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78-510: Frank Tousey was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 24, 1853. Son of George G. Tousey (1825–1869) and Elizabeth Corks (1846–1903), Frank was one of six children, with two older brothers (John W. Tousey, 1847–1862; George C. Tousey, 1848–1898) and three younger (Edward F. Tousey, 1855–?; DeWitt Tousey, 1858–1858; Sinclair Tousey Jr., 1862–1915). His uncle, Sinclair Tousey , poses some significance to Frank's later career in publishing. Sinclair Tousey

156-578: A bond and unify all for the exact cause. The new leader, Powderly, opposed strikes as a "relic of barbarism", but the size and the diversity of the Knights afforded local assemblies a great deal of autonomy.    In 1882, the Knights ended their membership rituals and removed the words "Noble Order" from their name. This was intended to mollify the concerns of Catholic members and the bishops who wanted to avoid any resemblance to freemasonry . Though initially averse to strikes to advance their goals,

234-534: A book jobbing department, under the supervision of a Mr. Dunham; this grew to be one of the largest in the country. With the end of the Civil War, the firm grew rapidly along the expanding railroads as they opened up the West, with the commencement of coast-to-coast continental rail service in 1869. Legislation passed by Congress required the railroads to transport newspapers and periodicals as second class bulk mail at

312-506: A branch of the Knights in Tacoma, Washington violently expelled the city's Chinese workers, who amounted to nearly a tenth of the overall city population at the time. The Union Pacific Railroad came into conflict with the Knights. When the Knights in Wyoming refused to work more hours in 1885, the railroad hired Chinese workers as strikebreakers and to stir up racial animosity. The result was

390-535: A conflict between organized laborers and employers turned violent. By the mid-1880s, Chicago was the center of immigrant and working-class organizing, with a wide array of labor organizations. Demands for the eight-hour workday were at the heart of a strike against one of Chicago's most powerful employers, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which refused to bargain with the union. While workingmen had gathered to strike against

468-633: A day for exclusive rights. Under this system, Union News could keep the Chicago Tribune out of the Chicago area train stations until the Tribune agreed to their terms. In 1958, the FTC found that Union News was operating nearly a thousand newsstands around the country (the next largest operator had 57), putting Union News in a position to dictate terms and demand rebates from publishers. Typically, in

546-589: A large part of the membership, perhaps a majority. Powderly was also a Catholic. However, the Knights's use of secrecy, similar to the Masons, during its early years concerned many bishops of the Church . The Knights used secrecy and deception to help prevent employers from firing members. After the Archbishop of Quebec condemned the Knights in 1884, twelve American archbishops voted 10 to 2 against doing likewise in

624-488: A large profit from liquidating the company. He acquired control, and proceeded to sell off the assets, ultimately winding the company up. This theory was summarized in a 1960 lawsuit: In 1955 the defendant Henry Garfinkle and the members of his family acquired 11 per cent of the stock in the defendant American News Company. Soon thereafter he became its president. ... The defendant American News Company, notwithstanding its great size and notwithstanding its apparent dominance in

702-460: A major source of output for the James tales in dime novels. He even created a series called James Boys Weekly , and his works exhibited both the fictional character and real life events. American News Company American News Company ( ANC ) was a magazine, newspaper, book, and comic book distribution company founded in 1864 by Sinclair Tousey, which dominated the distribution market in

780-664: A national vision when, in 1879, they replaced Stephens with Terence V. Powderly , who was just 30 years old at the time. The body became popular with trade unions and Pennsylvania coal miners during the economic depression of the mid-1870s, then it grew rapidly. The KOL was a diverse industrial union open to all workers. The leaders felt that it was best to have a versatile population in order to get points of view from all aspects. The Knights of Labor barred five groups from membership: bankers, land speculators, lawyers, liquor dealers and gamblers. Its members included low skilled workers, railroad workers, immigrants, and steel workers. This helped

858-400: A proper share of the wealth that they created; in other words, they tried to diminish or at least decrease the wage gap. They wanted to educate workers, create cooperative institutions, and enact labor laws such as child labor laws. The Knights also wanted to make sure that workers were protected and that their workplace was improved. The 8-hour workday was something that became very important to

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936-533: A serious blow to ANC at a time when the company was already on financially shaky ground. In April Dell Publishing announced that they were pulling out and making other arrangements for their distribution. The mammoth company's abrupt demise in June 1957 has been a source of speculation for decades. One theory is that a speculator became aware that a bookkeeping peculiarity in American News' accounts could allow

1014-453: A special low subsidized rate—one cent per pound for any distance between news agencies, so that a bundle of New York newspapers could be sent across the continent to Los Angeles for the same price that it could be shipped across the river to Newark—and ANC exploited the availability of cheap rail transport to expand their distribution network across the continent, so far ahead of the competition that they effectively shut any possible rivals out of

1092-420: A steeper discount, similar to today's " direct sale " comic book market. American News's monopoly position in the market was virtually unchallenged until Frank Munsey , frustrated by ANC's refusal to handle his cheap 10 cent pulp magazines, was forced to set up his own distribution, Red Star News. This was the first of the so-called ID or independent distributors. Munsey balked when ANC informed him that 4 cents

1170-404: A strong advertising base, and many magazines folded as a result. An example of a company that the change in distributor had a drastic impact on is Atlas Comics , which was forced to switch distribution to Independent News , owned by National Comics Publications , owner of Atlas' rival, DC Comics . Because of this, Atlas was constrained as to its publishing output for the next decade (including

1248-548: A trace in the suburban growth of the 1950s. The effect on the American magazine market was catastrophic. Many magazines had to switch to one of the independent distributors, who were able to set their own conditions for taking on new business. This often forced the magazines to change from a digest size to a larger format, and to become monthly rather than bimonthly or quarterly. Many magazines could not afford to make these changes, both of which required either high circulation or

1326-489: A variety of financial troubles and ultimately, bankruptcy, Munro sold his popular papers Our Boys and Boys of New York , along with 138 issues of the New York Boys' Library to Tousey and Small in 1878. Starting with the first issue (No. 153, July 20, 1878) under management of Tousey and Small, Boys of New York incorporated New York Boys Weekly . In likewise fashion, Our Boys merged with Young Men of America for

1404-569: A wedge to keep wages low. To stop companies from doing this, they supported Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and also the Alien Contract labor law 1885. Even though the Acts were useful to pass the laws they wanted, they weren't satisfied so they attacked Chinese workers and burned down their places. Not only did the Knights of Labor speak poorly about the Chinese, but they happened to be one of

1482-401: A weekly payroll of $ 16,255; with $ 1 million in real estate holdings and $ 1.4 million in merchandise on hand. It extended extensive credit to the firms it did business with and $ 800,000 was due at any given time in accounts receivable from dealers around the country. It owned outright 18 buildings around the country and rented 39 more, and had $ 200,000 invested in horses and wagons. The branches of

1560-921: Is best known as the founder and president of the American News Company (1864) and as an extraordinarily powerful and rich player in the field of American publishing, based on his quasi-monopoly over text distribution in the country. Frank began his career in publishing in 1872 by working with Norman Munro , a Canadian-born publisher with questionable principles. In 1877, Tousey split from Munro and relocated to no. 116 Nassau Street , taking with him Munro's highly successful editor, George Small, whom Norman had originally stolen from his brother and publishing rival, George Munro., So begins yet another competitor for Norman L. Munro. Tousey and Small gained much success with their newly founded papers New York Boys Weekly (March 17, 1877) and Young Men of America (Sept. 13, 1877). Much of this success could be attributed to

1638-691: The Rock Springs massacre , that killed scores of Chinese workers, and drove the rest out of Wyoming. About 50 African-American sugar-cane laborers organized by the Knights went on strike and were murdered by strikebreakers in the 1887 Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana. The Knights strongly supported passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Contract Labor Law of 1885, as did many other labor groups, demonstrating

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1716-538: The ANC monopoly; nonetheless ANC remained by far the dominant firm up until its collapse. American News functioned both as a national distributor and as a local periodical wholesaler. After World War II, headed by Henry Garfinkle, the company had over 300 branches blanketing the United States, and employed several thousand employees. During the middle of the century, American News stood as the largest book wholesaler in

