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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 21
by Edward F. Bush Political Agitation and Journalistic Ferment, 1900-09Political agitation for representative government and a revised mining code dominated the first decade of the new century. The gold rush was over, but the issues to which it gave rise were far from settled. Dawson's population in the spring of 1900 stood at a little over 5,000, a quarter or less than at the height of the stampede, but still gold production rose and the days of placer mining seemed unthreatened. The community already was assuming the shape and attributes of a settled and, it was hoped, permanent community — a trend which was to reduce the night life to a shade of its former self. Dawson had a notoriety to live down and reformers were there to see that it did so. In the intense journalistic competition which marked most of the period, the Dawson Daily News was to witness the demise of both of its pioneer predecessors as well as yet a third competitor which entered the lists as the government organ in 1904. By the close of the period, the News had the field to itself nor was it to be challenged again during its long twilight years. The price of its survival until mid-century was decline from a daily comparable with all but the best metropolitan dailies, to a small-town weekly whose horizon generally did not extend far beyond the tree-denuded hills surrounding Dawson. The News-Nugget Duel The new year (1900) was scarcely a week old when the aggressive Klondike Nugget issued its first daily in a three-page, four-column format. Henceforth the semi-weekly edition for distribution on the creeks was to be printed on Wednesdays and Saturdays in order that it would include the principal news items and editorials of the daily. Advertisers who patronized the daily were to be given free space in the semi-weekly editions. It was contended that such an arrangement gave to advertisers a clientele unsurpassed by the other two papers combined. On the other hand, the News claimed a circulation little short of all other papers of the Yukon combined by 1900. The eight-page Dawson Weekly News, which could truly be considered a compilation of the six preceeding daily editions, was delivered by a News-operated carrier service as far as Eagle City, more than 75 miles downstream on the other side of the boundary. The Weekly News of 19 January was to be a 12-page issue, the largest paper ever printed in the territory, carrying a wide coverage of news from. the Dawson fire to an uprising in Manila and an action at Ladysmith, South Africa. The year 1900 witnessed a broadening of the News to include a greater spectrum of Dawson's undoubtedly limited cultural activity. Although on 20 January the News in principle supported clossure on Sunday (which had been rigidly enforced by the North West Mounted Police in the otherwise wide-open days of 1898 and 1899), it pleaded at the same time for common sense; the banning of a concert devoted to sacred music on Sunday was not warranted. On the other hand, No honest man or woman questions the propriety of shutting down all saloons, theatres and every other business for that matter on Sunday, and practically enforcing it as a day of rest against the many who would otherwise desecrate it with debauches of many kinds. [1] Besides offering a lively review of a performance of Shaw's A Hole in the Wall, the paper lauded the second concert given by the Dawson Philharmonic Orchestra Sunday evening, 21 January. To anyone at all familiar with the condition of affairs here, say a year ago, the sight of a fashionable audience and an orchestra of talented musicians rendering classical selections with the precision of trained artists, seems like a transformation scene, hardly credible and not looked for in this far-off section of the "frozen north." The concert last evening was just long enough — two hours — not to prove tiresome and the selections afforded a pleasing variety of style to suit all tastes . . . . (Il Bacchio, Because I Love You, Schubert's Serenade, The Palms, The Holy City, and The Minstrel Boy.) [2] One suspects that the music critic of the News was easily pleased and that the "philharmonic orchestra" might not have made Carnegie Hall. Nonetheless, it was a start for Dawson where hitherto there must have been little in the way of musical entertainment other than the homely airs of the ubiquitous mouthorgans and fiddles. At the end of January the News started an art department under Arthur V. Buel, late of the rival Nugget, and a society column, under the heading "Social News and Literary Notes," followed in the 21 April issue. In May 1900 the News pleaded for the continuance of the Dawson Free Reading and Recreation Rooms, opened the previous fall, and deplored the