Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

372 HISTORY OF THE BANKtotalling well over $700,000,000,although the prospectus hadcalled for only $450,000,000.The issue of the Victory Loan had been preceded by along campaign in the press advocating the practice of thrift,and despite the cessation of fighting, the Dominion Government,on the advice of leading Canadian financial men,decided that a continuation of the thrift movement was necessaryfor the well-being of the country. An arrangement wastherefore made by the Department of Finance with the leadingbanks to place War Savings and Thrift Stamps on sale atall branches of the chartered banks.The problems caused by the adoption of conscriptionreached a measure of solution during 1918. Early in the yearthe authorities were prevailed upon to deal with the list ofThis decisionexemptions claimed by each bank as a whole.came as a great relief, but the voluminous information requiredby the Central Appeal Judge, and the necessity for the attendanceof the staff superintendent of each bank at Ottawa duringthe hearing of its appeals, increased the already heavy burdenof work borne by the staff departmentsof the various banks.It was agreed to call gradually, so many at a time, those menwho could not well be spared by the banks, but whose serviceswere nevertheless required by the military authorities. Thesemen constituted the remnant of that part of Class I under theMilitary Service Act, who after medical examination had beenplaced in "category A", and by this time they constituted onlya small percentage of the staff. Lists were compiled rankingthem in the order of their importance to the banks, and fromthese lists, commencing in the order of least importance, somany men were called at stated dates. It was decided thatThe Canadian Bank of Commerce should furnish 112 men ofthis class at once, 47 about two months later, or in May, and48 in June, the remainder to be called in September. Thusthe bank was allowed a certain amount of time in which totrain other men to carry on the duties of the officers calledout. As a rule, it had been found very difficult to convince