#this is very disorganised bc my brain is fried rn but u get the vibes

[racetrackmybeloved]

ok but i think we really gloss over the fact that "spot conlon's turf" consists of the entirety of brooklyn.

according to the 1901 Census Bulletin, the population of NYC in 1900 was 3,437,202. of that, 1,166,582 were in brooklyn. assuming that the ratio of newsboys to the general population is consistent, thats just over a third of all the newsboys in the entirety of NYC that spot is in direct leadership over. that is a lot of power.

in comparison, jack is only the leader of lower manhattan. according to that same census, manhattan's population was greater than brooklyn's (1,850,093), but we know from the scene at jacobis that manhattan is divided into multiple newsie groups, including harlem, midtown, the bowery, and the east side at the very least. jack only had the authority to declare that "the newsies of lower manhattan [were] officially on strike", so his leadership clearly does not extend beyond lower manhattan.

now let's talk influence:

newsies from other areas didn't show up to the strike after jack asked them to. just talking manhattan groups, we know for a fact that midtown and harlem didn't show, and we can infer that the bowery and east side groups didn't either. jack is potentially well known among the other newsies, both for his leadership of lower manhattan and his escape from the refuge, but he has very little influence outside of lower manhattan.

whereas spot's influence? unmatched. he decided to show up to the rally, therefore the rest of the NYC newsies did too. also the implications of the midtown newsies (literally right next to lower manhattan so they definitely knew jack somewhat) not being willing to strike when it was jack who was asking, but being happy to follow spot? hilarious to me. this is even more hilarious if we assume that the bowery newsies didn't come either, since we know for a fact that jack goes there often, since that's where medda's theatre is. spot has more influence over manhattan than jack does.

so yeah. spot is in direct leadership over a third of the city's newsies, but the other two thirds? they follow his lead anyway.

conclusion spot is powerful af (and he knows it)

(source for stats: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1900/bulletins/demographic/38-population-ny.pdf)