The Fina ncial Situation 



CHARLES SLEEPBR, Manager San Francisco ClearinK House. 



THE clearings for the ten weeks ending June 2d to August 4th of 

 1906 show a remarkably small difference from the same weeks of 

 1905. This year these clearings were only three and a quarter mil- 

 lions less than those of last year, and this in face of the fact that the 

 great business district of San Francisco was almost entirely destroyed 

 by fire during April, and that practically there were no places left in which 

 business could be done until some of the debris was removed from the 

 streets and temporary structures erected on such lots as could be easily 

 cleared. 



An inspection of the following table will show several surprising things 

 connected with the banking business of San Francisco since the fire: — 



1906. 1905. 



Week Ending Clearings IVeek Ending: Clearings 



June 2 $25,082,626 97 June 3 $32,724,318 63 



9 28,905,407 64 10 32,775,896 42 



16 30,528,122 76 17 36,448,269 28 



23 30,545,175 57 24 30,999,861 61 



30 31,782,172 73 July 1 35,061,106 27 



July 7 33,909,681 02 8 30,397,603 51 



14 37,090,319 94 15. 37,528,216 16 



21 40,630,759 04 22 34,514,400 08 



28 38,073,172 36 29 33,500,570 99 



Aug. 4 41,528,202 57 Aug. 5 37,382,602 54 



Ten weeks $338,075,640 59 Ten weeks $341,332,845 49 



It will be noted that the clearings of the past three weeks have exceed- 

 ed those of a corresponding time in 1905 by nearly fifteen millions of 

 dollars, and one wonders why it is so. But when one looks for what has 

 been done here to make the figures so large, it is found that the insurance 

 companies have already paid a considerable amount of money to their 

 policy-holders; that an immense amount of commodities has been brought 

 into San Francisco since the fire; that hundreds of new stores and offices 

 have been built; that other hundreds of stores are in process of erection. 



To accomplish such construction it has taken millions of feet of lum- 

 ber of thousands of dollars in value, as well as great quantities of other 

 material, and these structures have had put Into them fixtures and furniture 

 for the proper carrying on of business, besides the millions of dollars' worth 

 of merchandise of many kinds, so that the wants of the people might be 

 satisfied. 



To-day more artisans and laborers are at work for remunerative wages 

 than ever before in the history of the city, and this work of rebuilding the 

 city is increasing day by day. As soon as the insurance companies have 

 paid their policy-holders for the losses they have sustained I look to see 

 much greater activity in business in San Francisco than it has ever experi- 

 enced before. We have only begun to clear away the debris, and when 

 thousands of permanent buildings are under construction we will behold 

 that the fears that the metropolis of the Pacific would slip away was but 

 a dream. 



