EOTO Reaction: The Historical Story of the "Newsies"

Everyone knows the iconic "Newsies" Broadway musical. However, do you know the historical story of how the newsboys became so famous? 

It all started in the 1800s when people actually read PAPER COPIES of the news. Yes, you read that correctly PAPER COPIES of the news, like an actual physical newspaper. Newsboys were typically young men who sold newspapers off the streets. They sold their papers for 50¢ a piece at first. The newsboys would profit half a cent per paper at this rate. 

The Spanish American War of 1899 hit. The newspaper companies raised the rate to 60¢ a paper, due to higher interest rates. After the war almost all the newspaper companies returned to their normal prices, except for two. The Evening World Journal and the New York Evening Journal were the two companies to keep their higher price. The newsboys were furious and they broke out in strike. 

On July 18, 1988 the strike began. A group of newsboys in Long Island began the strike by turning over a New York Journal newspaper stand. This set off a similar effect across New York and newsboys began overturning and destroying New York Evening Journal and Evening World Journal stands across the city. 

The July 18th strike was the biggest strike. Only days after that strike the newsboys held a rally in New York City. The senator, Timothy D. Sullivan, supported them. 5,000 boys from NYC and 2,000 from Brooklyn crowded the streets. Local politicians and businessman gave speeches in support of the young men. David Smith the union president at the time, addressed a list of grievances the boys had and introduced a list of solutions for the two companies to consider. He explained that the boys also needed to consider more peaceful and non-violent ways of protest. This event that occurred on July 24, 1899 was known as The Rally at 'Irving Hall'. 

After the rally the boys decided to approach the strike at a non-violent point of view. They stopped terrorizing others who sold the New York Evening Journal and the Evening World Journal and began to find other methods of protest. 

However, the strike came to a crashing end. Kid Blink, who was one of the strike leaders and gave a speech at Irving Hall eventually was caught in a scandal. Rumor had it that the newspaper executives had paid off Kid Blink to sell the newspapers. Kid Blink denied all rumors. However, as time went on his clothes became nicer and his fellow "newsies" did not believe him. The night the rumors broke Kid Blink was chased throughout the streets and was arrested by officers who thought he was misbehaving. 

This ended the strike as the boys did not have another leader with significant power to step up in Kid Blink's position. Soon after Kid Blink's scandal the companies offered a deal. The companies would keep the papers at 60¢, but would buy back any newspapers not sold at the end of the day. The newsboys agreed to it and that was the end of their strikes.