Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 21

The Dawson Daily News:
Journalism in the Klondike

by Edward F. Bush

Political Agitation and Journalistic Ferment, 1900-09

The News and National Sentiment

In an editorial of 21 July 1904, the News discussed the principles of the British and American constitutions. Liberty was safeguarded in both, but whereas the Americans" source of authority was the people, that of the British was the crown. Although the British parliamentary system was basically as democratic as the American form of government, the dignities and titles with which officials were honoured under the British system proved a heady potion for vain or arbitrary individuals. Herein lay the need for a vigorous and critical opposition press in order that officialdom not be carried away with a sense of its own importance. The News served this salutory purpose in the Yukon, a territory worse governed than any other part of Canada. Certainly until the appointment of McInnes as commissioner, the News had been a forthright and consistent critic of government.

In the same edition, the News took issue with the treatment accorded Americans in the Yukon in contrast to the rest of Canada. In the Yukon, contended the editor, Americans were referred to as aliens and treated as such and many had left the territory in bitterness. This regrettable state of affairs was directly attributable to the exactions and follies of the territorial government, and to the federal authority.

By April 1904 a trend in the direction of a more imperial and at the same time Canadian sentiment (not incompatible at this period) was discernible in the editorial columns of the News. On the subject of imperial expansion, whether British or American, the News showed itself the creature of its times: American acquisition of the Philippines and British conquest of the Boer republics was in the natural order of things whereby the weak were displaced by the strong and the only regrettable features were the hypocritical rationalizations advanced by the powers. [65]

Woodside continued to assail the Americanism of the Dawson press. In writing to Steele in September 1904, Woodside observed that one of the curses of the Klondike from the start had been that the newspapers were controlled and edited by "Yankees who do not knew the first thing about Canada." [66] That spring Woodside had addressed a long letter to the editor of the News, taking him to task for giving ill-informed people a distorted and anti-British concept of the American Revolution. The News had in fact used the word "barbarous" to describe measures taken by the British authorities to dampen the revolutionary ardour of some of the agitators. Woodside considered it outrageous that a paper so mislead its readers in British territory, engendering a prejudice against the crown through a historical fallacy. The News did Woodside the courtesy of publishing his letter in full on 21 May, while defending itself by means of a play on words. The News saw the Revolution as very much of a family quarrel in which the British authorities in the colonies, through a temporary aberration, violated the rights cherished by all Britons as a part of their heritage. It is noteworthy that the News accorded Woodside a courteous hearing, rather in contrast to his former paper, the Sun, not to mention the now-defunct Nugget.

News Versus World

The summer and fall of 1904 saw rapidly deteriorating relations between the News and the World. The duel between the News and its last rival was to prove the most acrimonious of all in the brief but tempestuous period since newspapers had been introduced to the Klondike. Woodside's allegation that Beddoe had been dismissed by the News for his attempt to blackmail J.B. Tyrrell, an explorer, gave rise to the News dubbing its contemporary "The Blackmailer's Gazette." The News observed editorially on 6 August that the World was to be found at every roadhouse and saloon whose licence had been renewed; Temple, Congdon's creature, had been appointed licence commissioner: hence subscription to the Congdon organ had been made a condition of licence renewal.

In the 5 October edition the News contrasted its own plant and facilities with those of the "Blackmailer's Gazette." In storage, perhaps a standby plant, the News had two monoline typesetting machines of Canadian manufacture, as well as one American-made Thorne typesetter. This alone equalled the World's plant. The News had in service two Mergenthaler typesetters, each of which was of double the capacity of the older monoline equipment. The News was printed on a large-size Babcock cylinder press, whereas the World used "a country Campbell press." For a wager, the News would undertake to print its competitor's paper in less than a half hour. [67] (Apparently the challenge was not taken up by the World.) To sum up, the News plant was thrice the size of the World's and its circulation six times greater. In its tedious but repeated attacks on "the ignorant News, " the World alleged that the News had shipped the bulk of its plant to Tanana (Alaska) and that it was shortly to pull out of Dawson. On the contrary, replied the News, its Tanana plant was a separate venture and furthermore the proprietors expected to enjoy the same success there as in Dawson.

