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HUMBLE BIRTH
Joseph Atkinson is born Dec. 23, 1865 near the village of Newcastle, Ontario. He’s the 8th child of soon-to-be-widowed Hannah Atkinson. Joseph’s miller father, John, is killed walking on railroad tracks after a night in the village.
FORCED TO MOVE
Forced to leave their country home by a millstream, Hannah moves her impoverished Methodist family to Newcastle. Hannah boards English workers to feed her children. Life is brutally hard. The Bible and a Methodist hymnal are the family’s only two books.
CLASS STRUGGLE
As a boy, Joseph listens to the workmen air their grievances – and learns about class struggle.
MILL BURNS DOWN
Joseph leaves school at 14 and works in a mill, but it burns down. The frail youth later works in a post office. He’s shrewd with money, likely because his family has so little.
DEATH OF MOTHER
Joseph sings in church for money to help his mother. When Hannah dies, Joseph blames dawn-to-dusk toil for her death. Joseph believes wealthy men could have helped her, but didn’t. He never forgets.
ACT OF KINDNESS
One Christmas, a mystery woman appears in the village. She buys Joseph a pair of ice skates. The gift amazes the orphan. This random act of kindness profoundly affects Joseph.
SOCIAL GOSPEL
The Methodist “Social Gospel” movement grows in the 1880s. It believes that improving people’s lives on earth is just as important as saving their souls in the hereafter.
CHILDREN BRUTALIZED
The 1886 Factory Act says boys must be 12 to work, and girls a little older. Since many children don’t go to school –or don’t know their ages – some inspectors are fooled or bribed to look the other way by factory bosses.
LITTLEST WORKERS!
Some children in Toronto’s “sweating trade” are as young as 6 and 7. One surviving photograph shows a working “sweat shop” child aged about 4! In some Ontario industries, up to half of workers are children!
CRUEL TIMES
The Industrial Age is both a benefit and curse. “Social Gospel” Methodists attack the wickedness and despair of the times– unemployment, drunkenness, immorality, prostitution. They demand better jobs, better hours, better pay, better healthcare and a modicum of job security for the toiling masses.
LEARNING THE TRADE
In Newcastle, Joseph studies the Bible and wants to be a Methodist minister. Biblical quotes roll off his tongue. Later, he wants to be a banker.
A NEWSPAPER LIFE
He eventually lands a job on The Port Hope Times. There, publisher J.D. Trayes teaches him how to write stories and run a country paper.
RADICAL VIEWS
Trayes opens his library of radical writers to Joseph. The authors call for sweeping reforms to the existing social system.
A LIFE IS SHAPED
Teenager Joseph devours works by 18th Century reformers such as Tolstoy, John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin and Henry George, who claims vice and misery spring from the unequal distribution of wealth. Tolstoy impresses him the most – Tolstoy believes rich men are wicked and society rotten, but that society can be regenerated from within.
DISLIKES RICH MEN
Tolstoy suits Joseph’s newly awakened mood. His biographer Ross Harkness is later to say: “Had he not been forced to work as a child that rich men might grow richer? Had he not seen his mother worked to death (so be believed) when rich men could have helped her? Had he not seen workers exploited? He never liked rich men, and though he lives to become a very rich man himself he never learns to like them…”
SOWING SEEDS
When he reads that Sir Leonard Tilley, a Father of Confederation, was once a humble clerk, Joseph’s ambition soars. “One can scarcely imagine the curious, thrilling and exciting effect that simple statement had on me. It had never occurred to me that a clerk could ever rise to such heights. For the first time I realized that life is wider than the bounds of a village or county.”
BIG DREAMS
Imbued with radical ideas from books, and now firmly convinced a young man of humble beginnings can rise in life, Joseph leaves Port Hope and moves to Toronto. He’s just 22 – and determined to make his mark in the world.
GLOBE REPORTER
Atkinson soon becomes an ace Globe reporter. He has a ringside view of the city’s success and failures. He doesn‘t gamble, smoke or drink “evil” liquor. He enjoys Bible classes and “Social Gospel” discussions on how to change society.
