REBUILDING SAN FRANCISCO.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 148, 23 June 1906, Page 5

REBUILDING SAN FRANCISCO.

WORK RAPIDLY PROCEEDING. UTILITY AND SPEEDY RESUMPTION. •[Bt Telegraph.] (Per Mail Steamer at Auckland.) SAN, FRANCISCO, 31st May. San Francisco is the busiest city imaginable to-day. The ruins are tragic. A thousand men are at work in them cleaning up the debris, constructing temporary huUdings for business purposes, repairing .steel structures which wero only damaged and not destroyed, putting up wires, and mending street car tracks. The extent to which business has been resumed is amazing. The banks havo all re-opened, and have demonstrated, their soundness by paying all the demands. The insurance companies have not, for the most part, been so prompt. Some of these, notably the i.ondon, Liverpool and Globe Company, have paid promptly and without question all fair demands presented, It is believed that all the companies, except one, are perfectly solvent, and will all pay in due time. The question whether they will pay on the buildings damaged by the earthquake previous to the fire is not yet decided, and is the subject of grave anxiety on the part of poliovholders. The San Francisco merchants have found their credit abroad practically unlimited. This has given them courage to undertake the great work that is before them. The tendency to change the business centre was checked, when the banks op3ned in the old quarters, and the present'desire of the business men generally is to get back to their former locations. The great hotels will all be rebuilt. The St. Francis will have one hundred rooms ready by Ist July, and the Palace Hotel, which was built many years ago at a cost of six million dollars, will be rebuilt on an even more magnificent scale. As to the plans for beautifying the city by widening the streets, cutting new boulevards, establishing many down town parks it is not so certain that-much will be accomplished. The cry of the hour is for utility and the speedy resumption of trade. The fact that the improvements suggested can be made now better than later may not weigh much at a time when the city can nardly meet municipal expenses even on the old scale. School buildings must be rebuilt among other things, and, though Portland has begun good work by offering to rebuild one school, and although other parts have signified their intention of doing the same, the city .will certainly have to meet the heavy expenses of reconstruction of public improvements that are entirely necessary. The history of the work going on would make a, considerable, volume. San Francisco is undaunted and appears to be unconqueraole.