In 1890 a commission reported in favor of compromising the debt on the lines of the Riddleberger Act and, in 1892, $19,000,000 in new bonds were exchanged for about $28,000,000 of the older issue.

Interest was to be 2 per cent for ten years and then 3 per cent for ninety more.
West Virginia steadfastly refused to recognize the share of the debt assigned to her on the ground that the principal part had been incurred for internal improvements in Virginia proper, and that one-third was an excessive proportion.

The matter dragged along until the Supreme Court of the United States decided in March, 1911, that the equitable proportion due by West Virginia was 23.5 per cent instead of one-third.
West Virginia, however, made no move to carry out the decision, and in 1914 Virginia asked the Court to proceed to a final decree.

A special master was appointed to take testimony, and on June 14, 1915, the Supreme Court announced that the net share of West Virginia was $12,393,929 plus $8,178,000 interest.

The State, by a compromise with Virginia in 1919, assumed a debt amounting to $14,500,000.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Many of the references for the period of Reconstruction are also valuable for the subject of this volume, as it is impossible to understand the South today without understanding the period which preceded it.