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never robinson attacked the language robertson was satisfied observed robertson biographer ron poulton because he felt that he could not have covered the subject better himself one of robinson s first editorial battles stemmed from work begun as a reporter in 1887 to demand asphalt paving for city streets with another reporter he filled sacks of rotten block paving from a stretch of arthur street present day dundas between bathurst and ossington and placed them in the telegram s lobby the paper accused the contractor of being part of a ring which ignored the city engineer s specifications and profited from using poor materials the contracted sued for 20 000 in a libel suit the court ruled in favour of the telegram prompting robinson to proclaim the utter failure of this attempt to silence this journal is the shadow cast before the coming event of a thorough reconstruction of the works department of politicians robinson observed that you can t appeal to their heads because they have been turned you can t appeal to their hearts because they haven t any but thank god they all have hides combined with the efforts of the orange order the telegram shaped city council often playing kingmaker when it came to mayoral candidates who suited the paper s view of municipal governance some of robinson s opponents felt his relationship with city hall was so cozy that ruled over the city in a dictatorial manner the telegram december 29 1923 robinson was especially loyal to tommy church who received praise so breathless that you d think he was a god walking among torontonians support of church reached an absurd climax in 1923 when church attempted a mayoral comeback after sitting as an mp for several years page after page deified church printing letters of praise from foreign dignitaries depicting him as the staunch defender of prohibition and all other things toronto the good stood for and printing praise from politicians who d been dead for years allies of church s opponent w w hiltz were portrayed under rambling headlines with photos resembling rows of mug shots all in thrall to the evils of the globe star and conservatives who disagreed with the telegram s favoured politicians for once the paper s fearmongering failed when voters cast their ballots on january 1 1924 hiltz won robinson s reaction on the next day s editorial page was the printed equivalent of a twitter meltdown wrong number hiltz 10 116 plurality words of cheer are we downhearted aye aye sir answered the brave tar thomas the true these columns still rely on t l church vote shortage new year s day 1924 was ideal except that supporters of t l church seemed to note an acute vote shortage in the closing hours thereof cheer for toronto cheer boys cheer for toronto irrespective of who goes up or who goes down at the polls regardless of the newspapers that suffer defeat or share the victory the civic patriot will continue to pray for the peace of jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee t l church the best mayor who ever served toronto new year s day shipment of adversity duly received contents noted and in reply would say that toronto s loss will prove t l church s gain toronto loses more than t l church loses in the defeat of the best mayor who ever served a city and the most faithful defender who ever guarded the rights and property of the citizens partners in defeat defeat in the good company of t l church is more glorious than victory in support of any other candidate two years later when the telegram celebrated its 50th anniversary robinson still fumed over the result fifty years of unbroken success at the polls interspersed with the defeat of t l church by mr w w hiltz and a few other regrettable incidents he wrote have left scars on the finer feelings of these columns for politicians who weren t as sacred as tommy church robinson s abusive tone just as often demonstrated his bigotry and prejudices as much as anger over perceived misdeeds against the public interest of the city he loved mr robinson never stopped to consider consequences the mail and empire reflected in 1928 he was a master in the use of bitter invective and withering sarcasm at times his attacks on persons seemed cruel in the extreme and quite unwarranted but he always claimed such attacks were in no sense personal sample front page the telegram december 31 1923 a good example of robinson in action occurred when he was summoned to ottawa in june 1919 to testify at a hearing of a special parliamentary committee looking into the cost of living in a series of editorials robinson criticized the committee s examination of the william davies company the giant meatpacking firm which inspired toronto s hogtown nickname executive e c fox robinson was generally uncooperative getting into verbal rows with enemies like former toronto mayor horatio hocken when asked if fox knew anything about butter fat percentages in davies products robinson replied he ought to know as much about butter fat as type metal when robinson demanded time to reply to hocken s charges that the telegram was a lie filled rag the following argument ensued between the journalist and oxford north mp edward nesbitt nesbitt sit down robinson you sit down nesbitt you are roaring like a bull robinson and you have less brains than a donkey wild uproar nesbitt shaking his fist don t think you are going to run this committee robinson reserve your sympathy for your austro germans in north oxford the sergeant at arms was called in to restore order among the telegram s press rivals robinson reserved special scorn for the star the papers had been relatively cordial to each other ever since robertson supplied equipment to the star when it launched in 1892 though their politics were polar opposites robertson developed a friendship with star publisher joseph atkinson each complimenting the other for sticking to their principles atkinson biographer ross harkness provided an amusing example of their relationship meeting him on the street robertson would ask well atkinson did you make any money last month at first the answer was always no to which john ross would jokingly respond better give it up i ll give you a job when at long last the answer was yes we had a little over last month robertson tipped his high silk topper in benign congratulations and continued his august ambulation telegram paper box at 908 queen street east july 23 1930 from the city of toronto archives fonds 200 series 372 subseries 58 item 1257 after robertson s death robinson unleashed his hatred of everything the star stood for day after day mr atkinson was pictured to readers of the telegram as an evil old man hunched in his office spinning machiavellian plots for the destruction of the empire protestantism and western civilization harkness noted since the telegram still had a circulation within the city greater than that of the next two papers combined most residents of toronto knew atkinson only from the distorted picture presented to them by his enemies robinson went to ridiculous extremes to portray atkinson poorly such as claiming the star s suggestion to widen bloor street was based on atkinson s desire for a speedier ride between the office and his home in forest hill one of robinson s most obsessive crusades was the promotion of public ownership of utilities especially hydro were robinson around today you can bet he d be leading the charge against selling any part of hydro one robinson stood faithfully by sir