1794-469: The Boston trade was reorganized as a subsidiary of American News under the name New England News Company, with Williams as one of the principal shareholders. Initially an officer of the new corporation, Williams was a bookstore proprietor at heart and left soon afterward in 1869 to take over the famous " Old Corner Bookstore ". Two years after the company formed it added to its newspaper and magazine business

1872-778: The Court of London " in The Brookside Library , a story deemed a vice. Frank Tousey's uncle, Sinclair Tousey, provided him with bail and the nephew's legal adviser, W. H. Townley, claimed that Comstock's accusation was a personal vendetta against Tousey for caricatures made of the former in The Judge under Tousey's ownership. Following review in the Tombs , Tousey was required to destroy the plates in order to avoid further prosecution. A year later, on March 14, 1885, Tousey made an assignment to Stillman R. Walker. This maneuver

1950-679: The Irish Land League. The Knights had a mixed record on inclusiveness and exclusiveness. They accepted women and blacks (after 1878) and their employers as members, and advocating the admission of blacks into local assemblies. However, the organization tolerated the segregation of assemblies in the South. Bankers, doctors, lawyers, stockholders, and liquor manufacturers were excluded because they were considered unproductive members of society. Asians were also excluded, and in November 1885,

2028-423: The Knights began to function more as a labor union and less as a secret organization. During the 1880s, the Knights of Labor played a massive role in independent and third-party movements. Local assemblies began to emphasize cooperative enterprises and initiate strikes to win concessions from employers. The Knights of Labor brought together workers of different religions, races, and genders and helped them all create

2106-560: The Knights did aid various strikes and boycotts . The Wabash Railroad strike in 1885 saw Powderly finally adapt and support an eventually successful strike against Jay Gould 's Wabash Line after C. A. Hall, a carpenter and Knights member, was fired for attending a meeting in February. The strike included stopping track, yard, engine maintenance, the control or sabotage of equipment, and the occupation of shops and roundhouses. Gould met with Powderly and agreed to call off his campaign against

2184-459: The Knights of Labor and ultimately caused many members to leave. Though often overlooked, the Knights of Labor contributed to the tradition of labor protest songs in America. The Knights frequently included music in their regular meetings, and encouraged local members to write and perform their work. In Chicago, James and Emily Talmadge, printers and supporters of the Knights of Labor, published

2262-567: The Knights of Labor continued in existence until 1949, when the group's last 50-member local dropped its affiliation. In 1869, Uriah Smith Stephens , James L. Wright, and a small group of Philadelphia tailors founded a secret organization known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. The collapse of the National Labor Union in 1873 left a vacuum for workers looking for organization. The Knights became better organized with

2340-552: The Knights of Labor, Leonora Barry , worked as an investigator. She described the horrific conditions in factories employing women and children. These reports made Barry the first person to collect national statistics on the American working woman. Powderly and the Knights tried to avoid divisive political issues, but in the early 1880s, many Knights had become followers of Henry George 's ideology known now as Georgism . In 1883, Powderly officially recommended George's book and announced his support of "single tax" on land values. During

2418-407: The Knights of Labor, which had caused the turmoil originally. This gave momentum to the Knights and membership surged. By 1886, the Knights had more than 700,000 members. The Knights' primary demand was for the eight-hour workday. They also called for legislation to end child and convict labor as well as a graduated income tax . They also supported cooperatives . The only woman to hold office in

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2496-463: The Knights. The Great Southwest railroad strike of 1886 was a Knights strike involving more than 200,000 workers. Beginning on March 1, 1886, railroad workers in five states struck against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads, owned by Jay Gould. At least ten people were killed. The unravelling of the strike within two months led directly to the collapse of the Knights of Labor and

2574-620: The New York mayoral election of 1886, Powderly was able to successfully push the organization towards the favor of Henry George. In 1886, the Knights became of the part of the short lived United Labor Party , an alliance of labor organizations formed in support of George's campaign in the 1886 New York City mayoral election . The Knights of Labor helped to bring together many different types of people from all different walks of life; for example Catholic and Protestant Irish-born workers. The KOL appealed to them because they worked very closely with

