General Bates in his report to the President of the American National Red Cross states later that a further economic and salutary measure has been adopted in the establishment at the different camps and relief stations of large kitchens and dining halls or sheds where a contractor buying the supplies from the relief committee furnishes three cooked meals a day, and in case of all persons, excepting those who are entirely destitute, these meals are sold at ten or fifteen cents each. It is the opinion of the officers in charge of this work, which is just inaugurated, that within a few days, the greater majority of the people getting relief from the Committee in this manner will pay for it. General Bates also says, “I think it would be quite impossible for any one, without having been on the ground or having had a similar experience in some other place, to appreciate the enormous difficulties that these people have had to contend with. In the first place their three days’ battle with the fire was as horrible, excepting as to loss of life, as any of the critical battles of the world. During that time, with the water cut off from the city, the impossibility to arrest fire by means of dynamiting and blowing up districts so that the fire should have nothing to feed upon, the suffering and horror of turning two hundred thousand or more people from their homes into the streets, with nothing to eat and nothing to drink was simply appalling and notwithstanding the gigantic task that lay before them, I think from what I learn, that it is safe to say that no one has suffered from hunger or neglect.” This is only a brief and partial report of the beginning and progress of the relief in California, but it conveys some idea of the methods adopted in the accomplishing of this great work. Up to the date of going to press the various State Branches have contributed the following amounts: Connecticut $119,094.74 Delaware 18,900.00 District of Columbia 58,911.01 Georgia 200.00 Illinois 144,818.55 Indiana 34.032.16 Maine 5,607.02 Maryland 100,000.00 Massachusetts 64,877.25 Michigan 27,500.00 Missouri 143,000.00 New York 510,000.00 Ohio 62,967.45 Pennsylvania 129,600.00 Rhode Island 87,000.00 South Carolina 1,000.00 Wyoming 1,694.60 THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE RED CROSS SOCIETIES _To the Presidents and Members of the Central Committees of the Red Cross_: GENEVA, _March 20, 1906_. GENTLEMEN: