l^^^'?^gg i^i ^^^^^ »l ^? S^ R?f^'^^ I'fv ^i^i^l^'x'^^'^'Sr'.- a ill !Si '^^>.:^^•v♦>i r THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK 1853-I905 CONTINENTAL BUILDING 44-48 CEDAR STREET, NEW YORK ERECTE D I 894 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK 1853—1905 A HISTORICAL SKETCH COMPILED BY WILLIAM LORING ANDREWS A DIRECTOR OF THE COMPANY ••NEW YORK THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY M C M V I Copyright, 1906, by The Continental Insurance Company OF New York • * • • • < • • • e •( • • • • • < • • • • < • • • r • • • a !• • • LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Continental Building, .... Facing title 44-48 Cedar Street, New York. Continental Building, 4 Court and Montague Streets, Brooklyn, New York. Portrait OF William V. Brady, .... 13 President, 1853-1857. Portrait of George T. Hope, .... 19 President, 1857-1885. Portrait of Hiram H. Lamport, ... 25 President, 1885- 1889. Portrait of Francis C. Moore, .... 29 President, 1889- 1903. Portrait of Henry Evans, 37 President, 1903 . Continental Building, 45 100 Broadway, New York. Continental Building, 55 158 Montague Street, Brooklyn, New York. vii M116898 A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE COMPANY SINCE ITS FOUNDATION CONTINENTAL BUILDING COURT AND MONTAGUE STREETS, BROOKLYN ERECTED 1874 m^^ Tt REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF POLICY HEADING USED IN 1865 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE COMPANY SINCE ITS FOUNDATION THIS favored land of ours is rich beyond compare in all but one particular. It is a new country that we inhabit, and an- tiquity not being a purchasable article, we must perforce remain to the end of the chapter one of the youthful members of the family of nations. So few comparatively are the years that lie behind us, so brief our history, that we refer with a feeling of ancestral pride to organizations and institutions founded prior to our Revolutionary War, dub them ** ancient and honorable," and treat them with the respect and veneration we render to grey hairs. The business of fire insurance falls distinctly within this category, for a fire insurance company was formed in Philadelphia as early as 1752, Ben- jamin Franklin — the organizer also, in 1738 of the first fire engine company — being one of its ac- tive promoters. This parent company was followed 5 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY by the ^'Mutuar' of New York in 1787, ^'The Insurance Company of North America/' of Phila- delphia, which is still in existence, founded in 1792, the ''Equitable" of Baltimore in 1794, and the ''Massachusetts" of Boston in 1795. \ Ppjioies of insurance were obtainable in England .biijforie'thj?' time, but it would appear that previous .-tG^th« formation of domestic companies, fire loss itideriiriity-with the merchants of New York, was, to some extent, a matter of brotherly kindness and obedience to the scriptural injunction to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of love; the neighbors of the sufferer by fire contributing, to make good his loss, so far as they felt able and inclined — actuated partly, no doubt, by a realiza- tion of the necessity of standing shoulder to shoul- der for mutual protection against a common danger. The "Mutual Assurance Company of the City of New York" was for a number of years, the only insurance company in the city, and it probably sufficed for the needs of the little town of New York of its day, which contained only about 3,400 houses and had a population of but 24,000. The company's form of policy was drawn up by Alex- ander Hamilton, and it transacted both a fire and a marine insurance business, as all of these companies first in the field appear to have done. The "great " fire of the 2 1 st of September, 1 776, the year that the British troops took possession of New York, consumed 493 buildings before its course was checked. Again in the summer of 1778 the fire fiend visited the city and left fifty OF NEW YORK, 1853 ^O I905 houses and stores in ruins, but the most disastrous and alarming conflagration New York had yet experienced broke out in the evening of December 16, 1835. Six hundred and seventy-four struc- tures and property valued at $15,000,000 were destroyed in this catastrophe, and the principal part of the First Ward, was erased from the map of the city. The night was bitter cold and a high wind fanned the fire. Its march was stayed only by the blowing up of buildings that lay in its path, and by lack of fuel for the flames to feed upon when they reached South Street and the shores of the East River. A writer of the time states that the passengers in the steamboat coming down the Hudson saw the flames from the Highlands, forty- five miles distant, and such was the violence of the gale during the prevalence of the fire, that burning embers were carried across the East River to Brooklyn, and set fire to the roof of a house there, which was, however, speedily extinguished. Seventeen years subsequent to the great fire of 1835, and while the memory of it and of the one that occurred ten years later (July 19, 1845) must have been still vivid in the minds of the citizens of New York, a company of men was found willing to embark upon the stormy sea of fire un- derwriting and engage in what had proved itself to be a hazardous business in the extreme, and these venturesome men christened their craft the ''Continental." The precarious nature of the fire insurance busi- ness — the ''fearful mortality of fire insurance cor- THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY porations" — is fully demonstrated by the array of figures for the twenty-six years from 1877 to 1902 inclusive, presented by "The Chronicle," an in- surance journal of New York City. These tables show an estimated aggregate property loss in the United States during this period of $3,092,630,- 171, and an insurance loss of 11,828,539,628, in consequence of which one hundred and twenty- three of the one hundred and sixty-nine com- panies in operation January i, 1871, and organ- ized after that date, were driven out of existence. It required a staunch ship and able seamanship to navigate such troubled waters as these. By way of addenda to the bewildering mass of numerals in the foregoing statement, it may be noted that the fire insurance written in 1904, by companies reporting to the New York Insurance Department amounted to between twenty-four and twenty-five billions of dollars, of which the Continental's share approximated seven hundred and seventy-four million dollars. At the close of the year 1905, the Continental had insurance in force amounting to one billion, one hundred and eight million dollars — a vast sum, it would seem, to be protected by one company; but it is really an element of safety, for scattered as the liability is over the entire United States, and with a comparatively small amount at risk in each city or town, there is no danger of the des- truction in any one fire or conflagration of more than an inconsiderable proportion of the property insured, while on the other hand the revenue 8 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 earned by the Company from this great business adds strength to each individual policy. It has been said that the science of fire underwriting is found in the ''aggregation of assets and the scat- tering of liability/' THE story of the organization of The Con- tinental Fire Insurance Company, and of the fortunes good and ill that befell it during the first twenty-three years of its existence, is concisely narrated in a pamphlet published by the Company in 1876, and from it many of the facts, figures and statements appertaining to that period in its history have been taken. Prior to the great fire of 1835 there were several companies with a capital of half a million dollars, and one with a million, engaged in the business of fire insurance in the city of New York. Insurance stocks had become a favorite investment, not only with capitalists, executors, and trustees of estates, but also with people of moderate means. To a greater extent probably was this the case in our sister town of Boston than here with us, for when the conflagration of November 9, 1872, visited that city, the number of families impoverished through the total extinguishment of their invest- ments in the stocks of fire insurance companies, attracted general attention and aroused the sym- pathy of the