2652-502: The Talmadge version, entitled "Our Battle Song," on his CD Don't Want Your Millions (Revolting Records 2000). Halker also draws heavily on the Knights songs and poems in his book on labor song and poetry, For Democracy, Workers and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895 (University of Illinois Press, 1991). The Knights of Labor supported the Chinese Exclusion Act , claiming that industrialists were using Chinese workers as

2730-527: The United States. Furthermore, Cardinal James Gibbons and Bishop John Ireland defended the Knights. Gibbons went to the Vatican to talk to the hierarchy. In 1886, right after the peak of the Knights of Labor, they started to lose more members to the American Federation of Labor . It has been believed that the fall of the Knights of Labor was due to their lack of adaptability and beliefs in

2808-534: The association with the Haymarket Square riot battered it. Most members abandoned the movement in 1886–1887, leaving at most 100,000 members in 1890. Many opted to join groups that helped to identify their specific needs, instead of the KOL which addressed many different types of issues. The Panic of 1893 terminated the Knights of Labor's importance. While their national headquarters closed in 1917, remnants of

2886-537: The bulk of the reading matter of the United States and supplies nearly nineteen thousand dealers." On any given day, a hundred new issues of the thousands of titles ANC handled would typically be fed into the ANC distribution system. In New York City alone (at that time consisting solely of Manhattan and the Bronx) 125 wagons and drivers crisscrossed the city every day making deliveries, with 14 local neighborhood substations. ANC employed directly in 1893 1,154 people, with

2964-469: The company at this time were located in Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Montreal, Newark, New Orleans, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, San Francisco, Springfield (Mass.), St. Louis, St. Paul, Toronto, Troy, and Washington D.C. These branches were organized as subsidiaries under different names, for example the Chicago branch

3042-598: The company's success: "It is as the keeper of a thousand secrets involving the fortunes of publishers and authors that the American News Company surrounds its vast and intricate system with an atmosphere of mystery, so that few persons have any idea of its really astounding proportions. It has gradually absorbed the smaller organizations until it now embraces thirty-two powerful news companies, with an annual operating expense of $ 2,488,000 and an annual business of something like $ 18,000,000. This organization handles

3120-639: The corner of State St. and Washington a large magazine store known as the Periodical Depot or the Periodical Arcade. Williams worked up an extensive trade as a jobber of newspapers and periodicals to out of town dealers all over the East Coast, and by the time ANC was organized the wholesale side of the business had grown too large for Williams to handle alone. Along with two smaller competing firms, Dyer & Co. and Federhen & Co.,

3198-418: The death of the last surviving partner, Solomon Johnson, in 1913. Sinclair Tousey was the company's first president, followed after his death by Harry Dexter, who was succeeded by Solomon Johnson. The company's Boston branch was formed by taking over the wholesale periodical business of Boston bookseller Alexander Williams. In 1854, Williams had bought out the business of Fetridge & Co. , which operated on

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3276-581: The early years of its successor, Marvel Comics ). Knights of Labor The Knights of Labor ( K of L ), officially the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor , was an American labor federation that was active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also in Great Britain and Australia. Its most important leader

3354-411: The equipment used in connection with its distribution activities. By June 1957, it was entirely out of business as a national distributor and as a local wholesaler. An alternative (but somewhat similar explanation) for the company's demise has been offered by comic book historian and author Gerard Jones . The company in 1956... had been found guilty of restraint of trade and ordered to divest itself of

3432-489: The firm Dexter, Hamilton & Co. at 22 Ann St. These were the two largest news and periodical wholesalers in New York City at the time of their merger on Feb. 1, 1864, when American News Company was formed. The seven original partners were Sinclair Tousey, John E. Tousey, Harry Dexter, George Dexter, John Hamilton, Patrick Farrelly, and Solomon W. Johnson. These partners formed the core of the company's management until