In September 1904 the News introduced a curious and rather messy format on its front page. Multiple headlines were set down the length of each column, but it was an unpleasing layout largely abandoned by the following year.

The 1904 Election: Defeat of the Congdon Machine

The 1904 election campaign for the federal seat was the most hotly contested in the Yukon's history. On 29 October Congdon resigned his commissionership in order to contest the seat. Both the News and the Sun supported Dr. Alfred Thompson, an Independent and former council member, nominated by a Liberal splinter group in opposition to Congdon. The World of course supported Congdon, who had brought it into existence. Congdon secured the nomination of the "Tab" clique of the Liberal party, so named because of Congdon's practice of issuing chits or receipts for services rendered in the campaign against future reward. Temple resigned his post as licence commissioner in order to devote himself to Congdon's campaign.

Although Congdon retained Laurier's confidence, Morrison, in his Politics of the Yukon Territory, 1898-1909, holds that there is little doubt that Congdon sought to dominate the administration and the politics of the territory for his own ends. [68]

The Sun vied with the News in attacking both Congdon and Temple. The former licence commissioner had allegedly used his office to buy political support, refusing liquor licences or their renewal to those not disposed to support Congdon. The News scouted the World's crude threat that civil servants who did not do Congdon's bidding would be dismissed. The World had quoted the Yukon Act which empowered a commissioner to suspend any official; however, the News pointed out that this applied only to territorial officials, not federal; hence, the North-West Mounted Police (who incurred Congdon's animus at this time), the post office and the courts were not subject to the commissioner's fiat. Only the "underlings of the Administration building" could be so bullied; in any case, they formed the Tab wing of the Liberal party and worked solely in Congdon's interest regardless of party decisions to the contrary. [69] Writing to Laurier in July 1904 while still commissioner, Congdon assured him that he had done nothing of which he need feel ashamed. In reply, Laurier reassured his Yukon chief executive: "The Government has absolute confidence in your zeal and judgment and hitherto, whilst we have received numerous complaints as you well know, we have taken no heed of the same and left the whole matter to your discretion." [70]

By late July the commissioner was referring to the "reptile American press" while the News labelled its former editor, now in the service of the World, a "Juneau blackguard." The News editor contended that he himself was English-born and bred, that he could trace his ancestry through parish registers back to Tudor times, and that he had lived in North America nearly a quarter-century, but that this was the first time that his nationality had been cast in his teeth. Since Congdon held it to be so vital that Canadians be in control of the Yukon press why, asked the News, had the commissioner offered to sell his interest in the Sun to the News on assuming office? [71]

As the campaign quickened the News warned its readers:

The News is confident that this is the last opportunity that will be given Yukon to break the galley chains which have been thrown about the territory. It is the last time it will be in the power of the people to throw off the Old Man of the Sea. [72]

On 30 November the News sounded a final warning to the electorate: beware of false telegrams purporting to emanate from Ottawa with promises likely to affect the vote in Congdon's interest. This had been done before, during the campaign of 1902; then many of the public had been led to believe that Ross was to be taken into the cabinet.

Despite his machinations, Congdon lost the election by 618 votes. Thompson, represented by the News as a standard-bearer in the fight against political jobbery, had won the seat. The World accepted the results with ill grace: "Yukon is a hotbed of disloyalty," raged the editor.

The people have spoken and told the government that what has been done in Yukon during the last few years is not appreciated, that big appropriations are not wanted, that government help is unnecessary, and that from this time on the people will ask the government for nothing but will fight the powers that be through the person of an Independent, a man who will stand alone in the house with not another to second his resolutions. [73]

On 19 December, two days after the polls had closed, the News moralized on the folly of having the elective machinery in the hands of one of the candidates. Basic to the whole concept of British liberty was the opportunity afforded the people to express the popular will without violence. The territory's interests now lay in rallying behind Thompson. The News, concluded the editor, had been in the forefront of the fight against Congdon from the start and it had won.

