Relief committee

“ A committee disbursing business aid which patiently eliminated those doomed to fail, could get practically all of its beneficiaries started if it were left free-handed throughout the whole period of relief distribution to make well-timed and adequate grants, and if it spent enough on administration to allow for the supervising of grants whenever character and circumstances indicated the advisability of doing so. ”

“ On the other hand, to fix responsibility and prevent confusion, all executive work, both for relief and for rehabilitation, should devolve upon the Commission, which should be held responsible for initiating relief measures, presenting them to the Finance Committee and subsequently carrying them into effect. ”

“ It cannot be too plainly stated that there must be only one relief committee or corporation. [95] There must be no division of responsibility for distribution. If there must be reform it must be within the relief corporation itself. If one of the eastern committees in command of large funds had [101] set up its own agency in San Francisco, it would have been guilty of improper trusteeship. That much is evident. The suggestion has been made that the committees in charge of the larger funds should each have had a representative on the Finance Committee. ”

“ Sometimes the outside aid required is many times greater in magnitude than the localities are able to provide. For two independent relief agencies to operate for a common purpose at any scene of want and suffering means duplication and waste and possible friction. It is to avoid such situations that the Central Committee plans to elect the stronger and more efficient charity organization societies as institutional members for the purpose of securing their trained personnel to take charge under the National Director of the necessary relief measure combined. ”

“ It is not to be expected of those who have [204] done business on a cash basis all their lives, that, when the passing years have done their work of lessening initiative, they should cheerfully and confidently assume a burden of debt. It would seem to be the duty of a relief committee to recognize the handicap on those trying to earn their living through business who never possessed the initiative of the typical business man, have been robbed of it by age or ill health, or have been made conservative by domestic responsibilities. ”

“ The relief committee last Saturday gave out two pounds of oatmeal and two pounds of cornmeal to each family, but even the relief committee has exhausted its resources. Something must be done at once. The case differs from instances of destitution found elsewhere, for generally there is somebody in the neighborhood able to give relief. This is not the case at Pullman. Even those who have gone to work are so exhausted that they cannot help their neighbors if they would. ”

“ The Citizens’ Relief Committee, composed of their first citizens, has the Honorable S. C. Miles, Mayor of Marion, as Chairman, and Mr. Albert G. Woods, as Treasurer. In conclusion, the emergency may be thus summed up: Our prospects are very discouraging. Money is superlatively required. It must be had if human lives are to be saved. The final analysis of the case reads thus: Food or starvation, life or death. Only with money can the evil be averted. It would be unreasonable to expect more from the Red Cross fund. ”

“ Representatives of the various committees and societies working in the war zone and outside it meet periodically in order to discuss new measures and schemes for the alleviation of the terrible distress.
The conditions and extent of distress in towns, townlets and villages of Poland and of the Pale are being ascertained through delegates of the General Relief Committee working actively and energetically towards the organization of various forms of relief in the several districts. ”

“ Shocks are still occurring at Reggio and Messina.
The American relief committee, which was organized for the purpose of directing the American charities in connection with the earthquake sufferers, has been dissolved. The Italian authorities have now everything well in hand.
In cash alone the relief committee on the steamer Bayern distributed $30,000. The vast supply of provisions on board the steamer proved all too small for the innumerable calls made upon the relief party’s resources, but the distribution was made as widespread as possible. ”

“ Many agencies, with fervor but with no concerted plan, helped to carry the relief work for the first week, converting churches into hospitals, and preparing and distributing food in unlikely but convenient places. But while sporadic groups of people worked to provide immediate aid in ignorance of one another’s efforts, the organization of the Citizens’ Committee grew. ”

“ Such business does not from the start necessarily include shelter for the family as is the case with a rooming house. It is often many months before the net income is sufficient adequately to support more than one person.
So much for the average citizen, starting business on his own capital, or given a lump sum by a relief committee and left, without supervision, to run the risk of making costly if not irretrievable mistakes. ”

“ The dual risk of giving to the sham refugee and of carrying the man who could help himself and who was inclined to lean on relief could only be avoided by careful investigation and treatment, even though both raged at the refusals of an “unjust” committee. The final argument is that no relief should be so generous as to dry up the normal sources of aid in a community. That aid is wisest which rouses all the neighborhood and civic sources of help into effective action. ”

“ The Mutual Welfare League takes this opportunity to express its thanks to the Christian Science War Relief Committee in general and its representative at this place in particular, for the great kindness and Christian charity that was demonstrated in giving to thirty of our discharged men overcoats to keep them comfortable. In addition to the above Mr. F. has neglected no chance to be of comfort or service to such of us as have been bereaved by loss of parents or friends, whenever the fact has come to his attention. ”

“ Civilians were frowned upon and were always objects of suspicion. Thus it may be seen that when the War Relief Committee decided to extend its already well-established Camp Welfare work to the naval arm of the service, it did so, knowing that there is no barrier to Truth. ”

