Newsboy Legion And The Guardian

As noted by Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine, the Newsboy Legion was a group of boys who sold newspapers in a City slum.  The interesting part to me is that the newsboys were the main characters, while a costumed crime fighter played a only supporting role.  "The Guardian" was actually a police officer who took the boys under his wing, and later became a masked crime fighter to avoid all those legal technicalities that hinder official law enforcement.