United Colleges - Vox Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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things that were, and still are, considered significant. Can any in Canada today match such a record as that, or does the future seem likely to serve us better in this connection? Partisanship will not suffice to explain the present innocuous position of the press. Neither can we ascribe the disparity noticed to the invasion of the advertiser into the realm of journalism. The writer had the opportunity of viewing an old copy of the Globe recently, and the ratio of advertising to other printed material in it was quite equal to that present in the modern dailies. The advertising has changed in form, it is true, and the present advertiser is doubtless quick to demand that due respect be paid his interests; but these earlier advertisers were also problems for editors. The advertising was there, and advertisers are a group whose characteristics are innate and similar—be they of the age of Solomon, Edward III, or George VI, the advertiser constitutes a serious challenge to editorial author¬ ity in any generation. But whereas men such as Brown, Howe and Co., were able to overcome or disregard this policy-pointing group, their descendants in the journalistic line are apparently incapable of so doing. The difference in part would seem to be with the journalists themselves. There is a failure of spirit among modern newspaper¬ men not evidenced by their predecessors. Today’s crop is in more senses than one, one of “lesser men.” And when the added mechan¬ ical advantages of the last six decades are considered, the outlook is gloomy indeed. But to describe the lost influence of the press solely in terms of the moral fibre and character of the journalists and to designate this alone as the cause of that lost prestige is, of course, ridiculous. That is not to minimize the importance of character, as revealed in the men of the press, as a factor in the present marked decline of that institution’s influence. But to look at the matter fairly, it becomes necessary to confess that the modern reader is a much poorer speci¬ men than his counterpart of the past. It is necessary to admit that to a large degree the newspaper mu st print what its readers will pay to have printed. The modern reader rarely possesses the interest in important things required to force journalists to provide such reading material. Too seldom do the readers of today get beyond the sport page and funnies, or the society column and the front page scandal sheet. When they do turn to the places which purport to deal with the serious in life, little of real value is to be found. A vicious circle has been uncovered by asking these impertinent questions in regard to modem journalism. It is a “sign of our times,” as Carlyle would have said. Democracy in this instance has evi- [23]

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WHEN YOU CALL TO SEE YOUR GIRL AND YOU FIND SOME CHAP HAS BEAT YOU TO IT - . .

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JAMES H. ASHDOWN, Progressive Was bom in London, England, March 31st, 1844. His parents came to Canada West and settled on a farm in Etobicoke township. Later a store started in Weston failed and then at 14 years of age he went with his parents to a farm in Brant County. At Hespeler in the store of John Zryd he received his first introduction to the hardware busi¬ ness. In looking for a place which promised large developments he went first to Chicago and then to Kansas. Then he turned his attention to Red River where he arrived June 30th, 1868. After a few months investigation he purchased a hardware business in the autumn of 1869. The territory was then passing from the fur trader to the set¬ tler and private business. He saw that connection with Canada promised for Rupert’s Land development and British sovereignty. Though his support of the Canadian party caused a long imprison¬ ment under Riel in 1869-70 yet his judgment was vindicated when the ter¬ ritory finally became Canadian in May- July, 1870. He looked upon the locality as the site of the future metropolis of the West. A steady increase had brought the population in November. 1872, to 1467 persons. Police protection, city surveys, fire protection and water supply, except that obtained in barrels drawn on carts from the river, were lacking. Fort Garry, Main Street, Point Douglas and St. Johns were contending for the centre of the new urban development. Mr. Ashdown insisted that Main Street (Winnipeg) be the centre and that the incorporation be that of a city. As chairman of the committee to secure this corporation he refused the status of a village and of a town. In February, 1873, the storm broke, the speaker of the Legislature was mobbed and the bill was dead. After another attempt in 1874 incorporation as a city was secured. In 1874 the main line of the C.P.R. was projected about 20 miles north of the city. A branch line joining the C.P.R. with the Northern Pacific was planned east of the Red River. Winnipeg would not be served by even the branch line for there was no bridge. Citizens visualized the building of another city and the abandonment of much of the development of the last decade. In conjunction with others, Mr. Ashdown undertook successfully the bringing into the city of the first railway from Canada. The coming of the railway did not bring all the benefits expected. A clause in the Charter of the C.P.R. consolidated the monopoly and a clan¬ destine arrangement with the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway fastened an unbearable freight tariff on all Western Canada. The struggle began in 1883. When it was at its height in 1887 and 1888 Mr. Ashdown was chairman of the Winnipeg Board of Trade and forwarded a scathing protest to the shareholders of the C.P.R. The government of the Dominion of Canada disallowed the Acts of the Provincial Legislature providing for railways to ensure competition and lower rates. He stood with others con¬ tending that Manitoba was made to pay, by high freight rates, the loss of the C.P.R. on through freight carried in competition with United States Railways, and, “that no emigrant will locate himself, if he can help it, (Continued on page 31) [24j