Author: elliebryson21

The Newsboy Strike of 1899

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The Newsboy Strike of 1899

More than a century before digital headlines covered cities and streets, there were actually people who delivered these papers by hand. A group of kids, majority orphans, and some homeless, often worked from dusk to dawn just to survive. In the sweltering heat of the summer of 1899, these children decided they had endured enough exploitation from the titans of the newspaper industry. Their decision to stand up for themselves against publishing giants Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst would launch the largest child-led strike in American history. There was a lot of reasons why the newsboys decided to strike in the first place. The biggest reason though was that they raised their prices from 50 cents to 60 cents.

Background

The city of New York during the turn of the 19th century, depended heavily on the newsboys for newspaper distribution. Subscribers usually would get their papers early in the morning, but during the afternoons, the big newspaper producers would have the newsies sell. Most of these newsies came from poor and immigrant families and sold papers in the afternoon, or morning. The papers were sold at 50 cents per 100 papers, and the newsies sold them at 1 cent each, for a profit of half a cent per paper. The newsboy strike that I’m talking about now isn’t the only one there ever was. There was 3 before it, including those in 1886, 1887 and early 1889. The last notable strike that was held by the newsies was in August of 1899. It was the biggest strike against the World and the Journal. The year before it happened, the Spanish-American War increased the sales of the papers. Several of the big publishers increased the selling prices to 60 cents per hundred. 

Early days 

On the 18th of July, 1899, a group of newsies in Long Island City turned against a distribution wagon for the publisher New York Journal. They later declared strike against the papers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst in City Hall Park. When the newsies heard about it all the way from Manhattan and Brooklyn, they immediately joined on July 20th. They were brutal with this. Any man or boy found to be selling papers was to be mobbed by a group of the boys, beaten and his papers destroyed. The publishers paid older men to sell the papers, and even offered them police protection, but being the smart kids they are, the newsies found ways to distract the officers for long enough to attack the men. The women and girls got it a little easier because as the union leader Kid Blink put it, “A feller can’t soak a lady” The newsies also passed out flyers and hung signs around New York, that encouraged the people to help them in their cause by not buying the World and Journal.

The Rally at Irving Hall

The day of the rally, which was July 24th 1899,  the newsies held a city-wide rally at Irving Hall, and they were even sponsored by the state senator Timothy D. Sullivan. An estimation of 5 thousand boys from Manhattan attended the rally along with another 2 thousand boys from Brooklyn there too. And several hundreds from other areas in the city.

Many businessmen and politicians in the area addressed the crowd, Including a lawyer named Leonard A. Suitkin, Frank B. Wood, and past Assemblyman Phil Wissig. When they had finished their speech, the union president, David Simmons had a list of resolutions to the strike was to stand until the papers reduced their prices back to the 50 cents they were originally at, and advised the newsies to adopt less violent methods of resisting selling. Other speeches were given, from “Warhorse” Brennan, Jack Tietjen, “Bob the Indian”, union leader Kid blink, “Crazy” Arborn, Annie Kelly, and Brooklyn leader, “Racetrack” Higgins. They ended the night with a song sung by “Hungry Joe” Kernan. A floral horseshoe was offered to Kid blink as a reward giving hands down the best speech of the whole night. 

In the days after the rally, the newsies tactics became largely non-violent. Their tactics were no longer beating newsies who sold the World and Journal, the strike was still effective because they got the public on their side, and they chose to not buy the papers. And they were still on sale. By July 26th 1899, the newsies had already planned a parade, in which almost 6,000 boys would march, with a bunch of band members and fireworks, but the parade really never happened because they didn’t have the rights or a permit to do so. Later, a rumor spread among the newsies that their union leaders, Kid Blink and David Simmons had been selling the boycotted papers, in exchange for a bribe from the newspaper executives. They of course denied it, but Kid Blink had been wearing nicer clothes, and sources note he may actually have accepted the bribe. Simmons and Blink resigned from their leadership positions on July 26th 1899, because they were sick of being accused of accepting the bribe. Later that night, Blink was chased through the streets of New York by a group of boys who were angry about him allegedly abandoning the strike. The police saw this, and assumed that he was the leader and arrested him for “disorderly conduct”. Blink was proven guilty and given a fine, but outside there was still a group of boys outside.

The end of the strike

The rumors about Blink and Simmons quickly dissolved after they failed to obtain a parade permit, their faith and trust in leadership slowly faded away. Other newsies tried to step in and lead the strikers, but none had any where close to the amount of leadership Blink had once held. On August 1st, 1899, the World and Journal offered a compromise. The price of a hundred papers would remain at 60 cents, but they promised they would buy back any unsold papers. This means for the newsies who struggled to sell papers would be able to go home and rest and not have to sell late into the night. The newsies accepted this deal, and the strike was disbanded on August 2nd, 1899.