decision of the Yukon council to discontinue the $37 per month needed to keep the institution open. Closing the library and recreation centre would encourage idle men with time on their hands to return to the saloons and gambling houses. In broadening its scope and adding new features, the News, and to some extent its Dawson competitors, was following the trend of the large dailies of this century which sought a public service function that they might be sources of information and inspiration, rather than merely party organs or news sheets. The following November the Nugget introduced a society column, editor of which was a Mrs. Belle Dormer. But the "dear little Nugget" still retained its original spirit for on 2 October 1900 a detailed account of a hanging, running through two columns and complete with sketches, was followed by a terse one-line ad: Best Canadian rye at the Regina. [3] In the closing months of 1899 and throughout a good part of 1900 the Boer War was a front-page item everywhere. British reverses at the outset of the conflict provided a source of contention between the Sun and the Nugget. The redoubtable editor of the Sun, Woodside, was thoroughly Loyalist and charged the Nugget with pro-Boer proclivities. In an isolated community where by the spring of 1900, British subjects numbered less than one-third of the population and where two of the town's newspapers were owned and run by Americans, Woodside's militancy on behalf of queen and empire is understandable. At first the Nugget reported the opening phases of the war objectively, generally based on despatches emanating from London. These issues of the paper were far from pro-Boer in sentiment, but to Woodside it was a case of he that is not with me is against me. In its 27 December 1899 issue, the Nugget reported a Boer victory under the headline DISASTROUS TO BRITISH Three days later the Nugget quoted Lord Wolseley; "We have found that the enemy who had declared war against us are much more powerful and numerous than we had anticipated." On 3 January 1900 the Nugget reported Britain "panic stricken" and calling for volunteers for the first time, to which the Sun replied on 9 January,"The yellow rag betrays a vindictive spirit toward the country in which it is published and where it enjoys protection." [5] The most, however, that the Nugget could rightly be taxed with was an element of sensationalism in reporting a serious British defeat. On the other hand, the News restricted itself to copious factual reporting and catering to patriotic sentiment, calling for a full commitment at Britain's side. Commenting on the despatch of a second Canadian contingent to South Africa, the News proclaimed: The reinforcement of the hard-pressed troops speaks volumes for the general loyalty to the Empire of the people of England and Canada, and with such an unanimity of sentiment, coming from peer and peasant alike, there can be only one result, the annihilation of the Boers, and the union of the empire on a foundation as firm as the rock of Gibraltar. [6] The Toronto Empire or the Toronto Evening Telegram could scarcely have done better. The Sun meanwhile fulminated against the Boers, vilifying their character. On 13 February the Nugget snidely reminded Woodside that there were still a few Boers left unkilled in the Transvaal. The South African War issue was indicative of undeniable anti-Americanism in the Yukon, when charges of "alien" were freely bandied about by the Canadian and British-born minority. Feelings were further exacerbated by a suggestion appearing in the Nugget that now perhaps was the time to withdraw the Yukon Field Force from the territory. To this Woodside replied: We freely believe that the government was right in sending it, notwithstanding the opinion of the yellow rag editor, and that force will be retained here until such time as it may be considered advisable to withdraw it, which will not be because of the formation of a militia company here. It served its purpose of stopping any more threats of hauling down the British flag; it prevented such as the yellow ragman and boys of his stamp, as well as unthinking men, from getting too saucy; it formed a backing to the N.W.M.P.; it prevented any attempt at raiding our banks (this is not a joke, as we can show by the history of the western states), and the government of Canada is not taking any advice from cheeky outsiders as to when it is proper to withdraw its force. [7] In a perhaps well-meaning attempt to straddle the issue, on 19 February the News suggested that the proceeds of a public dinner in honour of George Washington's anniversary be donated to South African war widows and their dependents. On the appointed day, 23 February, the News had a banner headline across its front page: UNCLE SAM'S DAY With this edition and that of 4 July, the