The Newsboy Strike of 1899: Real World vs. Disney’s World

By: Addie Gerber

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, American newspaper companies had a commonplace way to sell their papers: newsboys. These children would buy the papers directly from the publishing houses and sell them on the streets to anyone they could convince to pay.  The 1992 Disney produced movie, Newsies, is one of the most well-known films that shows the struggle of the young newsboys living in New York City. Included in this film is the rarely told story of the Newsboy Strike of 1899. Newsies, like most movies based on true stories, is both simultaneously accurate and inaccurate. The aspects of the original story that have been altered in the movie include: the reasons for the strike, the fights and the riots, their targets, the rally at Irving Hall, who were considered traitors, and the overall outcome of the strike.

Child labor in the United States was at an all-time high from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. For lower class families it was not unusual for a child in their middle school years to be working in jobs that were typically assigned to adults. Many children would give up going to school in exchange for the little money they earned to support their families.  Not only were the children forced to make a choice between financial stability and education, but many were injured or fell ill due to the unsafe working conditions. It was commonplace for a child to lose a limb because it had gotten stuck in a machine, or to die due to poisoning from pesticides that came along with working in fields. Child laborers were also more likely to contract long term diseases like respiratory problems and some forms of cancer, shortening their life spans significantly. “In 1900, eighteen percent of all American workers were under the age of sixteen” (Trattner 23). This was due to the fact that not only was there not much regulation or laws against employing a child; it was also much cheaper than hiring an adult. 

A well known, almost famous, job field that was dominated by young children was being a newspaper boy, or better known as a “newsie.” Newsies mostly consisted of runaways and orphans, willing to do almost anything to be able to provide for themselves. Their work day started at the break of dawn, having to go to the publishing companies and buy the papers that were to be sold for the day. After buying the papers, they spent the rest of their day out in the streets, practically begging for people to buy a paper. In Walter I. Trattner’s book, Crusade for the Children a History of the National Child Labor Committee and Child Labor Reform in America, he discusses how these children did this no matter the weather, time, or location. Most of the time, after all of that day’s papers were sold, or a majority sold, a vast number of the newsboys would sleep on the street due to the fact that a majority were orphans or runaways and did not have a home to return to. The newsboys of New York City expereienced some of the most noticeable and tragic cases of child labor. Many people have a tendency to forget the tragedy due to their glamorized depictions in films; portrayed as smartass, freckle-faced little kids yelling the day’s headlines at the top of their lungs. In Gerard Jones’ book, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, he states, “the sentimentalization of the plucky, happy newsboy in the comic strips of the day was largely a calculated effort to keep sentiment in the industry’s corner when reformers tried to extend the child labor laws to include newspaper sales” (Jones 14). Major newspaper companies actively strove to keep the public image of their newsboys positive, as they benefited from their cheap labor and did not want to lose it if the child labor laws were passed. 

     In the Disney movie, the beginning of the story shows that the reason for the strike was chief of the Evening World, Joseph Pulitzer’s greed and desire to be the best at what he did, but that was not the true event that started the strike. At the beginning of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the newsie buying price for both newspapers, the Evening World and the Evening Journal, was raised from 50 cents per hundred papers, to 60 cents for the same amount. The reasoning for this was because newspapers were being sold in the dozens and newsies were making more than they really ever had, so the newspaper companies saw no problem in raising prices. However, at the end of the war, not as many papers were being sold and people were losing interest in them. The World and Journal did not decrease the price of the papers to the distributors, the newsies, after the end of the war, causing the boys and girls who sold the papers to begin to feel the effects of the price increase. On average, a newsie would make 26 cents a day from selling newspapers (Li). That is why the strike began in July of 1899.  While the price increase in the movie remained the same in comparison to the real strike, the price increase of papers took place in the summer of 1899, unlike the real strike where the increase occurred years before. 

During the time of the strike, the worst thing a newsie could be called was a “scab.” Scabs were newsboys that continued to sell papers, even while their fellow newsboys were striking. Those who were on strike viewed those who did not side with them against the newspaper companies as being no better than the big companies themselves. This caused the scabs to become the main targets of the newsies who participated in the strike.  Fights broke out on a daily basis between scabs and strikers, causing tension to be high due to the vast amount of violence. Due to the fact that the strikers were so large in number, they came out victorious in their fights against the scabs. At the end of many fights, torn papers would litter the streets and the newsboys would then entertain themselves with singing and other things to get attention from bystanders. The only real difference between what happened at the real fights and riots versus what took place in Newsies is that Disney added full songs and dance numbers. The movie showed, just like the real events, how the strikers one way or another won their fights no matter what. They were a unified group working for a cause they believed that everyone, especially those in similar situations, should be participating in and nothing was going to stop them from changing the newspaper world.

While the main targets of fights were the scabs, there was a certain group that, no matter what, the strikers left alone, the newsgirls. They could be standing across the street from the strikers, selling the “banned” papers, and the newsies would still not raise their fists to protest against them, and that group was newsgirls. It was not a strange sight to see newsgirls in a crowd of striking newsboys, and remain completely unharmed. Unlike the real events that inspired the movie, the movie never shows nor mentions the fact that girls were also newsies. The only young girl that is really shown is used as a way to show the ideal girl of the time period: sweet, quiet, and gentle. She was used in the movie to add a small romantic plot and give the main character, Jack, a gentler side. This reflects the role and view of women during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and how they as a whole were treated and neglected from being equal to their male counterparts.

