On the whole, the plan was a strong one. It reduced fixed charges from over $7,000,000 to under $4,000,000, with an eventual lower limit of $3,000,000, and this amount such good authorities as Messrs. Mink and Clark pronounced the road safely able to earn in spite of the reduction in its mileage.[524] During the receivership, moreover, the system had become purged by the cancellation of onerous contracts and the lopping off of unprofitable branches, and though some lines were lost which it was desirable to retain, the Union Pacific was not precluded from the repurchase of these, and did in fact regain the most important. The bondholders were put in no worse position than before, for they could never permanently get more than the earnings of the road, and this the new distribution of securities generally assured them. The position of the common stockholders was improved, for whereas between 1883 and 1893 fixed charges had only once fallen below $7,300,000, now less than $7,000,000 were to be taken before their claims were heard, while both the gross and the net earnings of the road promptly regained their old level. Finally, the general principle was sound, as has been emphasized several times before. It gave to each class of securities a claim to interest strictly proportional to the earning capacity of the road, and added to this a preferred stock on which no payment was to be made unless earned; while it provided for a liberal assessment upon stockholders, and attempted no funding of the current liabilities incurred during the past troubled years. The time limit for deposits under the plan was originally set at December 31, 1895. It was then extended to January 15, 1896, and later to January 29 of that year. By January 8 the reorganization committee was able to announce that it had secured majorities of all of the first mortgage bonds outstanding except an inconsiderable shortage in one class. This was followed, in spite of some opposition among London brokers, by the deposit of a majority of the shares of the company, and by the assent of other securities. In January, 1896, in a letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Pacific Railways, Mr. Fitzgerald stated that his committee embraced a substantially single representation of all Union Pacific mortgage bonds in circulation except those held by the United States.[525]