In May, 1874, the first plan was tried. A bill was introduced into Congress providing that the company should be authorized to issue its 5 per cent thirty-year bonds for $50,000 per mile on its entire line, complete and incomplete, and that on completed sections of the road twenty miles long it should deliver its 7.3 per cent bonds at a rate of $50,000 per mile, receiving in return $40,000 of the 5 per cent bonds with interest but not principal guaranteed by the Government, which should hold the difference of $10,000 as a reserve fund. Holders of outstanding 7.3 per cent bonds were to have the right of exchanging their bonds for new 5s on the same terms.[549] In return for the guarantee the railroad was to surrender to the United States Government its entire land grant, to be sold under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and to turn over semi-annually its entire net earnings. The Government was to have the right in addition to sell the Northern Pacific 5 per cent bonds whenever the combined yield of the land grant and the net earnings should not equal the interest guaranteed. Finally, Congress was to have power to fix fares, etc., provided that the government control did not impair the security of the bonds. In brief, the capitalists who had involved themselves in Northern Pacific affairs were ready to surrender their whole enterprise to the Government if the Government would carry it through. But Congress was so little willing to take the responsibility that the bill never came to a vote.