The meeting thereupon adjourned sine die, and the ex ecutive committee immediately had its first meeting, and organized by the election of Mr. Scharmann as chairman, and A. A. Hill of the Charity Organization Society as secretary.
The following were subsequently added to the executive committee : Rev. John J. Heischman, Rev. Jacob W. Loch, Rev. E. C. J. Krmling, Rev. H. W. Hoffman, William H. Allen, H. Cillis, Edward T. Devine, Julius Harburger, Louis W. Kaufmann, Louis C. Rmgener, Inspec tor Max F. Schmittberger, Gustav Straubenmiller. A committee was also appointed from the board of alder men, some of whom attended the meetings of the execu tive committee from time to time, and its chairman, L. W. Harburger, was made vice-chairman of the executive committee.
Headquarters were opened in the basement of St. Mark's Church, and the secretary was placed in full executive charge of the work of receiving applications for relief, mak ing the necessary visits and inquiry to establish their bona fide character, and carrying into effect the decisions of the committee. The committee throughout realized and at tempted in every way to make evident to those with whom it was dealing, that it was engaged in the administration of a fund which was not a charitable relief fund in the ordinary sense, but a generous expression of heart-felt sympathy on the part of the community toward those who had been sorely stricken. The secretary and his assistants displayed in every way a personal sympathy for the afflicted ; and, although there were irresponsible charges to the contrary, the committee is confident that in no sin gle instance was there a failure to attend promptly to emergent needs, or harshness toward any person who came to the committee for aid, or other ground for just com plaint. There were only five fraudulent applications, i.e. from persons wbo were in no way affected by the disas ter ; but the number would doubtless have been much larger if it had not been understood from the outset that all applications would be carefully investigated. One woman who was fraudulently collecting money on the ground that she was a sufferer was arraigned in court by the Mendicancy Officers of the Charity Organization Society, convicted of obtaining money under false pretences, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment.
The secretary was authorized to engage whatever visi tors and office assistants might be required ; the largest number at work at any one time was twenty-nine, includ ing volunteers, and the average for seven weeks over twelve. The secretary himself, however, received no financial remuneration, his services being placed at the disposal of the committee by the Charity Organization Society. A very considerable amount of volunteer service was also supplied by the New York Association for Im proving the Condition of the Poor. The total operating expenses for the committee for the seven weeks over which its active work extended were only $1062, or less than one percent of the relief fund disbursed. The extraor dinarily low percentage was made possible only by the large amount of expert assistance given to the committee by the two societies named, and by the courtesy of the New York City Mission and Tract Society, in providing without charge commodious offices for the use of the committee in the United Charities Building after the removal of its headquarters from St. Mark's Church on June 29.
The value of the aid rendered by the organized charities is not, however, to be measured merely by the saving iu administrative expenses. It was through this cooperation that the relief could be given promptly and to the right persons, the element of imposition eliminated from the beginning, and exact knowledge quickly obtained in regard to each family for whom the committee was asked to provide, on the basis of which action could be taken in accordance with its own best judgment.
Members of the committee also gave a large amount of time to its work, both at its headquarters and in their own places of business — of course entirely without compensa tion ; and in the illness of the secretary after July 20, his entire duties fell upon Edward T. Devine of the executive committee. Rev. George C. F. Haas, pastor of St. Mark's Church, who himself lost three members of his family, served practically as a member of the committee, and gave at every step invaluable advice and cooperation.