The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-06
TWAS A JUNIOR STRIKE
Newsboys in New York Who
Put Up a Lively Fight.
THEY WERE LIKE VETERANS
Quinn's Letter Sums Up the Street Car
Strike and Passes Opinion on Those
Who Seek Profit by In
gersolPs Death.
Special Correspondence of the Standard.

Special Correspondence of the Standard
New York, July 30.-In letter of two
weeks ago l predicted the street rail
way strike would have the effect of
booming the issue of municipal owner
ship. Two days ago the Journal de-
voted its leading editorial to the sub
ject, insisting that the only remedy for
| the evils which lead to strikes on street
railways is municipal ownership. The
| issue has taken definite form in this
section. and though the day for the
| final step seems to be far distant, it will
come. The people of New York city
will be the first to solve some of the
great problems in an effective way,
This city may provide the thunder for
the campaigns of the future on the is
sue of municipal ownership.
Speaking about strikes. we have had
one that was effective, for a time at
least. While the street car strike was
| at its height and humanitarian editor
| lals We're appearing daily in the Even
ing Journal, the newsboys of the city
| struck on the Evening Journal and the
Evening World
| The journal had been lambasting the
corporations for refusing to arbitrate
| 1t had castigated the street railway
magnates for their disregard of the
rights of labor The down troddcn
workingman was most strenuously de-
| Tended and the outrage which was be-
! Ing perpetrated upon the poor was We
hemently denounced.
While these editorials were being
read and weighed, the newsboys re-
solved to demand that the Evening
Worlds and Evening Journals be sold
to them at the rate of so cents a hun
dred. They were paying 60 cents They
gave it out that they only paid so cents
a hundred for the Telegram and that it
was no more than fair that the World
and Journal should give them the same
rate. The strike was declared. The
forces of organized labor. as repre-
scented in the rising generation, stood
firmly upon their demand. The dis
credited papers We're boycotted. Hun
dreds of newsboys Wore signs upon
their hats calling upon the people to
refrain from purchasing the boycotted
sheets. For a week there have been
very few Worlds or Journals on the
streets of the city. You could walk a
mile without seeing one. The boys sold
the other papers and added vocal re-
minders to the warning conveyed in
the signs upon their caps. 1t was the
most successful strike of the year. IT
made the street car strike look like 30
cents minus %. Occasionally news
boy would surrender to the blandish-
ments of the business management of
the journals and venture forth with
an armful of the boycotted papers,
but he was quickly surrounded and de-
prived of his papers and numerous
pieces of cuticle. Thousands of the
papers were destroyed. The boys did
away with 10000 Worlds in one charge.
The situation became serious. not only
for the newspapers, but for the people
who desired the news, yet the great
majority of the New Workers hoped
for the success of the strike. Their
sympathies were with the boys. They
looked in vain for editorials demanding
arbitration. The down-trodden news
boy, whose daily struggles to support
widowed mother or better his own
condition found no sympathetic eulogies
in the columns which had been so full
of tears for the street car strikers. 1t
was great lesson on the subject of
gored oxen. 1t was rich in humor and
wrote broad smile upon the face Of
the metropolis.
As for the boys. vast numbers of
whom were united in a common cause,
they displayed great tact and startling
determination.
Bloody noses, tear-stained faces and
tattered clothing marked the localities
where the "scab" appeared. He was
given no quarter Nor could the po-
lice protect the papers. The newsboy
laughs at the police when he has a
cause to defend. l conversed with a
number of the labor lads and found
them fully alive to their interests and
able to discuss the question without
the assistance of graybeards. One said
to me:
'Dis here amt no Brooklyn car
strike. 1t is a real strike-a strike for
fair, and de guys on Park Row can bet
der last nickle dat We'll win. De
newsboys II have der rights or de peop'
won't have no papers
There he stood in all the majesty of
an America freeboy, the future agitator
of his class. / could not fail to under
stand the meaning of his words and
manners. He believed he was right. He
thought that he and his companions
had been wronged. He wanted more
money from the owners of the papers
and was ready to fight for it. He had
gone beyond the conservative point and
was a revolutionst. He would have
Joined in a raid or led an assault with
the fire of a Napoleon in his eye He
asked not for sympathy. He spoke with
with the words of command rather than
those of entreaty. He had grown n
stature since the beginning of the
strike. He seemed to feel the blood of
'76 in his veins He was glad that he
lived and that the battle was on.
Whether right or wrong, the news
boys put up the best fight of the year
for labor. The statement made by the
Journal would indicate that at least a
large amount of justice was on the side
of the paper, but right or wrong, the
newsboys demonstrated the futility rf
hot
of to-day will disappear the striker, the
disturber the agitator. Judging from
what has been witnessed on the streets
of New York during the pas. week, 1t
is safe to say that the agitator of to-
day is a very tame affair compared
with what we may expect 20 years
hence. 1t was lesson and a sermon-a
warning and a prophecy. Those who
are devoting all their time to the tam
ing of the bearded agitator may as
well understand that the seed-good or
evil. as you choose to call it-has been
IL,