The most striking fact is that every reorganization but one has occasioned an increase in total capitalization.[720] The increase varies from 1.3 per cent for the Atchison in 1892 to 88.3 per cent for the Baltimore & Ohio in 1898; and the average increase is 32 per cent for the later period and 14.4 per cent for the earlier. This reflects the exchange of new securities on which a lower rate of interest is payable with securities on which all payments are optional, for old securities which claim a high annual return. It is the result of the attempt to reduce the demands upon reorganized corporations without materially reducing the sums which old securityholders may in times of prosperity receive. It reflects also, however, the sale of securities for ready cash, or the exchange of these for assessments, as well as the investment of minor sums in the improvement of the roads. A closer examination of the table shows that the increase comes chiefly in bonds before 1893 and in stock after that date. The average increase in bonds of the seven reorganizations before 1893 was 11.4 per cent and of common stock .9 per cent; whereas bonds decreased between the reorganizations of 1893–8 from 65.8 per cent to 59.1 per cent of the previous capitalization, although common stock increased 9.2 per cent and there was introduced a great volume of preferred stock which is scarcely found at all before. The less radical nature of the early reorganizations and the use of income bonds instead of preferred stock as a security with optional interest are here apparent. In brief, the statement of capitalization before and after reorganization summarizes and confirms the conclusions which we have reached. A few fundamental principles have underlain the complicated details of the exchanges of new securities for old. These principles appear when the reorganizations are examined one by one, and they show not less clearly when all the reorganizations are taken in two general groups.