national proportions to sell defense savings stamps through approximately 500,000 loyal young american newsboysne w. sloan. director, defense saving staff, treasury department, washington, d.c. wow. this guy got the government's attention. take the opportunity to buy some of these. these are on kindle or ibooks, and you can get a lot of golden age comics for a dollar just by reading these. it's not bad, the secret stamp. he's a kid who is mad when bullies knock over a bicycle and take all the defense stamps for themselves. what does he do? he puts on a mask, a cape, gets on his bicycle and goes after them. he even gets the time at some point in the plot to call the police. i'm always concerned about this kind of thing. you can't put on a mask and cape, on your bicycle, go after crooks. i mean, the guys could be dangerous, but the message got through. selling u.s. savings bonds and stamps was an important thing, and that you were working for your government when you did it, and anybody who tries to rob or steal them really was a crook. not just against the person he robbed or stole it from, but

national proportion, to sell defense saving stamps through approximately 500,000 loyal, young american newsboys from maine to california. sincerely yours, director defense saving stamps, treasuring department, washington, dc. holy cow. this guy got the government attention. take the opportunity to buy some of these. these are on kindle and ibooks. you can get a lot of golden age comics for just one dollar just by reading these. it is not sad, the secret stamp. he is a kid who is mad when bullies knock over a bicycle and take all of the defense stamps for themselves. what does he do? he puts on a mask and a cape, and he gets on his bicycle and he goes after them. he even gets the time at some point in the plot to call the police. i am always concerned about this kind of thing. it is like, you can't just put on a mask and cape and get on your bicycle and go after?. the guys could be dangerous. but, the message got through, that selling u.s. saving bonds and stamps was an important thing and you were working with and for your government when you did it. and that somebody who tries to rob and steal

the newsboys were a unique group back then. we think about it, 1880's, 1890's, newspapers had no other way to distribute their papers. so they were an important part of that whole process. some say he was put onto this keep the kids active and working. there had been a strike in new york that had brought some newspapers down to their knees, hearst in particular. but i like to think of him as more of a bighearted guy who just wanted to help these kids. what he found became a boys club and eventually a boys and girls today and today, i think toledo is the third boys and girls club in the country and still very active today, doing great work in toledo thanks to john gunckel. and to this day, the boys and girls club and the news association gets together every august and pays tribute to gunckel. >> you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org/citiestour. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. ♪ television has changed since c-span began 41 years ago, but our mission cont