Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1901 TO 1914 239Canada was in a fair shape to meet it. Instead of suspendingpayment, the banks of this country continued to payjcash ondemand, and for the most part continued to give their industrial,mercantile and agricultural customers the advances theyrequired to enable them to carry on business. The strengthand stability displayed by the Canadian banking systemduring this crisis redounded greatly to the advantage ofCanada in the years following the panic. Great Britain, theUnited States and other countries possessing capital forinvestment were very favourably impressed. In 1908, withina few months after the crisis, British money began tobe invested in Canadian securities and Canadian investmentprojects in unprecedented volume. During that year$165,000,000 in Canadian bonds were sold in Great Britainand $6,000,000 in the United States. This new movementof capital into Canada continued steadily for some years after1908 and helped to increase the resources of the Canadianbanks, the total deposits in which rose from $616,000,000 inFebruary, 1908, to $926,000,000 in December, 1910. TheCanadian Bank of Commerce participated fully in this upwardmovement.It was perhaps inevitable that the measures which hadbeen taken by the Canadian banks to conserve their resourcesduring the stringency of 1907 should result in attacks on theCanadian banking system. In January, 1908, it was learnedthat a post-card containing a libellous attack on the banks ingeneral, and on The Canadian Bank of Commerce in particular,had been mailed to members of the House of Commonsand to various newspapers. On another occasion asimilar pamphlet was distributed among clergymen throughoutCanada. The widespread distribution of a dodger containingthese libels at Fernie, B.C., a mining town inhabitedlargely by foreigners, caused a run on the branch of TheCanadian Bank of Commerce at that point which lasted aday and a half. A curious feature of this run was that thedepositors who withdrew their funds were entirely willing to