MEAN CITY
Atkinson sees life in the raw. Drunkenness and crime abound. “Drug fiends” are more numerous, too. (Many over-the-counter medicines contain opiates). Cocaine is readily available. “Broken men” must smash rocks in the poorhouse. Poor women make brooms or scrub clothes. Magistrates are generous with fines, jail terms and whippings. Little is done by the powerful to address the causes of crime and distress.
HANGINGS
Atkinson covers the hanging of J.R. Birchall on Nov. 14, 1890 for the Globe. The ghastly execution -- and the fate of many of the 130 men and women condemned to death in the next decade -- turns the reporter against capital punishment.
VIEWS HARDEN
From his own bitter experience – and from what he sees all around him – Atkinson believes the state has a duty to help the widowed, the orphaned, the sick, the old, the unemployed, and the forsaken – all who fall by the wayside through no fault of their own. And he believes help from the state is a right, not just an act of charity.
POWER OF THE PRESS
The closing century is a dramatic period for newspapers. More people are able to read. The telegraph speeds news from around the world. Newspapers are the mass medium of the age before the invention of radio, television and the Internet. Publishers are like demi-gods with awesome power to influence issues.
INDUSTRIAL AGE ‘EVILS’
The Industrial Age draws lures people from farms and villages to jobs in Toronto. And thousands of immigrants arrive, too. Soon, electric light will mean thousands can work before dawn -- and after nightfall. Machinery runs day and night. Employers slash wages during depressions, or fire workers a whim. Families are broken up.
HARD ON WOMEN
Women have very little power. A clergyman tells Toronto women to treat their husbands as their “sovereign lords.” Girls and women are poorly paid. By law, their earnings belong to husbands. Unmarried women with jobs usually live in boarding houses. “Eggs! Eggs! You Can’t Afford Eggs!” says one working woman.
HARD TIMES
The loss of a job can be disastrous, especially if a woman is unmarried. Suicides of girls and women are common newspaper fare. In one week, three women jump off Rosedale bridge. Another woman jumps off nearby Sherbourne bridge – but is snagged in trees and lives. She’s given 90 days in jail. For a woman, the loss of a job can often mean one of three choices: Find a new job quickly, seek charity, or turn to prostitution.
TOUGH ON YOUNGSTERS
Many children toil in factories for 60 hours a week, and don’t attend school. Children sometimes crawl around dangerous machinery, and terrible accidents occur. In 1899, Labour Commissioners report that children are fined for insolence in factories. Sometimes they lose a whole week’s pay.
CRUEL TO IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales often arrive with inadequate funds or clothing. Many suffer unbelievable misery, especially in winter when labouring work is mostly impossible, and meager savings run out. Churches and fraternal societies help when they can, but are sometimes overwhelmed. Jewish immigrants seem to fare better; the less fortunate are helped by synagogues or The Ladies Montefiore Hebrew Benevolent Society.
NO SAFETY NET
Tragically, some men leave their needy families, ostensibly to seek work elsewhere. Many never return. Other men are ruined by alcohol or ground down by heavy toil. Hand-digging trenches in frosty ground is a brutal way to earn a living. But with no social safety when breadwinners lose work, some families suffer appallingly. Children literally starve to death in Toronto. In the slums, unsympathetic landlords may remove front doors, sometimes in mid-winter, when rent isn’t paid.
BRAVE NEW WORLD
Work conditions worsen for many as the Industrial Age advances. One newspaper declares: “Under the factory system, many employers fail to recognize an essential difference between machines and human labour…”
FATEFUL MEETINGS
In the Globe newsroom Atkinson briefly shares a desk with a young reporter, William Lyon Mackenzie King, a future PM. He’s also deeply impressed by another reporter, John J. Kelso, who worries about Toronto’s gutter children, and who later forms The Children’s Aid Society. And he’s fascinated by the Globe’s “girl reporter,” Elmina Elliott, who writes under the pen-name Madge Merton. The four become lifelong friends.
LOVE MATCH
Elmina (23) and Atkinson (25) fall in love and marry in 1892. This dynamic husband-wife journalistic team will in future years turn Toronto on its head.
LAURIER CONNECTION
Atkinson is posted to Ottawa for seven years. There, he impresses Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, and even writes some of his speeches. A bond forms between the two men.
