| The child labor movements began when the Industrial Revolution rose where the children were commonly used for cheap labor. There were poor families who had no choice but to have their children work to help support the family. Children as young as three years old begin to work endless hours with little time to eat or rest. Many worked 16 hours a day in harsh and harmful conditions. Those working at the mining companies were inhaling toxins and were suffering the most because they were the only workers who could fit into the small and harmful areas. These children would eventually die by the time they reach twenty-five years old. Various acts have passed to reduce the hours of labor such as those passed in 1802 and 1819 and some enforced the age limits of these hours. In 1831, when "Short Time Committees" that were organized largely by Evangelicals, began to demand a ten hour day, a royal commission established by the Whig government recommended in 1833 that children aged eleven to eighteen would be permitted to work a maximum of twelve hours per day. Then it recommended that children from age nine to eleven were allowed to work eight-hour days and children under nine were no longer permitted to work at all. This act applied only to the textile industry, where children were put to work at the age of five. Though some acts such as these were passed, it has not affected other industries and did not prevent the continuous harmful working conditions and the mistreatment of children. Iron and coal, shipyards, construction, match factories, gas works, and the business of chimney sweeping, were among industries that exploited child labor. About four years after the Compulsory Education Act of 1895 that mandated that children between eight and thirteen years old attend school for at least four months per year, one of the first child labor strikes erupted in New York City in 1899. This event was destined to influence more child labor strikes in the years to come and children would have the courage to stand up to their oppressors. The few newsgirls and the newsboys, who were all called newsies also, were among the children who suffered many cold nights selling newspapers, risked their lives in dangerous parts of the city and had to sell even they were sick in order to support themselves. Some newsies were as young as five and were mostly orphans and runaways. There were also children who had to help support their poor families. They bought their own papers to sell for fifty cents for a hundred papers and had to work all day and night in order avoiding to "eat what they were not able to sell". By this, they meant that they could not get the money refunded for the unsold newspapers. The newsies of Manhattan were already sick and tired of not making any money. During the Spanish-American war, greedy newspaper owners Joseph Pulitzer of the New York Journal and William Randolph Hearst of the New York World increased the distribution price that charged the newsies more for their papers due to lack of the circulation. The prices got raised from fifty-cents per hundred papers to sixty-cents per hundred. This was the strike that did not involve the committees, but began by the children themselves. Months after the Spanish-American war, prices still had not been lowered, and with the frustration of not being able to make a living and tired of being taken advantage of, the newsies went on strike. The strike began in July 18, 1899 where the first event reported was a group of newsies tipping over a distribution wagon carrying the Journal newspapers. Then the children of Manhattan organized a union in City Hall Park with all the newsies of New York such as all the way from Brooklyn, Harlem, Long Island City, Jersey, and Rochester to help them. Then the strike has spread to many other cities such as newsies from Newark, and Jersey City. Newsies in Mount Vernon, Staten Island, Yonkers, Troy, and Rochester, New York; Plainfield, Trenton, Elizabeth, Paterson, and Asbury Park, New Jersey; New Haven, Connecticut; Fall River, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. So much support from these cities proved that children were able to take a stand for their rights and seize the day. In August 2, 1899, the strike finally ended when the papers agreed to give one hundred percent to refunds for all unsold papers as opposed to lowering the prices back to the original price. This even sparked an inspiration to all other newsies strikes in other parts of America such as at Boston in 1901 and 1908, Chicago in 1912, Cleveland in 1934, Des Moines in 1922, Kansas City in 1947, Minneapolis in 1918, Seattle in 1917, and Portland in 1914. Not only did this strike influence other newsies but child labor in many other industries as well. There were mill workers and factory workers who demanded their rights and increase the wages they deserve. |
| Thanks to The Newsie Realm for this info! |