public. The dividends paid by fire insurance companies, which seldom reached ten per cent, could not have been considered highly remunerative at a period THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY when the legal rate of interest was seven per cent, and this return was also expected, as a matter of course, from real estate investments, and even from such gilt-edge securities as State and City stocks and bonds. The exemption of insurance stocks from taxation in the hands of the holder (for the companies assumed and paid all taxes) was doubt- less an attractive feature, and no one seemed to dream of the possibility that the principal itself of the investment might entirely shrink away in a great fire such as has repeatedly since those days swept over a city, and caused the bankruptcy of numerous insurance companies in a single night. The fire of 1835 bankrupted all but seven of the New York companies, including the one with a million dollars of capital, and all of those with half a million, while the greater number of the seven companies which escaped insolvency lost a large proportion of their assets. From the ruins of that fire no million-dollar company arose, and but two or three of a half-million each. A burnt child dreads the fire, and fire insurance stocks were no longer regarded as proper security for the invest- ment of trust funds; nor were stockholders any longer contented with moderate rates of dividend from a business shown to be so precarious. The projection and construction of the magnificent Croton water-works, and the introduction toward the close of 1842 of an abundant supply of water, restored much of the confidence in insurance stocks. This trust was destined soon to experience another suspension in the rude shock which it received by 10 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 New York's second great fire, that of July 19, 1845, which ruined several of her insurance com- panies, and impaired the capitals of nearly all the others, including among them those with a capital of $500,000 each. In 1848 there were in the City of New York but seventeen fire insurance companies, and their united capitals barely reached four million dollars. The citizens of the State began to feel severely the absence of adequate insurance protection, and this condition of affairs suggested need of legislative encouragernent in order to prevent the practical extinction of that indispensable protection to the material interests of the State and especially so for New York City, where the severe lessons of peril and of loss had been enforced. The first general insurance law of the State of New York was passed in 1 849, and soon led to the organization of several companies having $200,000 each (the minimum capital allowed for companies doing business in New York City,) and a multitude of those town and county mutuals, which have everywhere, and in almost all cases, proved to be a snare and a delu- sion to agricultural populations; but which hap- pily endure only for a short season. Until the year 1852 the City of New York had but two com- panies with capitals in excess of a quarter of a million dollars, and the larger of these reached $300,000. A number of New York's most prom- inent merchants, recognizing the claims of its com- mercial interests, and deriving their chief incentive from its past misfortunes, determined that its THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY citizens should have a first-class insurance com- pany, with a capital of not less than half a million dollars, to be guided in its operations by the best underwriting experience obtainable. Out of this public spirit arose the insurance incorporation which came to be known as The Continental In- surance Company of the City of New York. The first Board of Directors was composed of the following gentlemen : Dan H. Arnold Charles F. Dambmann Samuel D. Babcock Charles H. Booth E. H. T. Gibson Edward Lambert Daniel Burgess Aurelius B. Hull Hiram Barney Wilson G. Hunt WilHam A. Hall Horace B. Claflin Peleg Hall George W. Lane James A. Edgar Wellington Clapp Lycurgus Edgerton A. Studwell Charles M. Connolly Charles E. Beebe Abiel A. Low George S. Stephenson Lowell Hollbrook David Lane Henry C. Bowen William W. Stone Watts Sherman Jonathan Hunt Thomas Tileston Thomas Smull Thomas Denny Jonathan H. Ransom James Freeland Joseph Battell John Paine Joseph W. Patterson Charles Lamson John Caswell Simeon B. Chittenden C. A. Avery William M. Vail William M. Richards George Griswold Sheppard Gandy Robert H. McCurdy William V. Brady 12 WILLIAM V. BRADY PRESIDENT, 1853-1857 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 In due course committees were appointed to se- lect for the company the required managerial tal- ent, and an office suitable for its accommodation. The officer first chosen was its secretary, George T. Hope, who, although still a young man, had already had large experience in underwriting, having been, for more than half his life, an officer of The Jefferson Fire Insurance Company. The Hon. William V. Brady, ex-mayor of the City of New York, was elected president, which position he held until May, 1857, when he was succeeded by the secretary, Mr. Hope. Books for subscription to the stock were pub- licly opened, as required by law, on the 27th of December, 1852, and were closed at the end of two hours, when it was found that an amount largely in excess of that fixed upon for the capital ($500,000) had been subscribed. The subscrip- tions were all paid in on the 3rd of January, 1853, and on the 7th of that month — all legal prelimi- naries being completed — the Continental's first policy was issued. The primary purpose of the stockholders of the Continental was to provide a first-class company for the City of New York, but it was not their in- tention to preclude the extension of its business in due process of time to other fields by means of agencies. The company soon gained the reputa- tion of being ably managed, and applications for agencies were pressed upon it. Its first agency was established during the year 1853, ^^ Cleve- land, Ohio. J5 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY THE Steady forward march of the Continen- tal, in the systematic expansion of its business, the increase of its assets and the extension of its power and influence as an under- writing institution are shown in the successive annual statements made by the company to the Insurance Department of the State from the com- mencement of its operations until the year 1871. On the 8th, 9th and i oth of October of that year, occurred in Chicago that unprecedented conflagra- tion which burned over five square miles of the city, and swept away insurance capital and every form of combustible property within the district where it raged. The Continental had been transacting business in Chicago for seventeen years, was thor- oughly well known and appreciated by the property owners of that city, and its business there, selected with assiduous care, was large and profitable. It was now to be called upon to pay fire losses amounting to nearly one and three-quarter mil- lions of dollars. The manner in which the com- pany met this great disaster is indicative of the decision and energy of its Board of Directors, and of the views which they held of the commercial sphere and functions of an insurance company. The Chicago fire started on Sunday evening, Octo- ber 8th. That it was a great conflagration was apparent before Monday closed, but its full extent was not known even on the Wednesday following. In order to obtain definite and reliable information as to the extent of the company's loss, a special agent had been despatched to Chicago. He tele- 16 OF NEW YORK, 1853 "^^ ^9^5 graphed that 1 1,200,000 would more than pay it. The officers in presenting the despatch to their Directors asked them to consider the loss to be not less than 11,500,000. The result proved that the local and special agents, though on the ground (as was the common experience of companies involved in that calamity) greatly underestimated the amount of loss. The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors occurred on Thursday morning. Information to the latest date was laid before them. 1 1 was obvious to them that the cap- ital of their Company, which five days before com- manded a price of $300 per share in the New York market, was still sound at par, but that the security of their policyholders