Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

358 HISTORY OF THE BANKCanadian Bankers' Association, jointly with the Departmentat the autumn fairsof Agriculture, also offered cash prizesto boys and girls under seventeen for exhibits of calves or pigswhich they had raised themselves, and the branch managersco-operated in making known and otherwise furthering thesecompetitions. The enlistment of youth in the cause of thriftand production was aided also by the establishment of schoolsavings departments at certain branches. In these and manyother ways, small and large, did the bank seek to do its share tostir up the whole community to a sense of what the emergencyrequired.The introduction of conscription, the great political eventof 1917, has already been mentioned. Although the announcementof this policy was not made by Sir Robert Borden1 untilthe end of May, the fact that it was inevitable was recognizedsome months earlier. The branches were advised in Januarythat it was evident that some such measure was pending,and the managers were pressed to engage and train womenclerks to fill all openings which could be created for them.Steps were taken during the summer, as soon as the textof the proposed Act of Parliament was known, to ascertainhow many members of the staff were likely to be exemptedunder its provisions. After the Act had become law, interestcentered on the regulations to be made by order-in-council forits administration, and particularly for establishing andgoverning the procedure of the tribunals which were to passThe Right Hon. Sir Robert Laird Borden, G.C.M.G. (b. 1854). is a native ofGrand Pre, N.S. He studied law and was called to the bar in 1878. For a time hepractised his profession in Kentville, N.S., and subsequently in Halifax. He enteredthe House of Commons as member for Halifax in 1896, and was made leader of theConservative party in 1901. In 1911 he was called on to form an administration, inwhich he was President of the Privy Council. In 1917 he formed a Union Government,composed of members of both political parties, which held office during theremainder of the Great War. He was the first overseas cabinet minister to receive asummons to attend a meeting of the British Cabinet. He was the representative ofCanada in the Imperial War Cabinet, 1917 and 1918, at the Imperial War Conference,1917 and 1918, and at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. He resigned thePremiership in 1920 on account of ill-health.