For the next year, this column will mark The Western Producer’s 100th anniversary by taking a deep dive every week into a past issue of The Western Producer.
There’s a small eight-page newspaper tucked away on a shelf in The Western Producer’s Saskatoon office.
It doesn’t look like much at first glance, but it holds tremendous value to those of us who work at the newspaper.
It is the very first issue of what’s now the Producer, published on Aug. 27, 1923, although for the first year of its existence it was called The Progressive.
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The paper itself is fragile, as many 100-year-old things are, with a rip across the middle that threatens to tear it in two.
It sits in a sturdy white box labelled “Fragile — Handle with Care,” and needless to say, we don’t handle it very often.
This particular issue of the newspaper could be called a rush job.
The publishers weren’t quite ready to hit the press, and not all the equipment they needed was ready.
But the men behind this enterprise were also dedicated to a campaign that was going on in Saskatchewan at the time to form a wheat pool.
A sense of urgency surrounded that campaign, so a smaller emergency issue was rushed out to help the cause.
A notice on the front page said it all.
“When the paper appears in its permanent form, it will carry a summary of world, Canadian and provincial news; features of various kinds will be added; special articles by men who know their subjects will be provided. Judge the spirit of The Progressive by this issue, if you like, but do not attempt to judge its value as a newspaper or as a source of information. It is a Wheat Pool issue.”
With only three headshots on the front as art, it is a far cry from what we publish now. But it was the beginning of a long tradition of agricultural journalism at The Western Producer that continues to this day.
