved by Mr. Bicknell.
5. The Treasurer for the Commission will report weekly
to the Commission, showing funds received to date in
totals and amounts disbursed by cities or localities in
totals.
6. The Treasurer for the Commission will have custody
of all relief funds, including amounts remitted by the
Red Cross, all of which funds he will deposit in banks
subject to his order.
7. The Treasurer for the Commission will not disburse
funds or recognize vouchers unless approved by Gov-
ernor Cox, as Chairman of the Commission, or by Mr.
Bicknell. The signature of at least one of these officers
is necessary to authorize disbursements and all dis-
bursements are eventually to be reported ,to and ap-
proved by the Commission.
8. The accounts of the Treasurer for the Commission
and the local treasurers in the various cities will be
audited at suitable intervals by Ernst and Ernst,
Certified Public Accountants, and all the accounts will
^ finally be audited by the War Department, Washing-
ton, D. C.
9. All matters relating to disbursements, expenditures,
instructions to local officers, claims, controversies and
disputes are to be passed upon by Mr. Bicknell as the
219
APPENDIX B
agent and attorney of the Ohio Flood Relief Commis-
sion and as the National Director of the American
Red Cross. He is to issue written instructions cover-
ing his decisions on points at issue with copies to be
given to the treasurers affected and to Ernst and
Ernst, as auditors.
10. Voucher blanks, forms, etc., are to be supplied to the
local treasurers with full instructions as to their uses.
11. The Treasurer for the Commission shall give a surety
bond to be approved by Governor Cox as Chairman of
the Commission, in the amount of $25,000, the pre-
mium for which shall be paid by the Commission.
(Signed) James M. Cox.
220
INDEX
Administration of relief: in Tri-
angle fire, why noteworthy, 124
Administrative expenses of relief
work: after Triangle fire, 119;
after New Albany tornado, 162
Allowances: to families at Cherry,
56, 57, 59; to families who lost
wage-earners in Ohio flood, 102;
to families of victims of Tri-
angle fire, 117, 122; in rehabili-
tation following disasters, when
appropriate, 192, I93
Alum Chine disaster victim: case
of, 177-181
American, New York: Titanic
relief fund of, 18, 28
American Red Cross, see Red
Cross, American
AppUcants: for relief after city-
wide fires, interviewing of, 132
Application bureau: after New
Albany tornado, 1SS-1S6
Appraisals, Claims, and Awards,
Committee on: duties of, 201
Areas burned in Chicago, San
Francisco, Chelsea, and Salem
fires, 125
Army, see United States Army
Asch Building, fire in, see Triangle
Shirtxvaist Co. fire
Associated Charities as trustees of
allowance funds following Ohio
flood, 102, 103. See also Char-
ity Organization Societies
Baltimore Federated Charities:
case of Alum Chine victim
aided by, 177
Boardraan, Mabel T., 191
Boston: emergency relief com-
mittee formed in, 211-213
Bread lines: influence of, 87, 88;
when necessary, 168; in disas-
ters, described, 190
British Compensation Act: set-
tlement at Cherry in accord-
ance with, 53
Brockton Relief Fund Report
quoted, 171-172
Budget, rehabilitation: after
city- wide fires, 140
Buildings destroyed in fires at
Chicago, San Francisco, Chel-
sea, and Salem, 125
Bureau of Special Relief: after
city-wide fires, 147; functions
of, 205, 206; superseded by dis-
trict offices, 207
Burk, Daniel: case of, 31-36
Business conditions, normal: im-
portance of reestablishing, after
a disaster, 51
Business rehabilitation: follow-
ing Ohio flood, loi, 102; after
city-wide fires, 145-147; and
committee on relief and re-
habilitation, 209
Camps for refugees: after city-
wide fires, 131; conducted by
army, 189, 201
Carpathia: rescue of Titanic pas-
sengers by, 17. 20
Case stories: from Titanic relief
work, 29-36; from V^olturno
disaster work, 37-40; illustrat-
ing work after Triangle fire,
120-123; of Alum Chine dis-
aster victim, 177-18 1
Cash settlements by coal com-
panies in mine disasters, 53. 54
22 Z
INDEX
Casualties in coal mine disasters,
42. See also Deaths and Fatali-
ties
Central committee: organization
of, following city-wide fires,
127, 128, 148, 149; appoint-
ment and membership of, 196-
198; sub-committees of, 199.