3510-481: The formation of the American Federation of Labor . In 1886, right after the Knights of Labor's peak, they started losing more members to the American Federation of Labor . The Knights of Labor's fall is believed to have been due to their lack of adaptability and beliefs in old-style industrial capitalism. Another large reason for their decline was the tension between skilled craftsmen and unskilled workers.   The Knights of Labor attracted many Catholics, who were

3588-410: The labor union in the mid-1880s weakened the bonds that held it together, New Knights members had joined the organization in the wake of its victories over southwestern railroads, but without fully understanding or accepting the Knights' movement culture. While it would be over a decade before the Knights disbanded, these organizational weaknesses, and the strength of the new trade federation union, led to

3666-605: The large, sensational front page image, which at 7 inches deep to covering the full page, was certainly more eye-catching than the former 5 inch deep images used in Munro and other papers. The images themselves used the same technique which had earlier granted Munro's stories superiority: a divergence from good and safe to dreadful and shocking. While Munro's novels featured a shift to more criminal, youthful protagonists, Tousey and Small's front-page pictures exhibited terrifying scenes of aliens, monsters, torture, and overall horror. Facing

3744-585: The last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The company's abrupt 1957 demise caused a huge shakeup in the publishing industry, forcing many magazine, comic book, and paperback publishers out of business. The magazine and book operations of A360media have been reorganized and chartered as American News Company LLC. but has no connection to the defunct American News Company which folded in 1957. The American News Company had its roots in two New York City newspaper and periodical wholesaling firms: Sinclair Tousey's company on Nassau St., and

3822-517: The latter's issue No. 43, July 4, 1878. Simply put, after combining these four periodicals, only Boys of New York , originally of Munro, and Young Men of America , the brain child of Tousey and Small, continued with their published names. The new owners also renamed the New York Boys' Library as the Wide Awake Library . Without Munro's inspiring rivalry, and thus any substantial competition, Tousey's sensationalism diminished slightly over

3900-413: The limits of their commitment to solidarity. While they claimed to not be "against immigration", their anti-Asian racism demonstrated the limits and inconsistency of their anti-racist platform. The Knights aimed to educate and uplift workers and negotiate salaries and contracts with employers. The Knights had a few primary demands that they wanted to see established. For one, they wanted the workers to see

3978-494: The market, establishing their periodical depots by the hundreds in every city and large town on the rail system. At the same time, the number of periodicals being published in America was exploding: Frank Mott , in A History of American Magazines , estimates that the number of titles being published boomed from 700 at the end of the Civil War to 3300 in 1885. In 1893, an article in The American Newsman summed up

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4056-551: The mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation again. The Knights of Labor had served, however, as the first mass organization of the white working class of the United States. Founded by Uriah Stephens on December 28, 1869, the Knights of Labor reached 28,000 members in 1880, then jumped to 100,000 in 1884. By 1886, 20% of all workers were affiliated with the Knights of Labor, which equals nearly 800,000 members. Its frail organizational structure could not cope as charges of failure, violence, and calumnies of

4134-460: The newsstands it owned. Its biggest client, George T. Delacorte Jr. , announced he would seek a new distributor for his Dell comics and paperbacks. The owners of American News estimated the effect that would have on their income. Then they looked at the value of the New Jersey real estate where their headquarters sat. They liquidated the company and sold the land. The company ... vanished without

4212-478: The next decade. In 1879, George Small faded from the limelight of these notable novels. At the start of this year, Small relinquished his partnership with Tousey, although he remained involved in Tousey's papers until the end of his days. It was also in this year that Frank Tousey joined Rosalie Andrews in matrimony. Following Small's withdrawal, Tousey attempted a new project: American Life . This illustrated paper

4290-533: The offal of the slaughter house." The article also calls Chinese "natural thieves" and states that all Chinese women are prostitutes. In March 1882, Knights joined the San Francisco rally to demand expulsion of the Chinese. Several years later, mobs led by the Knights of Labor, a loosely structured labor federation, rounded up Seattle's Chinese-born workers and campaigned to prevent further immigration. Historian Catharine Collomp notes that "Chinese exclusion

