On the Toronto Star, Canada's biggest, lustiest and most profitable daily, the highest accolade a newsman could receive was a penciled "OKH.C.H." on his copy. The initials were those of President Harry Comfort Hindmarsh, 69, long known as Canada's toughest newspaper boss. Many Canadian newsmen even insisted that a reporter who had not been hired and fired by Harry Hindmarsh was still a cub.
Missouri-born Editor Hindmarsh started out as a reporter for the Star in 1912, was named city editor one year later. In 1933 Hindmarsh (who married Publisher Joseph Atkinson's daughter in 1915) became vice president in charge of the...