200
Centralization of relief work: fol-
lowing city-wide fires, 127; in
mine disasters, 66: in floods,
104; an indispensable condi-
tion in disaster relief, 196
Charity Organization Society
Emergency Relief Committee:
in Titanic disaster, 19; in Vol-
tumo disaster, 37; in Triangle
fire, 1 14-124
Charity Organization Societies:
aid given to Red Cross by, in
Titanic disaster, 22, 27
Chelsea fire of 1908: extent of
damage by, 125; National
Guard in, 129
Cherry, 111.: character of town,
44; system of wage payments
at, 52
Cherry mine disaster, fatalities
in, 43; disorganized relief giv-
ing after, 47-49; immediate
destitution did not follow, 51
Cherry Relief Committee: or-
ganization of, 46; attempt of
miners to secure support of
families from, 49; succeeded by
Cherry Relief Commission, 55
Cherry Relief Commission: its
personnel and relation to
Cherry Relief Committee, SS;
paid and unpaid service of, 56;
schedule of payments to fami-
ilies by, 56-59; power reserved
by, in applying its relief sched-
ule, 58, 59; great advance in
disaster relief practice marked
by, 59; policy of, 60-64
Chicago: social agencies of,
which sent representatives to
Cherry, 47
Chicago fire of 187 1: extent of
damage by, 125
Children: of Cherry victims, al-
lowances and grants to, 56-59;
education and recreation of. at
Cherry, 61, 62, 63; wayward,
aid to parents of, in disaster,
176
Chisholm, Minn.: destruction of ,
by a forest fire, 109
Cincinnati mine explosion: co-
operation in relief work follow-
ing, 49
City- wide fires: organization of
relief and rehabilitation in, 124-
149
Clothing: contributions of, in
Cherry disaster, 50; provision
of, in Ohio flood, 71, 72; in
city-wide fires, 133; after New
Albany tornado, 155; as part
of the emergency problem fol-
lowing disasters, 188
Coal mine companies: emergency
relief usually furnished by, 53
Coal mine disasters, 42-67
Coal Mine Fatalities in the U. S.,
1Q16, 42
Columbus: Red Cross headquar-
ters in Ohio flood at, 79
Company houses: occupied free
by families of miners killed at
Cherry, 53
Compensation idea in relief op-
erations, 170-173
Compensation to families of dead
miners at Cherry, 53
Consultation committee: in Ti-
tanic disaster, 23-26; in Tri-
angle fire, 116; after city-wide
fires, 148; composition and
functions of, 208
Contingent relief fund of Ameri-
can Red Cross: transfer of Tri-
angle fire funds to, 120
Co5peration: between Red Cross
and stricken communities, in
Ohio flood relief, 85, 86
222
INDEX
Damage: to property, in Ohio
flood, 71, 94, 95 ; wrought by
forest fires, io8, 109; wrought
bycity-wide fires, 125; wrought
by Omaha and New Albany
tornadoes, 150-151
Damage claims: aid to disaster
victims in case of, 176
Darr mine explosion: fatalities
in, 43
Darr Mine Relief Fund Report
quoted, 170
Dayton: dead animals in, after
subsidence of flood, 76; dam-
ages to houses in, 94, 95 ; fami-
lies of, that lost wage-earners in
Ohio flood, 103
Death benefits: paid by United
Mine Workers at Cherry, 52;
in mine disasters, 66
Deaths: in coal mine disasters,
42, 43; in Ohio River flood of
1913, 70, 102; in fires at Chi-
cago, San Francisco, Chelsea,
and Salem, 125; in Omaha tor-
nado, 150; in New Albany tor-
nado, 151; in various types of
disaster, 166
Debts: aid to disaster victims
burdened with, 176
Department of the Interior bulle-
tin on coal mine disasters, 42
Devine, E. T., 95
Diagnosis, social: importance of,
in disaster relief work, 185, 186
Diagram : of organization of Com-
mittee on Relief and Rehabili-
tation, 210
Director-General of Civilian Re-
lief: institutional members sub-
ject to call of, 19
Disabled: special aid for, 176
Disease prevention: problem of,
following Ohio flood, 76-78
Districting: of Hamilton, Ohio,
after flood, 90, 91; after city-
wide fires, 148; of New Albany,
after tornado, 157
District offices: in disaster relief,
199; supersede bureau of spe-
cial relief, 206, 207
Dwellings damaged and de-
stroyed: by Ohio flood, 70, 94;
in New Albany tornado, 151
