The directors’ own scheme was dated May 1, 1893. It provided for a collateral five-year 6 per cent mortgage to the amount of $15,000,000, of which $12,000,000 were to be issued at once. There was to be a committee of five which should take charge of the issue, and which might sell the collateral before the maturity of the notes at certain minimum prices or over. Until all the notes should have been paid the railroad company agreed not to undertake the construction of any new lines without the consent of the committee, or to purchase or lease any railroad or navigation lines, or to guarantee, endorse, or purchase the bonds or other obligations or stocks of other companies. The committee was to have the voting power on the underlying stocks, and might direct the trust company to waive any default of the railroad company in payment of interest. The railroad company might call in the notes before maturity, after May 1, 1896, and pay them off at par and accrued interest.[592] This, it will be seen, did not differ in essence from the scheme proposed by Mr. Ives:—the real contest was between parties and not between plans. In June, Mr. Villard resigned his position as director and chairman of the board, and J. D. Rockefeller was elected a director. Somewhat earlier, but doubtless in anticipation of this action, a syndicate agreed to underwrite the collateral issue, subject to the stockholders’ right of subscription;[593] and by the end of the year $10,275,000 of the collateral notes were outstanding, of which the bulk had been taken by the syndicate.[594] The whole device was very similar to that employed by the Union Pacific in 1891. It was not designed as a permanent remedy for anything, but served to postpone a reckoning to what was hoped would be better times. As a matter of fact its effect was very small.