﻿THE PRESENT

57

fore, qualified depositaries were permitted to make
payment by credit for certificates allotted to them
for themselves and their customers up to an amount
for which each should have qualified in excess of
existing deposits. Certificates of the four series
issued in anticipation of the Fourth Liberty Loan
then outstanding were in manner similar to the
1918 procedure made acceptable at par with an
adjustment of accrued interest in payment for any
certificates of the tax series then offered which
should be subscribed for and allotted not later than
August 30, 1918. To the extent that this privilege
was availed of the new tax series obviously again
served as a refunding issue of the earlier maturing
loan anticipation series.

The offering was pressed with characteristic
vigor. Under date of August 16, 1918, a circular
letter was addressed by the Secretary of the Treas-
ury apparently to every income and excess profits
tax-payer in the country, urging purchase of the
certificates both on the score of personal advantage
and patriotic service, and concluding with the vig-
orous appeal:

“ The taxpayer who buys these certificates contributes
in many ways to help in our great problem of winning
the war. First, he pays the Government money before
it is clue, receiving interest from the Government mean-
while ; second, he practices economy and thrift and thereby
releases goods and services to the Government which are
greatly needed for winning the war; third, he saves him-
self trouble and money and relieves the banking institu-
tions, to which he would otherwise have to turn, from the
pressure which his failure to prepare in advance for the
payment of his taxes would involve.