American Red Cross Emergency Relief On Sunday morning, the day after the tragedy, one hundred Health Department nurses assemble at City Hall. They are instructed by Health Commissioner Dr. John Dill Robertson with respect to treatment of health problems of the Eastland Disaster families. They are instructed by American Red Cross Director John J. O'Connor with respect to relief considerations.
The names of five hundred families are distributed among the nurses, and American Red Cross family worksheet cards are given to the nurses as well.
Early Sunday afternoon, the American Red Cross opens an emergency relief station at the Western Electric Company Hawthorne facility. The needs of each of the families is identified. The families are grouped as follows.
- Those needing immediate assistance, principally in connection with funerals.
- Those needing assistance after the burials.
- Those needing possible future assistance.
Company cars from several businesses as well as a number of private cars are brought to and parked at the emergency relief station. As soon as cases in need are reported, an American Red Cross or Western Electric Company relief worker leaves at once to visit the family. Depending upon the information that is received in the nurse's report, the relief worker takes cash, a physician, interpreter, or whatever else is felt as being needed. The instruction to the case worker(s) is perfectly clear and simple, "Give prompt relief. Ask questions next week."
The American Red Cross expends approximately $15,000 in small grants and monthly allowances for emergency needs while waiting for the facts necessary for permanent distribution of the relief funds.
One week later, the American Red Cross closes its emergency relief office in the Hawthorne facility and opens its new principal office in the Conway Building across from City Hall.
Emergency relief work is undertaken by Polish, German, and Bohemian Relief Committees on behalf of families of these nationalities. These committees find it unnecessary to disburse any of their funds for relief, due to the promptness of the emergency relief provided by the American Red Cross and the Western Electric Company.
Source: Final Report, Eastland Disaster Relief Committee, Chicago Chapter, American Red Cross, 1918.
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