Durango semi-weekly herald., 1906-04-30
FRISCO

banks of the city TO occupy and tran
sact business. 1t proved a very busy
morning. Hundreds OF clerks are try
ing to bring order oIt of the mixed
conditions and are disposing of the
accumulated business
The banks announced hat every
accom-. .odation would lo lxtended to
borrowers and no effort 30 made to-
ward collections. Moncy is being
Withdrawn from the banks very ire
ly and today the felr IL generally ex-
pressed that the best people of the
city proposed to leave Frisco for good
and for that reason are Withdrawing
all their deposits
Last week The effort was made to
get the people to leave the city, but
today an effort is being made to get
them TO remain, that is. the desirable
ones. But with the exception of the
property owners the awful strain Of
the earthquake and fire Is showing
It's logical results. and families are
making all manner of sacrifices TO
give up Frisco permanently.
The street cars are nearly all run
ming today and this morning the rail
tation so that people going East now
must pay their fares.
The work OF relief goes on with
system and all the stores outside the
burned district have reopened.
$ PITTSBURG, April 26.-All =
:, contracts for structural steel e
. for the reconstruction OF San =
:, Francisco will be made under :
8 emergency orders and will take =
{, precedence over all other con =
:, tracts. This applies TO all =
&, branches of the steel corpora =
&, tions. 6,
SAN FRANCISCO, April ga
personal representative of Jonn ID.
Rockefeller has arrived here and will
report TO his chief exact conditions
Mr.. Rockefeller desires to spend mil
lions in rebuilding San Francisco, but
his generosity will await the return
of mis- representative.
- CHICAGO, April 26.-At the q
8 suggestion OF eastern fire in 8,
s. sn'nnce officials, western man &.
s ayers have agreed TO a general =
&, advance in fire insurance rates 6,
g all over the country, to recoup :
6 San Francisco losses. The ad- 9
es vance goes into effect stimuli 4
y taneously everywhere. 8,
CHICAGO.-The San Francisco
contagration precipitated an unpar-
alleled crisis upon the fire insurance
companies of the country, and they
are meeting it with wonderful cour
age and self-sacrihce. Succeeding
several months Of unusually heavy
losses, it presented sight draft upon
them for more than 100000, 900. The
response was prompt-indeed, in some
instances heroic. The companies
will meet their obligations in full.
even though this, in some cases, will
drain resources that have been built
up in scores of years, and in others
will wipe out all accumulations, and
force the stockholders to assess
themselves, often to the full amount
of their holdings. 1t means sacrifice
and self-denial in hundreds of cases,
and perhaps the mortgaging of homes
to meet these unexpected demands.
But they are being met with coura ge
and fidelity. Men give 100000 to
the relief fund, and are applauded.
A hundred stockholders of fire insur-
ance companies will lose 100000 each
because of the calamity and to relieve
its suffering and replace its loss, and
will never be heard of
Never before were the companies
called upon to pay so enormous an
amount in so snort time. but they
have risen to the emergency. They
are no longer mere financial ma
chimes, collecting premiums from the
many to pay the losses of a few. They
are actually striving TO relieve dis
tress as rapidly as possible at great
cost to themselves. Under their con
tracts they have sixty days in which
to settle, but every company covets
the honor of paying the first claim.
and they are racing their men and
money across the continent. The in
surance companies will be called up
ON to pay 800, 900, 600 at least. They
viii pay it promptly. but to many OF
them it means practical ruin. 1t
means the exhaustion of surplus here,
the wiping out of assets there, and
enforced assessments upon thousands
of stockholders to meet the claims.
But hundreds of millions of property
values in San Francisco are involved,
and the insurance companies are all
that stand between the people and ir-
retrievable ruin. And so they stand,
and pay, and say nothing about wha.
II costs them.
Insurance companies are in the bus
mess to pay losses, and they do their
work without complaining or making
much fuss about 1t. This loss is a
record breaker for them, but most OF
them are treating 1t as all in the day Is
work. Those that have the money
are already on the ground with drafts
TO pay claims as soon as they can be
adjusted Those that have not the