THE  PRESENT

61

Of  the  certificates  acquired  by  the  banks,  much
the  largest  quota  has  been  for  their  own  account,
only  a  minor  part  being  apparently  taken  in  behalf
of  customers.  This  applies  to  the  loan  anticipation
certificates;  with  respect  to  the  tax  anticipation  issues ­
  the  conditions  have  probably  been  the  reverse.
No  precise  tabulations  are  available  as  to  the  several ­
  amounts  of  the  loan  anticipation  certificates
taken  and  held  by  the  banks  as  compared  with  those
taken  and  held  by  investors.  It  is  possible,  however, ­
  to  form  some  opinion  as  to  this  from  the
condition  of  the  national  banks  on  the  several
“call”  dates;  from  the  condition  of  “member
banks  in  leading  cities  ”  reporting  weekly  after  December ­
  7,  1917,  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Board;  and
from  the  condition  of  member  banks  other  than
national  banks  on  December  31,  1917,  similarly  reported. ­
  A  somewhat  involved  and  necessarily  free
computation  from  such  data  —  attempted  by  the
present  writer  and  elsewhere  set  forth  in  detail  39  —
leads  to  the  highly  tentative  conclusion  that  of  the
certificate  issues  prior  to  January  1,  1918,  the  banks
took  for  their  own  account  slightly  less  than  seveneighths
  and  that  of  the  issues  emitted  thereafter
up  to  April  19,  1918  when  large  amounts  of  tax  anticipation ­
  certificates  had  been  sold  “  over  the
counter  ”  and  when  progress  had  been  made  in  securing ­
  a  wider  distribution  and  absorption  of  the
loan  anticipation  issues  —  the  banks  took  something
more  than  three-fifths. 40
89  “  Holdings  by  the  Banks  of  Treasury  Certificates  ”  in  Federal ­
  Reserve  Bulletin,  September,  191B,  pp.  845-7.
40  Some  modification  of  these  proportions  is  suggested  by