The causes which lead to railroad failure have now been mentioned. When bankruptcy has at last occurred, three groups of interests take part in the reorganization which must ensue. These are the creditors, who find interest and perhaps principal of their bonds in default; the stockholders; and the bankers and financiers who advance ready money and subscribe to necessary guarantees. Of these the creditors and the stockholders are widely scattered, and are quite unable to protect themselves by individual action. Their first impulse is, therefore, either to elect committees to represent them, or to authorize self-appointed committees of well-known men to look after their interests. Stockholders in a reorganization have little voice. They are the owners, and all that the corporation has is subject first to the bondholders from whom it has borrowed money. Occasionally they seem to make their influence felt. In 1880 the Reading actually attempted to pay off its floating debt by bonds with a lien inferior to the common stock; and in 1892 the Olcott plan for the reorganization of the Richmond Terminal Company strongly favored the junior securities. But as a rule stockholders must accept, and rightly, about what the creditors desire. The creditors, then, are the most important factors, and they, like the stockholders, act through committees. There may be a committee for every class of bonds, or one or more classes may join together. The Union Pacific, in 1893, had committees for the consolidated first mortgage, the collateral trust 5s, the Oregon Railway & Navigation consols, the Dutch bondholders, and certain branch lines; and in 1894 for the collateral trust 4½s and the Kansas Pacific consols. As the financial situation grew worse the interest on senior mortgages became imperilled, and even the Union Pacific first mortgage bondholders deemed it wise to elect a committee; while a second committee arose for the Kansas Pacific consols, and a new committee for the Denver Extension mortgage. By April, 1895, at least fifteen committees were in active operation, of which fourteen represented not more than two classes of bonds each. The Reading reorganization of 1884 to 1886 was largely shaped by two committees representing the general mortgage bondholders; seven reorganization trustees representing the foreign creditors, the general, income, junior securities, and stockholders; and an opposition committee known as the Lockwood Committee. Within four months after the failure of the Erie in 1875 the English bondholders and stockholders each had elected a committee, and had urged all securityholders to join; a meeting of bondholders had elected Mr. John Hooper chairman of a committee in New York; and another meeting had elected Mr. N. B. Lord chairman of another committee in that city.[691] The more general a committee the greater the influence which it seems able to exert on reorganization, and