was materially diminished. The Directors evidently having previously deter- mined, each for himself, the action properly to be taken, met, and after discussing the situation for a quarter of an hour, unanimously resolved to double the capital of their Company, making it one million dollars, and to pay the additional five hundred thousand dollars in cash and at once. The courage of that action can be appreciated only by those who were heavily involved in that loss. Not knowing what effect the distrust awakened by the failure of a large number of companies might have upon the stockholders of the Conti- nental, but firmly resolved to secure the addi- tional half million of capital, the individual mem- bers of the Board of Directors present, subscribed the entire amount before they left the Directors' room. The confidence of the Directors in their 17 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY officers, shown by this prompt and resolute action, was endorsed by the stockholders and the public, who immediately subscribed to the new stock 11,090,400, where only $500,000 could be accepted. At the meeting of the Continental Directors, January, 1872, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: ''Resolved : That the thanks of this Board are due and are hereby tendered to the officers of The Continental Insurance Company for the courage, skill, and good management with which they have met a great epoch in its affairs, in success- fully providing for losses by a single fire amount- ing to three times its original capital, and in simultaneously placing it in a condition of strength that entitles it to the confidence of a constituency already twice as large as it was before the burning of Chicago/' The calamity of Boston, in November of the following year, just a year and a month and a day after the fire at Chicago, inflicted a loss of over seven hundred thousand dollars on the Conti- nental. The business of the preceding ten months had been strangely fruitful of losses, and the company had had neither time nor opportunity to accumulate any considerable amount of sur- plus. In view of this new and severe demand upon the Company, there was left for the consid- eration of the Directors the option of reducing the capital to five hundred thousand dollars, or of submitting to an assessment of four hundred 18 GEORGE T. HOPE PR ESI DENT, 1 857-1 8815 OF NEW YORK, 1853 "^^ ^9^5 thousand dollars. The feeling of distrust of in- surance stocks, which had again begun to be freely expressed in the community, was recog- nized, but after a brief consultation the Directors again met the requirements of the hour by accept- ing the burden of assessment, and, before leaving their seats, confirmed their resolution by sub- scribing for the entire sum required. Again, also, the stockholders and the New York capitalists sustained the action of the Continental Directors by a subscription of over one million, where only four hundred thousand dollars could be received. These two great conflagrations, bringing the bankruptcy of one hundred companies, and the consequent enormous wastage of resources in their train, could not fail to suggest to sound underwriters that the prevailing system of organi- zation of insurance companies lacked important elements of safety, and the effect of the Continen- tal's costly but triumphant experience, upon the views of its managers, led them to induce the Directors and stockholders of the Company to submit to the provisions of the New York Surplus Law (otherwise known as the Safety Fund Law), which became operative upon its passage in April, 1874. The Safety Fund Law restricts the dividends of a fire insurance company to seven per cent upon its capital and accumulated funds, until these funds equal or exceed the capital stock, when all dividend restrictions are removed. Under this law, the special reserve fund is held for the pro- 21 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY tection of policyholders not involved in a con- flagration which, without this provision — this sheet anchor to windward — would exhaust the entire loss-paying resources of the Company and drive it upon the shoals of bankruptcy. This fund, deposited and safeguarded at Albany, im- mediately supplies a capital that enables the Company to avoid a receivership, with its ruinous charges and commissions, and its vexatious hin- drances, and to continue business without an hour's interruption or delay. At the time the Continental submitted to the provisions of this law, it was a matter of impor- tance, for the Company's assets amounted to but $2,606,235.00. At present, with the large surplus that it has accumulated, the law is no longer necessary for the protection of its policyholders, but doubly/ safeguards their interests. One other characteristic of The Continental Insurance Company deserves notice. In 1869 the officers induced the Board of Directors to adopt a system which amounts to a guarantee that no misappropriation of any of the assets of the Com- pany can take place. The security afforded by this plan so impressed the Hon. Julius L. Clarke, Insurance Commissioner of Massachusetts, who incidentally became acquainted with it, as to lead him to make an extended reference to it in his annual report of January i, 1872, of which the following is an extract: ''Under its operation, a special committee on assets, consisting of three members of the Board 22 OF NEW YORK, 1853 "^^ ^9^5 of Directors, are required to make, at irregular intervals, to be determined by themselves, but at least as often as once in each month, a critical examination of any part, or of the whole, as they may elect, of the assets of the Company; the result of such examinations to be reported at each regular meeting of the Board. It is further pro- vided that, upon its appointment, the committee shall divide itself into three classes, so that its members shall act for one, two and three months respectively; the place of the retiring member to be filled by another appointment for three months at each regular meeting of the Board/' ''This is the plan adopted by a well-managed company; the certificates of monthly examina- tions embodied in the records of its asset com- mittee for years past showing that this duty has been faithfully fulfilled. If other companies have adopted similar usage, all the better. Be that as it may, every intelligent financier will discover in the scheme here set forth a development of method and accountability which, wherever adopted, should scarcely fail to secure absolute safety and confidence." ON July 27, 1885, Mr. George T. Hope died at his residence at Bay Ridge, Long Island, in the 67th year of his age. In the twenty-eight years that he filled the office of president of the Company its assets increased from less than a million of dollars to over five millions, and its surplus rose from a scant one 23 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY hundred thousand dollars to a million and a half, but of this increase — as has been shown — 1900,000 had been contributed by the stock- holders to the coffers of the Company, $500,000 as new capital and $400,000 in payment of an assessment of forty per cent rendered necessary by the losses sustained in the Chicago and Boston conflagrations. Mr. Hope's administration extended over other trying periods in the history of the Company, besides those incident to these two great fires which shook the very foundations of the fire in- surance business in the United States. It covered the four years of the Civil War, those anxious days and nights for all charged with the care and con- duct of important business enterprises; and the Continental in addition had peculiar troubles of its own in the Inland Marine Department of its business, vexatious legal complications, which future presidents of the Company inherited and courageously battled with for many a long year before they were brought to a termination under the administration of Mr. Moore. Mr. Hiram H. Lamport had served as secretary of the Company from April 9, 1857, to July 12, 1866, when he was made vice-president, and in August, 1885, he succeeded Mr. Hope in the office of president, but on account of ill health he was obliged to relinquish the position in January, 1889. He still at the advanced age of eighty-five, con- tinues a Director of the Company. 