charge of pro-Americanism had some substance. It should be recalled too that the contentious Alaska boundary issue was prominent in the early years of the 20th century. It seemed at times as if the News were deliberately provoking Canadian hostility. With such ardent imperialists and Canadian nationalists as Woodside editing one of the papers, it was obvious that the local press contained a highly combustible mixture. The Sun charged its contemporaries with having not one British subject or native-born Canadian on their staffs. The Sun's quarrel was not so much with the native-born American as with the "galvanized" American, the offensive immigrants to the United States who then became extremely chauvinistic. Why were Americans so thin-skinned? continued Woodside: American public life and the American press were no strangers to the anti-British tirade, catering to the Irish-American vote, whereas constructive criticism in Canada of the American scene was very much resented. Referring to the rumour that the Yukon Sun was government-owned, in a leader of 20 February 1900 Woodside expressed his contempt for those who assumed that a newspaper that supported the government was in its hire. On the contrary, the owner of the Sun, Thomas O'Brien, and the editor supported the government because both were Canadians. Since two-thirds of the Klondike population was still foreign-born, the Sun interpreted the widespread discontent as alien-inspired. It availed nothing for the other two papers to point out, as they did frequently, that native-born Canadians and British subjects in general were just as dissatisfied with the onerous mining regulations and the want of representative government as were the Americans. The Indefatigable Woodside A Sun editorial from the contentious Woodside's pen early in April 1900 brought a libel action about his ears. The plaintiff was Joseph A. Clarke, a Canadian-born migrant to the Yukon, who had been briefly employed in the gold commissioner's office and who at this time was beginning his turbulent career in Yukon politics. Clarke was active on a citizens' committee seeking popular representation on the then wholly appointive Yukon council. Rumour had it that Clarke had been dismissed from the gold commissioner's office for accepting bribes and that he had defrauded a group of citizens of his home town (Brockville, Ontario) of $1,200 to finance an undertaking in the gold fields. Woodside did not mince his words. If we had a record like Joseph Clarke we would want to keep very quiet indeed. With any faults that we may have we can say at least that we never were discharged from a position for taking bribes, and we never swindled Brockville friends out of two thousand dollars. We would welcome another cyclone if it would goad Mr. Clarke into acting like a sane person. [9] Clarke won a judgement against Woodside in January 1901. In commenting on the case the same month, Woodside observed that as the law then stood, it was easier for the defendant in a libel action to plead not guilty than to demonstrate his innocence. In the spring of 1900 Woodside left his editorial desk on leave of absence to volunteer for service in South Africa. A fall from a horse prevented Woodside's sailing with his own contingent and he subsequently arrived too late on the veldt to see any action. His absence — during which time W.F. Thompson was editor of the Sun — was reflected in a sharp veer in the Sun's policy towards Americans, apparent in a leader in the 4 July 1900 issue. We must continue to encourage American energy and enterprise as well as our own, if we want to see our country grow prosperous and great, and we hope the day will never dawn when John and Jonathan will be separated . . . . There is nothing "alien" here. Neither in language, in the love of liberty and fair play, nor in religion are they aliens to us, and we assure our American cousins that so long as they continue to sojourn with us their rights and their feelings will be respected by Canadians and Britishers, from every corner of the globe. [10] With Woodside reinstated in the Sun's editorial office by November 1900, the paper urged Canada to take a firm stand on its rights in the Alaska boundary dispute and press for a tidal outlet on the Lynn Canal. Nor should it permit the Yukon to be exploited for the benefit of neighbouring Alaska. Although the Sun had taken him back, Woodside had a fore boding that it would not be for long. On 26 November he wrote to Sifton applying for a position in the assay office. [11] By early February 1901 the irrepressible editor had gone too far. "My crime is too much Canadianism," wrote Woodside to a Regina correspondent. He had offended the manager of the Alaska Commercial Company who thereupon withdrew his patronage from the Sun. [12 ] At this point the owner considered