THE ARMY AND NAVY



illustrative. The thing accomplished was that no one who
would stand in the bread-line after the first day actually
wvent hungry; and the abuse of public largess is perhaps a
warning to some of our extremists who believe that the
State should feed and clothe everybody.
   The next step was to limit relief only to those who were
helpless. For any one with a practical knowledge of hu-
manity will understand that you will not urge some types
of workmen toward employment when you feed them free.
There was work enough in sight for the able-bodied man
after the first two weeks, and his share of public duty was
to take advantage of it; or if he would not, he had the alter-
native of going hungry, as he would in any other community.
In order that none of the sick or helpless should suffer, a
thoroughgoing organization, for which there was no like
precedent, was required. The business of registration of the
names of those who deserved relief, and of checking them
off from day to day, was put in the hands of the Red Cross
officials who had come from the East. The local distribution
of supplies was left to local committees and organizations;
the receipt and the application of funds was in the hands
of the Sub-Committee of Finance of the Citizens' Commit-
tee of Fifty; while the bulk of the work was undertaken
by the army, which had charge of the purchase and the gen-
eral distribution of supplies, and the maintenance of order
and those sanitary regulations among a cosmopolitan popu-
lation which was reduced to the same primitive conveniences
of life that an army has in the field.
   For the army and the navy this earthquake and the fire
have been worse than war. The part that General Funston
and General Greely both have played has been entirely out
of constitutional purview of the army's duty. In the absence
of General Greely, commander of the Pacific Division, Gen-
eral Funston, in command of the Department of California,
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1906