THE  PRESENT

43

tax  exemption  privileges  of  the  certificates  were  the
same  as  those  of  other  issues,  with  the  further  advantage ­
  that  a  ruling  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal ­
  Revenue  permitted  certificates  owned  by  corporations ­
  to  be  included  in  “  invested  capital  ”  in
the  calculation  of  the  excess  profits  tax. 20
The  offering  was  extraordinarily  successful.  On
November  30,  1917,  when  the  books  were  closed,
subscriptions  had  reached  some  $691,000,000.  The
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  spoke  with  satisfaction  of
the  response,  and  expressed  the  hope  as  to  the  future ­
  that  “  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  and  banks
and  trust  companies  throughout  the  country  will
keep  interest  alive  in  issues  of  this  character.
Their  advantages  are  obvious  to  tax-payers  and
investors  and  they  are  a  great  aid  to  the  financial
operations  of  the  Government.  In  this  way  the
work  which  has  been  done  in  connection  with  the
first  issues  will  not  be  lost  even  though  the  demand ­
  for  the  certificates  ,  at  this  time  has  been
greater  than  could  be  immediately  gratified.”  21
The  sharp  reduction  in  the  Treasury’s  resources
upon  the  payment  of  maturing  certificate  issues  on
December  15,  1917,  encouraged  further  recourse  to
the  same  device,  and  on  December  17,  1917,  the
Treasury  announced  a  new  offering  of  certificates
in  anticipation  of  tax  receipts  of  unspecified
amount,  to  be  dated  January  2,  1918,  and  to  mature
June  25,  1918,  and  in  all  other  respects  identical
20  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle,  December  22,  1917,
P-  2 40SI  December  29,  1917,  p.  2497.
21  Treasury  announcement  of  November  30,  1917,  in  Baltimore ­
  Sun,  December  1,  1917.