his editor too much of a liability and on 9 February 1901 Woodside wrote his last editorial in the Sun. With this issue we terminate our connection with the Yukon Sun as editor. We have no apologies to offer or regrets to express for our course, which has to the best of our ability, been in the higher interests of Yukon and Canada. To our readers and friends we wish a goodly share of that prosperity which we predict for this young and growing territory and its ambitious capital, the most northerly city in the British Empire. [13] The Sun maintained that the paper was well clear of Woodside, that it had languished during his editorship and that circulation had picked up considerably since his departure. This no doubt was attributable to the anti-American line taken by Woodside, but the Sun was unjust in its leader of 30 March 1901 in which reference was made to the paper's emergence "from the military magazine class into the ranks of live newspaperdom." [14] Woodside's editorials commenting upon the South African campaign were knowledgeable and must have contributed to a subsidence of the civilian hysteria induced by early British reverses. Though not a professional soldier, Woodside's militia service had given him a basic understanding of military theory which far exceeded that of his belittling critics and his wartime editorials were interesting and informative. His removal from the editor's desk was understandable, but regrettable. First Territorial Election The first territorial election for the Yukon council, held on 17 October 1900, provided a stormy arena for the rival journals in which the protagonists were the News and the Nugget. Both papers had favoured the introduction of the popular principle on the Yukon council the previous winter. Hitherto the preponderance of aliens in the Klondike had been the reason for not introducing the popular principle earlier, but by April 1900 the Nugget contended that there were enough British subjects in the territory to justify holding elections. The News supported the Nugget, quoting the latest census returns indicating that no fewer than 1,712 British subjects were resident in Dawson. The News was more scathingly critical of the arbitrary nature of Yukon government than was the Nugget: an editorial headed "Abuse of Public Trusts" on 16 April 1900 asserted that such an arbitrary government as that of the Yukon had made the territory a byword throughout the rest of Canada. In contrast, the Sun recommended caution to enable a wise selection to be made by the eligible voters for the two elective seats on the council. Four candidates campaigned for the two seats: Arthur Wilson, Liberal and former coal miner from Nanaimo; Alexander Prudhomme, Conservative from Quebec; Thomas O'Brien, trader in the Yukon since 1886, a Liberal and owner of the Sun, and Auguste Noel, Liberal and a lawyer. The Sun supported O'Brien and Noel; the Nugget backed Prudhomme and Wilson initially. The chief feature of the heated campaign was the News's charge that the Nugget had deserted its original choice because it had been bought by O'Brien and Noel. The Nugget indignantly stated that its reason for dropping Prudhomme and Wilson was their attempt to buy the paper's support. [15] On 16 October 1900, as the campaign ended, the Nugget published an affidavit, sworn out by Thomas O'Brien, in which the defeated candidate testified that he had been approached by the News which offered to maintain a benevolent neutrality for a consideration, $2,500. The News had already been offered, the statement continued, $1,500 to support Wilson and Prudhomme. O'Brien alleged that he refused to have anything to do with the News. The Nugget made the most of this incriminating disclosure, concluding its editorial,"Let the galled jade wince." [16] The ensuing vote returned Wilson and Prudhomme to the council. Since the defeated candidates had been the choice of the Liberal party as against the citizens' committee, Commissioner Ogilvie found himself out of favour with his superiors and was shortly thereafter forced to resign for mishandling the situation. The News came out of the first election with the satisfaction of having backed the winning candidates, but with its own integrity jeopardized. Three-Way Journalistic Rivalry The year 1900 brought some reform in the mining regulations. With the assurance of the gold commissioner that the royalty would shortly be reduced to two or three per cent and that appeals from the gold commissioner's office would shortly be handled by an appellate court rather than by the Department of the Interior, the Nugget crowed, The Nugget congratulates the people of the Yukon territory upon the success of the fight for right which they have won after three years of effort. Nearly everything asked for has been or will be granted shortly. The dawning