24 HIRAM H. LAMPORT PRESIDENT, 1885-1889 OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 THE fourth president of the Continental, Mr. Francis C. Moore, became connected with the Company as a clerk in 1869. In March, 1881, he was made second vice-presi- dent, and on the 17th of January, 1889, was elected to the position marked out for him by Mr. Hope some time before the latter's death. This office Mr. Moore retained for fourteen years, and in his conduct of it proved beyond question Mr. Hope's competency as a judge of character and ability by the selection of his second vice- president, as the one under whose direction the Company would go on, to use his own expression, "without a jar.'' Mr. Moore demonstrated his mastery of the science of fire underwriting, and won high distinction, not only by the conspicu- ously successful management of the affairs of his Company, but also by his contributions to the literature of a subject of highest importance to the business world, for without insurance against fire the wheels of commerce would not long re- volve. When Mr. Moore assumed the direction of the Company in 1889 its assets amounted to 15,028,- 344.69, and its net surplus to $1,226,691.66. Upon his relinquishment of his office in 1903 the Company possessed $12,957,841.15 of gross assets, a net surplus of $5,718,961.98, and an organiza- tion and an esprit de corps which he in a large measure created, of a value to the Company that cannot be estimated. Mr. Moore's books and pamphlets on "Fire 27 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY Insurance and How to Build/' ''How to Build Fireproof and Slow-Burning/' ''How to Build a Home," "Unearned Premium," "Waterworks and Pipe Distribution," and "How to Build a Hotel," the results of his own long experience as a fire underwriter, are recognized as authorities of the highest practical value, and, as standard text books they should form part of the equipment of every fire underwriter's oifice. "The mere recapitulation," says a writer in the Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor, of London, England, of the subjects treated in " Fire Insur- ance and How to Build" "is calculated to amaze even the seasoned habitues of the fire insurance domain. The work is as admirably lucid in re- spect of diction as it is invaluable in respect of instructiveness. Insurance people all over the world are under deep obligations to Mr. Moore for this laborious and crowning contribution to the literature of the business. It will readily be acknowledged that the author stands in no need of introduction to European insurance circles." The Standard Universal Schedule, for rating mercantile risks, prepared by a committee of which Mr. Moore was chairman, is "generally admitted to be the most comprehensive and thorough schedule ever devised." It marked a change in rate-making in the United States, if not in the whole world, and elicited a chorus of com- mendations from insurance experts here and abroad. One of the most appreciative and ably written of the many press notices of it that ap- 28 FRANCIS C MOORE PRESIDENT, 18S9-1903 OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 peared was the following, in ''The Insurance News," of Manchester, England, issue of July i, 1892: SCIENTIFIC FIRE UNDERWRITING IS IT FEASIBLE ? "That such a question as this should have to be put after two centuries of practical experience may almost appear incredible. Yet in sober truth we seem to have got very little past the crude and uncertain methods which characterized the early stages of fire insurance history. We need seek no further illustration of this assertion than the marvellous results which have been presented by the modern system of 'tendering.' Speaking generally we may say that the methods of rating now in vogue are purely empirical. And we may even go further than this, and assert, without fear of contradiction, that, omitting the sphere which is technically known as 'first-class risks,' five-sixths of all the remaining business is now being done at a loss. This, it is true, largely arises from the intensity of competition, but it is the competition of ignorance. No underwriter, however infatuated, would take upon his books a quantity of business which he knew before-hand would prove unprofitable. But in actual practice this is being done every day. What we want, therefore, is a clearer and more definite classifica- tion; more light, more knowledge, against which even the most unscrupulous would hesitate to sin. In other words, we want to know whether 31 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY fire insurance rating can be placed upon a mathe- matical and scientific basis. No genuine and united attempt in this direction has yet been made. It has been held that each oifice is best consulting its own interests by maintaining secrecy as to its experience in connection with any given class of risk. This, we maintain, is an enormous fallacy, and one that has done untold mischief to the cause of fire insurance as a whole. It is, as we have said, ignorance which is pre- sumptuous, and not knowledge. If during the last ten years it had been clearly known where lay the line which divided profit from loss, we should scarcely have had fire insurance reduced to the unsatisfactory, if not even perilous, position in which it is found to-day. "All very well, it may be said, but is it possible to place fire business upon such a basis as that ad- vocated ? A very remarkable and clever attempt in this direction is now being made in America, where the evils and irregularities of unscientific rating are even more conspicuous than in Great Britain. A committee consisting of four mem- bers. President Moore, of the Continental; Mr. Sil- vey, of the German American', Mr. Babb, of the 'Northern, and Mr. E. G. Richards, of the National of Hartford, have gone into this question with the most minute care and attention, and have pub- lished a pamphlet entitled 'Standard Universal Schedule for Rating Mercantile Risks.' The starting point is the experience of the past five years, and an assumed loss ratio of 55 per cent. 32 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 of the proposed premiums — a state of things which we may almost look upon as too halcyon for realization. But it is unnecessary to say that this preliminary condition of 55 per cent, of loss in no way affects the methods which it is proposed to employ in discrimination and classification. It is in these latter points that the value and excellence of this attempt are conspicuous. There are first of all laid down the conditions which will constitute a 'standard city/ those conditions having reference chiefly to the extent and effi- ciency of the fire appliances, but embracing also a variety of other features, such as the width of the streets, the nature of the paving, good build- ing laws, no outlying exposures, such as lumber districts, and a previous exemption from an abnormally heavy loss ratio. In this * standard city' there is next assumed a * standard build- ing,' in which all approved methods of construc- tion and arrangement are supposed to exist. Here then in the shape of this standard building in a standard city we have what we may call the base line, the 'normal' condition of things if we may use our own familiar term, and for this a 'basis rate' of 5s. per cent, is fixed. There is then a series of provisions for deficiencies in the city standard, twenty-seven in number, and each of these involves a penalty in the shape of an extra rate, greater or less, according to the gravity of the case. We thus arrive at the rate for a 'standard building' in any city whatever, an enormous advantage, as may be easily seen. 33 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY In like manner the building itself is dealt with, and deficiencies from its standard are provided for by accumulated rates in precisely the same man- ner. Any building — i. e. any mercantile build- ing — in any city, is thus rated on strictly scientific and logical principles, the elements of risk being divided into two main branches, those arising from the city, as a city, and those from the build- ing, as a building. But, as will have been noticed, all buildings are thus far rated as empty, and we have now another elaborate schedule, under the heading of 'Charges for Occupancy,' giving, in alphabetical succession, a list of about three hundred different trades and tenantcies, with a rate in each case for buildings and contents, to be added to the rate as