“ There is one general relief committee, with sub-committees in each ward. To these sub-committeemen sufferers must apply for relief, and are categorically questioned as to the extent of their distress.
“If the answers are satisfactory, an order is issued for supplies. 149If he is an able bodied man, although he may be houseless and may have lost members of his family, or have some injured by the storm and needing attention, he must perform labor before supplies are issued, and if he refuses he is impressed and compelled to work. ”

“ The delegate sailed from New York on November 16, 1914, and on his arrival in London requested the Committee on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland, to call a relief committee representing the whole of the British Isles.
The members of this committee were asked to administer the fund which was originally intended to assist Christian Scientists who had been placed in financial difficulty by the outbreak of the war. There were families where fathers had been called to the colors, leaving wives and children totally unprepared to earn a living. ”

“ New applications involving urgent need for relief in kind should be referred direct to the Bureau of Special Relief. Applications on file requiring an immediate money grant should be referred to a sub-committee consisting of the chairmen of Sub-committees I, IV, and VI. Applications for emergency checks should be made in writing by the chairman of the committee in which the application was filed.
2. Necessity for economy. Close economy should be urged on the ground that there would be no money to expend in excess of the amounts actually required. ”

“ In sending you this letter, the Rehabilitation Committee urges you to consider that the great majority of those who apply for relief are strangers to the Committee, and that it cannot deal with their applications either justly or quickly unless those who do know them are willing to consider themselves as in a sense trustees of this fund, and to share with the Committee some of the responsibility of its administration. ”

“ Anyone who has had experience in a charity organization society which has district offices knows that the common rule is to empower a district superintendent or committee to make emergency expenditures of comparatively limited amounts and to draw for reimbursement on the society’s general relief fund. ”

“ The lesson is, that restrictions upon relief in kind are unsatisfactory and embarrassing and should always be placed upon a discretionary basis. The Minneapolis committee claimed that title to its flour had been transferred to the destitute of San Francisco, not to the Red Cross or to the Finance Committee, who were apparently to be considered solely as the servants of distribution. The position is an impossible one in which to place a self-respecting committee. ”

“ Report.—Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, and every 5 years thereafter, the Secretary shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report on the activities and outcomes of the grant programs under subsections (e) , (f) , and (g) , including the impact of projects funded under such programs on the health status of rural residents with chronic conditions. ”

“ This relief has included money, food, shelter, educational facilities, medical treatment and supplies, and clothing to recipients in 11 countries including the United States. The acts of the Attorney General and the Loyalty Review Board, purporting to be taken by them under authority of the Executive Order, have seriously and irreparably impaired, and will continue to so impair, the reputation of the organization and the moral support and good will of the American people necessary for the continuance of its charitable activities. ”

“ The problem to be solved, therefore, is how to collect our volunteers into a harmonious whole—the action of each being free, yet systematized; and how thus to administer relief through the united agency of corporate bodies and private individuals; how, in fact, to secure all the personal intercourse and friendliness, all the real sympathy, all the graciousness of individual effort, without losing the advantage of having relief voted by a central committee, and according to definite principles. ”

“ The following statement, based on the allegations of the complaint, summarizes the situation before us: The complainant is 'a charitable organization engaged in relief work' which carried on its relief activities from 1942 to 1946 under a license from the President's War Relief Control Board. Thereafter, it voluntarily submitted its program, budgets and audits for inspection by the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid of the United States Government. ”

“ The Citizens' Committee exercised the general control. They were entrusted with the special grants and the civic authorities, Board of Health, police, etc., so far as emergency matters went, coöperated with them. But the various civic officers were not idle. No one was idle at Halifax. They were occupied with the rehabilitation of the various departments at City Hall and with individual programs of relief. What the civic government continued to do officially was rather in the way of providing the stiff formality of proclamation to the carefully weighed suggestions of the Citizens' Committee. ”

“ The Rehabilitation Committee recommends the acceptance of the principle that workingmen and others of moderate means whose homes were destroyed by fire, who own lots in the burnt district, and who cannot obtain from banks, building and loan associations or other societies enough to rebuild without assistance, should be aided in rebuilding by a donation or loan from the relief fund. This policy involves no new action by the Finance Committee except the appropriation from time to time of such sums as may be required by the Rehabilitation Committee to carry it into effect. ”

“ Do we want to make the poor depend on relief, which is ready at a moment's notice, instead of having the fortitude to save a little to meet a sudden emergency? If so, we shall be always treating cases as urgent, and relieving pending investigation, and assuming that discretionary power of granting instant help must be vested somewhere besides in the relieving-officer. I know parishes where benevolent people plead that starvation or great need may arise if they have a weekly committee and no officer empowered to deal with urgent cases. ”

“ D. D. G. M. Gilbert Murdoch, Chairman; R. Radford Barnes, Treasurer; and John E. Hughes, Secretary. The meeting then adjourned, and all future sessions of committee were ordered to take place in Room No. 9, Park Hotel, where the three heads of the Department of Relief would hold daily meetings, receive reports, and supply all assistance needed by the brethren. The system has worked admirably. The greatest secrecy has been observed, and no one outside of the Committee know even the names of the brethren who are being helped in the hour of need. ”