The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-01-24

the old class A buildings. SO
far as is known. withstood the
earthquake perfectly. and even
after the fire that ragged about
them We're in condition to be.
refitted, and are now in regu
lar use. Glass G buildings. on
the other hand, on which $37,
100000 has been expended.
consisting of brick walls and
steel girders, and correspond
ing to the common style OF
construction in English cities,
suffered some damage from
earthquake, and were a total
loss in the fire. It seems eco
non1icaily Impossible to pro-
hibit this class OF building.
when labor and materials are
so high, but the people who
spend their money on that
style of construction in the
business district of San Fran
cisco have not learned the les
sons OF the recent disaster. A
considerable portion of the
total amount has gone into
refitting buildings only dam
aged by the fire. as the 81
story Call building, while s44.
100000 has been put into
purely wooden or frame"
buildings in the outlying dis
tricts. These, where properly
constructed, are safe against
earthquake, but are, of course,
subject to fire, and the insur-
ance rates on them are neces-
sarily high. In fact, the fig
ures show that the loss by fire
ia the United States, where
wooden buildings prevail, is
seven times as great as in
England and on the continent
of Europe. Naturally the in
surance premiums are CORE
spondingly high to meet these
risks.
Insurance Payments and Premiums
In the matter of assurances,
the total amount paid by the
various companies to date is
something over $20O.000.O0O.
The exact figures can not be
obtained, because some, COM
panies do not care to make
public how badly their re-
sources were depleted. A few
millions VIII still be paid,
either through process Of law
or by bankrupt companies. All
the English companies doing
business here are considered
TO have behaved admirably,
some of them settling on "a
dollar for dollar basis, but
three (Which had special con-
ditiens in their policies re-
garding earthquakesl reduced
their payments by 10 to % per
cent. The English companies
paid in all about 65,000,000.
The Royal, one of the heavy
losers owing to their loss. pay
ing record, have since, it is
stated, doubled their business
on the coast, with the Liver
pool, London and Globe run
ming them a close second. The
former is erecting s1,000s000
building on it's property here,
and the Atlas will soon follow
suit; but the policy of the
Liverpool, London and Globe
has not yet been made public.
The American insurance
companies also, for the most
part, met their obligations
we'll. The Fireman's Fund, the
largest local company, levied
three 100 per cent assessments
on all its stock But not a sin
gle German company met it's
obligat tons in full while some
of them refused to pay at all.
The question of reinsurance
has been a vital one in the re-
building of the city, for some
of the property holders appa
rently felt that they would
not be able to get their prop
erty insured if they rebuilt.
All the companies, however,
which met their obligations
have re-entered othe field. But
they have raised their already
high premiums from 20 to-
80 1-3 per cent on what was
left of the city. This Was
owing to the disorganization
of fire fighting facilities and to
the congestion of the business
of the city in the residential
districts, which were not con-
structed for the purpose. Only
a few days ago, however, all
insurance rates dropped to the
f1gures at which they stood be-
fore April. 1905, which is in it.
self significant commentary
on the progress Of rehabilita-
ton.
Material and Labor
A few items regarding the
cost of building may here be
of interest. or course, there
We're famine prices paid imme-
diately after the disaster; for
instance, brick layers received
minimum of 81 CAS- I'D an
hour and plasterers got even
more. But at present wages
have returned. almost without
exception, to what they were
formerly. The regular union
scale of wages for carpenters
is now 81 (16s SD for an eight
hour day, for plumbers IS cos
l0d) and for brick layers So
t25s) Many of these men own
or are paying for their own
homes. for the cost of living
in San Francisco is not higher
4. \ -. -.