The new year, 1905, was not many days old when the News gleefully announced an overdue reduction in the serried ranks of the territorial civil service: "AND THEY GOT IT WHERE THE CHICKEN GOT THE AXE!!!" [74] Thirty-three officials had received notice, some of whom were "our friends" and hence the measure could not be taken as one of political vengeance. With the decline in the territory's population from 40,000 to a quarter that number, a reduction in the civil service was a necessary economy, at an estimated saving of $100,000 annually.

The Conspiracy Charges

Following the election 17 men were charged with conspiracy in connection with election irregularities. The preliminary hearing lasted six weeks, as a result of which six of the accused were dismissed and eleven arraigned, but for want of sufficient evidence the crown did not press charges. The News, which no doubt would have preferred retention of the old Scottish verdict of not proven in addition to guilty and not guilty, was particularly distressed at the dismissal of two of the defendants, Creswell and Black, who most certainly had tampered with the ballets. Dropping the charges, contended the News, would allow the Tabs to recover themselves. The battle against corruption had just been joined; weakness now would mean a more costly campaign later. The winning of the federal seat for a reformer was only the first step in the reform campaign.

Joseph Clarke supported the News's opposition to dropping the charges, but the News did not support his demand that the crown prosecutor, J.B. Pattullo, and the acting commissioner, Major Zachary T. Wood of the North-West Mounted Police, should be impeached for partisan activity. Wood had simply followed orders from Ottawa and had done so much to ensure a clean election that Clarke's proposal was preposterous. Nonetheless the News printed Clarke's letter demanding that charges be pressed for election irregularities, but without the two paragraphs concerning the impeachment of Pattullo and Wood. On being badgered by the World, the News reluctantly published the letter in full on 20 March 1905 in order to discourage Clarke from seeking further abetment from the World.

Mining Regulations: Congdon's Return

On 1 April 1905 the News's headlines heralded reform in the mining regulations and attributed it to the new member. Three days later, however, the World published a letter written by Congdon to the secretary of the Dawson Board of Trade in which the former commissioner referred directly to reforms in the regulations which he hoped soon to have introduced. Hence the credit, asserted the World, properly belonged to Congdon and not Thompson. It was a valid point, but the News had not yet done with Congdon. It was rumoured according to an editorial of 1 June 1905, that the defeated candidate was making desperate efforts "on the outside" to secure a government office and return to the Yukon. The editor contended that there was no chance of such a manoeuvre and that Congdon was too heavily discredited to show his face in the Yukon again. In this the News was wrong for not only was the ex-commissioner to return to the Yukon sooner than expected, but he was yet to sit for the territory in the House. On 3 June the World announced Congdon's imminent return as legal adviser to the government, the same office that had brought him to the Yukon in the first instance. On 6 June the News editor deplored the announcement which indicated all too clearly that the Tabs were still active and that the battle against corruption was but half won.

The World proved clearer sighted than the News on one subject. Years of opposition to federal authority in the territory had led the News to favour union with British Columbia as a possible solution to the Yukon's ills. This province had the best mining regulations in the country and retained a greater measure of control over its own resources than any other province. On the other hand, the World scouted the suggestion as utterly impractical. British Columbia already was the largest province and further more a vast wilderness, much of it unexplored, lay between the southern boundary of the Yukon and the fringes of civilization in central British Columbia. Apart from recent overtures from the province, the World contention has been borne out.

McInnes Reform

The appointment of W.W.B. McInnes as commissioner of the Yukon ushered in a new era for the territory. With Frank Oliver replacing Sifton as minister of the interior, the Yukon could indeed look forward to better times. A native of Dresden, Ontario, McInnes was a Toronto law graduate who had sat both in the federal House and the British Columbia legislature. The World welcomed the McInnes appointment in an editorial on 23 May 1905, but the News was understandably reserved. The World's suggestion of a seemly cessation of political agitation on the arrival of the new commissioner was rejected by the News. On the contrary, wrote the editor of the latter on 27 June, the new commissioner should be made amply aware of what had been going on in the territory in order that he could never complain that he had net been warned.

