WAR BORROWING 
(F) No recourse was had to certificates of 
indebtedness from the Civil War to the revenue 
legislation of the Spanish-American War. The 
war revenue act of June 13, 1898, empowered the 
Secretary of the Treasury to issue certificates of in 
debtedness in denominations of $50 and multiples, 
bearing not more than three per cent, interest nor 
of more than one year maturity and limited to a 
total outstanding volume not exceeding $100,000,- 
000. The obvious intention was that such short 
term borrowing should meet the Treasury’s extraor 
dinary needs until the proceeds of war taxes and 
loans became available. As a matter of fact, the 
prompt issue and immediate success 20 of the war 
loan made it unnecessary to issue any of the cer 
tificates. The enabling act itself however remained 
upon the statute books conferring permissive au 
thority upon the Secretary of the Treasury, and be 
came eventually the nucleus of later authorization 
of short-term borrowing. 
The panic of 1907 was the occasion of the final 
issue of certificates of indebtedness prior to the 
present war. 21 To relieve the acute monetary 
stringency, the Treasury transferred to the banks 
as public deposits all available funds, so that by the 
middle of November the available working balance 
had been reduced to approximately $5,000,000, 
making impossible further relief from this quarter. 
Efforts were now directed to induce the banks — 
“ hampered by the scarcity of bonds and the rapid 
20 Commercial and Financial Chronicle, July 16, 1898. 
21 Report of Secretary of Treasury, 1908, p. 21; Report of 
Treasurer of United States, 1908, p. 154.