IN 1899, the streets of New York City echoed with the voices of newsboys, called newsies, peddling the newspapers of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst and other giants of the newspaper world. Poor orphans and runaways, the newsies were a ragged army, without a leader, until one day when all that changed.

We go into Pulitzer’s office where Pulitzer is reading the headline. Also in the room are Jonathan, Seitz and another World employee.) PULITZER: "Trolley Strike Drags On For Third Week" and this so called headline drags on for infinity. EMPLOYEE: "News is slow, Mr. Pulitzer. The trolley strike’s all we’ve got." PULITZER: "Well, that’s all Mr William Randolph Hearst has too, but look how he covers the strike. Look! Look!" EMPLOYEE: "We’ll get a new headline writer, Sir." PULITZER: "Steal Hearst’s man. Offer him double." SEITZ: "That’s how he stole him from us. It’s not the headlines, Chief. The circulation wars are cutting into our profits because you spend as much as you make trying to beat Hearst."

PULITZER: "Then, we need to make more money. There’s lots of money down there, gentlemen. I want to know how I can get more of it." JONATHAN: "I have several proposals. First, to increase the paper’s price." PLUITZER: "Then Hearst outsells me and I’m in the poorhouse. Brilliant." JONATHAN: "Not the customer’s price. The price that the distribution apparatus pays." PULITZER: "Wait. What do the newsies pay now? 50 cents for 100 papers? If you raise it to 60 cents. JONATHAN: "A mere tenth of a cent per paper." PULITZER: "Multiply by 40, 000 papers a day…7 days a week…" SEITZ: "It’s going to be awfully tough on those children." PULITZER: "Nonsense, nonsense. It’ll be good for them. Incentive, make them work harder, sell more papers. They’ll look on it as an advantage."

Outside the World building, the newsies have gathered. Billy Jones joins them: JIMMY JONES: "They jacked up the price! It’s bad enough that we gotta eat what we don’t sell, now they jack up the price" BILLY: "Protest is for later. Right now, we need money, for which, we’ll need to sell more papers. For the strike, we’ll have to seek the help of Smith’s boys to form a union with a common leader." JIMMY: "Smith will never agree."

Five clever newsboys form a partnership and dispose of their papers in the following manner. Tom Smith sells one paper more than one quarter of the whole lot. Billy Jones disposes of one paper more than a quarter of the remainder. Ned Smith sells one paper more than a quarter of what is left, and Charley Jones disposes of one paper more than a quarter of the remainder. At this stage, the Smith boys have together sold just 100 papers more than the Jones boys have sold. Little Jimmy Jones, now, sells all the papers that are left. The three Jones boys sell more papers than the two Smith boys and the Smiths accept the leadership of Billy Jones. The strike begins and ends in victory for the newsies. Dedicated to the world of cinema that gave a movie like ‘The Newsies’.