Eastland: emergency aid in dis-
aster to, 14, IS
"Eastland Disaster, The," by
Graham Taylor, 15
Education of children: attention
to, at Cherry, 6i, 62, 63
Emergencies: instinctive impulse
to help in, 13, 14, 15
Emergency organization for dis-
aster relief contemplated by
Red Cross, 214, 215
Emergency relief: in Titanic dis-
aster, 20, 21; usually furnished
by operating companies in mine
disasters, 53; little need for,
in mine disasters, 66; following
Ohio flood, 71-80; danger in
undue prolongation of period
of, 88; after city- wide fires,
126-136; following New Al-
bany tornado, 151-158; dis-
tinguished from rehabilitation,
137, 168, 169; summary of
measures required in disasters,
188-192
Emergency Relief Committee of
Red Cross: in Titanic disaster,
18, 19, 20; in Voltumo disaster,
36,37
Emergency Relief of the American
Red Cross after the Burning of
the S.S. Volturno (Report), 37
Employment bureau: after city-
wide fire, 135
Employment committee: when
unnecessary, 201
England: Titanic relief fund
raised in. 19
Families: of Cherry victims, chil-
dren in, 45; of Cherry victims,
allowances and grants to, 56-
59; that lost wage-earners in
Ohio flood, aid given to, 102,
103; affected by Triangle fire,
conditions in, 115; part of, in
own rehabilitation after dis-
aster, 187, 188
223
INDEX
Family the unit of relief, 83, 104.
167
Family welfare: as the goal of the
Cherry Relief Commission, 63,
64
Farmers: losses of, and rehabili-
tation work for, in Ohio flood,
100, lOI
Fatalities: in disasters of recent
years, 7 ; in coal mine disasters,
42, 43. See also Deaths
Finleyville, Pa.: mine disaster
at, 49
Fires: classification of, 106, 107;
forest fires, 108-113; Triangle
Company fire, 1 14-124; city-
wide fires, 124-149
Floods: problems presented by,
68; Red Cross participation in
relief following, 68; Ohio Val-
ley flood of 1913. 6g-i03; re-
capitulation of features of dis-
aster relief in, 104, 105
Food: contributions of , in Cherry
disaster, 50; provision of, an
emergency relief problem in the
Ohio flood, 72, 73. 86, 87; after
New Albany tornado, I SS; for
refugees in city-wide fires, 130,
131
Food card: issued in San Fran-
cisco, 132
Food depots: in Ohio flood, 81,
88; when necessary, 168
Forest fires: characteristics of,
and relief in, 1 08-1 13
"Free-lance" committees in mine
disasters, 66
Fuel: furnished free by St. Paul
Coal Co. to families of miners
killed at Cherry, S3
Funds for relief: of Titanic vic-
tims, 18, 19; available for re-
habiUtation at Cherry, 55;
proper use of, in mine disasters,
66, 67; in Ohio flood of 1913,
74; handled by Red Cross in
Triangle fire, 119; available
after New Albany tornado, 162 ;
ways of safeguarding, 174, 175;
management of, 194
Funeral expenses: of Cherry vic-
tims, paid by coal company, 53;
of Cherry widows and children,
grants for, 58; of Triangle fire
victims, grants for, 119
Furniture: destroyed in Ohio
flood, 9S; replacing necessary
articles of, 95-97; salvaging,
after New Albany tornado, 155
Geneviva: story of, 38
Grants: to Cherry families, 51,
S6, 57. 58; in Ohio flood relief,
97. 98, 99. 102, 103; after city-
wide fires, 140-143; after New
Albany tornado, 162-163; place
of, in disaster relief, 192
Graphic representation of organi-
zation of committee on relief
and rehabilitation, 210
Group treatment, see Mass treat-
ment
Grover factory fire and Triangle
Company fire in same class,
106; History of Brockton Relief
Fund in, quoted, 171, 172
Halifax; identifying Titanic vic-
tims at, 23; Boston's aid to, in
disaster, 211
Hamilton, Ohio: methods of Red
Cross in, following Ohio flood,
90-92; furniture rehabilitation
in, 96
.Headquarters: of central com-
mittee, 198
Health: attention given to, by
Cherry Relief Commission, 61;
dangers to, and measures taken
to protect, following Ohio
flood, 76-78; safeguarding of,
after city-wide fires, 134; pro-
tection of, after New Albany
tornado, 154; safeguarding of,
as a part of emergency work
