In accordance with the resolutions the sum of $15,750 has been turned over to a special committee of St. Mark's Church appointed to receive this sum in trust for the families specified, and $1500 to Mr. Mulry for two fami lies, the remainder of the $20,000 having been paid directly to the families for whom it was intended.
The number of families aided by the committee was 437, which is three-fourths of the 590 families known to have been represented on the General Slocum at the time of the disaster.
The 25 per cent who were not aided by the committee were those who were in better circumstances, or those who suffered least ; and very few of them made any appli cation for aid. Only a little more than half (54 per cent) of those who were not aided lost even one member of the family, while 92 per cent of those who were aided lost one or more by death. In the 437 families aided by the committee, there were before the disaster 1913 persons, about two-thirds of whom were on the excursion. Of these 110 were injured, 61 were buried unidentified, 723 were re covered, identified, and buried, leaving only 1019, or 53 per cent of the whole, uninjured — and of these 1019 survivors probably less than one-fifth had been on the excursion. Besides this frightful loss of life the families suffered inde scribably by shock, anxiety, and grief, to an extent which no statistics can represent. The numbers themselves are never theless an indication of the ravages which the little com munity sustained and which were the more severe because they were in many instances united by ties of blood-rela tionship as well as by those 'of religion and nativity.
The number of persons lost in the 437 families was 784. Of these, nine were male heads of families, 191 were mothers, 30 were wives without children, 155 were children of wage earning age (not necessarily wage-earners), 356 were chil dren under fourteen years of age, 31 were adults living with relatives, eighteen of whom were grandparents, seven were women living alone, and five were single men.
These numbers would indicate that the immediate eco nomic loss was comparatively insignificant, — only twenty per cent of the whole number lost being present wage earners. The actual loss, however, was much greater. Many of the children would have become wage-earners in a few years. Others not actually employed could have become wage-earners in case of necessity ; and many who were not on the excursion lost valuable time from their business or occupation, searching for the dead, or even prostrated by illness or anxiety. Elder daughters were in
some instances compelled to give up employment on the death of a mother, and the fathers of families found their expenses greatly increased by the death or injury of their wives.
One hundred and twenty men lost their entire family by the disaster. Of these, twenty-nine lost wife only ; thirty-nine lost wife and one child ; thirty-two, wife and two children; ten, wife and three children; three, wife and four children ; and one, wife and five children ; two widow ers lost each two children, and one widower, four children, while the remaining three of the 120 men left alone as the result of the disaster lost other relatives with whom they were living. Twenty-one men, whose wives and one or more children were lost, were left with one child under fourteen ; and eleven others were left with more than one small child, having lost wife and one or more children.
Forty-one men were left with children over fourteen, having lost wife or children or both. There were seventy nine families in which only dependent members were taken, while there were thirty-nine families in which one or more wage-earning children were lost, although not the father or mother. Only two women were left alone, one of whom lost her husband and her only child. Three women who lost their husbands were left with from three to five chil dren each, but in two of these families there were adult unmarried sons or daughters.
Among the 437 families there were sixty-three who were already widows with children, and ten mothers who had been deserted by their husbands. In forty of these seventy-three families no particular need resulted from the disaster aside from the expense of burials. In one instance the mother was lost with her only child, and in another with her entire family of five children, all of whom were under twelve years of age. In twenty instances only de pendent children were taken ; and in eighteen others the mother was taken with one or more children, but only self supporting children were left. In thirty-three of the cases of widows or deserted wives there was such economic loss as to make apparent a need for aid in addition to that given in burials, either because dependent children were left with relatives in moderate circumstances, or because the income of the family was reduced or entirely cut off by the loss of one or more wage-earning children.