Extra! Extra! Newsboys Strike!

Kid Blink, a teenage boy small for his age and blind in one eye, buttoned his shirt and brushed back his hair as he took the stage.

- Barbara Krasner

Five thousand newsboys inside and outside New Irving Hall in lower Manhattan roared in approval. Kid raised his hands, a signal for silence. He said, “You know me, boys!”

“You bet we do,” they responded.

“What we want is to stick together like glue. Am I right?”

“Yes, yes!” replied the crowd. He scratched his head and said, “Ain’t that

10 cents worth as much to us as it is to Hearst and Pulitzer, who are millionaires? If they can’t spare it, how can we?”

“Soak ’em, Kid!”

“Soak nothing. I’m trying to figure it out, how 10 cents on 100 papers can mean more to a millionaire than it does to newsboys, and I can’t see it.” Kid went on to ask for no violence even though he himself had toppled newspaper wagons the night before. He said the boys needed to stick together. They could do it, if they worked together.

The newly formed Newsboys’ Union had called for the rally, bringing together the striking “newsies” and organizations and local officials who supported them. Policemen stood outside, but they showed sympathy for the boys.