﻿THE TREASURY

ioi

Treasury as to its working balance may be regarded
as having undergone modification — the average
daily balance was $1,487,189,694 with $1,082,605,-
200 on August 31 as the low and $1,916,932,863 on
June 26 as the high point.

Even were it normal for the balance to increase
proportionately with growth in expenditure — an
assumption that is under existing conditions
obviously unwarranted — the increase in the bal-
ance far outran the increase in disbursements and in
loans to the Allies. This will appear in the follow-
ing table:

Average daily or-
dinary disburse-
Average daily ments and ad-
net balance vances to Allies

I	(Apr. 2S-June 8, 1917)	$179,579,613	$19,211,146

II	(Aug. 9-Oct. 24, 1917)	453,748,384	32,294,322

HI	(jan. 3-Apr. 22, 1918)	926,391,004	43,784,033

IV (June 25-Aug. 31, 1918)	1,487,189,694	65,044,025

Increase from I to II....	152.7%	68.0%

Increase from II to III..	104.19b	35-5%

Increase from III to IV.	60.5%	480%

The purpose of the Treasury in increasing its
working balance in this manner by short-term bor-
rowings is not clear. The situation was at no time
out of ready and complete control. By limiting
overpayments or payments in full and requiring in-
stallment quotas in settlement for Loan subscrip-
tions, by insisting upon the tender of certificates in
such settlements and enforcing restrictions upon
the use of payment by credit, by applying the Treas-
ury surplus to the redemption before maturity of
corresponding amounts of outstanding certificates
and by reducing the volume and lengthening the in-