Strike leaders

 The leadership of this strike wasn’t as organized as others, with boys in other neighborhoods feeling more loyalty to their area than the leaders. They said some boys were more influential to them than others. The papers often quoted the newsies, including their New York accents.

The Newsboy strike of 1899 was huge, and was the largest child lead strike in history. Disney in 1992 was inspired to create the film, Newsies. It included the same union leaders but changed their names. Broadway later adapted the play in 2011.

Who was Gertrude Ederle?

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Who was Gertrude Ederle?

 

Before August 6th, 1926, no woman had ever swam the English channel, let alone think about it. Then came Gertrude Ederle. She was the first woman to swim the channel, and she did it in 14 hours and 31 minutes. She beat the average man’s time, by nearly 2 hours. And she did all of this when she was 19 years old.

Gertrude Ederle was an American Competitive swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6th, 1926, she became the first ever woman to swim all the way across the English Channel. It reached between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Among other nicknames, the Press called her the “Queen of the Waves”.

CHILDHOOD

Gertrude’s life began on October 23rd, 1905. She was born into the family of Gertrude Anna Haberstroh (Mom) and Henry Ederle (Dad). Both of her parents were German immigrants. She grew up in New York City, specifically Manhattan,  where her dad ran a butcher shop on Amsterdam Avenue. She had 5 siblings, two older sisters (Helen and Margaret) and 2 younger siblings (George and Emma). When Gertrude  was about 5 years old, she was diagnosed with Measles. Ederle got the measles in her ears, which meant that any pressure would further harm her for the rest of her life. Because of this, doctors warned that it could worsen with swimming. That was a problem. Gertrude loved to swim. By the 1940’s, she was almost all the way deaf because of her measles. Her hearing continued to get worse, but she kept swimming despite the fact.

LEARNING HER PASSION

 Ederle learned to love swimming from a really young age. She grew up learning how to swim in the ocean in Highlands, New Jersey, because she wasn’t allowed in swimming pools due to her previous disease. She later switched to swimming at the Swimming Association (WSA). Some background information on the WSA- It was a historic organization whose leadership and members campaigned for women’s suffrage, and worked both to create more swimming events open to women and increase their participation in the Olympics. This sparked Eredle to join, and she did so when she was 12. The first stroke she went for was the American Crawl, which was in fact developed by the WSA head coach Louis. It also happens that in the same year, she set her very first world record, becoming the youngest person ever to do the 880-yard freestyle. She later set 8 more world records after that and 7 of them in 1922 at Brighton beach. In total, Gertrude held 29 US national and world records from 1921, to about 1925. At the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris, she won a gold medal as a member of the first place U.S. team in the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay. She and her teammates set another world record for this event in 4:58.8 in the finals. In 1925, she decided to go professional. The same year she swam the 22 miles from Battery park to Sandy Hook in 7 hours and 11 minutes. She held the record for 81 years before it was broken by an Australian swimmer.  Her nephew, Bob, described his Aunt’s swim as a warm up for her later swim across the channel.

ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

In the year 1925, the WSA sponsored Helen Wainwright and Ederle for their first attempt for the difficult swim. Last minute though, Helen had to cancel due to an injury, and it was up to Ederle if she wanted to do it herself, or if she wanted to wait for her to get better. Of course, she decided she would do it alone, and got coaching from Jabez Wolffe, who attempted to swim the channel 22 times before. August 8th rolled around and she began her swim, but she was disqualified when Wolffe tried to get another swimmer to recover her from the water. Gertrude was bitterly against this decision, and later it was speculated that he didn’t want Ederle to succeed. She later returned to New York and continued to train, but this time it was with coach Bill Burgess, who swam the channel in 1911. She received a contract from the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune that paid her expenses and gave her a decent salary. Approximately one year after her first attempt, she was successful in swimming across the channel. She started at Cap Gris-Nez in France at 7:08 am on August 6th, 1926, and reached shore at Kingsdown Kent. This was about 14 hours and 34 minutes later. Her record stayed for almost 50 years before someone broke her record in 1950 by 13 hours and 23 minutes. 

Before Ederle had successfully crossed the English Channel, only 5 men had succeeded before her, best time being 16 hours and 33 minutes by Enrique Tirabocchi.

Later Life and Death

She had made an arrangement with Edward L. Hyman to appear in the Brooklyn Mark Strand Theatre, which paid her way more than any other performer. She played herself in a movie (Swim Girl). 

Because she had measles as a child, Ederle had bad hearing the majority of her life. She had never married and by 2001, she was living in a nursing home. Gertrude Ederle sadly passed away on November 3rd, 2003 in Wyckoff, New Jersey at the age of 98. She was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Gertrude Ederle was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as “Honor Swimmer” in 1965. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2003. Annual swim in New York (Battery Park to Sandy Hook) is named after her to honor her, and follows the course she swam

Gertrude Ederle is an amazing woman, and with her hard determination, and never giving up, she reached her goal. A biographical film was released in 2024, sharing her life.

