THE  PRESENT

55

change,  other  than  that  in  consequence  of  the  earlier
flotation  of  the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan  certificate  borrowing ­
  came  to  an  end  a  month  sooner  than  had
been  contemplated.  Between  June  25  and  October
1,  there  were  issued  seven  series  of  four  and  a  half
per  cent,  certificates,  each  of  four  months  maturity
but  identical  in  all  other  respects  with  the  earlier
issues.  In  two  particulars  there  was  minor  but  interesting ­
  variation  from  the  Treasury’s  original  plan.
There  was  no  issue  on  the  fortnightly  date  August
20,  the  first  of  the  new  series  of  tax  anticipation
issues  being  then  offered  in  seeming  lieu  thereof.
Moreover,  only  the  first  two  issues  were  offered  in
the  amount  originally  contemplated,  $750,000,000.
The  third,  fourth  and  seventh  issues  were  of  $500,-000,000
  each  and  the  fifth  and  sixth,  $600,000,000
each.  In  each  instance  there  was  acceptance  of
oversubscription  as  to  these  less  amounts,  ranging
from  $89,646,500  in  the  first  issue,  to  $141,069,000
in  the  last,  resulting  in  an  actual  allotment  for  the
seven  issues  of  $4,659,820,000  as  compared  with  a
contemplated  aggregate  for  such  issues  of  $5,250,-000,000.

A  possible  reduction  in  the  number  and  volume
of  the  loan  anticipation  issues  had  been  foreshadowed ­
  in  the  Treasury’s  first  announcement  in  the
event  of  heavy  response  to  the  tax  anticipation  offering, ­
  But  the  tax  anticipation  certificates  were
not  issued  until  August  20,  and  eventually  only
some  $150,000,000  were  taken.  In  announcing  the
reduced  minimum  amount  of  the  third  bi-weekly
offering  on  July  20,  1918,  the  Treasury  explained
that  this  was  in  consequence  of  the  over-subscrip-