following disaster, 176, 188, 189
Health and Sanitation commit-
tee: when unnecessary, 201
Home Service Institutes: train-
ing of volunteers in, 184
224
INDEX
"Hot Meal Kitchens" in disas-
ters, 190
Houses damaged and destroyed
by Ohio flood, 70, 94
Housing refugees at New Albany,
158
Housing rehabilitation : after
Ohio flood, 97-100; after forest
fires, 112, 113; after city-wide
fires, 141-14S; and committee
on relief and rehabilitation, 209
Illinois: legislative appropriation
of funds for relief at Cherry
in. SS; governor's action in, fol-
lowing Ohio flood, 74; sanitary
regulations issued by State
Board of Health in, 77. 216
Illness, prolonged: grants to
Cherry families in cases of, 58
Immigration Commissioner on Ti-
tanic Consultation Committee,
24
Indemnifying for loss: not aim of
disaster relief, 170-173
Indiana: losses in Ohio River
flood of 1913. 71; governor's
action following Ohio flood, 74;
Red Cross responsibility for
Ohio flood relief in, 81; gover-
nor's action following New Al-
bany tornado, 152; State
Board of Health work at New
Albany, 154
Individualization: the secret of
success in disaster relief, 167
Industrial accidents: influence of
coal mine disasters in preven-
tion of, 43
Information: sought by Red
Cross regarding sufferers from
Ohio flood, 90; needed as basis
for rehabilitation work after
city-wide fires, 138, 139; re-
garding sufferers, sought after
New Albany tornado, 160, 161;
needed in disasters of various
types, 1 8s, 207
Injury, physical: extent of, in
Omaha and New Albany tor-
nadoes, ISO, isi; in various
types of disasters, 166
Institutes, Home Service: train-
ing of volunteers in, 184
Institutional members of Red
Cross, 19
Insurance settlements: aid to
disaster victims in disputes re-
garding, 176
Investigation: after Triangle fire,
118,119; following Ohio flood,
90-94, 100; after city- wide fires,
138, 139. 141; after New Al-
bany tornado, 161; need of,
and methods in, i8s. 186
Jewish Colonization Association:
help rendered by, in work fol-
lowing Triangle fiire, 118, 119
Key West storm of 1909, iSO
Ladies' Waistmakers' Union: con-
tributions secured by, after
Triangle fire, 119. 124
Lane, Winthrop D., 69
Law and order: preservation of,
in disasters, 189
Legal problems: aid to disaster
victims in solving, 176
Legislation following coal mine
disasters, 43
Lessons from disasters at sea, 40,
41
Life insurance payments at
Cherry, S3
Liquor: prohibiting sale of, in dis-
asters, 130, 190
Lives lost: in disasters of recent
years, 7. See also Deaths
Losses: not basis of disaster re-
lief operations, 170-173. See
also Property losses
Lump sum grants: at Cherry, 56,
S7. S8; to families of victims
of Triangle fire, 117; when ap-
propriate, 192, 193
Martial law in disasters, 130, 190
Mass treatment: when necessary,
168; and individualized treat-
ment confused, 169
225
INDEX
Michigan forest fire of 1908, 108,
112, 113
Militia, state: aid j^ven by, in
forest fires, in; in New Al-
bany tornado relief, 152; ser-
vice of, in disasters, 189
Mine disasters, 42-67
Mine workers: represented on
Cherry Relief Committee, 46
Miners' union: representation of,
on relief committee after a mine
disaster, 66. See also United
Mine Workers
Mining companies: part of, in
mine disaster relief, 66. See
also St. Paul Coal Company
Minnesota: forest fires in, 108,
109, III, 113
Mississippi flood of 1912, 68
Monongah, W. Va.: coal mine
disaster at, 43
Munition plant explosions, char-
acteristic disabilities due to, 166
Naomi, Pa.: coal mine disaster
at, 43
National Director of American
Red Cross: on Cherry Relief
Committee, 46; quoted, 60; in
Ohio flood relief work, 78, 79,
81.82
National Guard: in Ohio flood,
73; in city fires, 129, 130
Need, not loss: relief should be
adjusted to, 83, 84, 173. I74
New Albany tornado: devasta-
tion wrought by, 151; emer-
gency relief following, 151-158,
rehabilitation work following,
159-164
New York American. Titanic re-
lief fund of, 18, 28
New York Charity Organization