 

The Life of Gertrude Ederle; The first woman to swim across the English Channel

elliebryson21 Uncategorized 0 Comment
The Life of Gertrude Ederle; The first woman to swim across the English Channel

The Life Of Gertrude Ederle; First woman to swim across the English Channel

Before August 6th, 1926, no woman had ever swam the English channel, let alone think about it. Then came Gertrude Ederle. She was the first woman to swim the channel, and she did it in 14 hours and 31 minutes. She beat the average man’s time, by nearly 2 hours. And she did all of this when she was 19 years old.

Gertrude Ederle was an American Competitive swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6th, 1926, she became the first ever woman to swim all the way across the English Channel. It reached between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Among other nicknames, the Press called her the “Queen of the Waves”.

CHILDHOOD

Gertude’s life began on October 23rd, 1905. She was born into the family of Gertrude Anna Haberstroh (Mom) and Henry Ederle (Dad). Both of her parents were German immigrants. She grew up in New York City, specifically Manhattan,  where her dad ran a butchershop on Amsterdam Avenue. She had 5 siblings, two older sisters (Helen and Margaret) and 2 younger siblings (George and Emma). When Gertrude  was about 5 years old, she was diagnosed with Measles. Ederle got the measles in her ears, which meant that any pressure would further harm her for the rest of her life. Because of this, doctors warned that it could worsen with swimming. That was a problem. Gertrude loved to swim. By the 1940s, she was almost all the way deaf because of her measles. Her hearing continued to get worse, but she kept swimming despite the fact.

LEARNING HER PASSION

 Ederle learned to love swimming from a really young age. She grew up learning how to swim in the ocean in Highlands, New Jersey, because she wasn’t allowed in swimming pools due to her previous disease. She later switched to swimming at the Swimming Association (WSA). Some background information on the WSA- It was a historic organization whose leadership and members campaigned for women’s suffrage, and worked both to create more swimming events open to women and increase their participation in the Olympics. This sparked Eredle to join, and she did so when she was 12. The first stroke she went for was the American Crawl, which was in fact developed by the WSA head coach Louis Handley. It also happens that in the same year, she set her very first world record, becoming the youngest person ever to do the 880-yard freestyle. She later set 8 more world records after that and 7 of them in 1922 at Brighton beach. In total, Gertrude held 29 US national and world records from 1921, to about 1925. At the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris, she won a gold medal as a member of the first place U.S. team in the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay. She and her teammates set another world record for this event in 4:58.8 in the finals. In 1925, she decided to go professional. The same year she swam the 22 miles from Battery park to Sandy Hook in 7 hours and 11 minutes. She held the record for 81 years before it was broken by an Australian swimmer.  Her nephew, Bob, described his Aunt’s swim as a warm up for her later swim across the channel.

ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

In the year 1925, the WSA sponsored Helen Wainwright and Ederle for their first attempt for the difficult swim. Last minute though, Helen had to cancel due to an injury, and it was up to Ederle if she wanted to do it herself, or if she wanted to wait for her to get better. Of course, she decided she would do it alone, and got coaching from Jabez Wolffe, who attempted to swim the channel 22 times before. August 8th rolled around and she began her swim, but she was disqualified when Wolffe tried to get another swimmer to recover her from the water. Gertrude was bitterly against this decision, and later it was speculated that he didn’t want Ederle to succeed. She later returned to New York and continued to train, but this time it was with coach Bill Burgess, who swam the channel in 1911. She received a contract from the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune that paid her expenses and gave her a decent salary. Approximately one year after her first attempt, she was successful in swimming across the channel. She started at Cap Gris-Nez in France at 7:08 am on August 6th, 1926, and reached shore at Kingsdown Kent. This was about 14 hours and 34 minutes later. Her record stayed for almost 50 years before someone broke her record in 1950 by 13 hours and 23 minutes. 

Before Ederle had successfully crossed the English Channel, only 5 men had succeeded before her, best time being 16 hours and 33 minutes by Enrique Tirabocchi.

Later Life and Death

She had made an arrangement with Edward L. Hyman to appear in the Brooklyn Mark Strand Theatre, which paid her way more than any other performer. She played herself in a movie (Swim Girl).  Because she had measles as a child, Ederle had bad hearing majority of her life. She had never married and by 2001, she was living in a nursing home. Gertrude Ederle sadly passed away on November 3rd, 2003 in Wyckoff, New Jersey at the age of 98. She was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Legacy

Gertrude Ederle was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as “Honor Swimmer” in 1965. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2003. Annual swim in New York (Battery Park to Sandy Hook) is named after her to honor her, and follows the course she swam

Gertrude Ederle is an amazing woman, and with her hard determination, and never giving up, she reached her goal. A biographical film released in 2024, by Disney on Disney+,  shows what her life was like.