of prosperity for the Yukon is just begun. [17] Little more than a month had passed since the presentation of a citizens' memorial, setting forth their grievances, to the governor general on 16 August 1900. The years 1901 and 1902 were witness to a continuing duel between the News and the Nugget (by the end of which the latter's decline was noticeable) and to the first election campaign for a federal seat, in which the News backed a loser. Dawson was still a prosperous mining town although the days of 1898 were obviously history. From the outset the Sun had been a government supporter although reserving the right of criticism on occasion. By an ordinance dated 25 April 1901, the Sun was created pro tem the official gazette for the territory; [18] government announcements, ordinances and mining regulations were printed on the Sun's editorial page. The opposition papers were not above contending for government patronage, but until dispossessed by the World on instructions from Commissioner Congdon in 1904, the Sun retained the perquisite. By November of the following year, 1902, the acting commissioner complained to the proprietor of the Sun about the exorbitant rates — $3.50 per inch. The paper defended its rates, contending that they were lower than the commercial rate and 12-1/2 to 25 per cent lower than those of its competitors in Dawson. The News did not accept this statement, but until the advent of the World, as shall be seen in a later context, the News became the indirect recipient of government patronage in any case. March 1901 saw a second acrimonious press telegraph row, this time between the News and the Nugget. The News accused its contemporary of faking a telegraph despatch on the seventh of the month concerning the inauguration of President McKinley. Under the blazing headlines, "THE DAILY NEWS IS JUST A PLAIN, COMMON, ORDINARY EVERYDAY LIAR, WITH THE ACCENT ON THE LIAR" in its 13 March issue, the Nugget published a letter received from the local manager of the Dominion Telegraph confirming the authenticity of the telegram in question and giving particulars as to its length and charges. [19] The following day the News acknowledged its error. It was perhaps too much to expect a gracious acknowledgement from the Nugget: We were once young in this business ourselves and we can readily understand how the enthusiasm of youth occasionally leads our contemporary into serious errors of judgment . . . . The News is somewhat akin to the man in the witness box who assured his Lordship: "Faith, yer honor, what I just said was a lie, but what I'm tellin' yer now is the truth." [20] The Nugget did much crowing over the News that spring of 1901, but to date the issues of the latter for this period are not available and so there is no point in reproducing one side of what must have been a dialogue. Beginning in June 1901, the Nugget gave top priority to the celebrated George O'Brien murder trial and execution. The trial proceedings were given front-page converage with headlines, the accounts sometimes running two full columns. A perusal of any newspaper of 70 years ago, whether in the Klondike or else where, strikes one with the change in popular attitudes on hanging. O'Brien was convicted of a triple killing a year and a half previously, but referring to the police work required to convict him with the rather pained sensibility which its editor sometimes evinced for the cruder aspects of life, the News described the achievement as "worthy of a better cause." The Nugget thereupon took umbrage: What better cause could there be than in bringing to justice a killer responsible for one of the most fiendish crimes in the territory's history? O'Brien was hanged on 23 August 1901. The Nugget devoted the whole of its front page to a luridly detailed account of the hanging, including woodcuts of the scaffold and the mechanical details of the drop and actuating lever, and concluded with his trionic reflections on the law taking its inevitable course in obedience to a code as old as man and sanctioned by a Higher Power. The extra edition offered a further three pages, summarizing the case from the start. But five days later, under the heading "Simply Disgusting," the Nugget took strong issue with the News for its lack of good taste in printing an article featuring the hangman. It is bad enough for a man to undertake such a job under any circumstances, but to parade the thing before the public in all its revolting details is positively indecent. O'Brien certainly deserved his death, but we cannot say that we have much respect for the man who bid for the privilege of killing him. In that particular the News and the hangman are about on a par. [21] With its 25 April 1901 issue, the Semi-Weekly Nugget's eight-page issue increased from a five- to a six-column format. On 29 May a new