180 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
order to obtain the enormous sums needed for the prosecution 
of the war, our Treasury Department urged Americans to pur- 
chase their bonds on credit by making an initial payment them- 
selves, and allowing the banks to furnish them credit for the 
balance of the price of the bonds. In this way subscribers were 
able to buy more bonds than they would otherwise have been 
able, and by gradually paying off with their savings the credit 
furnished by the banks, they were finally able to obtain com- 
plete ownership of their bonds. 
The Government also made a deferred delivery of most of 
the bonds which it sold. When the subscriber for cash de- 
posited his check at his bank, he was told that the bonds which 
he was buying were not yet ready to deliver—that they had not 
yet even been printed. Minus his money and at the same time 
without his bonds he walked out of the bank, perhaps in a 
puzzled state of mind. The delayed delivery of the bonds was, 
of course, necessitated by the enormous task of engraving and 
printing them. The Government consequently employed its 
credit in agreeing to deliver the bonds at some convenient 
‘uture time in exchange for the subscriber’s cash and his 
banker’s money credit. When the subscriber received his 
bonds, he no doubt proceeded to forget—if indeed he had ever 
completely realized it—that the Government had sold its securi- 
ties to him on credit and for future delivery. 
Financial Terminology.—Now every profession has its 
own technical “lingo” which, however necessary, usually leads 
to considerable confusion in the public mind. Many simple 
incidents in business, when paraphrased by the lawyer, sud- 
denly become mighty and perilous affairs indeed. Common 
ailments, described with the lengthy Greek derivatives of the 
doctor, grow into mysterious and fearsome diseases. Much 
the same thing occurs when such ordinary business operations 
as selling or buying on credit are referred to by the banker or 
broker in their financial argot as “buying on margin” or “sell- 
ing short.” The needless mystery which these mere words