Deducting from this amount the sums paid to the Government and the company’s credits for mail and carriage, and adding arrears of interest, the sum due the Government at the last of 1893 was approximately $52,000,000.[496] It was obviously highly difficult for the company to pay this sum in 1892 or 1898 or any other time, and for some years both the company and the Government had been earnestly discussing schemes for refunding, and the advantages and disadvantages of the ownership and operation of the road by the United States. Thus in 1892 an overwhelming obligation was hanging over the Union Pacific; and did not crush it only because the inability of the road to pay was so evident, and the inadvisability of government ownership was so strongly believed in, that every one felt that the necessary concessions would be made. In 1893 the sinking-fund 8 per cent bonds matured to the amount of $5,176,000, and were partially extended and partially paid off through the medium of an underwriting syndicate; but this was the last attempt to meet indebtedness coming due. During the year both gross and net earnings fell off enormously, owing to the general depression of business, and particularly to the stagnation upon the Pacific coast. Freight rates were said to be in a state of chaos; and the Union Pacific served notice that it would withdraw from the Western Passenger Association on October 10. As the year wore on the continued decrease in earnings made the situation desperate. “The company for the year ending December 31, 1892,” said Mr. John F. Dillon, counsel for the Union Pacific, in November, “had a surplus of $2,000,000. In the month of September (1893) there was a loss of net revenue of $1,500,000 as compared with the preceding year, and from January 1 to August 31 there has been a falling off in net revenue of over $2,500,000. The company is indebted for labor and materials on October 1 to the amount of $1,500,000; and its sinking-fund and interest charges for September would be more than $1,000,000; for October $750,000, for November $850,000, for December $1,000,000, and for January $1,000,000. There will be a deficit for the year 1893 of at least $3,000,000 and the company is without money or means to meet these obligations....”[497]