McInnes arrived in Dawson on 4 July and promptly announced a programme of widespread reform that seen won over the News. Banner headlines on 8 July proclaimed:

SWEEPING REFORMS ANNOUNCED FOR THE YUKON
NEW COMMISSIONER PROMISES TO REMEDY
THE GREAT EVILS THAT HAVE CURSED THE KLONDIKE [75]

On visiting Dawson in August, the new minister spent three days listening to grievances. A reforming commissioner in conjunction with a sympathetic minister augured well for the future of the territory. Idle concessions were revoked and the mining code revised. In commenting facetiously about the mistake Ottawa had made in sending an honest man as commissioner, the News drew the heavy censure of the World.

The cowardly contemptible vulture that would slur the character of the prime minister and of the men who are dearest to all Canadians and insinuate that their reason for sending Mr. McInnes here was because of their relief that he was a dishonest man — a mistake found too late — is abut the rawest thing the territory has had yet to suffer. [76]

The News retorted that of course the editorial in question had been written jokingly, but that such subtleties were beyond the World. The News was sincere, however, in its support of McInnes.

In July 1905 the World revived the News-Sun ownership debate, charging that Roediger and McIntyre, proprietors of the News, also owned the Sun. The News scoffed at this clumsy attempt to evoke the spectre of a combine; the newspaper registration ordinance required all newspaper proprietors to file this information under oath at the courthouse. Of the three papers currently publishing in Dawson, only the World evaded naming its individual owners. W.F. Thompson owned the Sun, Roediger and McIntyre the News, with Arnold F. George as editor. And George was an Englishman, not an American. It was readily seen, continued the News, why the World was secretive about its ownership (cited as the World Publishing Company); most of its stock was held by civil servants who had been forced by Congdon to invest in the enterprise. [77] On 12 September 1905 the News returned to the ownership issue — originally Congdon, Thompson and Pritchard had been joint owners of the Sun, Congdon subsequently selling out his interest on his appointment as commissioner. The Sun had been partially owned by the News for only two months in 1902, but had been independent ever since.

News-World Confrontation

Under the reforming administration of the new commissioner, 1906 witnessed a relaxation in political tension and agitation. The News and the World were now the journalistic protagonists in Dawson, with the Sun apparently below the horizon. (At the time of writing this paper, research has not produced the last issue of the veteran Klondike paper nor has reference to its demise been found in the News.) The year opened with the News and World squabbling over the printing of mining notices, official descriptions of grants issued by the gold commissioner's office. The News antagonized the World, now the government organ, by printing these notices free of charge at a savings to individual grantees of up to $50. The News's assumption of one of its perquisites galled the World, but the gold commissioner's office ruled that the notices were valid regardless of where they appeared (including the Whitehorse Star). In a leader of 8 January 1906 the News accused the World of charging exorbitant rates for this service. The News ridiculed the World's claims to a high creek circulation, maintaining that in many cases the papers had been literally given away. Not scrupling to attack its competitor's integrity, the News referred to the World as "the grafter's gazette." Perhaps in retaliation, the World charged the News editor, A.F. George, with extortion. Apparently having second thoughts on the validity of this charge, the World printed a full retraction in its issue of 19 June 1906.

It is often the case that a newspaper in the heat of controversy is led to attach the weight of fact to what is afterward found to have been unfounded suspicion.

The lapse of time enables the World to state fully and frankly that the serious charge against Mr. A.F. George of having attempted to extort money, or anything else from anyone, is absolutely foundationless and without basis in fact. The World makes this statement voluntarily and in barest justice to the gentleman injured. There has nothing transpired on which such a charge could be based and it is withdrawn and retracted without reservation whatsoever. [78]

Whether the retraction came about through the threat of a libel suit or whether the World decided to be prudent is open to speculation although the former is more likely.

