Star of Canada

As the Silver Jubilee of George V was about to get under way last week (see p. 20) many an eye turned to Canada to see what expressions of proud imperialism might come from His Majesty's mightiest dominion. Observers found Canadians less deeply engrossed in the King's 25th milestone than in the question of whether they might be obliged to go to war again. Student pacifists, leagues against war were as profuse in Canada as in the U. S. Few weeks ago a seasoned old Quebec M. P. named Henri Bourassa pushed a measure through Commons sustaining the Kellogg Anti-War pact. Leading the anti-war campaign was Canada's largest newspaper, the rich, radical Toronto Star.

Timed to reach a climax with the open ing of the Jubilee, a series of full page layouts of war pictures appeared in the Star every day for three weeks. They showed soldiers dying horribly of gas; soldiers of many nations fighting or drilling with the same make of machine gun (Maxim); preparations in Paris, Berlin and Tokyo to protect civilians against gas attacks.

There was nothing startlingly new about the Star's war pictures. A far more gruesome series was published last year. Up-&-coming, the Star had also printed the story of Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans as a British spy, and Dickens' Life of Christ. The latest Star exploit prompted irreverent newshawks in Toronto to revive a verse privately circulated last year to poke fun at the Star's Publisher Joseph Edward Atkinson, his son-in-law and vice president Harry Hindmarsh, his one-armed Editor Vernon Knowles. Composed by two members of Toronto's Writers Club, the verse is called "Ad Astra," sung by beery newsmen to the tune of "The Campbells Are Coming." Excerpts :

To Hindmarsh and Knowles Mr. Atkinson

spoke: If we don't sell more papers the Star will go

broke. I've three supersalesmen who say they can

sell.

They're Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell, Chorus:

Come fill up our columns with sob stuff and

sex, Shed tears by the gallons and slush by the

pecks. Let the presses revolve like the mill-tails of

hell For Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell . . .

As a lover this Dickens is really the bunk, His letters are long and his technique is punk, But he looks kind of sexy, his whiskers arc

swell; And besides, we've got Jesus and Edith Cavell.

Edith Cavell is the best of the lot.

It's always hot news when a woman is shot.

Get plenty of pictures for those who can't

spell,

Of Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell. Chorus:

Then hey for the paper that strives for the

best. (If Jesus makes good we'll put over Mae

West)

With cuties and comics and corpses and smell, And Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell.

Fun-poking aside, "sob stuff and sex . . . comics and corpses" are by no means the major product of the Toronto Star. It is a thoroughgoing, highly organized newspaper. No venture is too great or too small for its attention. Thirty years ago it was the first newspaper in the world to use wireless for news reporting. In 1910 it started its weekly edition, circulation of which has zoomed from 9,000 to 317,000, which is 53% of Toronto's population. In 1921 it opened a radio station. Seven years later it beat the world on the crack-up of the transatlantic plane Bremen on remote Greenly Island. Two years ago Hitler banned the Star from Germany. In 1935 the Star has a showplace plant, the largest daily circulation in Canada. It leads all Canadian newspapers in advertising lineage; last March was surpassed in North America only by the Washington Star and New York Time.* The Star began in 1892 as a measly sheetlet ground out by a handful of striking printers. Its modern history dates from 1895 when Sir William Mackenzie and Sir Donald Mann, transit tycoons, bought the paper for $20,000 to propagandize Sunday street car service. Their fight won, they sold out to Peter Larkin (Salada Tea), Herbert Coplin Cox (Canada Life Assurance), Sir William Mulock (jurist). These three, bent on promoting the Liberal party, looked around for an able editor, found him in Montreal editing the Herald. Joseph Atkinson accepted editorship of the Star on condition that he have a free hand.

Under Editor Atkinson, a radical editor in a Tory community, the Star prospered amazingly. Of its three local competitors (Telegram, Globe, Mail & Empire) only the arch-conservative Mail & Empire still has a growing circulation. The trade hears that next year the Star will be able to operate on circulation revenue alone (2-c- daily, 10-c- .Saturday Star Weekly). The property, which "owes no man a dollar," is now owned by Publisher Atkinson, his son Joseph S., his daughter, and his son-in-law Harry Hindmarsh. Nearly 70, hard of hearing, Mr. Atkinson has delegated most executive authority to Vice President Hindmarsh. Spectacled, meticulous, kindly, Publisher Atkinson is called "ruthless" by his competitors, "determined" by his friends. He wields great political influence, shies from cameras and interviewers. He neither drinks nor smokes, refuses to accept liquor advertising.

* According to Media Records, Inc.

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