on the first, and probable balances for the latter.”[427] “The Atchison plan of conversion,” said Mr. Reinhart, “... is the completion of the reorganization plan put in effect October 18, 1889, and returns the obligations of the company ... to a fixed and stable basis....”[428] The plan so cordially referred to provided for the issue of a new, second mortgage, 4 per cent bond, and the exchange of this security for the outstanding income bonds. The second mortgage was to be issued in two classes: (_a_) $80,000,000. These were to exchange for income 5s, par for par, and bore a rate of interest which increased from 2½ per cent in 1892 to 4 per cent in 1896, and then remained at 4 per cent until maturity. (_b_) $20,000,000. These bore 4 per cent and were to be issued in no greater sum in any year than $5,000,000 for specific improvements on the Atchison exclusive of the Colorado Midland or the St. Louis & San Francisco. There was reserved to the company the right, when all the above should have been exhausted, to issue more bonds of the same sort as in class B for the same purposes and on the same mileage, up to a limit of $50,000,000.[429] The conversion plan was approved at the annual meeting in 1892, and was put into effect. The result was most unfortunate. The annual burden on the company was increased at the very time when the panic of 1893 was about to reduce railroad earnings, while the advantages of freer issues of new bonds were of little account in a year when the sale of new securities was practically impossible. Moreover, a new light was soon to be thrown on the whole operation by disclosures of dishonest manipulation of figures in the Atchison reports. In 1892 and 1893 rumors of trouble were afloat, and were repeatedly and vigorously denied by Mr. Reinhart, president of the Atchison Company. Thus in June, 1893, this officer declared that “the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, strictly speaking, has no floating debt. Its current liabilities are more than equalled by its current cash assets.”[430] In December Mr. Reinhart said again: “The interest on the General Mortgage Bonds of the Atchison Company, due January 1, will be paid. It seems hardly necessary to make this statement, because doubts as to its payment have, in my judgment, been created solely by speculators who have no substantial interest in the property.” These official denials did not carry conviction, but opinions varied as to the seriousness of the situation. The _Boston News Bureau_ cheerily insisted that all the Atchison needed was “days of grace” during the existing depression,[431] while in England it was thought that the rumors of a receivership were at most but premature.[432]