﻿II

THE PRESENT

In the financing of the present war, the United
States has made use of negotiable short-term debt
obligations, under the designation of “ Treasury
certificates of indebtedness,” from the preparatory
measures taken before the actual declaration of
hostilities, through the first anniversary of entry
into the struggle, up to the present time of writing
[November i, 1918]. There have been in this
period, thirty-one issues of certificates offered by
the Treasury through the Federal Reserve Banks
for general subscription by banks and individuals.1
In addition the Federal Reserve Banks have on
various occasions made temporary loans to the
Treasury, “ to avoid constant withdrawals of gov-
ernment funds on deposit with depositary banks,”
by the direct purchase of certificates of indebtedness
payable within a few days and bearing interest at
from two to four per cent.2 In the following3

1	See below p. 28 as to the ante-bellum issue of March
31, 1917, herein included.

2	“ Fourth Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Board ”
(Washington, 1918), pp. 265, 277.

3	In a note on “Certificates of Indebtedness in our War
Financing” in The Journal of Political Economy, November,
1918, the present writer has summarized the course of cer-
tificate borrowing down to June I, 1918, in the manner of the
present chapter.

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