The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-02-11
INSURANCE LOSS.
Big Companies Figure on Where
They Stand.
Summing Up the Liabilities in
Baltimore Fire.
HIT BRITISH CAPITAL.
Liverpool, London & Globe Suf-
fers Severely.
New York Concerns Must Pay
Out S6,OOO,OOO.
HIT BRITISH CAPITAL.

structive was the work of the flames in
Baltimore that the fire insurance men
cannot tell with any precision how
much monetary loss their several COM
panies have suffered Scarcely a single
home office here or any agency there
was able to report more than approx
mately yesterday how much loss had
been suffered, but owing to peculiar
local conditions obtaining IN Baltimore
the first reports of insurance losses
reaching into hundreds of millions were
promptly discounted by men in posi-
ton to talk intelligentsy about the sit
uation.
I The total amount of insurance in
force in Baltimore is not believed to
have been much more than $50, 900, 900
in the entire city limits. The residence
section was not obliterated, and there
the local Baltimore companies had the
field chiefly to themselves.
They had advanced the rates on
dwellings and had built up that portion
Of the local business while leaving the
mercantile and manufacturing section
largely TO the enterprise of the comes
tic and foreign insurance companies
In the burned districts there were
dozens of old firms that had been in
sured in the same companies for thir-
ty years The rates were very low
and the losses to the foreign and some
of the American companies who wrote
this class of risks will be heavy.
Another peculiar feature about Balti-
more is the fact that a vast amount Of
the property destroyed lies on lease
hold sites. Many of the deeds date back
to the time of the Georges. and the
owners OF buildings erected on these
( leasehold sites could not get as much
insurance as if they owned the land as
well as the improvements upon it, This
,%-r7
losses to a considerable extent
Several of the Baltimore insurance
companies are regarded as certain to
collapse under their heavy losses, and
concerns will be hard hit Early yester-
day afternoon Eldridge G. Snow, vice
president of the Home Insurance com
pany, which had written the most in
surance in Baltimore of any company.
SO far as known, said
] I'VE dispatched two officers of our
company to Baltimore this afternoon.
+ Our Offices were burned and we have
/ only fragnentary reports, but up TO
this moment we calculate that We have
/ lost SAT-, 500
other companies declared that the
( loses of the Home and the Livarpool.
London and Globe would run more more
/ than 81, 600, coo apiece Officers or the
i Queen Insurance company stated that
their losses would exceed S50O.OOO-
T Henry Evans of the Continental one
& OF the heaviest losers among the III
/ surance corporations. said that the
/ vice president of his company had
gone TO Baltimore to see the local
+ agents and try to ascertain their losses,
which he could not even approximate
He said all claims against the COM
/ pany would be paid promptly upon
/ proof of loss.
The Niagara Fire Insurance COM
pany said its losses would be about
/ 5000 OO0 The president of the London,
M (|lnh6 said ha knew MS
F.. company has lost at least s750,00O. al
/ though it had not received any CO.
! herent advices from Baltimore Mar
! shall S briggs. president of the Will
/ Uamsburg City Fire Insurance COM
pany. estimated its loss at about $780,
1 600. The Greenwich Fire Insurance
/ company set down its loss at about
800 600. At the Commonwealth Fire
insurance company it was said that it
/ was utterly impossible to give any fig
/ ures of losses sustained until agents
could report
/ one of the local companies that did
a very large business in Baltimore is
T the German-American One of the Off
GERS of that company said yesterday
I that the loss would reach 100000. Al
/ the local Office of the Hartford Fire
Insurance company, of Hartford
| Conn, one of the four American fire
insurance companies that did the bulk
/ of the business in the mercantile sec
ton of Baltimore. it was said 1t would
take several days of close figuring to
/ tell how hard it had been hit. At the
Office of the Phoenix Insurance COM
pany of London the statement was
made by w. B. Irving, the secretary,
that its losses would be between $780,
600 and $500 0O0-
About 125 insurance companies wrote
fire risks in Maryland OF these those
! that sustained the heaviest losses are
the German of Maryland. the Fire
mems of Maryland, the Baltimore Mu-
tual and the Baltimore Fire Insurance
/ company of Maryland.
The New York fire insurance COM
Danies that carried the largest risks
are the Home. the Continental, the
i German-American and the Hartford OF
Hartford. The foreign companies that
did a large business there and that suf-
fered losses in the mercantile district
especially are the Liverpool, London &
Globe, the British and Mercantile. the
Phoenix of London. the Royal of Eng
land and the Western Assurance OF
Canada.
Alfred NJ. Best, the publisher OF
Best's Insurance reports. compiled yes
terday a list of the premiums received
by all the companies licensed to &c
| business in Maryland, and sent out tC
his clients a tentative summary of the
insurance situation. He said that the
total amount Of insurance in force ir
the entire state of Maryland during
1902 was only about $253 000, 000-
Last year was a good year for the
/ insurance men, and they wrote great
deal more insurance than was written
| in 1902 Taking the average rate for
commercial and manufacturing estab-
lishments, Mr.. Best estimated last
/ night that the total amount of fnSur-
ance in force in the city of Baltimore
at the time the fire broke out was be-
tween $3.50, OO0. 600 and $3.50, 000, 000- This
is based on the premium receipts paid
on Baltimore risks last year. which
amounted in round numbers to 1850
0Go.
Taking the official figures as report
ed to the Baltimore board of fire under
writers for the six months running
from January 1, 1903, to June so last al
ss45. 24S-51, and allowing for the fac
that the first six months of the veal
show a larger premium income thar
/ the last six months the total premium