The Newsies Strike Of 1899

Now the actual Newsboys Strike of 1899 , lasted much longer. It lasted from July 20th to August 2nd. The strike was as well lead by one-eyed young man named Louis Ballat who was nick named “Kid blink”. And in the musical was as a minor supporting role , with another actual real life newsie MAurice Cohen were the inspiration for “CowBoy Kelly.” As well the actual strike ended with a compromise: The Journal and The World agreed to buy back all unsold copies of the newspapers. Another fun fact is that the NewsBOys strike of 1899 was told in David Nasaw’s book Children of the City: At work and at Play.

Labor union were crucial in the late 1800’s when the workers were working long hours, doing hard work, without any extra pay. Job security (could be fired at any given time) and safety precautions did not exist in this era, jobs in this day was typically a threat to the workers due to the bad working conditions. When the union was formed in 1866 it was not easy, but if the workers understood how it would benefit them it would have been a greater successes. Due to lack of education, the communication between the union and the works was broken. Some of the religious beliefs created a hardship on getting the union passed. One of the unions called the AFL (American Federation of Labor) was created in 1881 that would try to fight for workers’ rights.

On July 16, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, some of the workers decided to ‘quit' and refused to work. This spontaneous strike sparked protests in other cities including St. Louis,

Before the founding of America newspapers were local and worked for their own agenda. With the unfair taxes and acts that were passed by Parliament the nation needed to create a unity in the colonies. Colonies formed Committees of Correspondence to keep each other informed of the resistance efforts throughout the colonies. Newspapers reprinted the tales of the protests and actions against Britain. This created American propaganda to obtain fair treatment from Britain. The greatest time that the newspapers came together to inform the colonies of the Boston Massacre. Being the biggest piece of propaganda at the time, the massacre lead to more colonists believing that they could be a part of a bigger political community and was one of the turning points in American History that lead to the independence of the country from British rule.

The words chosen by the writer suggests that they do not agree with the actions of the labor unions. Other times, the newspapers would associate them with violence. During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Charles M. Dollar Along with seeing labor movements as radical, many labor movements were labeled socialist by the media. In the cartoon in Document C, the labor movement is shown to be influenced by socialist controls. Considering the generally negative connotation that came with communism in the United States, when newspapers like Harper’s Weekly labeled organized labor as socialist, many people developed a negative attitude towards organized labor. The disapproval of organized labor was not exclusive to the American public but also the federal government. During the late 20th century, the Supreme Court became increasingly conservative on the issue of organized labor. In the Supreme Court case In re Debs, the court ruled that federal government controlled interstate commerce and was obligated to keep the railroads from obstructions and in that specific case, strikes or protests. The fact that a good portion of the American public and the federal government saw organized labor as a detriment; it was no surprise that organized labor

The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike

In the 1800s and early 1900s working conditions were much harsher than now. Long hours and small wages made up a day in the life of someone living in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. The Haymarket Riot was the result of the bombing in Chicago. “In the summer 1886 the campaign for an eight-hour day, long a rallying cry that united American laborers, culminated in a national strike on May 1, 1886. Between 300,000 and 500,000 workers struck across the country. In Chicago, police forces killed several workers while breaking up protestors at the McCormick reaper works. Labor leaders and radicals called for a protest at Haymarket Square the following day, which police also proceeded to break up. But as they did, a bomb exploded and killed seven policemen. Police fired into the crowd, killing four. The deaths of the Chicago policemen sparked outrage across the nation and the sensationalization of the “Haymarket Riot” helped many Americans to associate unionism with radicalism” (Yawp). As a result of the Haymarket Riot was the loss of members of the Knight of Labor. “The national movement for an eight-hour day collapsed”(Yawp). The Haymarket Riot played an important role in illustrating how labor was in the late 1800s to the

The Labor Movement’s number one concern is to address problems associated with social inequality. The labor movement was created in order to fight for the rights of labor workers. The goal was to have better wages, safe working conditions, and reasonable working hours. Unions were formed in order to achieve this. However, this was always enough. Workers reached a point where they came together and participated in strikes which the main goal was to have their employers listen to them and come to an agreement.

After the war, Canadian factories that manufactured war supplies were permanently closed. This produced a lot of unemployment and bankruptcy. The cost to live was increasing dramatically and many people (who were still employed) could not compete with the inflation.(CBC, N/A, 1). WW1 veterans who had returned home after the war found that the wages were far too low.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 1). Some people wished to be employed, while others wished for better working conditions.(CBC, N/A, 2). On May 15, 1919, metal and building workers and the trades and labor council declared a strike. In a few hours, 30,000 left their jobs to participate in the strike.(Reilly, 2006, 3). One Big Union (OBG) was designed to speak for the workers.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 1). The House Of Commons had modified the Immigration Act so that any individual who was not born in Canada would be deported.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 2). The government feared that this strike would create a revolution, so they interfered. Workers were told to either go back to work or be fired.(Reilly, 2006, 6). On June 21, 1919, otherwise known as Bloody Saturday many people engaged in a silent protest. 2 people were killed that day and many sustained injuries. Several of the union leaders were arrested.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 2). Strike leaders were afraid that more people would be killed so on June 25, they went back to work.(Reilly, 2006, 3).

