Background

Turn of the Century New York City. History of Newsboys. Other Strikes.

Turn of the Century in
New York City

New York City was the American City at the turn of the century representing this idea of a "new metropolis."
Mid-Nineteenth century brought a boom in the working-class as immigration also increased as a result of the rapidly changing and industrialization of the city.
- About 40% of the NYC population was foreign born.
- New Americans were also incredibly poor, living at subsistence levels.
- New York City had the tallest skyscrapers in the world, the longest subway system and a new suspension bridge.
Emphasis on protecting childhood as the sacred period of innocence.

Newsboys (also known as "newspaper hawkers" or "newsies") are defined as a street vendor of newspapers without a fixed newsstand.
Began when publisher of the New York Sun, Benjamin Day, recruited unemployed people. Expecting adults, the help-wanted posters brought in children
- First newsie was a 10-year-old Irish immigrant (Bernard Flaherty) who would cry out sensational headlines
Newsboys were not employees, but independent agent who bought papers and peddled them.
- A newsboy earned 30 cents a day (about $11 in 2022) and worked late into the night crying “Extra! Extra!” in attempts to hawk every last paper.
- Newsies frequently took advantage of the kindness of strangers and used the "last-paper ploy" to sell more papers.
- Newsies were often seen as victims of poverty and delinquents in the making.
  - They became an iconic image in discourses about childhood, ambition and independence.
  - Some newsies were orphans or runaways, but most worked to supplement their families income.
  - Older, stronger newsies would look out for one another and keep a close eye on their younger counterparts.

Streetcar Strike of 1899
- Began on June 10th, 1899 when over 850 railway employees voted to strike for better wages, working conditions and union recognition.
- Riots broke out as companies hired nonunion men to operate trollies.
- Strike demands continued to be ignored and riots continued.
- The strike ended on June 24th when the company took back 80% of strikers and restored old work schedules, but strike picked up again on July 17th due to lack of fulfillment on promises from the company.
- Riots continued and men were slowly rehired until the strike eventually fizzled out.
Three separate newsie strikes occurred before the Newsboy Strike of 1899.
- Strikes in 1886, 1887 and 1889 with the last notable strike against the World and the Journal.
Spanish-American War increased newspaper sales in 1898 forcing publishers to raise the cost of a newsboys' bundle of 100 papers from 50¢ to 60¢ to offset the increased sales.
- This upset the newsies... a lot...

The New York House of Refuge was the first juvenile reformatory established in the US opening in 1824. It was destroyed by a fire in 1839, then relocated and reopened in 1854. It was entirely privately funded, receiving guidance, supervision and additional funding from state agencies.
- It opened with the intention of incarcerating young people away from “older, more hardened criminals” to aid in rehabilitation.
In a large New York Times article, the House of Refuge was noted with extreme virtue, claiming commitment to education, vocational opportunities, good cuisine and described administrators as “having been, from the first, among our most judicious and philanthropic citizens.”
- The truth was far from that. Investigation uncovered an enormous amount of abuse inside the walls of the reformatories. This included excessive corporal punishment, exploitation as a source of cheap labor, little to no classroom education or vocational instruction among many other issues.