previously ascertained for the building in its unoccupied state. There are various other provisions expanding or modifying these general principles to meet special circum- stances, but the main outline of the scheme will, we trust, be sufficiently clear from the description we have already given. "We welcome this effort with the utmost pleas- ure. It is a distinct advance upon anything of the kind we have yet seen. It contains the true principles of scientific fire underwriting. We do not offer any opinion as to the inadequacy or otherwise of the proposed rates ; at this stage that is a very small matter. Experience will speedily cor- rect what is wrong in this respect. We have here for the first time in a practical form, a genuine attempt to estimate the one hitherto intangible 34 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 factor in fire insurance, risk. We have dealt with this fact heretofore by a priori methods, the present is an effort to deal with it a posteriori. Years ago we pointed out that risk itself was ca- pable of being divided into two elements: first, the probabilities of fire; second, the probabilities of suppression. The first embraces all features of construction and arrangement, the second, the ad- equacy and efficiency of extinguishing appliances. We can never have sound underwriting until, in all cases, the relative significance of these two factors is carefully and accurately adjusted. Our Ameri- can friends, whether consciously or unconsciously, have based their whole system upon the recognition of these truths; their 'standard building' is where the probabilities of fire are least, while their 'standard city' is where the probabilities of sup- pression are greatest. Magna est Veritas. When old Kepler had discovered his three immortal laws, he expressed himself as willing to wait a century for their recognition, since the maker of the uni- verse 'had waited six thousand years for an ob- server.' Our sphere is a very humble one, but there is truth in matters small as well as in matters great; laws in commerce as well as in science; nay, commerce is science, if we but knew it. We have had enough of rule of thumb in fire insurance, and just now rule of thumb has brought us into a strait place. Suppose we now try science. The efforts of this American committee are deserving of every encouragement, and if such a system as they sug- gest could be perfected and adopted, its advan- 35 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY tages would be enormous. The least we can do is to urge every fire manager to send to America for a copy of this extremely able and suggestive pamphlet." AT a meeting of the Board of Directors held September ii, 1902, Mr. Moore an- nounced his intention to retire from the presidency of the Company early in the following year, feeling — to quote from the minutes of that meeting — that a long period of rest was necessary after his thirty-four years of service in the Com- pany. Messrs. Orr, Low and Babcock expressed the sentiments of the Board in urging the President not to retire and sever his official connection with the Company, but to take such time as he thought necessary to restore him to a condition of perfect health; and, on motion of Mr. Orr, seconded by Mr. Babcock, the Executive and Salary Committees were jointly made a Special Committee to confer with the President and make such recommenda- tions to the full Board as seemed best. To the Board's great disappointment the Committee was obliged to report its inability to induce Mr. Moore to alter his resolution. At the Directors' Meeting of January 15, 1903, Mr. Moore having declined a re-election, in accord- ance with his previously expressed determination, Mr. Henry Evans, who had enjoyed a quarter of a century of experience in fire underwriting under Mr. Moore's wise guidance, and for more than half that period had served as vice-president of the 36 HENRY EVANS PRESIDE NT. I 903- o c c c- c > C C C c c c etc OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 Company, was nominated and unanimously elected to fill the vacancy thus created. Mr. Moore's retirement was the occasion of deep regret, not only to his Board of Directors, but — as the columns of the prominent insurance journals of the country abundantly testify — to all interested in fire underwriting. On January 28, 1903, a compli- mentary dinner was tendered him by the National Board of Fire Underwriters at the Waldorf-As- toria Hotel, which was said by the managers of that world-renowned caravansary to have been the most largely attended banquet ever given to a pri- vate individual within its walls. THE number of directors deemed adequate by the promoters of our various banks, insurance, and trust companies, differs widely. A few of these directorates are limited to seven members, while in others *'the more the merrier'* appears to be the motto, and fifty are not thought to be too many. The forty-six directors with which the Continental began its career were, however, found to be a superabund- ance, for on November 14, 1895, the number was reduced to twenty-one, by vote of the Board. This action of the Directors was approved by the stockholders, December 12, 1895, and that number of gentlemen now constitutes the Board. Few directors have ever resigned their offices, but death has occasioned numerous vacancies in their midst, and many are they who have come and gone in the Company's council room during 39 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY the half century that has rolled away. Mr. Aurelius B. Hull is now the sole survivor of the incorporators of the Company. The present Oificers and Directors of the Com- pany are the following: Officers: Henry Evans, President; Edward Lanning and George E. Kline, Vice-Presidents; Joseph E. Lopez and Edward L. Ballard, Secre- taries; Charles R. Tuttle and James A. Swinner- ton. Assistant Secretaries. Mr. R. J. Taylor is the General Adjuster and has been with the Com- pany for nearly forty years. directors William L. Andrews, William G. Low, George F. Baker, Richard A. McCurdy, Clarence W. Bowen, William J. Matheson, John Kerr Branch, Francis C. Moore, Henry Evans, Charles A. Moore, G. Trowbridge Hollister, Alexander E. Orr, Aurelius B. Hull, Frederick P. Olcott, George E. Kline, Cyrus Peck, Hiram H. Lamport, William A. Read, Edward Lanning, Daniel G. Reid, John L. Riker. The New York and Chicago offices of the Com- pany have a clerical force of two hundred and seventeen, and it has been the uniform practice of the Company to promote from this trained body of employees men to fill the higher and official posi- tions. All of the present officers have been pro- moted from the ranks. 40 OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 OVER thirty years of exemption from great and destructive conflagrations had bred a feeling of scepticism as to their possible recurrence. The constantly increasing number of buildings of reputed fireproof construction, and the greater efficiency of the fire departments in most of the principal cities of the country seemed to warrant this conclusion, but on the 7th of February, 1904, there came a rude awakening from this fond dream of security in the Baltimore fire, which in forty-eight hours consumed about thirty- five million dollars worth of property, and entailed a loss upon the insurance companies of approx- imately thirty millions. A noteworthy feature of this conflagration was the full insurance carried by the property owners, over eighty per cent, of the loss being covered by insurance. Many of the local companies were thrown into bankruptcy, but fortunately for the insured only a few of the out- side companies transacting business in Baltimore were forced into liquidation. The Continental's losses in this conflagration (1925,000), and the ones that immediately followed it at Rochester, New York, and Yazoo City, Mississippi, amounted to over a million of dollars; nevertheless, in con- sequence of its large and widely distributed busi- ness, and the ample surplus accumulated through conservative management in previous years, the Company, on the ist of January, 1905, was able to exhibit an increase in both its gross assets and net surplus, as may be seen by the appended comparative statements: 41 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY ANNUAL STATEMENT, JANUARY I, I904 ASSETS Cash on deposit and in office .... $808,503 . 53 Loans on Bond and Mortgage (on real estate worth $66,000) . . 