4368-572: The old-style industrial capitalism. Scholars pit the skilled and unskilled workers as another reason for the Knights of Labor's downfall. The Union worked for both groups, but since the results of the union efforts often benefited one or the other and not both, the tension persisted. Unskilled workers often benefited from equal opportunities. Skilled workers would become upset when someone took their jobs with less skill. Skilled workers benefit from better pay, but many unskilled workers do not receive those benefits. This tension caused many to stay away from

4446-423: The only groups they excluded from their group. Immigrants of countries from non-Western Europe were considered to be second-class citizens at this time. This may be a large contributing factor as to why the Chinese were excluded from the Knights of Labor. “Only at accepting Chinese did the Knights generally draw the line,” Alexander Saxton wrote. The Knights of Labor consistently made efforts towards many problems in

4524-422: The periodical distribution field, commencing in the fifties began to encounter difficulties. It lost franchise after franchise and began sustaining heavy losses. By 1957 it had sustained losses in connection with its distribution of periodicals in excess of $ 8,000,000.00. In 1957 it decided to cease its activities as a national distributor and local wholesaler. It laid off around 8,000 of its employees and sold all of

4602-523: The pioneer boy inventors who would lead to Tom Swift . In 1881, the first Jesse James dime novel story appeared in Tousey's five-cent Wide Awake Library : "The Train Robbers; or, A Story of the James Boys'. While this factual-made-fictional bandit was already famous in other literature, it would be some years yet for dime novels to fully market on him. Not only first on the scene, Tousey also became

4680-421: The plant, some of them had drawn fire from authorities. City police and private guards had injured and killed some of the strikers. Which prompted responses from a bigger working class, which included anarchists Albert Parsons, Michael Schwab, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and labor organizer Oscar Neebe. On May 4, they organized a protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square. After the main speakers, Parson and Spies, left

4758-443: The platform, someone from the crowd threw a bomb into a group of police standing in the square, which left seven police dead, and sixty protesters from the crowd injured. Afterwards, the eight anarchists were arrested and seven of them were sentenced to death in a trial that focused on political beliefs, not the actions of the anarchists. Two of the condemned had their sentences commuted; but after Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison,

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4836-413: The post-Civil War era, ANC in its position as the middleman between publishers and newsstand dealers would allow the newsstand dealers to keep between 5 and 10 cents on the sale of a 35-cent magazine like the monthly Harper's , and three cents on a 10-cent magazine like Harper's Weekly . Unsold copies of most titles were fully returnable, although some titles were sold to the dealers as non-returnable at

4914-460: The remaining four were executed. The Haymarket trial had two distinct effects on the labor movement: first, a nationwide campaign to round up anarchists and, second, a steep decline in the Knights of Labor's membership. Terence Powderly, the Knights president, disavowed the Haymarket eight, even as local trade unions and Knights assemblies around the country protested the arrests. Rapid growth of

4992-560: The songbook "Labor Songs Dedicated to the Knights of Labor" (1885). The song "Hold the Fort" [also "Storm the Fort"], a Knights of Labor pro-labor revision of the hymn by the same name, became the most popular labor song prior to Ralph Chaplin 's IWW ( Industrial Workers of the World ) anthem " Solidarity Forever ". Pete Seeger often performed this song and it appears on a number of his recordings. Songwriter and labor singer Bucky Halker includes

5070-405: The workers to get an organizational identity. As one of the largest labor organization in nineteenth century, Knights wanted to classify the workers as it was a time where large scale factories and industries were rapidly growing. Even though skilled workers were prioritized at the beginning 1880s but slowly later by the time of 1886, nearly a million workers were enrolled. As membership expanded,

5148-413: The workforce but often left out any advances that would benefit the Chinese communities. This further drew the attention away from the Knights of Labor as many Americans did not appreciate the hatred. Anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence were more prevalent among the western chapters of the Knights. In 1880, San Francisco Knights wrote, "They bear the semblance of men, but live like beasts...who eat rice and

5226-641: The world, dominating the industry. It also had a near stranglehold on the distribution of magazines and newspapers within the United States market, dominating that industry as well. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange , it had more than 5400 stockholders. Headquartered in New Jersey , American News also had offices in downtown Manhattan. Comic book clients of American News included Atlas Comics , Dell Comics , and Toby Press . National Comics had its own distributor, Independent News and