As mentioned previously, the North-West Mounted Police had incurred Congdon's enmity by refusing the accede to his behests during the 1904 election campaign. At that time Wood, in command of the force, was acting as administrator following the resignation of Congdon to contest the seat. In March 1906 the News attacked the World for publishing abusive letters, signed "Dawson," whose target was the force and a woman of social standing, presumably the commandant's wife. A Major A. Ross Cuthbert, writing to Woodside from Dawson on 28 March 1906, identified Congdon as the source of the libel. Replying to Cuthbert from Ottawa on 27 August, Woodside wrote that he suspected that the World

got a tip from Ottawa to stop that nonsense, for in the only copy seen by me for a long time, there was a very laudatory article on the police. You see the fool [presumably Beddoe, the editor] hardly seemed to be aware that he was striking at Sir Wilfrid's own department. [79]

Talk of this campaign of vilification reached the prime minister. Laurier had always had confidence in Congdon notwithstanding the many complaints of his machinations; however, on 31 May, in writing to McInnes, he mentioned the anonymous letters, scarcely believing that "our friend Congdon" could be capable of such action, particularly against a woman of standing. Nonetheless, continued the prime minister, he had informed Wood that he was at liberty to direct the patronage of his office elsewhere than the columns of the World. [80] McInnes replied in June that the "unfair," "unjust" and "scurrilous" attacks had been carried on throughout the winter. He attributed the animosity to social rivalries among certain leading families "and to many petty and ill-advised acts of administration, which were not calculated to cement our friends." [81] It is perhaps difficult to understand how Congdon, former commissioner and future MP, could so lower himself as to attack anyone under the cowardly shelter of a nom-de-plume, but such apparently was the case, a rather shameful chapter in the life of this undoubtedly able if overly ambitious man. The World lent itself to the discreditable proceedings, whereas predictably the News exposed "Dawson."

From a sampling of the two papers in September 1906, it is apparent that the News was the larger (six pages, eight columns) and more progressive daily of the two, the World putting out a four-page, seven-column paper. The News was better illustrated and more cosmopolitan in outlook. The amount of advertising in the World had declined since the previous spring; however, the World was not yet finished as a competitor.

Americanism as a contentious issue was noticeably declining. In commenting on recent American legislation providing penalties for those exploiting the American flag for use in advertising, the News editor did reveal an American rather than British sentiment in which the veneration accorded the flag in the United States was reserved for the crown in Britain and its dependencies. The News issue of 4 July 1906 is the first which did not proclaim the American holiday with banner headlines and fulsome editorials as if the Klondike were American territory. Empire Day had been commemorated by the News with a large-scale photograph of the recently deceased queen. The day following the fourth, the News stressed the theme of Anglo-American concord. If the News were moderating its American sentiment, the World was forswearing its erstwhile "Yankee Go Home" line. On 28 June a World editorial had laid to rest the anti-American spectre.

The World is a Canadian paper, first, last and all the time. But it believes in the wise saying of Earl Grey, that the closer Canada affiliates with the more powerful nation at the south of her, the better it must be for her continued prosperous growth. [82]

News Trends and the Decline of the World

Although in its earlier years the News had expressed indignation over prostitutes and pimps, it did not follow that the paper was rigid enough to accept a measure like the Sunday Observance Bill. The editor found this coercive degree of sabbatarianism inconsistent with the growing cosmopolitan character of Canada and particularly the Yukon. Immigration would lead to greater tolerance and render it more difficult for one group, sect or denomination to impose its will on others. The News felt it fortunate that the provisions of the Bill called for its implementation in each province by the attorney general; the territory had no such official.

In the fall of 1906 the News took up a fad it pursued intermittently for a number of months. A simplified phonetic style of spelling had allegedly been adopted by the American government under presidential authority; however, it is indeed questionable that the British government, as the News believed, was considering the new practice. Quoting the New York Globe, the News stated that of the 300 proposed revisions, only 67 need be considered radical and some of these might never find their way into general use:

Heapt for heaped
washt for washed
mixt for mixed
altho for although
molt for moult
stript for stripped
woful for woeful
and trapt for trapped [83]

The News generally followed American usage, but never in its career of more than a half-century adopted such solecisms as these.