Society Emergency Relief Com-
mittee: in Titanic relief work,
19, 27; in Voltumo relief work,
37; in Triangle fire, 114- 124
New York mayor's appeal for Ti-
tanic victims, 18
New York Stock Exchange: Ti-
tanic reUef fund of, 19, 28
Northern Trust Company of Chi-
cago: funds of Cherry Relief
Commission held in trust by, 56
Nurses, see Red Cross nurses
Ohio flood of 19 13: selected to il-
lustrate flood relief, 68; ac-
count of, 69, 70; destruction
wrought by, 70, 71; emergency
relief work following, 71-80;
relief funds in, 74; principles
of relief applied in, 81-86, 104-
105; transition between emer-
gency and rehabilitation period
following, 87-89; rehabilitation
work following, 89-104
Ohio Flood Rehef Commission:
appointed and given official
status, 73. 74; Red Cross agree-
ment with, 81, 217-220
Ohio State Board of Health: sani-
tary regulations drawn up by,
77
Omaha tornado: destruction
wrought by, 150
Orders for food and clothing:
place of, in disaster relief, 192
Organization: of relief forces fol-
lowing city-wide fires, 148, 149;
for disaster relief, 196-215
Orphans of Cherry victims,
grants to, 57. 58
"Pensions": to families at
Cherry, 56, 57, 59; to families
who lost wage-earners in New
Albany tornado, 163. See also
Allowances
Plans: candidates for rehabilita-
tion should form own, 141
Policy: of Red Cross in disasters,
II, 12; that guided business
rehabilitation in San Francisco,
146
Preparedness for disaster advo-
cated, 2 I 1-2 IS
226
INDEX
President of the United States:
national appeal of, in Ohio
flood, 74
Principles: that should govern
relief operations in mine disas-
ters, 65-67; of disaster relief,
166-195
Property: protection of, in dis-
asters, 189
Property losses: in disasters of
recent years, 8; in various
types of disaster, 68, 166; in
Ohio River flood of 19 13. 70,
71; not aim of disaster relief
to restore, 83-85; in fires at
Chicago, San Francisco, Chel-
sea, and Salem, 125; in Omaha
tornado, 150; in New Albany
tornado, 151
Purpose of this book, 9
Railways: service of, in forest
fires, 112
Recreation of children: attention
to, at Cherry, 61, 62
Red Cross, American: as reposi-
tory of knowledge regarding
disaster relief measures, 8, 9;
documents of, drawn upon for
this book, 10; policy of, when
disaster occurs, 11, 12; need of ,
in disasters, 16; institutional
members of, 19; most impor-
tant work of, in Titanic disaster,
21, 22; cooperation of, with
those administering English
funds in Titanic disaster, 27,
28; reliance on, in disaster re-
lief, 40, 41; work of, in coal
mine disasters, 42; National
Director of, at Cherry, 46, 60;
consolidation of relief agencies
after Cincinnati mine disaster
effected by representative of,
49; participation of, in relief
work following floods, 68; funds
subscribed through, in Ohio
floods, 74; representatives of,
in Ohio flood relief work, 78-
82; policy of , in Ohio flood re-
lief, 82-86; methods and aims
of, in work following Ohio
flood, 89-103; work of , in fires,
107; in Minnesota forest fires
of 1910, in; contingent relief
fund of, 120; activities of, fol-
lowing tornadoes, 150; repre-
sentatives of, at New Albany
after tornado, 152, i53. iS6,
157. 161; did not participate in
relief operations following Darr
mine disaster or Grover fac-
tory fire, 171; Home Service
Institutes of, 184; emergency
relief committee formed by, in
Boston, 211-213; representa-
tives of, on central committee
and sub-committees, 198, 200;
card for use in relief operations
devised by, 207; system of dis-
aster rehef preparedness to be
established by, 214, 215
Red Cross Emergency Relief
Committee of New York Char-
ity Organization Society: in
Titanic disaster, 18-20; in Vol-
tumo disaster, 36, 37; in Tri-
angle Shirtwaist Company fire,
I 14-124
Red Cross nurses: in Ohio flood,
77, 78; services of, following
New Albany tornado, 15S
Refugee camps: after city-wide
fires, 131: conducted by army,
189, 201
Registration of applicants: after
city-wide fires, 132, 138, 139.
