The commission's first distribution extended through some six weeks. It was found necessary, on account of delays on the part of some of the claimants, to fix a date, August 3, after which orders which had not been presented would be carried forward and paid with the amount awarded at the final distribution. It was found that many persons, after receiving the amount apportioned to them under this distribution, were satisfied, and made no further demands. A few orders were issued, and payments made to persons who later were found not to have been entitled to help. In some cases these amounts were refunded, but in one case, to which reference is made by the secretary, it was not possible to recover the On September 13 an appropriation of $1,600,000 was made for the final distribution. This distribution was made on the basis recommended by the Finance Commit tee of Johnstown, a fixed average sum being paid to each person in the first three classes, and a percentage of losses in varying proportions to those in the last three classes. It was at first estimated that there could be paid to per sons in Class I an average of .$1200, in Class II, $900, and in Class III, $500, and that to persons in Class IV an average of 30 per cent of their losses could be reim bursed, and in Class V an average of 10 per cent. This scheme was drawn up by Cyrus Elder and John H. Brown, 1 Report of Flood Relief Commission, p. 43.
a special committee appointed jointly by the Finance Com mittee and the Board of Inquiry for the express purpose of preparing a statement of the principle which should govern the final distribution of the fund for the relief of flood sufferers, and their report was adopted by Francis B. Reeves and Robert C. Ogden, a committee of the Flood Commission. This statement, after suggesting that the amount distributed to persons in Class I be fixed at $1200, proposed further, " that this be not a uniform rate, but that a certain definite sum be paid, for example, to the dependent widow who has lost her husband by the flood, and &further sum for each child under the age of sixteen years, the latter sum to vary in accordance with the age of the child, the total in all cases to be paid to the mother, except in those few instances which might exist where she is known to be unfit or incapable of discharging the trust. The allotment to orphans having no parent was to be paid into the Johnstown Savings Bank, subject to the order of a legally appointed guardian approved by a joint commit tee of the local Finance Committee and the Board of In quiry." The second class consisted mainly of widows without dependents, or with families who were helpful rather than a burden, and the third class of women not made widows by the flood, who had incurred small prop erty loss, but who were capable of self-support. The $500 allotted to them might, it was thought, serve as the capital for some small business.
At a meeting of the commission on October 22 the instructions for distribution were somewhat modified, al though payments to widows had begun on the plan pre viously adopted on October 9, and it was determined that when property losses were considered, to persons in the more dependent class should be given the following sums:— To those whose losses were not exceeding $500, not more than $400.
To those whose losses were over $500, and not exceeding $1000, not more than $600.
To those whose losses were over $1000 and not exceed ing $2000, not more than $800.
To those whose losses were over $2000, a pro-rata pro portion of the amount remaining of the appropriation made to the class, but no person to receive more than $6000.
To those in the less dependent classes were to be paid : To those whose losses were not exceeding $500, not more than $200.
To those whose losses were over $500, and not exceed ing $1000, not more than $350.
To those whose losses were over $1000, a pro-rata pro portion of the amount remaining of the appropriation made to the class, but no person to receive more than $2500.
Among the unpublished documents which reveal the difficulties in carrying into execution the plans decided upon by the Flood Commission, the Board of Inquiry and the Finance Committee, is a very interesting letter written by the secretary of the Finance Committee on October 21, protesting vigorously against the exercise of personal discretion on the part of the secretary of the commission in altering awards made by the Board of Inquiry without consultation with the board. In this letter the principle is most clearly enunciated and fully amplified, that general rules must be laid down by the Flood Commission, and that no employee should be al lowed to adopt new principles of classification or to make • special cases ; that, on the contrary, it was the function of the executive to see that the principles laid down by the Flood Commission were correctly applied, and to bring to their notice any error or oversight that might be discovered. The necessity of avoiding even the possi bility of scandals and of the introduction of the element ' of favoritism was insisted upon, and the great advantage of a simple method of distribution as nearly as possible reduced to a mere arithmetical computation. This, of course, assumed that the classification, and any necessary reclassification of individual claimants, had been consci entiously and accurately made. The writer of this letter incorporated another eloquent plea for immediate distri bution. " The end of delays," he says, " has now been reached. A single day, or a single hour's delay is now unjustifiable, and the payment of the fund must begin." 1 I Cyrus Elder to John H. Brown.