The committee had an apology to offer for the state in which the company was placed. “The actual cost of the 190 miles of the new roads constructed by the company has largely exceeded,” said they, “the estimated cost. The physical condition of the roads purchased by the company necessitated the expenditure of large sums in the improvement of roadway and track; the construction and reconstruction of bridge masonry and bridge superstructure. The facilities for the conduct of the company’s business were entirely inadequate to the requirements of its increasing traffic and had to be enlarged. Unfortunately the company did not fully provide for these expenditures, and the shrinkage of the value of its securities greatly aggravated the evil.” This much was very true. In its criticism of existing facilities the committee was on sure ground. In its suggestions for relief it was less well advised. It seems to have felt that the East Tennessee’s difficulties were due to a temporary inability to raise cash for the improvement of its roadbed and equipment, and that the suspension of certain charges for a few years would allow the expenditure of liberal sums from income, ensure the improvement of the road, and bring about a condition of permanent prosperity. The truth was that the East Tennessee was in too bad a shape to be reëstablished by such means. The heavily burdened and physically defective lines which made up the system were past being restored from income even with the aid of a funding of a few years’ coupons. They required a definitive surrender of portions of the claims against them, extensive new charges to capital account, and a correspondingly complete reconstruction of their whole operating plant.[306] The practical service which the committee rendered was not in suggesting an adequate remedy for existing troubles, but in making plain how serious these troubles were. So imminent, in fact, did they show collapse to be, that the management determined to forestall hostile action by themselves asking for the appointment of a receiver; and on January 7 the Circuit Court appointed Henry Fink to that position.[307] The committee’s funding scheme fell of its own weight. The decrease in the earnings of the company, a truer appreciation of its condition, and, it may be surmised, the influence of New York banking houses, forced it to make room for a thorough plan of financial reconstruction.