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 purchase
 their bonds on credit by making an initial payment themselves,
 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 complete
 ownership of their bonds.
The Government also made a deferred delivery of most of
the bonds which it sold. When the subscriber for cash deposited
 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 securities
 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, suddenly
 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 “selling
 short.” The needless mystery which these mere words