In 1899 at Irving Hall in New York City, newsies from boroughs all over the city gathered to rally together. Over 5,000 were in the room alone, with at least 2,000 more in the streets outside, not able to fit in the hall. During the rally, various newsboys were giving speeches, proposing different ways to continue on with the strike. The speakers were competing against each other, and in the end, whoever was determined to have the best speech was awarded a horseshoe; which symbolized them having power over the other boys. The Irving Hall rally was not the only one to occur. Throughout the course of the strike, several were held, each having different leaders appointed due to the speech competitions. In Disney’s version, the main reason for the newsboys to have the single shown rally was to further unify the newsies in their cause, just like the real strike of 1899. However, in the movie, that was the only reason for the rally. It was not a place for everyone who wanted to talk and share their ideas to do so. There was no competition to allow people to become leaders; instead there was a set leader, Jack, or leaders if you also include other characters like David and Spot to a certain extent.

A week after the beginning of the strike, two “leaders” of the protest, Kid Blink and David Simmons, appeared outside the World publishing house wearing brand new suits. The other protestors accused the pair of accepting bribes from Pulitzer and William Hearst to quiet down the strike. Simmons had his pockets checked by his peers for money and they were found empty. This was not a conclusive way of checking his betrayal but there are no further records on whether or not the boys accepted the empty pockets as a definite way of telling his innocence.  Blink on the other hand, nicknamed so for the fact he was blind in one eye, can be quoted saying, “Dis is de time when we’se got to stick together like glue.” (Burgan 33). He used the idea of sharing a common enemy in attempts to gain the trust of his fellow newsies back, but just like Simmons, there is no accurate account as to whether or not they were re-accepted by the strikers as one of their own. However, it is recorded that Blink was later arrested for disorderly conduct and fined five dollars, which is equivalent to $155.48 in today’s monetary value, making it a big possibility that he was still participating in the strike (“Inflation Calculator.”). In the movie depiction, the supposed traitor was Jack Kelly, who did not actually exist. He, like Blink and Simmons, was seen in front of the publishing house wearing new clean clothes which led those around to believe he was bribed into being a scab. Unlike in the actual events, Kelly did not try to change how the other newsies saw him, due to the fact he was attempting to portray his character as a loyal friend. Two days after these fictional events, he was back to his old antics with the strikers, just how it can probably be assumed both Blink and Simmons did after being accused of being traitors. 

The newsboy strike began to weaken and the protesters were back to selling two short weeks after the strike began. In an attempt to maintain the peace, newspaper companies offered to buy the unsold papers for the day, which they had not done before. If a newsie had unsold newspapers before this, they were forced to accept their loss of investment. The big newspaper companies only had one condition, that the newsie buying price remains at sixty cents per hundred papers rather than having it lowered to fifty cents, and in the end their terms were accepted. In the Disney version, the final outcome of the strike was very different from what actually occurred. After just a short ten days of protesting, the newsboys successfully won the full demands for their strike. Their efforts to have the buying price lowered, unlike the result from the actual events, were effectively accomplished. Disney also in the end added a happy ever after feeling for the characters, while there is not much record of the striking boys after 1899.  Most went back to living how they did before the strike, as if it never really took place at all.

The movie as a whole overall is an inaccurate rendition of the 1899 events that took place. Although the intention of Newsies was good, it would have been even more impactful if the historical errors were fixed. Most of the details that Disney changed and added were put there in an attempt to make the story have clear villains and heroes, when in truth that was not the case. During the actual strike there was no side that was one hundred percent right or wrong, but in the movie it was clear that the strikers were the underdogs you wanted to cheer for. This movie was meant as a story to inspire people, mainly children, and show them that they too could one day defy the odds against them, and change things to be in their favor.

 

Bibliography

Burgan, Michael. The American Newsboy. Compass Point Books, 2007.

In Burgan’s book, he writes about the history of the use of newsboys in the United States. From the beginning of the 1830s, when the first newsboy took to the streets, to their popularity in today’s entertainment. By the late 1800s, newsboys appeared as characters in books and decades later they were even featured in movies. He discusses how the true nature of their lives were far from their glamourized counterparts. He helpfully provides the media’s depiction of newsboys, compared to their realities.

“Child Work, Child Labour.”Causes and Consequences of Child Labour. ECLT Foundation, eclt.org/en/news/what-is-child-labour.

The ECLT Foundation is a Swiss founded charity that focuses on putting a stop to child labourers, especially in the tobacco industry. In their article, they discuss the causes and consequences of child labour. This provides an insight into the effects child labour has.

“Inflation Calculator.” DaveManuel.com.

This inflation calculator was used to calculate the current spending power $5 in 1899 has. 

Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. Arrow, 2006.

In his book, Jones discusses the history of immigrant and child labours depictions in comic books. This provides a clear understanding of how newsboys were portrayed in the media.

Li, Rosa. “Extra! Extra! Read All About the Newsboys Strike of 1899.” The New York Public Library,The New York Public Library, 27 Oct. 2015, www.nypl.org/blog/2012/05/25/extra-extra-read-all-about-newsboys-strike-1899.

In Li’a article, she discusses the beginning history of the 1899 newsboy strike, and how one can do further research into the topic. Her article provides reliable peer-reviewed sources that are a good leading off point.

Ortega, Kenny, director. Newsies. Buena Vista, 1992.

Trattner, Walter I. Crusade for the Children a History of the National Child Labor Committee and Child Labor Reform in America. Quadrangle Books, 1970.

In Trattner’s book, he reviews the history of the movement to protect children’s rights and abolish the harsh conditions of child labor in the United States