SEC. 5. That any series of bonds issued under authority of sections one and four of this Act may, under such terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, be convertible into bonds bearing a higher rate of interest than the rate at which the same were issued if any subsequent series of bonds shall be issued at a higher rate of interest before the termination of the war between the United States and the Imperial German Government, the date of such termination to be fixed by a proclamation of the President of the United States.

SEC. 6. That in addition to the bonds authorized by sections one and four of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to borrow from time to time, on the credit of the United States, for the purposes of this Act and to meet public expenditures authorized by law, such sum or sums as, in his judgment, may be necessary, and to issue therefor certificates of indebtedness at not less than par in such form and subject to such terms and conditions and at such rate of interest, not exceeding three and one-half per centum per annum, as he may prescribe; and each certificate so issued shall be payable, with the interest accrued thereon, at such time, not exceeding one year from the date of its issue, as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe. Certificates of indebtedness herein authorized shall not bear the circulation privilege, and the sum of such certificates outstanding shall at no time exceed in the aggregate $2,000,000,000, and such certificates shall be exempt, both as to principal and interest, from all taxation, except estate or inheritance taxes, imposed by authority of the United States, or its possessions, or by any State or local taxing authority.

SEC. 7. That the Secretary of the Treasury, in his discretion, is hereby authorized to deposit in such banks and trust companies as he may designate the proceeds, or any part thereof, arising from the sale of the bonds and certificates of indebtedness authorized by this Act, or the bonds previously authorized as described in section four of this Act, and such deposits may bear such rate of interest and be subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe: Provided, That the amount so deposited shall not in any case exceed the amount withdrawn from any such bank or trust company and invested in such bonds or certificates of indebtedness plus the amount so invested by such bank or trust company, and such deposits shall be secured in the manner required for other deposits by section fifty-one hundred and fifty-three, Revised Statutes, and amendments thereto: Provided further, That the provisions of section fifty-one hundred and ninety-one of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the Federal Reserve Act and the amendments thereof, with reference to the reserves required to be kept by national banking associations and other member banks of the Federal Reserve System, shall not apply to deposits of public moneys by the United States in designated depositaries.

SEC. 8. That in order to pay all necessary expenses, including rent, connected with any operations under this Act, a sum not exceeding one-tenth of one per centum of the amount of bonds and one-tenth of one per centum of the amount of certificates of indebtedness herein authorized is hereby appropriated, or as much thereof as may be necessary, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be expended as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct: Provided, That, in addition

to the reports now required by law, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, on the first Monday in December, nineteen hundred and seventeen, and annually thereafter, transmit to the Congress a detailed statement of all expenditures under this Act.

Approved, April 24, 1917.

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REMARKABLE NOTE TO RUSSIA STATING OUR WAR AIMS

In view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russia to express the deep friendship of the American people for the people of Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means of coöperation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems opportune and appropriate that I should state again in the light of this new partnership the objects the United States has had in mind in entering the war.

Those objects have been very much beclouded during the last few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, and the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too significant for the whole human race, to permit any misinterpretations or misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a moment.

The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate desire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are in authority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, are making use even of

the influence of groups and parties among their own subjects, to whom they have never been just or fair or even tolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which will preserve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, to the undoing of the very men they are using.

The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no man can be excused for mistaking it. America seeks no material profit or aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force.

The ruling classes in Germany have begun of late to profess a like liberality and justice of purpose, but only to preserve the power they have set up in Germany and the selfish advantages which they have wrongly gained for themselves and their private projects of power all the way from Berlin to Bagdad and beyond.

Government after government has, by their influence, without open conquest of its territory, been linked together in a net of intrigue directed against nothing less than the peace and liberty of the world. The meshes of that intrigue must be broken, but cannot be broken unless wrongs already done are undone, and adequate measures must be taken to prevent it from ever again being rewoven or repaired.

Of course, the imperial German government and those whom it is using for their own undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war will end in the restoration of the status quo ante. It was the status quo ante out of which this iniquitous war issued forth, the power of the imperial German government within the empire and its widespread domination and influence outside of that empire. That status must be altered in

such fashion as to prevent any such hideous thing from ever happening again.

We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, and the undictated development of all peoples, and every feature of the settlement that concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first be righted and then adequate safeguards must be created to prevent their being committed again. We ought not to consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and sonorous sound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical means. Phrases will not achieve the result. Effective readjustments will; and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made.

But they must follow a principle, and that principle is plain. No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not wish to live: No territory must change hands except for the purpose of securing those who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. No indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitute payment for manifest wrongs done. No readjustments of power must be made except such as will tend to secure the future peace of the world and the future welfare and happiness of its peoples.

And then the freed peoples of the world must draw together in some common covenant, some genuine and practical coöperation that will in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power.