TAKES OVER STAR
In 1899, Laurier admirers urge Atkinson to take over the weakling Evening Star in Toronto, which seems headed for the newspaper graveyard. The moneymen want The Star to promote Laurier’s Liberal policies in Toronto – a city of 180,000 dominated by The Telegram, The Tories and the Orange Lodge.
CHRISTIAN CITY
In Anglo-Celtic Toronto, 99 percent of Torontonians profess to be churching-going Christians. But while attending Sunday services may be a mark of citizenship, Christian brotherly love does not extend to Jews, Italians and Catholics. And all but British immigrants are scorned as “foreigners.”
FIGHTING RACISM
Atkinson’s first Star editorial --“Drop the racial cry” – defends French Canadians viewed with scorn for being luke-warm to the Boer War. He soon promotes equal rights and civil liberties for all minorities.
PIOUS HYPOCRITES
Some Toronto businessmen are pious Christians on Sundays, and then ruthless exploiters of workers for the rest of the week.
RICH LIVE IN LUXURY
For the wealthy, it’s the best of times. Protestant upper classes live luxuriously in South Rosedale, Jarvis and High Park, their mansions boasting servants, tap water, electricity and sewage drains. Middle-class Torontonians live fairly comfortably, too. For the masses of working poor, it is worst of times. Slums teem with newcomers in shacks or tumbledown houses. Privvies overflow. Drinking water from the lake can kill. The earth reeks of indescribable filth. Children fill cemeteries, victims of preventable diseases.
EDITORIAL POLICY
Atkinson views politicians as “rascals who do little for the working man.” He chooses “little people” -- the poor, powerless, and exploited -- for his newspaper audience. He begins to fight their battles, eloquently supports labour, and seeks to help children who are not so much born as damned into life.
POWERFUL MEN
A young Winston Church, Mackenzie King, Harry Gadsby and, later, young Ernest Hemingway are among a galaxy of writers who appear in The Star. Deep pockets of Timothy Eaton, George Cox and Walter Massey, who Atkinson meets at Methodist Bible class, help to keep The Star afloat in turbulent times. But Atkinson refuses to be a Liberal party hack.
FEUDS
Financiers and Atkinson feud. Showdowns are inevitable. When one major Star investor wants to float stock in a coal company, Atkinson has misgivings about the speculation and audaciously runs a story warning: “A lot of innocent people are likely to have their fingers burned.” Predictably, it causes boardroom tensions.
LYMAN JONES
He also quarrels with Star investor Lyman Jones, who bitterly complains after a dispute: “That fellow Atkinson…I helped put him here he is today and now he is trying to ruin me.”
VIOLENT HEADACHES
To ease his headaches, Atkinson sometimes accompanies a policeman on his night beat.
POTENT MIX
The paper is jazzier, brighter, and even sensational under Atkinson. It’s also increasingly imbued with “Social Gospel” values such as calls for fair wages, limits on profits, workplace safety, and control of alcohol. Readers begin to view The Star as a family friend. Circulation rockets.
FRIENDLY RIVAL
Telegram owner John Ross Robertson is amused by the upstart Star, which sells a trifling 7,000 papers daily in 1899 compared with his mighty Telegram’s 35,000. The publishers’ principles are poles apart: conversatism vs liberalism; imperialism vs. nationalism
NEWSPAPER WAR
Slowly, as the Star grows stronger, the gentle rivalry slowly turns into a boiling newspaper war…a long fight to death. When Robertson dies, The Telegram begins to attack Atkinson with remarkable venom.
‘WHISPERING JOE’
Star editorials and stories pound issues that interest Atkinson (and readers, too). He supports friends with like-minded views in The Star’s columns. But he’s not averse to operating behind the scenes to achieve his goals. The Telegram sneeringly dubs him “Whispering Joe”, and mocks him with cartoons.
THE ABDERDEEN EXPRESS
Some years before Atkinson arrives on the scene, no-nonsense Lady Aberbeen had marched into The Star and helped initiate the paper’s dazzling investigative reporting with an expose of vicious tailoring trade, entitled “Tis a Terrible Tale of Toil.” Critics sneeringly called her ladyship “The Aberdeen Express.” But few dared to cross her. This early investigative reporting is later massively developed by Atkinson, and it becomes The Star’s hallmark brand of journalism…and still is today.
