The next few months saw active hostilities between Mr. Gowen and the syndicate; the former taking the position that he would never consent to foreclosure, nor to the placing of the property for five years under the management of a board of trustees named by his adversaries.[226] To Mr. Garrett, chairman of the reconstruction trustees, he wrote suggesting that the board should substitute his plan for that of the syndicate, and that seven reconstruction trustees should be appointed by the managers of the company to carry it through. “Upon this being done,” said he, “I will engage that the plan shall be underwritten by an association of capital sufficient for the purpose of paying off all the general mortgage bonds which do not voluntarily accept the new securities provided by the plan, and I will agree that the financial responsibility of these subscribers to this fund shall be determined by the presidents of the Bank of North America, the Farmers’ & Mechanics’ National Bank, the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance of Lives, etc., and the Union Trust Company....”[227] Mr. Garrett naturally refused. As in many cases before, the struggle ended in a compromise. The new agreement was as follows: The syndicate was to be enlarged by $4,000,000 additional subscriptions, and the reconstruction trustees increased to thirteen by the addition of certain friends of Mr. Gowen, one of whom was also to be given place upon the executive committee. The syndicate plan was to be carried through without foreclosure, providing sufficient assents could be obtained, and was to be modified by the substitution of first, second, and third 4 per cent income bonds for preferred, income, and consolidated 5 per cent stock. Dividends on the bonds, like those on the stock, were to be payable from net earnings only; but net earnings were defined as the profits derived from all sources after paying operating expenses, taxes, and existing rentals, guarantees and interest charges, _but not fixed charges of the same sort subsequently created_. All third preference bonds issued for convertible bonds were to have the right to be converted into common stock; and the company was to have the privilege of increasing the issue, subject for five years to the approval of the voting trustees. As finally worked out, the first preference bonds were to be given for assessments; the second preference for all securities which had been promised income or consolidated stock; and the third preference for the second series 5s, convertible and debenture bonds, and preferred stock to which common stock had before been allotted. Somewhat more emphasis was laid on the possibility of paying off the general mortgage. It was proposed to reduce the aggregate of rentals and guarantees (exclusive of the Central of New Jersey, the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and the Susquehanna Canal Company) to an annual charge of less than $2,350,000 by direct negotiation with the companies affected. And to