THE  PAST

7

from  some  convulsion  that  has  made  normal  financing ­
  impossible,  the  certificate  of  indebtedness  is  now
being  used  as  a  recurrent  device  for  effecting  short
time  borrowing  from  the  banks  and  to  some  extent
from  investors  in  anticipation  of  the  proceeds  of
loans  and  taxes,  being  thereafter  funded  into  or
extinguished  out  of  the  proceeds  of  such  loans  and
taxes.
But  withal,  there  are  incidents  in  our  earlier  use
of  short-term  obligations  that  offer  instruction  in
the  present  juncture.  We  are  still  far  from  the
time  wherein  it  will  be  possible  to  estimate  independently ­
  the  full  effect  of  our  present  fiscal  policy.
Until  then  the  procedure  actually  adopted  by  the
Treasury  in  this  particular  can  profitably  be  examined ­
  with  regard  to  what  has  heretofore  transpired, ­
  even  though  present  conditions  and  requirements ­
  are  very  different.
The  use  of  the  term  “  treasury  certificate  of  indebtedness ­
  ”—  in  preference  to  “  treasury  note,”
“  treasury  bill,”  “  bill  of  credit,”  “  United  States
note”—to  designate  an  instrument  of  short-term
borrowing  is  a  matter  of  statutory  designation  and
administrative  practice  rather  than  of  judicial  precision ­
  or  text-book  definition. 4  With  regard  to
fiscal  service  and  economic  effect  as  well  as  to  actual
employment  in  the  financial  experience  of  the
*  Even  in  the  present  financing  the  terms  “certificate  of  indebtedness,” ­
  “  treasury  certificate  of  indebtedness,”  and
“  United  States  certificate  of  indebtedness  ”  have  been  used
more  or  less  indiscriminately  in  the  administrative  texts.  On
the  whole  “  ‘  treasury  certificate  of  indebtedness  ’  is  probably
the  term  most  commonly  used  by  the  treasury  officials  ”—  and
there  has  been  increasing  disposition  to  formalize  this  term.