Newsboy Strike: Day 4 - Friday, July 21, 1899
Who was striking? Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Long Island City, Mount Vernon, Newark, Jersey City NJ, Hoboken NJ
The newsboys of Grand Central Station joined the strike on July 21, saying they would have joined earlier but they didn’t realize there was a strike on. This meant the strike was general in Manhattan, with almost all the newsboys joining.
The general tactic at this point was to wait until a seller was about to sell a boycotted paper, then mob him and beat him with clubs while the customer ran away frightened. The only people selling the World and Journal were larger boys and men protected from being beaten by police escorts. Kid Blink claims some “scabs” were armed with clubs made from table legs. One dealer was surrounded by five officers for protection, and the newsboys, unable to get to him, formed a ring of 50 strikers around them to make sure customers can’t get to him either to buy papers.
The strikers chalked slogans on the sidewalk in City Hall Park and in Herald Square asking the public for support in their strike. They also distributed handbills to pedestrians.
The strike appears to be effective. The circulation of the two boycotted papers is down an estimated 100,000 copies per day. Meanwhile, the New York Herald reported that demand for their afternoon paper, the Evening Telegram, had more than tripled.
Despite the lawless beating of “scabs”, the newsboys were generally lawful in other ways because they didn’t want to give a bad name to their union. A group of them beat a boy they caught stealing a peach and trie to turn him in to the cops, but the officer didn’t care. Boots McAleenan was not impressed, saying “What can you do with a cop like that against you?”
Many strikers were arrested, but few were charged. Most were simply “whacked” by the police and then set free. Two who were arrested were Samuel Wolkinsky and John Armstrong, charged with cruel and unusual punishment for forcing a “scab” to eat one of his own papers.
A man known as Mike the Greaser was arrested for forcing a loaded revolver down Kid Blink’s throat “in a learned argument on the subject of ‘scabs.’”
In the evening, Kid Blink, the Corporal and Skaggs visited the newspaper offices and asked to speak with the managers, but they were turned away.
Sources about this day:
The Evening Telegram: “Boy Strikers Sweep the City”
The Herald: “Spread of Strike Fever Among Lads”
New York Times: “The Strike of the Newsboys”
New York Tribune: “Newsboys’ Strike Goes On”
The Sun: “Strike That Is A Strike”
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
titsay
janainaart
2087
jbbartram-illu
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