32,150.00 Stocks and Bonds 11,288,515.00 Real Estate 1,1 13,000.00 Premiums in course of collection . 864,577.86 Interest and Dividends (accrued). 83,744.57 Rents accrued i ,686.67 Total Assets $14,192,177.63 LIABILITIES Reserve for Insurance in force. . . 5,646,414.36 Reserve for losses in process of ad- justment 464,893 . 23 Reserve for commissions, taxes, and all other claims 217,441 .51 Reserve for contingencies 300,000.00 Cash Capital i ,000,000 .00 Total Liabilities 7,628,749. 10 Net Surplus 6,563,428. 53 $14,192,177.63 ANNUAL STATEMENT, JANUARY I, I905 ASSETS Cash on hand and in oifice $764,442 . 67 Loans on Bond and Mortgage (on real estate worth $60,500) . . . 28,900 . 00 Stocks and Bonds 1 1,674,865 .00 Real Estate 1,113,000.00 Premiums in course of collection.. 866,740 . 13 Interest and Dividends (accrued) 94,495.65 Rents accrued 709.87 Total Assets $14,543,153.32 42 OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 LIABILITIES Reserve for insurance in force. . . $5,903,813 .33 Reserve for losses in process of ad- justment 410,545 .05 Reserve for commission, taxes and all other claims 172,133.41 Reserve for contingencies 300,000.00 Cash Capital i ,000,000 .00 Total Liabilities 7,786,491 . 79 Net Surplus 6,756,661 . 53 114,543,153.32 RESULT OF TWELVE MONTHS* BUSINESS Increase Gross Assets l350>975 69 Increase Net Surplus 193,233 .00 Increase Reserve for Insurance in force 257,398.97 In this connection the following table of great fires in the United States is of interest. It shows the location, date and estimated magnitude of the conflagrations causing losses of five millions of dol- lars and over that have occurred since 1835: New York City.. Dec. 16, 1835, 530 buildings . ...$15,000,000 Charleston, S. C.Apr. 27, 1 838, 1,158 buildings — 5,000,000 New York City. June 20, 1845, 300 buildings 6,000,000 Pittsburgh, Pa. .Apr. 10, 1845, 1,100 buildings. .. 10,000,000 San Francisco. . .May 3, 185 1, 2,500 buildings 5,000,000 Sacramento,Cal.Nov. 12, 1852, general 10,000,000 Charleston, S.C.Dec. 11, 186 1, general 7,000,000 Portland, Me.. . .July 4, 1866, 1,743 buildings . ..10,000,000 Chicago, Ills Oct. 8, 1871, 2,124 acres 168,000,000 Boston, Mass . . .Nov. 9, 1872, 65 acres 75,000,000 Seattle, Wash. ..June 6, 1889, general 6,600,000 Spokane, Wash. .June 6, 1889, general 5,000,000 43 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY Lynn, Mass . . .Nov. 26, 1889, factories, &c $5,000,000 Milwaukee, Wis. Oct. 28, 1892, 230 buildings 5,000,000 Hoboken, N. J..June30, 1900, vessels and docks. . 5,000,000 Jacksonville, Fla. May 3, 1901, 130 blocks 10,000,000 Paterson, N. J . ..Feb. 9, 1902, 400 buildings. . . . 10,000,000 Baltimore, Md. ..Feb. 7, 1904, 140 acres 35,000,000 This table brings into prominence the fact that of all the cities of the United States, Chicago holds the unenviable pre-eminence of having sustained a loss by fire of nearly one hundred million dollars in excess of that resulting from any other single conflagration. Boston follows next, then Balti- more, and, lastly. New York. Our neighbors of Canada have had their full share of disastrous fires during the past twenty- five years. The great fires in Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Hull, and St. Johns, Newfoundland, alone consumed property valued at forty-five millions of dollars. This insurance loss fell mostly upon foreign companies, for relatively few companies in the United States venture across the border with their insurance policies. THE Continental Fire Insurance Company began the transaction of the business for which it was created in the basement of 6 Wall Street, but shortly migrated to 14, and in 1856 to 18 Wall Street. In i860 it ac- quired the property at 102 Broadway and i Pine Street. Number 100 Broadway was purchased in 1 87 1, and in 1892, Number 104 was added to the 44 CONTINENTAL BUILDING 100 BROADWAY, NEW YORK ERECTED I 873 OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 Company's holdings, which gave it a frontage of sixty-two feet on that unique block in lower Broadway which faces the open ground of Trin- ity Church-yard, and enjoys a perpetual ease- ment of its light and air. This entire property cost the Company about $450,000, and was sold November, 1892, to the American Surety Co. for 11,050,000, a record price up to that time for Broadway property. In April, 1894, the Continental removed to the commodious oifices it now occupies in the fme thirteen-story building erected under the careful supervision of the then Vice-President, Mr. Henry Evans, at Nos. 44-46-48 Cedar Street; a section of the city in which the old-time three and four- story brick warehouses were then just beginning to disappear before the towering office buildings of modern construction, where now the fire insur- ance companies, both foreign and domestic, most do congregate. The Continental also owns the building occupied in part by its Brooklyn oifices at the corner of Court and Montague Streets, one of the most prominent business locations in the City of Churches; and it has recently purchased a lot, 25 X 100 feet in dimensions, at No. 158 Monta- gue Street. It proposes to improve this property by the erection of a four-story office building, to which its Brooklyn branch offices will be removed. This change is contemplated for the same consid- erations that influenced the Company's removal in New York from Broadway to Cedar Street, to wit, the shifting of the center of the insurance 47 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY business, and the increased value for other pur- poses of the property vacated. THE steady financial growth of the Company during the first half century of its existence is exhibited in detail in the Fifty-year table which will be found in the Appendix. The An- nual Statement for January i, 1906, (the fifty- third issued by the Company) shows an additional gain in net surplus of over two and a half millions of dollars, and in net assets of over three millions. In the valuation of its real estate, stocks and bonds, the management of the Continental has shown unusual conservatism. For example, in its statement of January i, 1906, the actual ''market value" of its securities alone was over one and one-half million dollars in excess of the figures at which they had been inventoried in making up the total assets of the Company. The real estate could undoubtedly be sold for several hundred thousand dollars more than the stereotyped valuation at which, for years past, it has been carried on the books of the Company, and as a cap-sheaf, the sum of $300,000, set aside and called "reserve for contingencies,'' constitutes an- other bulwark against losses by fire, and is an extraordinary precaution, which is taken by few other fire insurance companies and is not required by law. It must not be overlooked in this resume that an important part of this very favorable result is due to the care and management of the Company's in- 48 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 vestments by the Finance Committee of the Board, which has always included men of prominence in the city's financial affairs, noted in the community for their sagacity and for the possession of that business sense which, experience teaches, is almost as rare a gift as that of poesy. IN the latter part of the year 1869 The Continen- tal Insurance Company established in the West a Department with headquarters at Chicago. The field covered at that time was the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Min- nesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and the Dakotas. In 1873 Kentucky was added, and since that date the Department has gradually ex- panded its operations until at the present time it is writing insurance in practically all the Western States, including Tennessee and the States of the Pacific Coast. It was soon discovered that farmers required credit in order that they might pay their insurance premiums out of the proceeds of the year's har- vests, and to meet this necessity the Continental in advance of any other company decided to con- duct its farm business upon a three to five year note installment plan. As time passed on, and the farmers became more prosperous the single note plan was inaugurated which allowed but one year's credit, the note being timed to fall due when the far- mer realizes from his crops. The greater part of the farm insurance business of the Company has been