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I am trying to understand what 100 years means. My sense of history and
the understanding of the Fort Frances Times begins in the basement of the
Times when it was located on Church Street.
It is a memory of standing around a noisy folder, and helping my grandfather
and father take tourist brochures off the folder, put elastics around the
bundle and place them in card board boxes.
A later memory is watching my father sit on a round seat, flipping paper
on to a large sheet fed press that printed the Times. Only recently did
I understand that the press was acquired by the paper in 1912. It remains
my connection with the original owner and publisher Mr. J.A. Osborne.
Throughout 100 years, the paper has written of gold strikes, and bumper
crops, of timber barons, and rail road men, of births and deaths, of war
and victory. It has shared the dreams of settlers and modern business. It
has written of the beginnings of the CCF in the district and the Reform
party.
It has chronicled the life of the people, business and issues of this area.
I looked back to what my grandfather James A. Cumming and Russ Larson spoke
to the community on April 19, 1934. The two said, " We assure you that
the Times will be an asset to Fort Frances and the whole of the Rainy River
Valley which it will be privileged to serve.
The editorial policy of the Times will always be Independent in thought,
action and deed.
The columns of the Times will always be open to constructive criticisms
of any policies, it will from time to time initiate and criticisms of this
nature will be given due prominence under the Letters to the Editor."
The following week, Mr. Larson spoke to the Kiwanis Club and stated, "The
newspaper has a duty to the people it serves which demands that every phase
of community life be conscientiously served. To do this it must give the
news and give the whole news, regardless of the personal feelings of the
editor, or management, towards any movement or section of the community.
In short, it must reflect the life of its community from week to week as
fully and as fairly as circumstances will permit.
Not only must the community be served in this manner, but also the entire
territory in which the paper circulates, must be similarly organized and
served from week to week, because there is today a closer community interest
between the town and its district than ever existed before."
The same commitment remains today with the Fort Frances Times. The same
needs exist. And in order to accommodate all the issues and concerns of
the district, the paper expanded its staff and ability to deliver news,
advertising and produce printing.
The paper is continually being modernized. In the not too great future,
the paper will be accessed from any home in the world through the world
wide web. And the files and historic documents of the paper will also be
available to any scholar researching the area.
Newspapering is changing and the means of delivering the information to
homes will change. But the commitment made by J.A. Osborne, W.H. Elliott,
Russ Larson and James A. Cumming, my father, my mother, and now Don, Linda
and myself remains true. We will continue to be the leading information
source in the district, being a mirror of what is happening in your neighbourhoods,
your schools, your businesses, your governments.
That is the commitment for the next 100 years.
I Thank You for coming.
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