140; after New Albany tor-
nado, 156, 157; importance and
technique of, 203, 204, 205
Regulations governing relations
of Red Cross and Ohio Flood
Commission in relief work, 81,
93. 217
Regulations of Illinois Health
Board for prevention of sick-
ness, 216
Rehabilitation work: funds avail-
able for, at Cherry, 55; fol-
lowing Ohio flood, 89-103; after
city-wide fires, 136-147; fol-
lowing New Albany tornado,
159-164; distinguished from
emergency relief, 168, 169
227
INDEX
Relief: in disasters, American
Red Cross as repository of
knowledge regarding, 8; follow-
ing the sinking of the Titanic,
18-36; following Cherry Mine
explosion, 46-60; principles
that should govern, 83-86, 166-
iQS; after floods, features of,
104, 105 ; organization of, 129,
148, 149, 152, 153, 196-215;
two periods of, 168; confusion
between mass and individual-
ized treatment in, 169
Relief and Rehabilitation Com-
mittee: functions of, 202-210
Relief Committee, Central: in
city-wide fires, 127, 128, 148,
149; in any organization for
disaster relief, 196-198
Relief committees, independent:
at Cherry, 47, 48; policy to-
ward, 196
Relief funds, see Funds for relief
Relief societies: represented on
Titanic consultation commit-
tee, 24
Relief squad: in Boston's emer-
gency organization, 212
Relief stations: one at Cherry,
and its discontinuance, so, 51;
in Ohio flood relief, 72, 86-89;
interviewing applicants, after
city-wide fires, 132, 138; re-
duction of applications at, 139;
when necessary, in disaster re-
lief, 190, 191
Relief warehouse, central: requi-
sitions on, in city-wide fires, 133
"Repeating" prevented by regis-
tration, 203
Reports of disaster relief opera-
tions: what they should con-
tain and why they should be
published, 194, 195
Rescue work at Cherry Mine fire,
45
St. Helena Island: storm of 1911,
ISO
St. Paul Coal Company: Cherry
owed its existence to, 44; man-
ager of, on Cherry Relief Com-
mittee, 46; nurses provided for
work at Cherry by, 47; aid
rendered families of dead min-
ers at Cherry by, S3
St. Paul mine fire, see Cherry
Mine Disaster
Salem fire of 19 14: extent of
damage in, 125; National
Guard in, 130
Saloons: number of, at Cherry,
44; closing of, in disasters, 130,
152, 190
San Francisco fire: extent of
damage by, 125; United States
Army in, 129; relief organiza-
tion in, at first too detailed,
129; food card issued after,
132; conclusion drawn from
follow-up of rehabilitation
grants after, 141; provision
for rehousing four classes of
refugees after, 141-145; bu-
reau of special relief after, 147;
business rehabilitation after,
14S-147
San Francisco Relief Survey, 108
Sanitary measures: emphasized
in Ohio flood, 77; after city-
wide fires, 134; at New Albany
after tornado, 154
Sanitary problem: following Ohio
flood, 76-78; after forest fires,
III, 112
Sanitary regulations of Illinois
Board of Health after Ohio
flood, 216
Schedule: of payments at Cherry,
57. 58, 59. 60; prearranged,
should be distrusted by disaster
relief workers, 174
School at Cherry: efforts to get
children back to, 62, 63
Sea, disasters at, 13-41
Services that may need to be
rendered to disaster victims,
176, 177
Shacks built after forest fires, 112,
113
Shelter, provision of: in Ohio
flood, 71, 72, 87; in city-wide
228
INDEX
fires, 130, 131; not a serious
relief problem at New Albany,
IS4
Shelters for survivors of Titanic
disaster, 21
"Short cut" policies: should be
distrusted by disaster relief
workers, 174
Sleds given away at Cherry, 48
Social workers: employed by
Cherry Relief Commission, 56;
services of, indispensable in
mine disasters, 67; work of,
after city- wide fires, 132, 138;
at New Albany after the tor-
nado, 152, 153. 156, 157. 161;
need of, in disaster relief, 181-
184; needed on bureau of spe-
cial relief, 206
Sources of information regarding
disaster victims, 185. 186
Sources of material for this book,
10
State boards of health: in sani-
tary work following Ohio flood,
