Bisbee Daily Review

Many Needy Families In District Are Assisted During Last Year By Warren District Relief Association

The annual meeting of the Warren District Relief Association was held Wednesday in the Central school building and the financial statement and report of the work of the association for the past fiscal year, ending August 31st, were given by the general secretary, Miss Esther Cummings.

The financial report of the association for the year showed receipts totaling $2547.83. Of this amount regular subscriptions amounted to $1946.00; Red Cross subscriptions, $425.98; special subscriptions $317.95 and donations $57.90.

Expenditures for the year totaled $2662.12, of which $1387.17 was spent in relief work and $1274.95 for administrative expenses. The amount expended in actual relief work was divided as follows: groceries $501.10; clothing $171.39; meals and lodgings $93.80; fuel $41.80; medicines, nursing and funeral expenses $280.06; transportation $340.52; rents $22.50, and other work $1.00.

Miss Cummings' Report

Some interesting facts were contained in the report of Miss Cummings concerning the vast amount of good accomplished by the association. Miss Cummings reported that 115 cases had been investigated; 76 families, with a total of 233 children, given aid; 56 cases of illness cared for; transportation furnished in 16 cases; 575 articles of clothing supplied to the needy and deserving persons; 110 pairs of shoes furnished, many of them to school children; 81 persons secured temporary or permanent employment and 225 yards of goods, donated by the Red Cross distributed to needy families and individuals in the district.

Miss Cummings, in the association's annual report, said:

"It will be seen by the foregoing statements that while considerable aid has been given to those in need the amount expended has averaged only a little over $12 in each case.

"But experience has shown that the giving of material relief is only a part of the work of a charitable organization such as ours, as we try to place indigents in a position where they will not need aid from us continually.

County Helps Out

"For instance, if we have a case that is entitled to county aid we ask the county to give whatever help it can, if such people are ill they can be placed in the county hospital, or it might be a case where such people would have to be placed in the county home permanently.

"If a mother has been left a widow, with children under sixteen years of age, and is entitled to the Widow's Pension under the existing child welfare law, we endeavor to see that she obtains help from this source, while other families who may not be entitled to help from any of these sources will manage very well with the aid we give them in clothing, to enable their children to attend school. Most of the clothing given out by us has been to the unfortunate families, where the mothers have been left widows, or have been deserted by their husbands.

Desertions are quite prevalent among the Mexicans, but whenever it is possible to do so we try to locate these husbands and compel them to support their families.

"We also try to secure work for those who are out of employment, but usually we find that those who are physically able and willing to work do not need to come to us for work. Most of the employment furnished by us has been for women and girls.

Red Cross Lends Hand

"As in former years, much of the aid given by us was necessary on account of illness. The local Red Cross chapter has reimbursed us for all expenditures made in cases that would properly come under its work or jurisdiction, and principally the influenza cases. The greater number of tubercular cases given aid were to the transients who go from place to place seeking a more suitable climate, and this problem is sometimes quite a difficult one to deal with, for we are not supposed to send people to other places to be a charge on their community.

Most of the transportation furnished has been on account of illness, and often we have found it more economical to send such people to their relatives than to have them remain here to be cared for. In one very trying tubercular case last winter the Pythian Sisters gave financial aid that was gladly accepted.

"At the Thanksgiving and Christmas season some of the churches gave us donations for the poor families, in both money and provisions, while the Elks' Lodge supplied good Christmas dinners for all the families whose names were given them by the association, as they have done for several years past.

"Another donation outside of our regular contributions was from the Bisbee High School who printed our Annual Reports, free of charge.

Students Do Their Bit

The pupils of the domestic science department of the Junior and Senior high schools of the district are also making clothing for the school children in the destitute families, the money being provided by the local Red Cross chapter for the purchase of second-hand clothing which we have already received in response to our recent appeal to the different schools and in the local papers will help us very much in solving this problem for the coming winter months.

"Before the juvenile court was established in this county our association was frequently called on to look after street waifs and children who were suffering from neglect and improper care, but now when such children are found without responsible parents or guardians their cases are taken up in the juvenile court, and in this way a number of children have been taken off our hands whom we otherwise would have been called upon to care for.

"We have always endeavored to make our work as practical as possible, and chiefly not to encourage pauperism, and while we know that the giving of material relief cannot do away with poverty to any great extent, we believe we have succeeded in benefitting some of the unfortunate ones who have come to us."

The following officers have been named to look after the work of the association for the next year:

President, M. Newman; vice-president, Arthur Notman; treasurer, F. F. Best.

Directors: John C. Greenway, C. F. Philbrook, Dr. G. A. Bridge, Rev. J. E. Fry, A. W. Engelder, Jacob Erickson, J. J. Dugal, Rev. C. Mandin, C. W. Allen, Mrs. Fred Juliff, Mr. N. C. Bledsoe, Mrs. Gerald Sherman and Mrs. Frank Sinclair.

Finance committee: chairman, George B. Winfrey, C. S. Thompson, C. A. McDonald and P. M. Buckwalter.

Attorney, John Sanders.

General secretary, Miss Esther Cummings.