5304-407: Was Terence V. Powderly . The Knights of Labor promoted the social and cultural uplift of the worker, and demanded the eight-hour day. In some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized or funded. It was notable in its ambition to organize across lines of gender and race and in the inclusion of both skilled and unskilled labor. After a rapid expansion in

5382-506: Was able to take on distribution for other comic book publishers after American News failed. Comic book publishers who were not able to come to terms with National's distributors quickly went under, and others were limited in the number of titles they were allowed to distribute under the new arrangements—Atlas (later known as Marvel Comics) was rationed to eight titles a month. The change also affected paperback book publishers like Lion Library, which went out of business when Independent News (which

5460-418: Was already distributing rival New American Library) refused to take it on. Avon paperbacks, which had been founded as a subsidiary of ANC in 1941 in the early days of the paperback boom, managed to survive the crash and was taken over by Hearst. Many magazines distributed in the 1940s were in pulp format; by the end of 1955, nearly all had either ceased publication or switched to digest format. This change

5538-598: Was intended to cater to a higher class audience, but the venture was a dismal failure. Tousey next joined forces with James Albert Wales in 1881 to co-manage The Judge , a satirical, sixteen-page magazine. It was a short-lived success. Suffering financial strain, Tousey relocated to North Moore Street and began publishing the Brookside novels. This series was initially a high-seller, but it soon came under fire for 'improper' stories. In 1884 Anthony Comstock charged Tousey for printing G. W. M. Reynolds ' " The Mysteries of

5616-447: Was largely the work of the refusal of American News and other distributors to carry the pulp magazines since they were no longer profitable. The 1950s boom in science fiction magazine publishing, with 30 new titles being launched, turned overnight into collapse with the failure of ANC. Other pulp fiction genres—western, romance, detective—suffered a similar extinction event. These sections of the magazine field were already in decline and it

5694-491: Was responsible for the publication and promotion of several artists, authors, and characters. As an example of his significant contribution to science fiction, Tousey was largely responsible for the creation of the immensely popular characters Frank Reade and Jack Wright , written by Dr. Harry Enton and Luis Senarens (both published under "Noname'). Certainly, the stories and illustrations in Tousey's dime novels are said to rival Jules Verne for imagination and to have provided

5772-511: Was simply not worth the effort to rescue already marginal magazine titles. In 1952, the government began antitrust litigation against ANC which was destined to drag on until the company's demise. Around 1955 major magazine publishers began disengaging themselves from ANC and making other arrangements for newsstand distribution. When Collier's and Woman's Home Companion , two of their biggest-selling titles, folded in January 1957, it came as

5850-548: Was the Great Western News Company, founded in 1866. The International News Company, on Duane Street in New York, was the branch handling the company's extensive overseas business. A branch called the Union News Company existed solely to sell newspapers and magazines on the railroads, with 300 newsstands in railroad stations which by 1893 covered 40% of the entire US railroad system, paying $ 1000

5928-478: Was the consequence of a number of financial troubles, including Tousey's losses with American Life , The Judge , and his conflict with Comstock. In addition, Tousey was dealing with a recent strike from his compositors, who were protesting a 15 cent cut in wages. Further trouble came from the Knights of Labor , an organization which induced many newsdealers to boycott the sale of Tousey's publications. Frank Tousey

6006-416: Was the most they would pay wholesale for a magazine that sold for 10 cents retail, and Munsey retaliated by cutting out the middleman and setting up his own distributor to sell directly to newsdealers for 7 cents a copy. Munsey was followed in time by Hearst , Fawcett , Curtis , Annenberg and Donenfeld , all constrained by various factors into setting up their own independent distribution networks outside

6084-725: Was the only issue about which the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor constantly lobbied the Federal government." The labor movement, including those in the Knights of Labor, were rallying for an eight-hour workday and protesting with their slogan: "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will." Through Eight Hour rallies and legislative lobbying, labor leaders came into direct conflict with employers, who neither accepted unions nor believed that governments should intervene on workers' behalf. During an Eight Hour campaign in Chicago in 1886,

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