feature, "Over the Divide," was introduced, devoted to news from the creeks. The Nugget's printing plant boasted two new monoline composing machines which first went into service on 23 September 1901. Serving the same function as the linotype, the new device was more compact, operating on one-eighth the horsepower. Wilbur Stephen Scudder had first introduced the monoline at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. [22] (Although this issue offers a detailed and highly technical description of the new machine, there were no photographs.) In this as in other technicalities, the News was ahead of its contemporaries. On 15 October 1901 the Semi-Weekly Nugget increased from a six- to an eight-column format. About the same time the subscription rate was reduced to three dollars per month, thanks, the paper maintained, to lower costs through the introduction of a more modern plant. In November a society column and a children's feature made their appearance. The Freight Rates Issue Throughout 1901 the Nugget mounted a sustained campaign against the White Pass and Yukon freight rates, held to be inordinately high. The narrow-gauge railway had been completed from Skagway, on tidewater, over the White Pass to railhead at Whitehorse by the summer of 1900. From Whitehorse the company operated a fleet of sternwheelers downstream to Dawson. Beginning in January 1901 the Nugget attacked the high freight rates maintained by the company to the detriment of business in Dawson. The editor observed that construction costs had been high and hitherto most of the profits had gone to absorb this backlog; now the shareholders expected a return on their investment. All this was understood, continued the paper, but in future the territory must have rates on which it could survive. On 8 July 1901 the Nugget, in an editorial headed "Monopoly's Iron Heel," accused the White Pass and Yukon of charging whatever the traffic would bear. From this date until the government's ultimatum to the company to lower its rates or get out of business late in November, the Nugget pursued the company relentlessly, the cartoons often illustrating the sharpness of the assault which the pioneer Klondike paper mounted on the monopolists. A perusal of the Semi-Weekly Nugget's issues for 20 and 24 July 1901 leads to the surmise that both the crusading Nugget and the News had financial interests in the outcome of the competition between two transportation companies — the Dawson and Whitehorse Navigation Company and the aforementioned White Pass and Yukon Railway. The News appears to have been affillated with the latter and the Nugget with the Dawson and Whitehorse Company. On 20 July 1901, in what had probably developed as a war of nerves, the Semi-Weekly Nugget denied a report in the News that three of the Dawson and Whitehorse barges had been wrecked near Kodiak, Alaska. The News retracted this statement a few days later. [23] A Nugget editorial on 24 July 1901 stated, It looks significant that the weird reports of storms, wrecks, and disasters on the west coast should be published in our contemporary just at the time of the visit of the officials of the White Pass & Yukon Railway. Two and two make four and the News greatly under-estimates the intelligence of the people of Dawson when it attempts such rank perpetration . . . . As a sensationalist in behalf of the W.P. & Y.R. and at the expense of the people of Dawson the News got off on the wrong foot. Its work is too coarse for other than the natives. [24] Continuing the attack on 27 July under the heading "Pass the Crow," the Nugget reported the convoy a few days below Dawson under the command of one "Black" Sullivan: "And when they do arrive it will be the least the News can do to meander to the water front and not only apologize to "Black" Sullivan but also to the scows." [25] The 7 August edition reported the arrival at Dawson of the steamer Tyrrell towing one of the allegedly missing barges. The passage from Vancouver via Saint Michael had been made without incident. Whether with an interested motive or not, the Nugget took to itself full credit for the eventual defeat of the White Pass and Yukon for both its contemporaries had hung back on the issue, the News because of its affiliation with the railway and the Sun allegedly because some of the Dawson merchants had preferential rates with the company and did not wish their competitors to enjoy the same advantage. The Nugget charged that the News's suggestion in December, after the triumph over the company, that a rebate should not be demanded by the merchants from the railway indicated the News's complicity. "The position of the News is that of one compounding a crime." [26] Journalistic Rivalry as Dawson Comes of Age In March 1901 a lawyer from Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, who was to