In a time when live media coverage of a situation such as these strikes was not easily done, the daily or weekly editorial was all the news a regular household across America received. They had to base the majority of their opinion off of these papers. A time period when the phrase yellow journalism was coined. Looking at our list of sources from this time period that mention the newspaper or pertain to the newspaper “Fair Wages” written by an anonymous striker starts off with this “The newspapers have fallen into line to defend the railway companies, who thus have brought all the great guns of public opinion to bear on one side of the fight, so the strikers have got the worst of it before the community” (North American Review) “Fair Wages”, September, 1877 reprinted in Gorn, Et al,

The movie, Newsies depicts the cause and effect pattern of the newly industrialized life of the late 19th century. Many job opportunities began to pop up in big cities, prompting people to move to the cities for what they thought would be a better life. With the high prices of housing, the lower class had to work extra hard to provide for their families. If the money was not enough, children would have to go out and look for jobs to help out, but they were often paid less for their labor. The bosses would use the workers need for money to the bosses advantage. The unfairness of child labor and differences in power between the bosses and workers, led to many strikes, such as the Newsboys Strike of 1899.

But they were they poorest group in society, often were homeless and sleeping on the streets. The general public also didn’t like them. 1815 writer wrote that there are 10,000 children living on the streets. So it rends the air and deafen you with their shrill cries. When you were walking on the sidewalks they would surround you. They also would try to force you to buy their newspaper. They looked ragged and dirty all the time. Newsie were employees of the publisher and are not newspapers. They would buy paper from publisher and sell them, acting as independent agents. Typically earning was about thirty cents per day. In 1898 publish raised the cost of papers to newsboys from fifty to sixty cents per one hundred papers. Sense the Spanish-American was increased newspaper sold like crazy. Then strike began in July 1899 there was a large number of boys that refused to dispute the world. There was people who protested on the Brooklyn bridge and stopped traffic and news distributers. Demonstrated by cowling the paper cans and threatening the cart drivers. They threw rocks or beat up at those who didn’t honk. So they brought support to their cases. Then the strike ended after paper had lost a lot of money. Newsboy strike of 1899 proved a big step in child labor rights. It inspired strike such as the butte, Montana newsboys and the strike of 1914 and a 1920s strike in Kentucky. Strikes proved that children had power. They could organize and make things happen for themselves.

Andrew Carnegie was away hunting and left Henry Frick in charge. Henry Frick was replacing the workers with machinery. Frick wanted to treat the workers as individuals, so he locked out the workers. He locked out the workers by building a fence and hiring Pinkerton detectives to mend the fence. The workers were expecting the detectives and a huge battle broke out. This battle lasted fourteen hours and left a total of ten people, laborers and Pinkerton detectives, dead. The state militia would soon be called to calm the workers down (Tindall 814). Another rebellion I stated was the Pullman Strike. Employees of Pullman were forced to live and rent in a community town called Pullman. These workers were given company money and could only get groceries from the company store. Eugene Debs wanted to come up with mediation between Pullman, but Pullman refused Eugene Debs’s plea (Farless). “In June 1894, after George Pullman refused Debs’s plea for arbitration, the union workers stopped handling Pullman railcars. By the end of July they had tied up most of the railroads in the Midwest” (Tindall 516). The railroad executives hired Canadian strikebreakers and requested that they connect the Pullman cars to mail cars (Farless). By doing this they were making the strike a federal strike. The Attorney General argued that the interference of the mail was a direct violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Act

The Labor Unions organized various strikes in an attempt to improve labor conditions and rights. The strikes became increasingly more violent and the media merged the violence with radicalism, communism and anarchism. The political cartoon suggests that Labor Unions are killing capitalism with communism, the radical violence tainting the image of the Labor Unions and shifted the public support; focused on the Great Rail Road Strike of 1877 and the radical violence (Document 2). Following the Great Strike of 1877, the Haymarket Square Riot sparked further controversy towards the acts of violence. The Haymarket Square Riot and Bombing involved the Knights of Labor and advocated a violent overthrow of the American government. The Chicago police had been called to end the protest and in the chaos a bomb was thrown, injuring and killing several dozen people. After the Haymarket Square Riot, a gradual repression of the labor movement occurred. The public lost trust in the worker's associations and the campaign. The American labor movement, in general, received a setback due to the riot, also weakening the struggle for the eight-hour day demand. The Homestead Strike and Lockout of 1892 was one of the most violent strikes; the riot was ended by Pinkerton Detectives and the state militia, and the violence further damaged the image of unions. The purpose of the

In late July of 1877, Chicagoans played their part in the first nationwide uprising of workers. On July 16, railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, walked off the job to protest a 10 percent wage cut leveled by their employer, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Strikes to protest cutbacks in the midst of a period of nationwide economic depression soon spread westward across the country. News of attempts to control boisterous crowds fueled worker protest and sporadic violence.