The San Francisco call., 1906-06-27

! load down the New York plan. So
called. because 1t was adopted by some
of the American companies in New
York, with a scaling down interpreta-
ton to cover all losses. This is, in
short, an attempt to fix in advance an
arbitrary discount on policies without
regard for the merits of individual
cases.
FOLLOWING USUAL COURSE.
Under the New York plan there are
certain cases which are subject to rea-
ent from the policy pursued in ordi-
nary methods of settlement. l mean
by that in the general run of insurance
business. All companies follow that
course at times. For example, sup
pose a claimant is unable to produce
any evidence whatever of loss. His
books and accounts are destroyed His
building. his stock, everything, have
/ been burned. In a case like that 1t is
only fair that the adjustment be made
on a compromise-basis. But this can
not under any circumstances mean that
the claimant shall be scaled down ar
bitrarily after that adjustment has
been made. Once the claim has been
allowed, payment should be made in
full.
''Thisi is the attitude of dollar for
lar companies The other side
would have the New York plan inter-
preted to mean that a sweeping cut of
25 per cent should be made at the start.
In fact, that there should practically
be no adjustment on merit, but that
every policy-holder should accept rs
per cent of the face of his policy.
Among the many questions which
have been raised growing out of the
extraordinary conditions in San Fran
cisco is that of salvage to the insur-
ance companies by dynamiting. A num-
ber Of the companies take the ground
that they are not responsible for losses
/ caused by dynamiting. IN the view of
many of the mana gers here there is no
ground for such denial of liability. l
am firmly of the opinion that claim
of non-liability for dynamiting can
not be sustained"
NO EVIDENCE OF WEAKENING.
Dornin's views, unchanged from the
outset, indicate that the wide diver
gence OF opinion among the insurance
companies as to the mode of procedure
has not materially changed. There is
no present evidence that the leaders in
the dollar for dollar" movement, like
Dornin, Spencer Of the Aetna, Watt
of the Royal and Queen, Smith of the
Connecticut, Havens of the liverpool,
London and Globe and many others
who united several weeks ago have
abandoned their strong position.
Another manager in defining the diff
ference between a dollarfor- dollar
company and "six-bit" company said !:
The dollar-for- dollar company be-
lieves in paying dollar for dollar on the
face of it's policy where it owes dol
lar. The 'six-bit' companys plan is TO
shave 25 cents from each dollar of the
face of it's policy"
Manager II. H Breeding of the Ger
mania stated today that he had filed q
notice of the extension of time for fling
proof of loss with Commissioners Wolf.
He said: The Germania extends
the time for filing proof Of loss. On
June we notified Insurance Commits
sioner Wolf that the Germania was to
retire from the field and therefore did
not consider that any further notice
as to the extension of time was neces-
sary. We did not mean to be impolfte
to Wolf and in order to place ourselves
right we today gave him formal notice
that we had already extended the time
for filing proof of loss"