play a great, if controversial, role in Yukon politics, arrived in Dawson to take up a post as legal adviser to the commissioner. Frederick Tennyson Congdon was a Toronto graduate in law and had been resident a year at the Inner Temple, London. He had made a name for himself in his profession by preparing the first Nova Scotia digest of legal cases in 1890. Congdon's term. in Government House in 1903-04 gave rise to the most hotly debated political issue in the Yukon's brief history. Congdon was accused of establishing a political machine in order to run the territory in his own interest and his most stubborn antagonist was the Dawson Daily News. This, however, is to anticipate the story a little. According to Woodside in a letter to Laurier in 1904, Congdon's first move on arriving in the Yukon waste buy up the Yukon Sun, installing a cousin, H.S. Congdon, as manager. This young man did not meet with the ex-editor's approval. That useless individual apparently considered it his chief duty to form an extensive acquaintance with fast women, and strong whiskey. He was thus able in about a year's time to run the Sun into $10,000 of debt. This compelled Mr. Congdon to dispose of 2/3 interest in the Sun, to his chief creditor, Mr. P. Roediger, owner of the opposition paper here, the Dawson Daily News. [27] In July 1901 the Sun became a daily in order to compete more effectively with the News. In November of the same year the Nugget charged that the Sun was now nothing more than a morning edition of the News, under the same ownership and using the same plant. This was long denied by the News although in the end it did admit to a part ownership in the Sun for a few months only. As far as the Nugget was concerned, its rival now supported the government in the morning, gaining the benefit of government patronage, and in the evening reverted to attacking that same administration. In a leader of 28 December 1901 the Nugget stated The arrangement is a most excellent one from the standpoint of the News, for it enables that paper to draw on the government coffers for the wherewithal to continue its attacks upon the government . . . . Anyone who can run an opposition newspaper and make the government foot the bills is a genius, and nothing short of it, and whenever the Nugget meets with a real genius it is always ready and willing to recognize it. [28] The News parried these charges for some time, but finally disposed of the argument, at least to its own satisfaction, in an editorial appearing on 2 September the following year, 1902, which stated that printing the Sun was no more than another job-printing contract and in no way prejudiced the News's integrity. As 1901 drew to a close, the News was not alone in its optimism concerning the bright future of the Klondike. In his report for 1901 the commissioner saw "unmistakable signs of permanency." [29] Dawson had a new post office, courthouse, administration building, schoolhouse and residence for the commissioner. Electric street lamps lit its thoroughfares during the long winter nights. Dawson gave promise of developing into a thriving, settled community. The mainstay of the economy was still (as it was to remain) gold although there were hopes for diversifying the economy. With gold production at $17,368,000 in 1901, only five million dollars off the peak season of the year before, residents and the business community must have been optimistic about the future. Was not 1901's production higher than that of 1899, at 16 million dollars, let alone of the first year of the rush at ten million dollars? [30] By 1902 the News was mounting considerable righteous indignation against the town's still numerous prostitutes. On 19 April 1902 the News editor approvingly noted that three prostitutes had been sentenced to a month in jail in addition to a $50 fine. One of the defendants, going under the name of "Willie" Wallace, denied that she was the woman identified by a witness, but a respectable married woman. "Her evidence," however, "was unconvincing, and she will eat porridge with the rest." [31] Pimps came under heavy fire in several May issues of the News and by the twenty-eighth of the month the editor noted a wholesale exodus of the prostitutes and pimps from the town. It was all a sign of the changing times: the press had been tolerant of prostitution in the days of the mining camp, but with the community evolving toward a more settled, residential character, middle-class mores gradually assumed dominance until finally there was no place for dance halls, casinos or brothels. In this respect the newspapers of Dawson were reflecting the changing standards and tastes of the public. On 19 Apr11 1902 the News began a letter column for readers under the heading "Tell It to the News." At about the same time a fashion column, entitled "Fashion