ELMINA A GO-GETTER
Globe reporter Elmina Elliott is to have a far greater influence on Atkinson – and his infant paper. Though still reporting, Elmina also appears on stage dressed in Indian attire, and recites Kardoo, the Hindoo Girl to receptive audiences. A theatrical flair creeps into her reporting, too; she dresses up as old woman to get a story on well-heeled ladies at a fashionable church. And to find out how servants live, Elmina seeks work as a domestic. Elmina is a liberal reformer and early feminist…and a writing whirlwind with a lively mind.
GIRLS’ BOOKS
Elmina doesn’t care for frivolous children’s books that “are simply silly, dealing with the foam of life, teaching nothing…” The early feminist journalist particularly dislikes girls’ books that idealize “little prigs,” and focus too much on dolls and tears. Elmina wants girls to read boys’ books that extol courage and physical endurance. In later years, such books are offered free to Star readers.
STAR FRESH AIR FUND
An early fresh air cruise for waifs had a powerful impact on Elmina, a committed “child saver”. The cruise was the brainchild of friend John J. Kelso. Elmina set sail with the children and their poor mothers, and wrote an emotive column. In 1901, Atkinson takes over the Kelso fund and launches The Star Fresh Air Fund. And virtually every reporter must write Star stories to highlight the plight of poor children each summer, even a young Ernest Hemingway. The Santa Fund follows in 1906. Stories run for an astonishing six months every year, often on front page..
THE STAR’S ‘HEART’
The marriage of Elmina and Joseph Atkinson is a perfect union in Toronto’s newspaperdom, where six papers serve the growing city. When Atkinson takes over the Star , his new bride carries her popular Madge Merton column over from the Globe. If Atkinson is the brains and energy of the struggling little Star; Elmina is its heart.
CHILD CRUELTY
Education improves by leaps and bounds. But many girls and boys still can’t read or write in the early 1900s. Children are sometimes flogged in jail, too…astonishingly, this barbarous practice lasts until 1915, as this Star story reported: “Having returned from his holidays, Governor Chambers of Toronto Jail has stopped the practice of parents taking offending children to the jail and there thrashing them by order of Judge Boyd… with the jail doctor standing by to say when they have had enough…”
BIG SCOOP
When President McKinley is shot at Buffalo in 1901, a Star man breathlessly phones in the news just as Toronto papers work on their last editions. Atkinson locks doors and holds his edition until rivals have gone to press and their printers have gone home – then runs the exclusive Star story in red ink..
DEATH OF VICTORIA
The death of Queen Victoria in the same year is massively played, though Atkinson is no great admirer of the British aristocracy.
WOMAN’S STAR
Following an idea likely suggested by Elmina, Atkinson daringly turns over the entire newspaper to women, who publish a special Victoria Memorial Edition on May 23, 1901. The move raises eyebrows in the newspaper trade, where a common Victorian view is that women are best suited to cooking, scrubbing floors, boiling laundry and raising children. But the editions sells out, and helps to open the door to future women journalists.
INFERNO
The Great Fire of Toronto in 1904 is played massively, too. The entire newspaper staff is called out to cover the thrilling event as trapped firemen shinny down frozen water hoses, buildings as dynamited, and ships in the lake flee a blizzard of glowing embers.
‘PLAY IT BIG!’
Atkinson spells out his news motto: “Get the news first; sew it up so opposition cannot get it; leave no crumbs uncollected; play it big!”
ECONOMY WAVES
Splash coverage of big stories is often followed by an awesome Star phenomena: the cyclical economy wave. Star backer Albertus Cox urges Atkinson to turn off lights, shrink the paper size and drop pictures to cut costs. And Atkinson turns off unwanted lights to save a fifth of a cent an hour.
MORE ADVICE
Merchant Timothy Eaton – another Star backer -- tells Atkinson how to keep shop…He shows Atkinson a scrap of paper, and says: “That’s what the boys took at the store on Saturday. Do you know what The Star took in yesterday?” Shrewd Atkinson starts to keep black books on every department’s costs. He’s a hands-on boss.
WATER! WATER!
