Trouble at Relief and Aid Headquarters

Trouble at Relief and Aid Headquarters

Trouble at Relief and Aid Headquarters, 1874 The New City

This page from the minutes of the Board of Directors of the Relief and Aid Society reveals the rising tensions caused by the Panic of 1873, when the hungry and unemployed demonstrated angrily outside of the Society's headquarters. The relevant section reads: "Mr. King, Prest., stated that he had called this meeting to consider what action could be taken to relieve the Society of the crowd thronging the building and streets demanding relief, the majority of them unworthy and impostors." To keep such people away from its doors, the Board passed a resolution directing the Society's superintendent to notify the public that it would give preference to applications submitted in writing and accompanied by a recommendation from "some well known citizen." The resolution added, "Persons receiving aid from the County and single, able-bodied men are not aided by the Society."


	Trouble at Relief and Aid Headquarters, 1874	The New City
	This page from the minutes of the Board of Directors of the Relief and Aid Society reveals the rising tensions caused by the Panic of 1873, when the hungry and unemployed demonstrated angrily outside of the Society's headquarters. The relevant section reads: "Mr. King, Prest., stated that he had called this meeting to consider what action could be taken to relieve the Society of the crowd thronging the building and streets demanding relief, the majority of them unworthy and impostors." To keep such people away from its doors, the Board passed a resolution directing the Society's superintendent to notify the public that it would give preference to applications submitted in writing and accompanied by a recommendation from "some well known citizen." The resolution added, "Persons receiving aid from the County and single, able-bodied men are not aided by the Society."