Atkinson

The Evening Star was the least promising of Toronto's six daily newspapers when Joseph Atkinson became its manager and editor in December, 1899. Under his leadership, it became Canada's largest-circulation newspaper and one of its most successful and influential publications.

Originally created by a group of striking printers eager to establish a paper for working people, The Star began publication in 1892. Financial difficulties soon arose and ownership changed four times in seven years. In late 1899 a group of prominent Toronto businessmen purchased the paper.

Several of The Star's new owners wanted it to be a purely political organ controlled by the Liberal Party. Atkinson had a different view. He knew that a newspaper could be a good ally of a political party but that many citizens would not trust it if it were purely partisan. In Atkinson's view, The Star, to be successful, had to be independent free from both partisan and financial control.

When the new purchasers of The Star approached Atkinson he had already been in the newspaper business for sixteen years. He had worked for the Port Hope Times, had moved to the Toronto World and then had spent eight productive years with the Globe. In 1897 he had become the managing editor of the Montreal Herald. Two years later he was invited to assume the same position at the Montreal Star, then Canada's leading English language daily newspaper. Instead, on December 13, 1899, he presciently joined The Evening Star, which became The Toronto Daily Star the following month.

The new owners agreed that Atkinson would manage The Star solely as an independent newspaper. Given this independence, which he regarded as absolutely essential, Atkinson embarked on the daunting task of making The Star a success. He believed that the ordinary citizen needed a champion. The Star would be that champion. He understood the needs of the ordinary people. He had grown up among them.

When Joseph was six months old, his father was killed in an accident. Destitute, his widowed mother moved to Newcastle, Ontario, with her eight children of whom Joseph was the youngest. There Mrs. Atkinson ran a boarding house for workers in the Massey foundry and later for workers in the local woollen mill. Young Joe Atkinson listened to them talk and learned of the problems of labouring people. He remembered what he heard. He was just fourteen when his mother died.

Consequently he quit school to work in the woollen mill. Within weeks it burnt down and young Joe lost his job. The fire was a community calamity, particularly for the older workers, since there were no other jobs for them in Newcastle.

Joe Atkinson never boasted about the poverty and hard work of his early years. But he did not conceal his humble origins. He remembered his mother's struggles and crises and, throughout his life, was conscious of the day-by-day trials of ordinary people. From his early youth, he had definite objectives: he strove to broaden his personal knowledge, to be a man of courage, to invigorate his religious faith, to foster self-reliance, to be compassionate especially to the unfortunate, and to be guided by his intuitive business sense.

Perhaps the most significant event in Atkinson's adult life was his marriage, in 1892, to Elmina Elliot of Oakville, Ontario. Her career as a writer had begun with occasional contributions to Saturday Night magazine. About 1890 she became editor of the woman's page of the Globe. There she and Atkinson met. A person of outstanding intellect and literary gifts, Mrs Atkinson has been described as "Joe Atkinson's conscience." She was a primary influence on her husband and through him the policies of The Star and The Toronto Star Weekly which he established in 1910.

Mrs. Atkinson's kindliness and social concern, like her husband's and later their children's, were reflected in The Star’s two major charities — The Star Fresh Air Fund and The Star Santa Claus Fund — which softened, in some measure, the hardships of families in distress. It is not surprising that she was called “Atkinson’s good angel.”

The Atkinsons had two children. Their daughter, Ruth, was born about the same time as The Star began publication and their son, Joseph Story Atkinson, in early April 1904. Both daughter and son became members of The Star family early in their lives.

Another major source of strength and influence in Joseph E. Atkinson’s life was his friendship with Mackenzie King, Canada’s prime minister for 21 years between 1921 and 1948. During the 1896 Canadian Federal election, Atkinson and King shared a desk as reporters at the Globe. Through their collaboration on various election articles, they found they shared an interest in, and had similar views on, social problems and their resolution. A lifelong bond of friendship united them as they worked to make life better for Canadians.

1.The first transatlantic call from The Toronto Star offices was made in 1927 by publisher Joseph E. Atkins to The Star's London correspondent [The Toronto Star] 2. Mrs Ruth Hindmarsh, daughter of The Toronto Star founder, Joseph E. Atkinson, celebrated her one hundreth birthday in 1993 with John Honderich, The Toronto Star editor [The Toronto Star]

Unlike Mackenzie King, who studied at three universities — Toronto, Chicago, and Harvard — and earned four university degrees, Atkinson gained his education through his day-by-day experience and through independent study. He knew from his own experience that the task of self-education is so difficult that few could hope to become well-educated on their own. They needed help. And society, in its own interest as well as in the interest of its citizens, needed to help them.

Throughout his life as a journalist, J.E. Atkinson was a ‘radical’ in the best sense of that term. He constantly urged governments in Canada, through their humanitarian, educational, economic, and social programs, to care for less fortunate Canadians, to help individuals develop their abilities to the highest possible levels, and to implement policies that would ensure the ongoing development of Canada. His progressive attitude and detailed attention, particularly to those matters that influenced the lives of individual human beings, gave his newspapers their distinctive character. The Star, under Atkinson’s direction, was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people.

The friendship of Atkinson , the publisher, with Mackenzie King, the prime minister, was a major influence on the development of Canadian social policy. Atkinson was considerably in advance of King in his advocacy of federal funding of old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and family allowances. Nonetheless, many of the humanitarian ideals they shared had been embodied in the laws of Canada by the time of Atkinson’s death in 1948.

The remarkable development of The Star, and its gradual emergence as Canada’s leading English language newspaper reflected the high level of ability and acumen of Joe Atkinson and those who joined him at The Star. A large number of gifted individuals contributed to its success. Some of them became well-known celebrities — Ernest Hemingway, Morley Callaghan, Foster Hewitt and Gordon Sinclair. None of the many talented individuals who have worked for The Star, however, has made a more significant contribution to its success and development than Beland Honderich who joined the paper in 1943, became its editor-in-chief in 1955, and president and publisher in 1966. The success The Star enjoyed during its first half century was sustained, in considerable measure through Honderich’s efforts, during its second half century when the bases for its ongoing development were strengthened and broadened.

After Mr. Atkinson’s death, The Star continued in the tradition he had established. Its influence on the formulation of public policy in Canada continues. It is quoted widely in other newspapers and magazines around the world. The Atkinson Charitable Foundation, created under the terms of Joe Atkinson’s will, carries forward his efforts to effect social reforms that will benefit the people of the province of Ontario.

The Atkinson Charitable Foundation was incorporated in 1942. During its first half century of operations, the Foundation made grants of $44 million in support of religious, charitable, and educational projects in Ontario. Throughout that half century, Ruth Atkinson Hindmarsh devoted herself unreservedly to the Foundation established by her father. Her husband, Harry Hindmarsh, and her brother, Joseph Story Atkinson, devoted their entire professional careers to The Star. With them she expanded the compassionate, altruistic work of the Foundation and of the newspaper which, in 1992, celebrated its first hundred years of service to the people of Canada.