After the Great Fire, Atkinson moves more aggressively into city affairs. He extensively covers the debate over the need for a pure water supply to drink – and a powerful water supply to fight downtown fires. And he attacks the privately-owned street railway, which is costly and unreliable. (It is eventually taken over and becomes the Toronto Transit Commission).
‘TORONTO – A BEAUTIFUL CITY’
The publisher doesn’t stop there….he dives into civic affairs. He calls for a big city hall park, and campaigns for better roads, street lights, shade trees, water fluoridation, a sea wall, -- and a “double-decker” Bloor St. viaduct under which subway trains can run, among other city enhancements. His second editorial is entitled: ‘Toronto – A Beautiful City’
FIRST MAJOR CRUSADE
Atkinson soon attacks 150 plumbers for price-fixing. It’s a secret, oath-bound brotherhood created to scandalously inflate prices – and reap profits. He publishes the plumbers names and addresses. It’s a bombshell story in 1905.
‘MODERN ROBBER BARONS’
Star reporters dig deeper, and discover some 80 business combines hold the city “by the throat,” gouging working people when they buy shoes, hardware, clothing and food. The stories propel The Star’s circulation to 41,855 papers a day. The two-fisted exposes cause an uproar. The Star brands the secret price-fixers as “raiders of purses… ….plunderers” for exploiting working people.
VICTORIOUS WAR
Five years after the long crusade begins The Star is victorious: Mackenzie King —Atkinson’s longtime “Social Gospel” friend and now Labour Minister -- moves to crush price-fixing. “The essential feature of the present legislation” to help stamp out the practice can be found in the editorial page of The Star, he says in Ottawa. Henceforth, Ottawa will investigate all combines, monopolies, trusts and mergers that unduly raise prices. It’s a big Star success! The swash-buckling Star becomes a “must read” for many. The Star continues to promote Mackenzie King.
NUMBER ONE
Star circulation rockets to 56,733. It overtakes the Telegram, which chose the Conservative, Protestant, Empire-minded element of Toronto as its readers. Big stories pay off with big circulation, Atkinson discovers.
MORALS IN BUSINESS
Atkinson attacks bad morals in business and seeks limits on profits. And he will soon begin a long campaign calling for the rich to pay high taxes….suggesting the money thus raised help to make life better for all Canadians.
CAPITALISM VS. BOLSHEVISM
Despite being accused of Bolshevism by irate businessmen, Atkinson believes that
capitalism is the best system for a society -- but that it is woefully flawed and needs overhauling. Liberalism and the “Social Gospel” principle seem to show the way ahead, is the publisher’s thinking. But critics dub the paper “The Red Star.”
BAD EXPERIENCE
Atkinson attends the Imperial Press Conference in London in 1909. He’s appalled by the extreme poverty of workers in contrast to the luxury in which the British aristocracy live. He returns with an anti-British prejudice that remains his entire life.
NO TO EMPIRE
Atkinson feels many people in the British Empire don’t want to be there, and he supports home rule for Ireland and independence for India. And he doesn’t want Britain’s Privy Council to have the final say on Canadian affairs.
FAIR CANADA
A strong supporter of an independent Canada – cut free from Britain -- Atkinson stands up at a Canadian Press banquet, and sings Fair Canada to rousing applause.
A BARONET?
In later years, Atkinson is offered a baronetcy. The idea is offensive to him; he turns it down – and launches an editorial campaign to end all British titles for Canadians. “Titles are bought and sold over the counter” for political support, he charges. Titles are soon abolished in Canada.
PUBLISHING AT STEAM HEAT
The Star is soon a melting pot of revolutionary ideas to cut the roots of poverty and share the nation’s wealth more fairly. Some ideas are borrowed from Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and elsewhere. Gradually, these ideas crystallize into a set of editorial policies that become the intellectual underpinnings of major Star crusades -- with Atkinson as their relentless champion.
JOINING FORCES
Progressive Christians such as Rev. Salem Bland and Rev. Peter Bryce are early voices, among many others, determined to reshape Canadian society. Recognizing the power of clergymen to reach thousands of people each Sunday, Atkinson makes the two ministers Star columnists. In time, a dozen clergymen will appear in The Star.
