Extra! Extra! Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst vs. the newsboys! Pandemonium in the streets! One hot summer in July 1899, thousands of corner newsboys went on strike against the New York Journal and the New York World. Throngs filled the streets of downtown Manhattan for two weeks and prevented the two largest papers in the country from getting distributed.

They purchased the papers from the publishers and sold them as independent agents. They were not allowed to return unsold papers! Typically earned around 30 cents a day and worked until very late at night. Cries of Extra, extra! were often heard into the morning hours as newsboys tried to sell every last paper.

In 1898, with the Spanish-American War increasing newspaper sales, several publishers raised the cost of a newsboy bundle of 100 newspapers from 50 to 60.

The increase of an extra penny per paper gave them less money in their pockets. Fifteen cents fetched a dinner of soup, stew, and pie and a family survived on ten dollars a week.

Although most newsies were boys, there were many newsgirls as well. Many newsboys lived their entire lives on the streets and sold papers late into the night.

Can you imagine stopping traffic in New York City? Well, you probably dont have the same reasons these newsies did in 1899. Most of these kids were orphans and living on the streets. This little bit of money helped them survive.

Kid Blink shut down the news to all of New York City. Blink and thousands of his buddies went on strike at a time when the newspaper was the ONLY media.

So what does any of this have to do with Math?