the World Over," made its appearance. A two-column feature,"The Play and The Players," providing drama critiques, was yet another feature. A series of articles on astronomy, reprinted from the New York World, appeared in the News in the spring of 1902: these consisted of a short series rather than a running feature. The month of June saw the addition of a women's page to the paper and the first News sports page made its debut on 27 June 1902. A book review column was not neglected. As early as 1902, the News was providing its readers with most of the features to which the public was becoming accustomed in the larger Canadian and American cities. The Nugget and Sun were less enterprising in this respect although the Nugget enjoyed the services of a fairly talented cartoonist at this time. The Nugget, too, boasted "The Stroller's" column (E.J. "Stroller" White was a humorous street corner philosopher). Nevertheless, a comparison of the three Dawson papers for any period leaves little doubt as to which of the trio led the other two in style, coverage and special features. In a smashing leader of 5 September 1902, the News boasted of its manifest lead over the other two papers.
The public services performed by the News are the daily envy of its contemporaries. A long way behind in enterprise, with the faintest idea possible of the effect of government policy, with little or no conception of how to deal with public questions, the Sun and Nugget employ the only talent they respectively possess, attempted ridicule and derision. [32] Although this jibe scarcely accorded the two papers due credit, there was a measure of truth in the concluding statement. To compare the News with its competitors is to compare a large metropolitan daily with a small-town weekly or semi-weekly. At the turn of the century, however, newspapers followed a party line much more than they do now and for that reason a supporter of the Yukon administration or an ardent imperialist would prefer the Sun to the News. In July the Nugget returned to an old theme: the News and Sun were evening and morning editions of the same paper, acting out a farce. The Nugget's editor attempted to emphasize the charge with a mangled quotation: "God and Mammon cannot be successfully served at one and the same time." [33] To this repeated charge the News answered that the printing of the Sun was simply a job-printing contract like any other and that its own integrity as an opposition paper was in no whit jeopardized. The foolish statement the News is fighting the government with government money is worthy of the paper which utters it. If money is paid the News for work, that money becomes the property of the News and can be devoted to any purpose whatsoever. The News does not sell its soul or sacrifice its independence because it has a job of printing, in this regard it differs from the Nugget. [34] On his return to Dawson in the fall of 1902, Woodside was urged by the party to start a new newspaper which would be Liberal and Canadian, but Congdon's interest in the Sun blocked his plans. The debts Congdon's profligate cousin had run up during his tenure as manager of the Sun rendered its purchase impractical, for $20,000 would have been required for a plant and business worth some seven or eight thousand. The Nugget could have been bought for about $10,000, but Woodside did not consider it worth it. Hence he was forced to drop the project. [35] In a letter written to J.H. Ross on 10 November 1902 at a time when the latter was campaigning for the federal seat, Woodside put the Sun stock and plant at about $23,000 and the Nugget's at $12,000. [36] The News-Sun ownership wrangle continued through the summer and fall of 1902 until the public must have become indifferent to the issue. On 22 November, however, the Sun announced that R.H. Prichard had purchased the interests of Roediger and McIntyre in the paper. From this date, the editor went on proudly, all the shareholders in the Sun enterprise were British subjects. The paper's office had been remodelled and within a few days the Sun would be issuing from its own plant again. Then on 3 December 1902 the Sun disclosed the details of its ownership. In September last it had become necessary to sell a part-interest in the paper. The present owner, W.F. Thompson, had appealed to his long time friend, Roediger of the News, with the result that the owners of the latter purchased a temporary one-third interest in the Sun until such time as another purchaser could be found. This had been accomplished in November, hence the owners of the News no longer held any interest whatever in the Sun. [37] The following day the News berated the Nugget for not admitting the facts. The controversy did not rest at this point, but rumbled on into 1903.
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