Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

374 HISTORY OF THE BANKmovement, which is sure to follow shortly, be correspondinglymarked by decreases. In a service such as that of a bank,where most of the men employed look upon it as their lifework,such an unsteadiness in the scale of remuneration wouldengender greaterdissatisfaction than do the difficulties of aperiod of steadily rising prices, for the hope of better things tocome is strongly implanted in the human breast. As it was,the liberality of the directors and management of the bank in1918 was much appreciated by the members of the staff.The year was marked by two notable anniversaries.On May 19, the vice-president, Mr. Z. A. Lash, K.C., whohad been for so many years the trusted legal adviser of thebank, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his call to the barof Ontario. On the evening of that day, at a dinner givenin honour of the occasion by Sir Edmund Walker, at which anumber of his old colleagues and other friends were present,Mr. Lash gave an extremely interesting address on the changeswhich had taken place in the practice of the profession of lawduring the fifty years of his legal career. His call to the barhad occurred just one year and five days after the opening ofthe bank in Toronto, and in view of the close connection thereundoubtedly exists between the practice of law and of banking,the address threw a great deal of light on the conditions underwhich the bank itself had been established. In a general way,said Mr. Lash, the changes had been for the better "thetendency has been to disregard form and to deal with substance,to disregard technicalities and to deal with merits, to broadenthe generous principles of equity and justice, and to applythem, rather than the narrower and less generous principles andrules of law."A few weeks later, on July 24, Sir Edmund Walker completedfifty years in the bank's service, and in honour of theoccasion the following resolution was spread on the minutes:"The Board of Directors of The Canadian Bankof Commerce desire to record their gratification thatthe president of the bank, Sir Edmund Walker, C.V.O.,