Of such a policy in disaster relief Deacon writes: "It is not the policy of disaster relief to employ its funds in restoring losses and compensating for death or personal injury." Commenting on this statement John F. Moors says: "It is interesting to note that at Halifax, the latest scene of serious disaster, such full compensation is intended."[126] [126] Moors, John F., Book Review, _Survey_, vol. xxxix, no. 17 (Jan. 26, 1918), p. 472. What were the social results of this policy? This question is one of no less interest to the community itself than to the student of sociology. It is perhaps too early for adequate examination and comparison with the policy which formerly held sway. While still a vital question there are observers who have grown dubious, if not of restitution certainly of the lump-sum method of restoration.[127] They assert that for many it proved simply a lesson in extravagance and did not safeguard the economic future of the recipients. Unused to carrying all their worldly goods in their vest pockets, these same pockets became empty again with uncommon rapidity. Victrolas, silk shirts and furbelows multiplied. Merchants' trade grew brisk with "explosion money." There seemed to be a temporary exchange of positions by the social classes. The following statement made by one closely associated with social conditions in Halifax and written over two years after the disaster, shows only too well the danger involved in the application of such a principle. After referring to "the spirit of passive criticism directed chiefly against the few who have borne the burden of restoration" the statement continues: The individuals who after all make up a community have been blinded to the bigger interests by their own individual material losses, and the idea of material compensation on a dollar for dollar basis. As some of us earlier foresaw, the disaster wrought much moral damage, for which no "claims" were even presented, even by those to whom we might look for special moral teaching in such an experience. In the course of our work we come daily upon evidences of this condition lingering in our midst. [127] The courts of small claims devoted ten minutes to each case. The amount awarded was paid on the day the case was heard.