The Newsboys Strike of 1899:

The Effects on the Legality of Child Labor in the United

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

and eventually enforce laws against these practices.

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

action and how much courage they showed as well.

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

much help they could use.

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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

insanely long days they had been working.

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

guidelines in our modern world.

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

York City, and they won.

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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.

“Child Labor in the United States.” Eh.Net,

eh.net/encyclopedia/child-labor-in-the-united-states/. Accessed 30 Dec. 2019. Provides

extremely detailed information on the progression of child labor laws and the progression of

public concern about child labor.

Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Exploitation of Children through Any Form of

Work.” Wikipedia.Org, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 10 Oct. 2002,

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides information about child

labor, what it is, and its history.

History.com Editors. “Child Labor.” HISTORY, 20 Sept. 2018,

www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/child-labor. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides

information on child labor history.

“July 27,1899: ‘Newsboys Are Weakening.’” City Hall Park 1899, City Hall Park 1899,

7 Apr. 2013, cityhallpark1899.com/newspaper-articles/new-york-times/july-27-1899/. Accessed

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,

aftct.org/story/labor-history-lesson-newsies-strike. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides information

on how Pulitzer and Hearst tried to stop the strike.

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 Li, Rosa. “Extra! Extra! Read All About the Newsboys Strike of 1899.” The New York

Public Library, 25 May 2012,

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.

Maki, Reid. “Timeline of Child Labor Developments in the United States –

Stopchildlabor.” Stopchildlabor.Org, 20 Oct. 2010, stopchildlabor.org/?p=1795#_msocom_1.

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

Wizard, 3 May 2018, www.timeclockwizard.com/history-child-labor-laws. Accessed 30 Dec.

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’

Two-Week Strike against Publishers Pulitzer, Hearst.” Nydailynews.Com, 14 Aug. 2017,

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

behind and for the strike.

“Newsboys - Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room (Serial and Government

Publications Division, Library of Congress).” Loc.Gov, 2018,

www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/newsboys.html. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides dates of important

events during the strike as well as other sources.

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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.

Stern, Liz. “History Detectives.” History Detectives, 15 July 2015,

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

Stuff Works, 31 Aug. 2009, www.iheart.com/podcast/stuff-you-missed-in-history-cl-21124503/.

Accessed 1 Jan. 2020. Provides mostly basic and some in-depth information about protests the

newsboys made and the timeline of the strike.

The Sun, 25 July 1899, p. 2,

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

well as basic accounts of the strike and why it was happening.

The Sun, 24 July 1899, p. 3,

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

workers in place of the newsboys.