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.
