Under these conditions a receivership was the only device which could prevent the dismemberment of the system and protect the interests of all the creditors; and accordingly, on application of parties friendly to the company, Messrs. S. H. Clark (president of the Union Pacific), O. W. Mink (comptroller), and E. E. Anderson (government director), were appointed in October;[498] Mr. Clark taking charge of the operation of the road, and Messrs. Mink and Anderson of the financial and legal business.[499] One month later, on application of the Attorney-General, Messrs. John W. Doane and Frederick R. Coudert were appointed additional receivers to safeguard the government interests and to assist the other receivers in the general administration of the property.[500] These gentlemen remained in office until the reorganization was complete, though various portions of the system passed from their jurisdiction from time to time. The appointment of receivers closed a long struggle to maintain the solvency of the road. A reorganization was now in order, and in this it was to be possible to do what Mr. Adams had not been able to do,—namely, to rearrange the capitalization of the road, thereby permanently lessening the fixed charges and securing a reserve of earning capacity sufficient to avoid bankruptcy when receipts for any cause should show a considerable decrease. This was the fundamental condition of future prosperity. Besides, the debt to the Government had to be settled, cash raised to pay the floating debt, including the three-year notes of 1891, and the system held together so that its earning capacity should not be destroyed. As might be expected, it was the debt to the Government which was most publicly and persistently discussed. There seemed to be four ways in which this might be handled: First, the Government might have cancelled the obligation and have remained satisfied with the enormous economies which it had secured in the transportation of mails and other government business. In the seven years between 1867 and 1873 alone the Quartermaster-General estimated that the Union Pacific had saved the Government $6,507,283 in the cost of moving troops and supplies,[501] and there was no doubt that by 1896 the investment of the Government, with interest, had been many times regained. But it was pointed out not only that the Union Pacific deserved little consideration, in that its earnings had been wrongfully diverted from the payments demanded by the Thurman Act by the manipulations of Gould and others, but that the precedent of renouncing a just claim would be an extremely bad one for the Government to set.