conducted upon these two lines. The popu- 49 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY larity it acquired by this liberal action, its honor- able treatment of claimants and prompt settle- ment of losses, and its strong financial position, have resulted in its present large and growing busi- ness throughout the farming community. The Continental was also one of the first companies to recognize the necessity for tornado insurance and in 1882 this class of business was added to its farm department. The Western Department is in charge of Vice- President Mr. George E. Kline — whose period of service with the Company passed the quarter cen- tury mark in November 1904, and Mr. Charles R. Tuttle, who in the year 1903 was promoted to an assistant secretary-ship from a special agency in the State of Colorado. The headquarters of the department is in Chicago, and the vaults in the Postal Telegraph Building formerly called the Rialto Building in that city, in which these farmers' notes are filed away in orderly arrangement, supply a striking object lesson of the magnitude, in the aggregate, of the business there conducted — and the vast amount of detail work and clerical labor that the average littleness of its component parts involves. These tiers upon tiers of boxes contain two hundred thousand farmers' notes ranging in amount from five dollars to one thousand dollars each. None of the installment notes of the Com- pany (over $ 1 ,200,000 face value) are included in the assets until collected. Since the organization of its Western Depart- ment the Company has paid to the holders of its 50 OF NEW YORK, 1 853 TO I905 farm policies over 1 1 2,500,000 and in its own partic- ular sphere it has unquestionably been an import- ant factor in the upbuilding of the Great West dur- ing the past fifty years. The security afforded by its policies of insurance has enabled hundreds of thousands of agriculturists to obtain loans upon their farms or to secure extensions of time for the payment of existing mortgages which they were un- able to meet when due, and the western farmer now regards a Continental policy as a provision for a rainy day, equivalent to a government bond. IN the three and fifty years of its corporate life the Company has paid losses amounting to over Fifty-eight Million Dollars. Its business covers sixty States and Territories of the Union, and is transacted through the medium of agencies, which at the last report numbered seventy-one hundred. It maintains a force of fifty-nine travel- ing representatives, covering all the States in which it transacts business, and is thus enabled to prompt- ly reach any policy holder who has a claim upon it. Agents in the following States are under the direct supervision of the home office at New York: Alabama Maine Ohio Arkansas Maryland Pennsylvania Connecticut Massachusetts Rhode Island Delaware Mississippi South Carolina Dist. of Columbia New Hampshire Texas Florida New Jersey Vermont Georgia New York Virginia Louisiana North Carolina West Virginia THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY Agents in the following States are under the su- pervision of the Western Department, Chicago: Arizona Kentucky Oklahoma California Michigan Oregon Colorado Minnesota South Dakota Idaho Missouri Tennessee Illinois Montana Utah Indiana Nebraska Washington Indian Territory Nevada Wisconsin Iowa New Mexico Wyoming Kansas North Dakota Through these agents the Company in 1905 is- sued approximately four hundred thousand pol- icies, or, to quote the exact figures as shown by the records, 393,953 policies. THIS is, in brief, the story of The Continen- tal Insurance Company, whose stock to- day has a higher book value than that of any other company in the United States having a capital of a million dollars or more, and that, in ''Standing by Assets,'' ''Surplus to Policy- holders," "Premiums on Fire Business," and "Gross Risks in Force," ranks with the strongest fire insurance companies the world over. "The Company," wrote President Hope a gene- ration ago, "is from principle, a supporter of schedule rating, of wisely discriminating tariffs, and of uniform charges for insurance; believing that underwriters owe it to the country, by such means, to induce property-owners so to build that property shall be less liable to destruction by fire, 52 OF NEW YORK, 1853 TO I905 and that thereby the immense drain upon the resources of the nation by the burning up of earned values, may be diminished; and it believes also, that only by such discriminating and uni- form charges can the companies grow strong to meet the next great conflagration and its suc- cessors. To these ends the Company has always co-operated with others for uniform tariffs, paid fire departments, better water supplies, and all that tends to conservatism." These are still the watchwords of the Con- tinental, and by the wise, able, experienced and progressive management of its affairs by Mr. Hope's successors in the presidency of the Com- pany, through days when the sun of its prosperity rose high in the heavens, and again when the smoke from burning towns and cities enveloped it in clouds and darkness, it has kept the steady, up- ward and onward tenor of its way, and won for itself a name and prestige equalled by few and surpassed by none of the fire insurance corpora- tions of this or any other country. IT is the part of wisdom and prudence for those in charge of the affairs of any institution, to select men of ability on the staff of their em- ployees and train and fit them to occupy the high and responsible positions in the ranks of its officials which sooner or later in the course of time become vacant. No other method of filling such vacancies is productive of equally satisfac- tory results. This, as before noted, has been the 53 THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY creed and practice of the managers of the Con- tinental and in consequence it has always been able to command the services of those who have grown up under this tutelage and who have thus become fully equipped and qualified for the work assigned them. To the untiring efforts of these officers and agents and their devotion to the interests of the Company, the commanding posi- tion it at present occupies is largely due. FINIS CONTINENTAL BUILDING 158 MONTAGUE STREET, BROOKLYN ER ECTED I 906 APPENDIX THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY 1853 — ^90^ YEAR PREMIUMS TOTAL DEC. 31 COLLECTED LOSSES PAID TOTAL INCOME DISBURSEMENTS INCLUDING DIVIDENDS 1853 $96,417.16 $6,785.17 $132,145.80 $56,572.86 145,982.89 138,501.18 1854 125,682.11 70,544.76 160,164.02 'In 136,376.53 159,503.68 60,010.49 179,257.03 1856 54,447-38 203,777.45 210,462.31 'in 183.090.95 63,050.54 225,858.94 271,502.83 148,666.72 1858 218,446.40 43,020.94 142,387.58 1859 265,085.14 79,659.99 321.052.38 209,734.69 i860 296,402.21 132,044.05 359.357-57 281,207.71 1861 275,640.40 132,826.00 342,267.95 283,511.98 1862 297,075.94 136,946.75 74,116.78 370,680.95 285,616.37 1863 33J.204.15 420,936.43 247,643.62 1864 417,353-91 187,785.44 541.766.76 456,041.02 1865 495,046.90 I97.153-I2 334,484.17 606,793.85 518,045.33 1866 615,704.06 733.296.45 691,150.94 !86? 678,947.68 683,660.65 315,800.64 801,085.10 681,443-47 195,163.41 822,222.54 599,239.36 1869 752,122.08 879,445.22 210,426.13 934,300.05 667,958.21 1870 258,040.30 1,032,352.02 862,032.59 1871 1,351.361.95 1,419,101.08 1,511,567-75 2,205,415.57 1872 1.549.J 53-35 1,747,387.05 1,657,489.33 2,443,640.03 1873 1,633,904.35 977,840.61 1.740,274.96 1,801,571.28 1.651,304.59 1874 1,677,695.32 701,999.58 733,428.14 .1,432.718.55 '§75 1.523,845.67 1.677.155.99 1,448,526.15 1876 1,402,809.95 1,465,578.95 664,891.91 1.559.918.94 1,353.711.41 ,877 1878 695,413.08 1,624.109.16 1,413.116.90 1,493,012.42 675,506.88 1.664.418.01 1,446,892.23 1,514,069.14 825,953.68 1,688.656.17 1,582,758.22 1,759,601.08 801,703.79 1,946,192.73 1,627,142.19 1881 2,041,234.42 1 ,097,400.08 2,228,404.61 2,019,022.63 1882 2,153,291.14 1,164.291.70 2.375.239-89 2,828,042.61 2,157,731.25 1883 2,601,744.86 1,474,802.72 2,613.755-73 1884 2,704,920.16 1,706,735.73 2,934,722.53 2,906,576.51 1885 3,159,636.36 1.945,025-78 1,754,868.65 3,388,642.70 3,360,593.23 1886 2,976,114.58 3.232.525.35 3,111,401.31 'III 2,417,081.15 1,557,501-43 2.642,950.28 2,739,784.82 1888 2,245,145.43 1,245,697.41 2,473,939.05 2,305,322.59 1889 2,203,985.66 1,287.039.76 2,439.448.42 2,333,981.32 1890 2,303,080.92 1,225,157.27 2,660,543.80 2,335,047.88 1891 2,409,268.25 1,422.638.37 2,592,604.60 1892 2,712,105.37 1.531,242.13 2,935,703.01 2,794,362.89 3,052,743.98 1893 2,954,422.87 1,780,555-72 3.228,004.03 1894 3,197,722.03 1.767,268.02 3,467,991.97 3,103,796.41 1895 3,421,484.48 1,830,789.06 3.740.744.59 3,232,101.11 1896 3,/i45,828.40 3,648,085.13 3,729,768.35 1,683.362.71 3,760,603.90 3,126,551.58 % 1.714.641.47 3,964,952.44 3.263.023.26 1,902,824.34 4,068,796.21 3.658.137.26 1899 3.876,078.89 2,274.159.68 4,281,188.76 4,017,449.93 1900 4,294,530.98 4,921,884.93 2,220,299.31 4,667,620.36 4,044,922.58 1901 2.648,853.