‘HOLY JOE’
Some Sundays, Atkinson sends out 15 to 20 reporters to cover church sermons! It’s a brilliant strategy by the publisher, who is dubbed “Holy Joe” by friends and critics alike. Atkinson knows newspapers and pulpits are the two great ways to reach the masses. His reporters get many stories. From one sermon, they are able unmask a ring of betting shops! The church connection keeps Atkinson’s finger on Toronto’s pulse.
DULLISH EDITORIALS
Atkinson’s editorials never scream. In fact, they’re often quite dull. He tells staff: “I am not much attracted towards the violent type of editorial writing. …It seems to me that the bludgeoning type does violence to intelligence…”
MAKING THE POINT
But with Atkinson editing their copy, editorial writers soon learn what is important and what isn’t! Slowly, like drips of water on stone, frequently repeated themes in Star editorials, leave their mark. Atkinson becomes The Great Moulder of Public Opinion.
NEWSROOM ASSIGNMENTS
The newsroom operates a little differently. Some stories are run simply because they are colourful, bright, and entertaining – or sensational. Other stories take their lead from themes aired on the editorial page. For example, during the water-supply debate after The Great Fire, Star reporters are sent far afield in the U.S. to write features on the cost and effectiveness of fireboats, high-pressure water systems, and new fire-fighting devices. All are eventually purchased by the city.
STAR MAN
By 1913 , Atkinson is the majority shareholder, and answers to no one. The Star has no debt and is very prosperous. Ironically, Atkinson has become rich fighting on behalf of the poor and less fortunate. He steps up his crusading pace.
SEEKING A BETTER LIFE
Violent accusations, sob stories, sensationalism and wild adventures meld with brilliant Star reportage, stunning exposes, and a drum-beat of editorials calling for a Just Society over coming decades. The Star battles unceasingly to build the country’s biggest newspaper – and help create a fairer, better life for everyone.
LONG BATTLES
Throughout his half-century at the helm, until he dies in 1948, Atkinson insistently declares that everyone should be freed from fear, want and injustice. He battles relentlessly for:
Ø A sturdy and self-reliant Canadianism.
Ø A strong central government.
Ø Gas companies, coal mines, oil wells and hydro – all sources of power –to be owned by the people for the benefit of the people. Telephone and street railways, too.
Ø The right of workers to organize and strike.
Ø Minimum wages
Ø An eight-hour work day.
Ø Workmen’s Compensation.
Ø Mother’s Allowance.
Ø Women’s Suffrage.
Ø Publicly-funded Healthcare.
Ø Old Age Pensions.
Ø Urban planning
Ø Equal rights and full civil liberties for all minorities.
OTHERS FOUGHT, TOO
Such life-improving measures are things that Canadians most prize today. They would have been introduced in the fullness of time, but in Atkinson’s day they were largely dismissed as impractical, radical ideas. Atkinson – and other idealists -- pushed them forward, often against intense opposition.
TORONTO’S BIGGEST PULPIT
Turning his newspaper into Toronto’s biggest pulpit, “Holy Joe” Atkinson preached the merits of social justice ideas – and then spent a lifetime driving them furiously forward in The Star …. nudging, pushing and cajoling politicians to adopt them. The future of children was always uppermost in his mind.
‘PROSPERITY MUST BLESS ALL’
“Poverty is a corroding agent, and in Toronto alone the lives of several thousand children are being warped,” The Star declared early in its history. “ It is not only their bodies which are being pinched. It is not only physical ills which sap strength and stunt growth. It is the damage done to children’s minds and character which is more devastating and frightening.”
One hundred years on, two of Joseph Atkinson’s earliest Star philanthropies still continue to brighten children’s lives: The Santa Claus Fund and the Fresh Air Fund. The enduring legacies have offered brighter horizons to more than 3.5 million children todate, in keeping the publisher’s belief that “prosperity must bless all.”
A REMARKABLE LIFE
Atkinson’s life is a remarkable story of a man with a mission, a newspaper, and the building of a nation……all made possible by the publisher’s Christian faith – and never-ending support of his crusading wife, Elmina.
LASTING LEGACY
In his will, Atkinson left the bulk of his fortune -- including The Star -- to a charitable trust in his name. The Atkinson Charitable Foundation and the Toronto Star – as well as his heirs and executives and their families – are still today bound by his guiding principle: “Humanity, above all”.
By Michael Pieri | 
