On July 8 it is recorded in the minutes of the Finance Committee that the Board of Inquiry, to which reference has been made, had completed its reports, and had made a classified list of sufferers by the flood. At the same meet ing it was announced that an important meeting of the Flood Commission would be held at Cresson a few days later, and the Finance Committee thereupon determined to recommend an immediate cash distribution of the sum of $500,000. Members of the Finance Committee had received an intimation, prior to the Cresson meeting, that the state commission would not soon, or possibly not at all, make any distribution of money to the flood sufferers. It was the intention to make a contract for an enormous supply of winter clothing and provisions, and to erect a large storehouse to be filled with them, and to issue these, under the auspices of the commission, to those who ap plied. This was in early July, and winter six months distant. To assume that such a population as that which had made up the city of Johnstown would, six months after even so terrible a calamity as that of the flood, be dependent upon weekly rations of food and clothing, handed out to them in kind, and that they could not be trusted to make a better use of any money which had been contributed for their benefit, appears now, to the student, to have been the height of absurdity. To the local workers, who were acquainted with Johnstown, this was evident at the time when the scheme was under dis cussion. The committee appeared before the Flood Com mission at the Cresson meeting, and in the most earnest and energetic manner combated the proposed plan, ex pressing what the character of the Johnstown population was ; that it had been an industrial community, largely composed of the higher class of skilled workmen ; that the people who had lost their homes were the owners of those homes ; had themselves erected them from the savings of their own industry and thrift; and that it would not be less than shameful to adopt any measures that would discredit them, or tend, as a long-continued issue of weekly supplies would certainly tend, to pauperize them. After the withdrawal of the Finance Committee the Flood Commission, in executive session, decided to make a tentative distribution of half a million dollars, as had been recommended by the Johnstown Committee.
It is probable that the administration of relief would have been more efficient, and that avoidable delays would have been prevented, if from the beginning a larger re sponsibility had been given to those who were upon the ground. The idea embodied in the Flood Commission was unobjectionable, if its members could have taken up a temporary residence in Johnstown, or if it had limited itself to the question of a broad general policy, and had intrusted a larger discretion to the Finance Committee, or some other responsible local body. It was clearly a disadvantage that the important decisions, even as to details, had to be made by the Flood Commission which, after Judge Cummin's death, was represented at Johns town only by. its secretary ; and that representations of the Finance Committee, and of local committees, were acted upon but tardily, and after what appeared to them unwarrantable and inexcusable delays.
For the purposes of the first distribution made by the commission, the Conemaugh Valley was divided into eighteen districts, each ward of the city of Johnstown and each of the outlying boroughs constituting a district.
Blanks were prepared and the sufferers from the flood in the several districts each gave a statement of the loss sus tained, value of property remaining, and names and ages of dependent members of the family. For each district a local committee was appointed, whose duty it was to investigate these statements, and the estimate of the dis trict committee as to the loss sustained by the family was entered on the blank, which was then handed over to the Board of Inquiry. From the data thus obtained the board classified the applicants for relief. The secretary of the Flood Commission reports that these blanks showed evidence of conscientious, careful work on the part of some of the committees, and of haste and carelessness on the part of others.' The blanks did not even furnish a correct list of the drowned, as statements were taken from different members of the family, and one who had been lost might variously be described as father, mother, sister, or brother, no clear and consistent statement having been re quired. Eventually, however, the Board of Inquiry com pleted its list of claimants and grouped them into classes. In the first three classes were placed those who required relief, without reference to the amount of their property loss, the most necessitous iu Class I, and those who would require least relief, apart from indemnity for property losses, in Class III, Class II containing those who were midway between Classes I and III. In the last three classes were placed those who were less dependent, who had suffered from the flood, and whose property losses were considered in qualifying decisions as to the amount of relief to be granted. Reimbursement for property losses was not contemplated, but it was considered that after full provision had been made for those who were absolutely dependent, property losses, such as the loss of homes, shops, stores, factories, workshops, etc., might be considered as an element of distress, and a ground for relief. In this distribution, which amounted in the aggre gate to $416,472, no payments were made to Class VI. To the others graduated payments were made as follows: — In making this classification the Board of Inquiry took into account the general condition and circumstances of the family ; the resources, if any, which were left to them ; the health of members of the family ; the loss of wage earners ; the age of the remaining breadwinner and the extent of the losses sustained by the family. It was de Report of Flood Relief Commission, p. 41.
sired to avoid making special cases, and to provide a classification which would fairly cover all cases. It was hoped that donors and beneficiaries would understand that relief was applied to all as members of a class, rather than as individuals, and that each one was placed, after careful consideration, in the particular class of which the other members were in the same circumstances as himself. If, in a particular instance, some one received a little too much, or another too little, the class, as a whole, never theless would have been fairly treated, and no one would have a right to complain of such slight injustice as would be an unavoidable incident of the operation of any general rule. Definite standards were also set for any re classification, and a definite reason demanded for trans ferring a person from one class to another.