% 5,320,622.99 4,722,522.46 1902 5,403,061.54 2,686,323.80 5.850.237.97 4,842,578.93 Total 191,098,713.25 $49,717,010.83 $100,368,910.45 $91,565,436.93 50 years THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY 1853 ^902 YEAR UNEARNED TOTAL LIABILITIES NET SURPLUS r>r> crikji it 1 k/i c NOT INCLUDING TOTAL ASSETS WITH SCRIP AND DEC. 31 rKbiWlUMb SCRIP ANDCAPITAL CAPITALDEDUCTED 1853 15,560.00 1575.572.94 1854 457-50 595.547-07 635.249.68 628,859.85 706,887.25 1855 4,904.68 1856 14.548.78 1857 1858 11,709-5' 104,124.1 I 835.227.59 $128,236.06 .859 $106,115.28 137.041-52 946,572.73 115,629.95 i860 133,996.00 163,463.89 1.024,752.28 98,459.16 1861 123,829.74 143,231.02 1,071.518.26 110,041.04 1862 i33'323-i6 160,901.46 1,171.212.78 127,405.16 1863 149,041.87 197.634-72 248.752.34 1,345.386.92 166,592.04 1864 188.725.16 1,423,680.98 153.097.83 147,088.03 1865 213,348.74 332,909.73 1,532.887.84 1866 265,122.31 379,099.53 381,992.92 1,668,136.57 233.899.94 358,459.87 1867 1868 288,552.76 1,814,590.31 314,046.67 447, 1 54.67 529,173.78 2,066,854.10 523,519.43 1869 387,976.24 2,339,122.50 2.538.037-74 671,526.72 1870 491,405.18 667,740.30 647.203.44 1871 706,271.68 1,456,181.36 §2,509,526.27 53.344-9' 1872 801,175.27 1.231,093.71 12,284,251.97 2.255,937.08 53.158.26 1873 921,926.76 1,117,963.17 1,198,634.93 137,973.91 1874 981,229.39 2,606,235.97 366,143.41 1875 951,427.42 1,189,152.1 I 2,845,165.64 600,221.53 1876 930,107.84 1,196,069.94 3,040,085.07 785,290.13 899,436.03 '^77 983,069.21 1,060,384.21 1,207,432.28 3.173.933.31 1878 1,289,349.47 3.327.771-74 3,478,188.76 965,514.27 1,028,155.28 1879 1,132,518.32 1,372,869.48 1,682,583.64 1880 * 1, 346, 195.69 3,938.719.41 1,176,206.77 1,327,419.81 1881 * 1, 458,827.07 1,800,484.70 4,207,205.51 1882 *i. 524,123. 54 1,892,668.81 4,450,534.50 1,496,705.69 1,617,782.28 •g§3 * 1. 775,820.69 2,206,144.73 4,867,942.01 '^4 * 1, 953,694. 10 2,403,280.10 1,938,501.92 1.505.523.82 1885 *2,265,427.88 2.818,599.14 5,177,478.99 5,239,981.28 1,340,422.85 1886 *2,383,8oo.53 2,865.124.35 1,364,645.93 1887 2,585,904.05 2,954,625.42 2,801,653.03 4,875,623.03 917.237.61 1888 2,501,884.39 5,028,344.69 1,226,691.66 1889 2,470,343.24 2,746,070.02 5.217,773.91 5.587,948.84 1,471.703.89 1890 2,501,365.84 2,985,328.79 1.602,620.05 1891 2,636,775.30 3,161,023.47 5,806,784.71 1,645,761.24 1,785,864.96 1892 3,008,612.00 3. 594.3 « 5-77 6,380,180.73 1893 3,204,755.03 3,856,575.95 6,433. •7» -33 1.576.595.38 1894 3,405,407.79 3,943,639.46 6,754,908.72 1,811,269.26 1895 3,521,726.96 4,191,020,12 7,216,828.25 2,025,808.13 1896 3,523,299.59 4,212,128.37 8, 582! 207^68 2,564,218.76 •?97 3.666,749.49 4,464,212.20 3,117.995.48 1898 3,762,919.29 4,597,879.29 9.077,114.17 3.479,234.88 1899 3 ,968,336.70 4,774,665.72 9,809.660.83 10,638,271.47 4,034,995.11 1900 4,272,117.52 5,127,7^.17 5,697,683.69 4,510,539.30 1901 4,806,903.60 1 1,599,01 1. 81 4,901,328.12 1902 5,320,070.68 6,243,168.74 12.957,841.15 5.718,961-98 §Ca *In pital increased to $i,ck )0,000. :ludes Unearned Prem iums on Marine Business [1872. y stockholders, Dec. tim pairment of $400,000, i n Capital, resulting from Joston Fire, met b THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1903—1905 YEAR DEC. 31 PREMIUMS COLLECTED LOSSES PAID TOTAL INCOME TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS INCLUDING DIVIDENDS 1903 1904 1905 $5,820,799.23 5,906,807.17 5.934,613.72 $2,680,112.31 3,678, ^{68.70 2,663,444- '4 $6,287,805.23 6,443,442.08 6,505,703.72 $5,117,991.14 6,265,035.56 5,205,687.16 Total $17,662,220.12 $9,021,925.15 $19,236,951.03 $16,588,713.86 YEAR DEC. 31 UNEARNED PREMIUMS TOTAL LIABILITIES NOT INCLUDING SCRIP AND CAPITAL TOTAL ASSETS NET SURPLUS WITH SCRIP AND CAPITALDEDUCTED 1903 1904 1905 $5,646,414-36 5,903,813.33 6. > 57.738.23 $6,628,749.10 6,786,49179 6,960,276.70 $14,192,177.63 14,543. '53-32 16,384,501.83 $6,563,428.53 6,756,661.53 8,424225.13 ANNUAL STATEMEI JANUARY I, 1906 ASSETS Cash on deposit and in office Loans on Bond and Mortgage (on real estate worth $39,500) Stocks and Bonds Real Estate sJT $1,118,043.52 16,350.00 13,099,465.00 1,150,000.00 906,924.77 93,718.54 Premiums in course of collection . . Interest, Dividends and Rents accrued Total Assets LIABILITIES Reserve for unearned premiums on policies in force Reserve for losses in process of ad- justment Reserve for Commissions, Taxes, and all other claims $16,384,501.83 16,157738.23 328,209.17 174,329.30 300,000.00 1 ,000,000.00 7,960,276.70 8,424,225.13 $16,384,501.83 BUSINESS $1,841,348.51 1,667,563.60 253.924.90 Reserve for contingencies Cash Capital Total Liabilities Net Surplus RESULT OF TWELVE MONTHS Increase Gross Assets Increase Net Surplus Increase Reserve for Insurance in force RECORD SHOWING NUMBER OF FIRES AND THEIR CAUSES IN CON- NECTION WITH CLAIMS PAID BY THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY DURING I905 AND FROM 1899 TO I905 INCLUSIVE 1909 PER CENT. OF TOTAL 1899—1905 PER CENT. OF TOTAL Unknown Outside Causes, Exposures, etc Lightning : Live Stock Building, etc Total Lightning Incendiary : Internal by Assured External by Tramps, etc Total Incendiary Heating: Defective Flues Stoves Gas Stoves (previous to 1904 included under Stoves) Fire Places, Open Grates Steam Gasolene Stoves Kerosene Oil Stoves Hot Air Furnaces Burning out soot in chimney Stove Pipes, defective '' " through walls, roofs, &c.. . Dry Kilns " Rooms Laundries Water Backs, Explosions Smoke Houses, private ... public pork.. Ovens Boiler Boiling Grease Fumigating Burning of vaults, Smead (W. C.) system Wood Box Total Heating Vacancy : Ordinary Temporary Total Vacancy CARRIED FORWARD 1098 83 672 755 100 111 416 588 522 120 176 21 '43 80 '3' 96 55 15 7 3 2091 4.63 11.72 .86 7.16 8.02 1.0^ 3.3^ 4-45 6.27 5.56 1.28 1.88 .23 1.40 1.03 .16 .07 .03 .08 .01 .26 -.11 .06 22.29 3651 8211 711 4240 495 » 759 2376 3'35 3978 3311 166 1058 184 807 559 749 47^ 428 112 6q 8h II 14 23 116 M: 61 12907 68 4803 32923 RECORD SHOWING NUMBER OF FIRES AND THEIR CAUSES IN CON- NECTION WITH CLAIMS PAID BY THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY DURING I9O5 AND FROM 1899 TO I9O5 INCLUSIVE CAUSE brought forward Carelessness : Adults Children Drunkenness Matches Plumbers, Mechanics, etc Cigarette or Cigar Stub . . . Total Carelessness Lighting : Candle Gas jets in contact with curtains Lights in show windows Kerosene Electric Bams Leaking Gas Pipes Gasolene Gas Machines Lamp Shades Total Lighting Sparks : Mill Chimneys Forges and Foundry Furnaces From Cupola Locomotives, Steam Vessels, &c On roofs from Chimneys From Forest Fires Threshing Machines Total Sparks Ashes Naphtha, Gasolene, Benzine, &c Fireworks Illuminations, Wakes, Christmas Trees, &c Spontaneous Combustion Explosions Sawdust Spittoons Rats and Mice Pickers Steam Dryers . . ;. Friction Natural Gas Sunlight through Glass General Conflagration Coffee Roaster Moving Picture Machine Slaking Lime TOTAL NUMBER OF FIRES 1905 4803 347 85 1272 79 2035 16 II 46 30 1301 37 276 7 2 392 61 68 53 26 271 22 6 116 5 2 58 12 2 144 PER CENT. OF TOTAL 3.69 .91 2.68 21.69 .92 4.09 •«7 4.70 3.07 .12 •49 .30 13.86 •39 •74 2.95 .07 .02 4.17 .65 •73 .56 .27 2.90 .23 .06 1.24 .05 .02 .62 .12 .02 1.54 .02 .O! 1899—1905 32923 3036 1041 29 6262 54 • 11161 473 2536 178 3110 340 119 70 8603 248 9 3 490 "539 20 2326 340 306 422 218 1578 196 48 724 43 4 325 99 22 990 4 2 I PER CENT. OF TOTAL 5.03 ••73 .05 •41 18.50 •78 4.21 5.16 2.83 .1 1 .56 .19 .12 14.25 .41 .01 .01 .81 2.56 .03 .02 T85 .56 .50 .70 .36 2.62 :^ 1.20 .07 .01 :n .04 1.64 .01 9380 60335 FOURTEEN DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. lit-'' > v'^-.v-- !>•'.'''"' '' Ak Jy-'' i t956 LO LD 21-100m-2,'55 (B139s22)476 General Library University of California Berkeley mmm "A mm .'i ■- . '^.'.■:.K.r t^f: YC 23506 IV1116898 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY