I have always been a history buff. As much as I love a good story in general, I find that there are more than enough real life tales to be told that are just as captivating, if not more so. Broadway certainly agrees. Right alongside some of the most original plays and musicals are classics that are drawn from the pages of history. Les Miserables and Evita are just two of many that spring to mind. Well, today’s musical also possesses the award-winning historical pedigree of a Les Miz and not only that, Newsies is a story that could very easily be ripped from today’s headlines. It is a story of billionaire tycoons, the political and financial clout they wield in terms of buying off officials and suppressing unfavourable news stories and how they view trade unions as entities to be quashed at all costs. On the other side of this musical is the story of child labour and how daunting a task it truly is to band together, to stick together and rise up together against a foe who possesses seemingly overwhelming might. Newsies is a musical based on the true story of a moment in New York City newspaper history called the Newsboys Strike of 1899. That event ended up pitting publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst against their child labour force of newsies and eventually came to involve President Teddy Roosevelt. This strike helped to start a process that led to changes in child labour laws that aimed at protecting children from work place exploitation and endangerment.
The gist of what happened to cause the Newsboys Strike of 1899 was as follows. At the turn of the century, most newspapers were sold at newsstands and at corner stores. This, in combination with home subscription delivery, was how the news of the day fell into the hands of a public eager to know what was happening in their world. From the standpoint of news publishers such as Pulitzer and Hearst, disseminating the news of the day was not a mere public service that they were offering New Yorkers out of the goodness of their hearts. When you control the flow of information to a captive marketplace, what you do takes on political ramifications. You and your newspapers can cast politicians in a favourable or unfavourable light. You can use your bully pulpit to champion causes that are important to you and repress causes that are deemed as unseemingly or dangerous. If you can sell enough newspapers, not only does your version of how the world should be become the same version that thousands of readers are influenced by, but you also end up making a lot of money through advertisements, along with the money that comes in from the sale of each newspaper. Money and political power came hand in hand for men like Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. They were both powerful players in the world of American politics. Their newspapers set national conversations and political agendas, and because of that, they were not men to be trifled with.
In the hierarchy of their newspaper chains, Pulitzer and Hearst sat at the very top as Chairman of their respective boards. At the very bottom were the children who made up a labour division known as newsies. Since part of the operational strategy of any newspaper publishing company was to sell a portion of their daily newspapers through walk-up business at newsstands, it was important to do what was necessary to attract attention and drum up interest. One of the ways that newspaper tycoons like Pulitzer and Hearst managed to do this was by hiring children to walk through the city holding bundles of that day’s newspaper, all the while shouting things like, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”. The newsies would then state some of the top headlines of the day. One of the most historically famous photos of newsies in action was taken after the Titanic foundered off of the coast of Newfoundland on its maiden voyage in 1912. Many New Yorkers flocked to the headquarters of the White Star Line in NYC looking for information about the fate of loved ones on board. Photos of newsies walking around with newspapers detailing the accident became part of the Titanic lore going forward.
What you may not know about newsies is that they were almost all children who were in poverty and who had been taken out of school in order to help their families to pay their rent and put food on the table. Furthermore, these children did not receive a guaranteed minimum wage, as many young workers do today. Instead, these children were classed as independent contractors. Each day, they were required to purchase the entire stack of newspapers they were aiming to sell. They then had to hustle to earn enough money to cover their own investment plus make anything extra for themselves to take home for their family. This also meant that part of their daily wages had to be kept in reserve to pay for their next bundle of newspapers the following day. In essence, the newsies sold hundreds of newspapers each and realized only pennies in profit. The vast amount of revenue their efforts generated ended up going straight into the coffers of publishers such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. It was unfair, but for a while the newsies put up with it because being a newsie was a job that uneducated, often illiterate young children could do. It was hard work for little pay, but it beat working in a dangerous textile factory or coal mine. Then one day Mr. Pulitzer and Mr. Hearst’s level of greed went a bit too far. They raised the daily rate they were charging the newsies for each paper in their morning bundle. This increase in cost basically wiped out any chance of an individual newsie making any money at all. The situation became almost a form of indentured servitude.
Feeling that they were being taken advantage of and had been pushed too far, a core group of young newsies suggested banding together to form a union. Trade unionism was just becoming a thing, and the influence of unions to help workers to earn better wages, enjoy better benefits and working conditions was appealing to the newsies. They decided to attempt to organize themselves into a union of newsies that included children from all five boroughs in the city. Needless to say, when Pulitzer and Hearst got wind of these organizing efforts they attempted to crush the burgeoning union by employing tactics that have become standard union-busting strategies over the years. First, they attempted to intimidate the children by bringing in thugs to harass them, to destroy their newspapers and to scare away customers. Secondly, they hired other children to replace the newsies, promising these replacement or scab workers signing bonuses but then charging them even higher daily rates for the newspapers they were attempting to sell. Pulitzer and Hearst also went out of their way to avoid having the eventual strike mentioned in their newspapers at all. It is a tactic that gives the impression to readers that if something isn’t being reported on, then it mustn’t be that important or even worse, that the story isn’t even happening at all. Like many who belong to trade unions have discovered for themselves over the years, standing up for what is right and just in the face of overwhelming odds isn’t always an easy thing to do. It requires a steadfast courage of your convictions to accept the bodyblows that come your way in the beginning and to withstand the deprivations that come with prolonged job action in terms of complete loss of wages. The long and the short of this labour story is that the newsies did manage to come together across all five New York boroughs. They did hang together despite all that Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst threw at them, including jail time in juvenile detention centres for some of the lead organizers. Finally, word leaked out to U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt. Luckily for the children, Roosevelt and the New York tycoons did not share the same political viewpoints on life. Roosevelt intervened on behalf of the children, earning the newsies a sizable victory. As mentioned earlier, the Newsboys Strike of 1899 was one of the catalysts that caused changes to child labour laws to be enacted across the United States and, eventually, the rest of the western world.
Hollywood and Broadway both love a good “David vs. Goliath” story where the “David” side of the story ends up overcoming the greatest of odds to triumph in the end. So it was no surprise that the Newsboys Strike of 1899 eventually found itself being turned into a musical. Newsies opened on Broadway in 2012. The musical also had the backing of the Disney Corporation. The story of Newsies has been made into a book, as well as a made for TV movie. Of the three, the musical has received the most praise from critics. The musical is a fairly faithful retelling of the real events of the strike, with a few artistic liberties taken for romantic effect. One of the twists is that there is a character named Katherine Plumber who acts as a reporter for the rival New York Sun newspaper. This character is named Katherine after the real-life daughter of Joseph Pulitzer. The song “Seize the Day” is sung during one of the early organizing meetings that the newsies held among themselves. It is a song that highlights the fears that were held by those children as they wrestled with the decision to actually strike or to live with the consequences of the price increases. “Seize the Day” is a song that is filled with lyrics about the importance of trusting each other, of fighting for what you believe in no matter how daunting it may seem, and it talks about standing up during those moments in life when destiny appears to be calling. “Seize the Day” is a rousing song that, once finished, has served the purpose of bonding the collection of individual children who had appeared in the musical to that point in the story into one unified labour movement as the musical unfolds. As such, it is a very important song from a very important moment in this musical. Newsies won the Tony awards in 2012 for Best Choreography and Best Musical Score as written by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman. Newsies is an entertaining musical but also a historically important message for young people. Because of this, it has been adapted for use by young theatre groups and is now one of the more popular musicals performed at high schools across the U.S.
One of the reasons I enjoy history is that I find the stories entertaining. But furthermore, I think that history is important for all of us to know. There are only so many original ideas floating around our planet. Unfortunately, some of the more odious ones keep popping back up from time to time. Being aware of the cycles of history allows you to spot those times when the nastier aspects of past history are being primed to reassert themselves. Now is definitely one of those times. If you are keeping abreast of news stories emanating from around the world as governments turn slowly back toward right-wing populist politics, then you will have read about legislation being proposed in various states aimed at rolling back these very child labour protections that the newsies fought so hard to attain. Minimum wage laws are under attack, as are laws aimed at not allowing children the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions, to have water/nutrition and bathroom breaks or to have access to the same health benefits as their older adult coworkers. All over the world there are children toiling away in unsafe, backbreaking working conditions. This upsets me. My view of the world is that one of our main jobs as adults is to keep the world safe for our children. Those people who work to profit from the exploitation of children are among the lowest forms of humanity in my estimation. And yet, those people exist in our world right now alongside each one of you reading this post. Let’s not force the children of tomorrow have to fight once again for their rights. Let’s pay attention to the lessons of history and oppose these politically-motivated hurtful, hateful trends that seem to be spreading like a virus around the world. I stand alongside the children of the world and call upon you to do so as well. Newsies is more than just an entertaining story, it is a warning of what is at stake for our children right now.
The link to the official website for the musical Newsies can be found here.
The link to the video for a highschool performance of “Seize the Day” from the original Cast Recording for the Musical Newsies can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
A link to a PBS documentary about the real life Newsboys Strike of 1899 can be found here.
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Genial 💯