A marked drop in News advertisement patronage is evident in the early issues of 1907, reflecting a gradual decline in Klondike prosperity. In an issue selected at random (3 January 1907), it is noteworthy that the paper retained the patronage of such American concerns as the Great Northern Railway, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, and Harper Brothers, a New York publishing house. The Yukon World exhibited the same symptoms of mid-winter slump in Dawson retail trade. The two papers retained their wonted size — eight pages for the News and four pages for the World. The season was quiet. A curious feature in the pages of the News was Bovril advertisements in French in a paper otherwise wholly printed in English. The two editors devoted their columns to topics of general interest in the national and international scene, avoiding items of local and controversial nature. By late 1907 News advertising had revived considerably, but the editorials filled little more than one column. The front page of this edition exhibited much telegraphic news, mostly of North American origin, but with one despatch from St. Petersburg, the czarist capital.

David B. Morrison asserts that by 5 April 1907 the News had taken over the management of the World, the latter appearing from this time as the morning edition of the News. [84] Editorial controversy between the two papers had declined by this date to the point that Morrison's assertion is feasible, but no indication of this was found in either paper.

On 30 November 1907 the World announced its reversion to weekly publication during the winter months when advertising patronage was at a minimum. The Weekly Yukon World was to appear on Saturday mornings and was to include the official gazette. [85] (On 1 May the following spring the World resumed daily publication.) The weekly was of the same dimensions as the daily — four pages, seven columns — and sold at the rate of one dollar per month. This move no doubt reflected the slimmer financial resources of the World as compared with the News which was to continue daily publication until the 1920s. Or, assuming the accuracy of Morrison's statement, the reversion to weekly publication may be seen as an economy measure adopted by the News management to see them through the lean winter months. In either case, a decline in the Klondike's economy is clearly evident.

A significant shift in News editorial policy is clearly indicated in a leader of 10 September 1907. Commenting on the Borden platform, the News solidly supported the Laurier administration, a volte-face indeed from the pre-McInnes era.

Thompson, the Yukon's member of Parliament, reported to the News manager that former Klondikers now resident in Edmonton, Calgary or Victoria assured him that the News compared very favourably with the best dailies in these much larger centres. People who had never been to the Yukon continually expressed surprise that so remote a region should be served by a paper of such quality. The News in turn kept in touch with former residents and subscribers who proudly showed the paper to their friends. At this date (1907) the News's standards had not deteriorated; however, the Klondike economy had. By 1908 the Yukon population had declined to less than 10,000. The steady drop in gold production told the story.

In 1908 it was announced that the Yukon council would become an elective body. The commissioner was no longer to sit in council, but was to retain the powers of reservation and disallowance. Hence, the territory won fully representative but not responsible government, no cabinet being instituted. In a leader of 20 July 1908 the News welcomed the new constitution, it being sufficient that the long fight for representative government had been won and that future legislation be in the hands of resident Yukoners rather than in those of remote bureaucrats in Ottawa. The News was content with the division of powers between commissioner and council. As Morrison points out, the arrangement fell short of responsible government, but nonetheless the elective council would exercise a measure of control through voting supplies. In the words of a News editorial, "It will be a snug, round-the-table affair." [86] The World seemingly offered little commentary on the legislation (Bill to Amend the Yukon Act, 1908), contenting itself with a discussion of the parliamentary scene in Ottawa. With the adoption of a revised and improved mining code, the introduction of representative government and the cleaning up of the concession issue, the years of heated political controversy were over.

As Dawson became a settled community after the Canadian pattern in which the nonconformist Methodist-oriented conscience predominated, an assault was mounted on the last colourful vestiges of the wide-open boom town of the so recent past. The dance halls with their bars, gambling rooms, vaudeville and women (not necessarily prostitutes) had already been attacked by the moralists who would have Dawson as quiet and respectable as, for example, Palmerston, Ontario, or Charlottetown. As early as 5 October 1906 the News was defending the dance hall against the strictures of a Nanaimo divine who had not been in Dawson at the time of the gold rush and hence had not witnessed the scenes he declaimed against from the pulpit and in the press. He declared that the Dawson dance halls of the present were even worse than at the time of the gold rush and had become a byword throughout the country. The News countered that rigorously policed Dawson, a town small enough that everyone knew everyone else, was as law abiding as any other town of comparable size in Canada, but the combination of sex and hard liquor found in the dance halls was more than the reformers could tolerate. As Dawson increasingly became a settled community in which people raised their families and made their homes, the surviving dance halls came under closer surveillance. Perhaps the foremost reformer, the zealous Reverend John Pringle, a Presbyterian graduate of Queen's who had come into the territory with the stampede, roused the most controversy. By 1902 he had begun a campaign against the remaining dance halls in Dawson and on 18 January 1908 the Floradora, the last of the colourful and plush dance halls synonymous with the gay nineties, closed its doors. Subsequently the order was rescinded until June in order to give the proprietor time to wind up his affairs. The closing of the Floradora marked the end of an era. According to the News of 20 January,

