The plan was first reported on May 20,[552] and was laid before the bondholders on the 30th of June. There was some protest that it proposed giving away the property of the bondholders, and the additional sections before mentioned, concerning the expenses of the reorganization and the voting power of the common stock were added. By August nearly two-thirds of the bondholders had assented.[553] By May a decree of sale had been obtained, which was modified in August so as to give bondholders priority over claims of directors for advances made; and on August 12 all the property of the company, except the patented and certified lands,[554] with all its rights, liberties, and franchises, was sold at public auction and bought in by a purchasing committee for $100,000.[555] No upset price was set by the Court; and it was surmised that the bid was purposely made low in order to force non-assenting bondholders to accept the new stock. The new corporation was organized in October, 1875, by the election of Mr. Chas. B. Wright of Philadelphia as president, and with the denial of a petition to set aside the sale the reorganization may be said to have been concluded. For fourteen years the company was now to be free from talk of further reorganization, and not until 1893 was there to be another receivership. During this time the mileage, owned or controlled, was to be made continuous from the Pacific coast to Chicago, and the Northern Pacific was to mount high among American railroads in its extent and in the volume of its business. In 1875 the completed mileage was, roughly, 550 miles of line; in 1893 it was 5431.92, and reached from Ashland, St. Paul, and Minneapolis on the east to Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle on the west. In the former year the gross earnings were $414,722 and the net $97,478; in the latter the totals were $23,920,109 and $11,416,283. At the same time the fixed charges rose from nothing to $14,311,430, and the bonds outstanding to $133,545,500, besides $15,349,000 of bonds of subsidiary companies guaranteed. It appears, therefore, that the promoters were successful in raising funds for the completion of their enterprise, although their road suffered at first from the thin population of the Northwest and the lack of a through connection, and then from the competition of other transcontinental lines.