77
Steamships: disasters to, 14-41
Stock Exchange, New York, Ti-
tanic relief fund of, 19. 28
Story books and story hour for
Cherry children, 62
Sub-committees of central com-
mittee, 148, 149, 199, 200
Supplies, relief: in Cherry disas-
ter, so; small need for, in mine
disasters, 66 ; systematizing
distribution of, in Ohio flood,
72, 86-89; transportation and
distribution of, after city-wide
fires, 131, 132, 133; army re-
sponsibility for handling, 189,
201
Taylor, Graham, 15
Telegraphic Code and Transporta-
tion Agreement and Rules. 194
Temporary aid pending investiga-
tion, 186. See also Emergency
relief
Temporary basis: how long relief
Should continue on, after a dis-
aster, 175
Titanic disaster and relief work
following it, 17-36
Tornadoes, 150-165
Transportation: problem of, in
Ohio flood, 75; as a task of
emergency relief in city-wide
fires, 133; as a relief measure,
principles that should govern
granting of, 193-194
Transportation Committee: when
unnecessary, 201
Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire,
106, 1 14-124
Truant officer: work of, at
Cherry, 62
Tuberculosis in Cherry families,
61
Under the Red Cross Flag at Home
and Abroad, 191
Unit of relief the family, 83, 104,
167
United Charities of Chicago: rep-
resentatives of, in Cherry relief
work, 47
United Mine Workers: represen-
tatives of, on Cherry Relief
Committee, 46; Cherry victims
members of, 52; appropriation
of funds for relief at Cherry by,
55
United States: administration of
Titanic relief funds in, 19
United States Army: work of,
during Ohio flood, 74-78; 104,
in San Francisco fire, 129, 130.
131; responsibilities of, in dis-
aster, 189
United States Bureau of Mines:
reports of, on mine disasters, 42
United States Geological Survey:
estimate of loss in Ohio flood
made by, 71
United States Weather Bureau:
losses of farmers in Ohio as
estimated by, 100
229
INDEX
Visiting Nurse Association of
Chicago represented at Cherry.
47
Voltumo: relief work following
burning of, 36-40
Volunteers: use in Hamilton
after Ohio flood, 91; choice and
use of, 94. los, 182-184
Vorsack, Mr. and Mrs.: case of,
37
Wage-earners: loss of, as a dis-
aster disability, 68; loss of, in
Ohio flood, 102
Wage payments: system of, at
Cherry, 52
Wages, back: payment of, in
mine disasters, 66
War: disasters due to, 12
Washington Place fire, see Tri-
angle Shirtwaist Company fire
Widows: of Cherry miners, pen-
sions and grants to, 56-59; the
most frequent recipients of al-
lowances, 193
Women's Relief Committee: work
of, in Titanic disaster, 19, 20, 21
Workmen's Compensation laws:
protection afforded by, 64;
what they cannot do for be-
reaved families, 65
Yolande, Ala.:
aster at, 43
Coal mine dis-
Zacharias, Mrs.: case of, 29-31
Zemenciak, Michael: case of,
177-181
230
SOCIAL WORK SERIES
EDITED BY MARY E. RICHMOND
Many people have general views in these days
upon almost any matter which affects social
welfare ; we all know how easily such views find
expression. On the other hand, only a few have
the patience and the insight to gather the specific
facts and find out what they mean. Still fewer —
having done so much as this — can explain the
meaning lucidly and in brief compass.
It is the ambition of the Social Work Series to
embody, in the field of social service at least, the
message of a representative group of these few.
Successive small volumes, of which this is the
initial one, will appear at frequent intervals.
These will give the condensed experience of au-
thors who know at first hand the things whereof
they write. Busy people want something more
than theoretical guidance in the human welfare
tasks to which they have set their hands.
Several volumes of the series are now in pre-
paration, and others will follow.
Write for announcements to be forwarded as
these books are issued.
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FOUNDATION
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