About two-fifths of those who received relief were Ne groes, and this was estimated to be twenty per cent of the colored population of the city. The number of Ne groes who asked merely for work was proportionately much less than the number of whites. Only forty per cent of the applicants were artisans, and these were largely carpenters or in other building trades.
The committee limited itself to the supply of food, fuel, clothing, and shoes ; but distress requiring other forms of relief was continually. brought to the committee's atten tion. The question of rents was especially troublesome, but the committee believed it to be impracticable to under take to meet demands from landlords, which would exhaust the relief fund at once, and would have left the committee without means of providing food and other necessities of living for dependent people. Besides, even if there were sufficient funds, it would not have been right to divert to the benefit of landlords the money contributed by citizens for the relief of dependent people, and there would unavoidably have been much imposition. It was, therefore, the determined policy of the committee not to undertake to meet demands of this kind. Applicants for aid who were threatened with eviction were told that noth ing could be done for them unless they were actually de prived of shelter, and then they must endeavor to find, if possible, temporary lodging with relatives or friends. Only two or three of these people ever returned to report themselves as homeless and helpless. While the money less people were pressed for payments and were under continual harassment from threats, there were, as a mat ter of fact, fewer evictions than usual at the same time of year. Landlords and rental agents strenuously endeav ored to enforce the payments due them, but refrained finally from resorting to the usual extreme methods. In many cases advantage was taken by tenants who could have paid, but availed themselves of the excuse chargeable to the times. Evictions were hardly to be expected, how
ever, except in flagrant cases of untrustworthiness, for the reason that both the landlords and rental agents realized that if tenants were thrown out, they would certainly lose the amount due them and their property would remain un occupied ; if other tenants were secured, it was improb able that they would be more likely to pay than those who were evicted. It seemed, therefore, wise for them to permit property to be occupied by people who had paid in the past when they were able to do so, and would prob ably liquidate their indebtedness when they again obtained employment. Although there was constant annoyance on account of the rent question, the burden of it was neces sarily left to the people upon whom it already rested, and in the end there were no serious results.
The market was gradually closed during the month of March, with the cooperation of the Charity Organization Society in taking over those who remained on the lists when the closing was finally effected. Inasmuch as the relief committee had exhausted its own funds, the county commissioners were requested to make an appropriation of $4000 to the Charity Organization Society to carry out the arrangement which had been made that the society should be reimbursed for the emergency relief supplied in the early part of the winter.
In concluding its report, the committee quotes from an article by Dr. Albert Shaw, on " Relief Measures in America during the Winter of 1893 and 1894," a refer ence to the work in Indianapolis as the " model instance of relief work." This praise is not undeserved, although in the success with which employment was substituted for relief, and in the ingenuity with which useful employment, from the standpoint of the community, was devised, the achievements of the New York East Side Relief Work Com mittee were at least equally instructive.