Millions in gold have flowed through the dance halls of Dawson, millions of men have trod their boards, and countless little dramas have been enacted. Millions have been spent in the upkeep, in the engagement of talent for the auxiliary shows, the elaborate orchestra and other accompanying amusements. [87]

Some reformers suspected the dance halls of doubling as brothels, but a statement of Commissioner Alexander Henderson, dated 7 December 1907, cleared them of this charge. He stated that the worst feature of the dance halls was that the men visiting from the creeks were induced to drink heavily and spend exorbitantly by the dance-hall girls. Congdon supported Henderson's statement, but there was no help for it — the dance halls must go.

Both the News and the World attacked Pringle, whose strictures on the vice of Dawson had been given wide publicity in Canadian newspapers. On 29 February 1908 the World published a letter from the commissioner in which Pringle's allegations were demolished one by one. The World accused Pringle of exploiting Dawson's notoriety for political purposes. It was noteworthy that Pringle had laid no charges in Dawson before the relevant authorities at the time these misdemeanours had allegedly taken place. The News felt that once open prostitution had been suppressed, there was no point in further attempts to eradicate the last vestiges of a lusty era.

The News's Change of Ownership

The 1 July issue of the News was the first to feature Dominion Day; prior to 1908 the fourth of July had shared with Empire Day the top place in the News calendar. Still more to the point, on the fourth the News carried no commemorative editorial nor any front-page features of the "Let The Eagle Scream" variety. Although a continental orientation is evident in its editorial columns — the News frequently discussed the theories of Goldwin Smith, the celebrated, it controversial, English-born essayist who advocated the annexation of Canada to the United States, an evolving Canadian outlook is obvious by this period. Perhaps it did not come, therefore, as a complete surprise to its readers when the News announced a change of ownership on 31 October 1908, McIntyre and Roediger having sold their interest in the paper.

It is hard to say goodby to our many readers who have always proved such staunch friends. Many of them have been with us since we founded the establishment, July 26, 1899, and we trust we shall not be altogether forgotten . . . . We have fought the people's battles faithfully and honestly, never for an instant betraying our duty to the public which so generously supported us; never permitting an encroachment upon our editorial independence . . . .

For all this there is a deep sentiment attaching to our long connection with the newspaper we founded, and which we shall always read with a certain thrill of pleasure, and there must necessarily be some regrets. But these we cut short in order to ask our friends to continue their patronage to our successors.

From Dawson Roediger went to Fairbanks where he had already established one paper a few years before and was to launch another. [88]

In the following issue, Monday, 2 November, the paper announced that it was now Canadian-owned, but that there would be no change in editorial policy. The paper had originally been known to stand in the Conservative interest and it had come therefore as a surprise to many when the News had announced its support of Robert Lowe, a Liberal, in the forthcoming federal election, but in fact, continued the editorial, the paper had been advocating a non-party policy, first in territorial politics and then in federal. The slogan, "NOT FOR PARTY, NOT FOR SELF, BUT FOR YUKON" headed the editorial page.

Congdon's Return: The Election of 1909

The election campaign of 1908-09 for the federal seat returned Congdon to the centre of the newspapers' interest. Both the News and the World supported a Liberal candidate, Robert Lowe of Whitehorse. J.A. Clarke and George Black, a lawyer, also ran. At first the World discounted Congdon as a candidate on the grounds that his salary as a member would hardly make up for the loss of his lucrative law practice. The editor observed that Congdon had been defeated even though his clique had controlled the electoral apparatus at the last election. By the third week in December, however, the World had turned more strongly against its creator: he was too great an opportunist for whom the end justified the means. His attack on the North-West Mounted Police was a case in point. Four years earlier he had praised the force whereas now he boasted of having "succeeded in wrestling from them the power that so long had been so shamefully abused." [89] The man was unprincipled.

