Press Philanthropy and the Politics of Want

Abstract

To better recruit and discipline their young distribution force, newspaper publishers and circulation managers in the 1880s became pioneers of corporate welfare. Led by Joseph Pulitzer in St. Louis, E. W. Scripps in Detroit and Cincinnati, Victor Lawson in Chicago, and George Booth in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they organized newsboy banquets, excursions, clubs, schools, and marching bands. They also sponsored newsboy boxing tournaments and fielded newsboy baseball teams. A dozen eastern newspapers formed their own newsboy baseball league. Newsboys took full advantage of these programs, as well as the newsboy homes and reading rooms founded by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, but they also organized unions, struck for better pay and working conditions, and participated in political campaigns and protests. Ultimately, they sought justice over charity.