The Spirit of 1906 | Page 6

the established fashion.
The second day after the fire, a food station was opened across the
street in an old carriage house which belonged to Mr. J. L. Flood. Here
lines would form to receive rations, the millionaire rubbing shoulders
with the laborer. The panhandler got as much as the plutocrat. The
disaster leveled all classes. A million dollars in one's pocket would
have been of little use. Nothing could be bought with it and it could not
serve as either food or drink.

Getting Back to Work

Betweenwhiles, as one crisis after another came and went, I was still
constant to the idea and still felt my responsibility to the California, and
from time to time as circumstances permitted, was strenuously
endeavoring to reach the directors and stockholders. The president, in
spite of his optimism, had fled from the Hotel St. Francis and gone to
the home of his mother on Clay and Larkin streets. For the same reason
he left there and went to the yards of the Fulton Iron Works where his

yacht "Lady Ada" was laid up, got her off the ways and tacked over to
Tiburon where he remained for some time. Finally word was received
from him that the directors of the company would hold a meeting at the
Blake and Moffitt Building on the corner of Eighth and Broadway,
Oakland, on May 2, 1906. Who really located them, scattered as they
were, and finally got them together, has remained an unexplained
mystery. It must have been either the president or Chief Clerk
Shallenberger. The late Mr. James Moffitt, a stockholder in the
company and the owner of the building named, kindly secured for us
two rooms in that building for an office. They were on the third floor
facing Broadway and the location and the habitat of the company was
disclosed by a canvas sign which, banner-like, hung upon the outer
wall proclaiming this to be the office of the California Insurance
Company. For furniture, there was a flat top desk and a typewriter
(both secondhand) and the balance of the equipment was handmade, of
ordinary lumber, by a local carpenter. There was not very much cash
among those thus assembled, but, fortunately, the company had
maintained a deposit in an Oakland bank and this was immediately
available for checking purposes.

First Meeting of the Board of Directors

Quietly and almost silently the directors gathered. The only emotion
apparent was that of the usual caution shown by men of large affairs
who meet to face a crisis. The president called the meeting to order and
stated that the object of the gathering was to inform the directors that
the company was heavily involved in the conflagration which visited
San Francisco on April 18, 19 and 20, 1906, that the amount of which
obligations was at present unknown, that they overshadowed the
resources of the company and that ways and means would have to be
devised to finance the California through this crisis.
The fire maps of the company were entirely destroyed and it was not
advisable to open the safe in which the records of the company were
kept until it was sufficiently cool to prevent danger of combustion. In
light of these facts, it was impossible to immediately ascertain the
actual amount of the company's obligations.
In response to an inquiry as to the probable extent of our liabilities, I, as

secretary of the company, ventured the statement that I believed they
would reach a total of $1,500,000 net, explaining that I based this
estimate upon the company's income and the average rate. I also knew
that the larger part of the entire liabilities in San Francisco were in the
burned area and that if the safe did not afford protection it would mean
the loss of the company's records, leaving it without means of
ascertaining the amount of the loss until claims were filed. This would
cause a delay of several months before the exact total could be
developed. I explained that the policy contract allowed sixty days for
filing claims and expressed the thought that this limit would
undoubtedly be extended by legislative action in view of the magnitude
of the disaster.
In the meantime, in the April 27 edition of the Examiner, on the first
page, extending over its entire width, had appeared the following
statement:
"The California Insurance Company Will Pay in Full."
This was discussed and the meeting began to assume a more lively
interest and the members to more actively participate. Director W. E.
Dean offered a resolution that has passed into history as being, possibly,
the most noticeable ever adopted by the directors of a fire insurance
company. It is a question whether a motion under like conditions had
ever before been put