Although under new management, the News took a strong stand against Congdon. The candidate had evinced no regret for his past machinations; surely Sir Wilfrid would hesitate to support this man who had brought such discredit to the party as commissioner of the Yukon. The News had adopted the principle that Yukon's member should belong to the party in power, but that man was surely not Congdon.

Since both papers rejected him, though the News more emphatically than the World, Congdon launched a short-lived organ of his own, the Labour Advocate, edited by a "Jimmy Pickles." Referring to its first issue early in 1909, the World described the Congdon organ as a "journalistic abortion" and a "mimeographed special." Warming to his task, the World editor continued, "Editorially, it is hybrid as to character, idiotic as to composition and infamous as to assertions." [90] Whether or not the sheet contributed to Congdon's victory is difficult to say; in any case, it does not seem to have survived for long and to date it is not known whether any copies are on file anywhere.

The campaign was hotly contested and was fought over personalities rather than issues for by this date there were few grievances other than high freight rates to agitate the residents of the territory. The polls opened on 19 January and not for the first time did the News discover that it had backed a loser. The electorate chose Congdon.

The News accepted the result gracefully, calling on all to accept the verdict and to lend every support to the new member. For its own part, the paper felt that it had served its purpose in stimulating interest in the election and encouraging the voters to get out to the polls. The World was more enthusiastic over Congdon, taking comfort that the seat at least had gone to a Liberal. There was no doubt concerning Congdon's manifest ability. By June 1909 the News itself, Congdon's greatest opponent in the past, congratulated him on completion of his first term in the house.

Demise of the World

By 1909 the transition from individual placer and slope mining to dredging, carried out by large well-financed companies with costly equipment, was complete. The gravel was so worked out that complex processes were now required to make Klondike mining pay. Already Dawson had the seedy aspect of having known better days. A visitor, T.A. Rickard, commented on Dawson's decline:

Northward are many untenanted buildings, and even the centre of the town bears a bedraggled appearance, indicative of shrunken commerce. During the boom days the population was 50,000; now it is 2000. Dawson looks like a stout man who has grown very thin and yet wears the clothes made for him in his adipose days. Although it has been difficult for Dawson to accommodate itself to straightened circumstances, the adaptation has been effected heroically. The boom has gone, but business remains. [91]

Both papers condemned the mail-order business which diverted so much trade from local retailers. The News saw a major evil in this practice and considered those who placed orders with the large mail-order houses on the outside as lacking in local spirit. Large department stores in Toronto, Vancouver and other cities contributed nothing to the Yukon economy, yet siphoned off the trade of those who did. Queried the World, "Will we buy the goods that send the dollar out of the country or the goods that keep it in?" [92] But there was no saving potion for the ailing economy. On 27 March 1909 the World reported that government accounts kept in Ottawa showed that the federal treasury had expended two millions more on the territory than the revenue received from it.

As early as October 1908 the News admitted there was room for but one daily paper in Dawson and less than a year later the News was the sole paper. Early in January 1909 the World was acquired by the Dawson News Publishing Company, the new owners' title first appearing on the editorial page on the ninth of the month. The World eked out a nominally independent existence for another seven months as a weekly. The last issue available is that of 7 August 1909 in which no mention is made of this being the paper's final edition. The World, like the Sun, disappeared unobtrusively.

The year 1909 marks the end of the politically volatile period. In June of that year the first election was held for a fully elective council, a long-sought goal pursued by the News and the Nugget. In 13 brief years Dawson had progressed from a general store and trading post to the mining camp that made Klondike a household word around the world, to a settled community seemingly with a viable future, and finally to a town of 2,000 bearing the marks of economic decay. The rest of the story of the Klondike and its one surviving newspaper is anti-climactic in comparison with the period that preceded it.