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1899 Newsboys Strike Paper-Ethan Carlson
1899 Newsboys Strike Paper-Ethan Carlson
States of America
Ethan Carlson
Junior Division
Historical Paper
Paper Length: 1565
The working restrictions that adolescents and younger children encounter have not
always been a corner-stone of American culture. These laws primarily came about due to
organized protests and activism at the turn of the twentieth century. Likely the most well-known
protests in the United States of America was the New York newsboys strike in 1899 (Li). Over
the course of two weeks in New York in 1899, young, mostly orphaned boys who bought and
resold newspapers, known as newsboys or newsies, protested by striking against the price
increase implemented by the two largest newspapers, the New York World and the New York
Journal; their actions unintentionally caused a movement against child labor that helped create
The newsboys were able to make their voices heard even though the newspaper owners,
William Randolf Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, tried to silence them and end the revolution they
started. Hearst and Pulitzer used typical strike busting methods including violence, threats, and
scab workers. (Labor History Lesson: The ‘Newsies’ Strike). The newsboys fought back by
organizing together in groups and shouting their message at passers-by. In some instances they
would kick puddles to splash men that walked by, and they would steal and tear up people’s
papers if they bought them from newsboys that were not participating in the strike(How the
Newsboy Strike of 1899 Worked). At one point in response to the strike, Joseph Pulitzer and
William Hearst tried to hire homeless people to take the newsboys’ place selling the papers; the
newsboys then proceeded to visit all of the flophouses, what the homeless shelters of the time
were called, tell their story, and convince the substitute newsies not to take the jobs(The
Sun,1899-07-24). On July 22nd, 1899, over one-hundred boys showed up at newspaper row with
clubs to threaten the wagons that distributed the newspapers(How the Newsboy Strike of 1899
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Worked). It was actions like these that were ultimately what caused the newsboys to be heard
and get what they wanted, concluding the strike and changing the fate of future generations of
children to come.
The fact that these young boys were able to accomplish this shows how they broke the
barrier not only of having their demands heard, but in turn causing laws against child labor to be
made, protecting not only the newsboys’ rights, but also other groups of children being forced to
work around the country working in various positions like textile factory workers, match makers,
and coal miners. This happened because after the boys won their strike, other local newspapers
in their area not owned by Hearst and Pulitzer wrote stories about the whole strike. Information
of their rebellion slowly but surely spread by newspapers all across the country and inspired
other working children to take similar actions. As this spread of information occurred ,
government officials realized that there were lots of moral problems with young children
working, like the fact that their bodies had not fully grown or developed, and were not
empowered to make decisions on their own behalf. This was not how anyone should spend their
childhood. They also realized that they needed help so they did not have to work to survive, so
they made and enacted laws to keep children safe while also still easily providing the things that
they needed to work for like food, clothes, shelter, and clean water. This all happened just
because a group of orphan boys refused to sell newspapers so they could receive their justice.
The newsboys showed great perseverance and bravery in their ordeal by continuing to
struggle through poverty and starvation while protesting. Most of the boys stayed involved with
the strike for the full two weeks it was going. This does not seem like that long of a time until
you consider that almost none of them had any food or money if it were not for this job. A large
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chunk of them risked starvation because of this, just to get justice from the big media
corporations. Something else that demonstrates their ability to push through challenges is that
multiple people in the Newsboys Union Strike Committee, the name of their union, were later
found to have been working with one or both of the papers they were fighting against as double
agents(Newsboys Are Weakening). They did this so they could continue to make money and
provide for themselves and their families during the strike; doing this caused the progress the
boys were making to be minimized though because their adversaries had insider information
coming to them and they could make it harder for the boys. This set the boys back quite a bit and
caused them to have to elect new leaders in their union, delaying the progress of the strike. They
also had to constantly come up with new and creative ways to spread the word about their cause.