adam beck and others who believed a publicly run system was better for ratepayers than falling prey to price gouging by private operators robinson also backed beck s unsuccessful plans to build a network of radial railways out of the city following beck s death in 1925 robinson frequently spoke in public about the need to preserve beck s legacy amid political squabbling by the mid 1920s robinson s power declined following robertson s death in 1918 the telegram was passed onto a group of trustees including his widow jesse and son irving both increasingly resented robinson jesse was annoyed by his provocation of libel suits which were unsuccessful filed by minnesota lumber tycoon e w backus for allegations over a sweetheart timber rights deal in northern ontario and prime minister william lyon mackenzie king for allegations that cabinet ministers had accepted bribes of liquor irving resented robinson s authority and contempt for his friends robinson s failing health showed on the editorial page old hates clouded black jack s vision impelling him to constant editorial outbursts that many began to find excessive and tiresomely repetitive poulton noted he forgot that a crescendo a day scares the reader away if he was ever aware of the rule during robinson s last year at the helm he constantly slammed the canadian pacific railway and displayed an increasingly bitter anti catholic bias he and irving constantly quarrelled following a board meeting in 1927 a glum robinson declared they re all against me his final editorials appeared in the march 3 1928 edition he criticized the vanity of proposed downtown skyscrapers and commented on a public speaking contest at jarvis collegiate he also took a shot at irving who considered himself a snappy dresser by commenting on a recent decision by the business club of nottingham in england to fine a member for wearing plus four pants at a public function shortly after robinson suffered a heart attack initially confined to his wellesley street home he soon moved to his summer home in beaverton on may 1 1928 for the first time anyone could remember the classified ads were removed from the front page though temporary at first the removal of this anachronistic element was seen as a sign of battles behind the scenes the classified were permanently banished from the front in august the telegram september 29 1928 on september 28 1928 the front page of the telegram announced robinson s death across all papers he was remembered for his concern for the underdog concise writing style loyalty to church and empire and his dedication to the city the telegram s editorial page began with a quote from tennyson s poem ulysses which summed up robinson s motivations to strive to seek to find and not to yield despite their differences irving robertson wrote about how robinson s dedication probably harmed his health again and again he was urged to save his health and delegate his duties but he had the restless spirit of ulysses who having drunk delight of battle with his peers was impelled to be a participant and not a mere spectator of the pageant of life robinson asked for a simple service requesting that the only flowers present be ones he grew in beaverton two years after his death his family presented a portrait to city council which one alderman request be hung next to adam beck s mayor bert wemp a former employee of robinson noted that side by side they depicted two staunch friends who fought for public interests his journalistic legacy lived on through his daughter judith 1899 1961 who joined the globe as a reporter the year after his death during her distinguished career she co founded the second world war era weekly news and served as a respected political columnist with the telegram we give the final word to the globe s obituary of robinson he fought because he was spiritually and mentally incapable of remaining neutral everything was white or black to him there was no grey or middle tone sources j e atkinson of the star by ross harkness toronto university of toronto press 1963 the paper tyrant by ron poulton toronto clark irwin company 1971 a victorian authority by paul rutherford toronto university of toronto press 1982 the june 21 1919 september 29 1928 and december 16 1930 editions of the globe the september 29 1928 edition of the mail and empire the january 2 1924 april 19 1926 and september 28 1928 editions of the telegram and the spring 2010 edition of urban history review additional material renowed editors of canadian daily newspapers toronto thomson newspapers 1959 the globe october 3 1928 the globe s memorial editorial observed that canadian journalism loses its most picturesque character and toronto loses a great man it was inevitable that such a man be sometimes wrong or even oftentimes wrong but the greatest tribute to the character of the departed editor is that even his most bitterest enemy never doubted his motives it was everywhere conceded that john r robinson struck with all his force in his unique and inimitable fashion because he believed that so to strike was in the public interest despite s robinson s attacks on the star whoever wrote its memorial editorial showed restraint and respect yet while he could wield a fiery pen john r robinson was in his own person one of the kindliest of men devoted to his friends and enjoying the enthusiastic support of the newspaper staff to whom for so long he gave such energetic leadership author jamie bradburn posted on june 19 2026 categories city politics historicist newspaper history torontoist tags 1920s 19th century adam beck black jack robinson horatio hocken john robinson john ross robertson joseph atkinson journalists judith robinson municipal politics the evening telegram the telegram tommy church toronto star w w hiltz 1 comment on toronto newspaper histories the fighting words of black jack robinson toronto metros croatia 1976 soccer bowl champions originally published as a historicist column on torontoist on september 24 2016 toronto sun august 30 1976 toronto sports fans needed a champion in 1976 the argonauts hadn t hoisted the grey cup since 1952 the maple leafs were nine years into their stanley cup drought the world hockey association s toros had fled to the hockey hotbed of birmingham alabama the blue jays were preparing to launch their first season so who knew how long it would be before they reached the world series the metros croatia victory in the 1976 soccer bowl was an underdog story the city could embrace the team endured a strife filled season not enhanced by a league which disliked the ethnic tenor of the team s name and was annoyed that a perennially indebted franchise with meagre attendance made the finals instead of a premier market like new york as soccer exploded as an amateur sport across north america in the mid 1960s veteran sports entrepreneurs especially nfl owners saw an opportunity for a professional gold mine two rival leagues began play in 1967 the national professional soccer league npsl and the united soccer association usa both were confident that soccer was the sport of the future we won t go broke in soccer declared jack kent cooke after a usa meeting at the royal york hotel in february 1967 it will succeed i ve never backed a loser and i don t intend to start now cooke may have later regretted that statement while he had tasted success with toronto s maple leafs baseball team had a winner with basketball s los angeles lakers and got the los...
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