‘Mike Petcoff is Dead; Foul Play Suspected’ by A.V. Harvitt from the Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 45. May 9, 1924.

Toledo Comrade Aided Soviet Russia

TOLEDO, Ohio, May 8. We buried Comrade Mike Petcoff Monday at 1:30 p.m. The funeral services were held at 1517 Albert street.

As this was a Red funeral, no preacher was present. Comrade William Patterson officiated. He spoke of the comrade’s noble deeds in the class struggle, helping to bring light to the masses and liberate them from wage slavery, and of the intense interest and activity shown by Comrade Petcoff when Soviet Russia was in the midst of the terrible famine.

Comrade Petcoff donated the use of his shoe repair shop and his own services in repairing and half soleing all shoes the Toledo comrades collected in a house-to-house canvass. We collected and repaired several cases of shoes in this campaign.

Peculiar circumstances surrounded the death of Comrade Petcoff. He was found dead in his shoe shop, which is located at 1357 East Broadway. He lived in the rear of the shop.

When found he had a wound in the back of his head, which the coroner claimed was caused from falling when he had a heat attack. Comrade Petcoff was not subject to heat attacks. Comrade Petcoff was known to have many enemies in the neighborhood because of advocating his theories, and distributing Communist propaganda from his shop to customers who called there.

There is a strong doubt in the minds of his comrades and close friends that he died a natural death, as threats were made many times against him, and that he would be roughly handled if he continued to disseminate his ideas and theories in the shop. Toledo comrades will not forget Comrade Petcoff.

A.W. Harvitt.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v02a-n045-may-09-1924-DW-LOC.pdf