This was also a challenge because they could not use newspapers like anyone normally would, so
they had to find ways they could do things in large groups. These all are exemplary instances of
how they fought their way through many challenges over these two weeks that the strike was in
The newsboys’ courageousness and their ability to carry on resulted in them being the
inspiration and starting point for the other groups of children to rise up and demand what they
wanted from the companies and corporations they were working for. These boys worked through
extreme conditions including very long days, most days a week, and extreme heat during the
summer or bitter cold in the winter. This truly showed and proved to the lawmakers that they
needed help. The boys working that hard is another factor in how they broke the barrier of child
labor laws because it showed how unfair the fact that the children were working was and how
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The fact that these children were willing to stand for themselves like this shows how they
caused the child labor barrier to break. This willingness is what made their voices be heard
which led to people finding out about their cause and helping them get the price of the papers
back down. In turn they caused the numerous child labor laws we have today to be created and to
go into effect. Some of these laws include minimum age limits for manufacturing employment
which was enacted in twenty-four states by 1900(Child Labor in the United States). This was
created because of the incredibly low age of some of the children that had been working before
this. Another law that was created was to limit how long children could work, because of the
By the end of the strike, the New York City newsboys had worked and stayed together to
fight William Hearst and Joseph Pullitzer’s control of their pay and resultant income and their
city’s journalism. Their fight inspired lots of other young children in much of the same types of
fights across the nation. These uprisings were what caused child labor laws nationwide to be
created, put into action, and spread across many other countries all around the world. Many
groups advocating against child labor were also made like the National Child Labor Committee
and the Juvenile Protection Association founded by Jane Addams in 1901(Maki). Thanks to
these boys’ actions in 1899, we have, can, and should follow the safe child labor laws and
Furthermore, in 1899 the White Label Campaign was begun, led by Florence Kelly, a
social and political reformer(Maki). This campaign showed which products were made without
child labor and under minimum fair labor standards. In 1903 the Children’s Crusade
occurred(Maki). This was a march from Pennsylvania to President Theodore Roosevelt’s house.
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Even though the president didn’t meet with the march organizers, the issue of child labor was
brought to the forefront of the public eye. Finally, in 1904, when the National Child Labor
Committee began, this led to the start of an aggressive campain against child labor(Maki).
The newsboys’ were extremely willing to stand up to their seemingly unbeatable enemies
and go against them as equals. Pulitzer and Hearst were older, very wealthy, adult men that many
people looked up to. They held a lot of respect and influence not just in New York but nationally.
The newsboys however, were just a large group comprised mainly of orphan boys, and some
children trying to help their parents and families out, who not many people really cared about
aside from the fact that they were where people got their news. Even though there was a severe
difference in the way both groups were treated by society, the boys fought against their
oppressors as equals. They risked their lives and their livelihood to get equal rights. You could
say this was one of the first workers unions. One of the main reasons we have laws against child
labor today is because of young children, mainly orphan boys, who started a revolution to
re-lower the price of New York’s two most popular newspapers in 1899. They showed lots of
bravery, courage, and perseverance by standing up to two of the most powerful people in New
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Works Cited
Brenner, Aaron, et al. The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History. Armonk, N.Y.,
M.E. Sharpe, 2009, p. 611. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides information on the strike in general.
extremely detailed information on the progression of child labor laws and the progression of
“July 27,1899: ‘Newsboys Are Weakening.’” City Hall Park 1899, City Hall Park 1899,
1 Jan. 2020. Provides information on how the Newsboys Union Strike Committee worked and its
members.
“Labor History Lesson: The ‘Newsies’ Strike | AFT Connecticut.” Aftct.Org, 2016,
6
Li, Rosa. “Extra! Extra! Read All About the Newsboys Strike of 1899.” The New York
www.nypl.org/blog/2012/05/25/extra-extra-read-all-about-newsboys-strike-1899. Accessed 1
Jan. 2020. Provides information about how the strike worked and the newsboys’ actions during
the strike.
Accessed 30 Dec. 2019. Provides information on notable points in history surrounding child
labor.
mediashrinx. “The History of Child Labor Laws - Time Clock Wizard.” Time Clock
2019. Provides detailed information on child labor’s history and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Nasaw, David. “NY Daily News - Read All about It: The Story of the Newsies’
www.nydailynews.com/new-york/story-newsies-strike-titans-pulitzer-hearst-article-1.2858550.
Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides in-depth information on events during the strike, and reasons
“Newsboys - Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room (Serial and Government
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Schuman,Michael. “History of Child Labor in the United States—Part 1: Little Children
Working : Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Bls.Gov, 12 Jan. 2017,
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.htm.
Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides information on the history of child labor in the United States.
historydetectives.nyhistory.org/2012/07/blast-from-the-past-newsboy-strike-of-1899/. Accessed
1 Jan. 2020. Provides basic information on the reasons behind the strike, what happened during
the strike, and who the newsboys, Pulitzer, and Hearst were.
Stuff You Missed In History Class- How the Newsboy Strike of 1899 Worked. How
Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides mostly basic and some in-depth information about protests the
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1899-07-25/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1899&index=0&ro
ws=20&words=newsboy+NEWSBOYS+newsboys&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Ne
w+York&date2=1900&proxtext=Newsboys&y=23&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.
Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides first-hand accounts of the new Irving hall newsboys meeting as
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1899-07-24/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1899&index=2&ro
ws=20&words=newsboy+NEWSBOYS+newsboys+Newsboys&searchType=basic&sequence=0
&state=New+York&date2=1900&proxtext=Newsboys&y=23&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRang
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e&page=1. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides names and very limited information on significant
individual newsboys. Provides information about Pulitzer and Hearst’s attempts to hire new