A summary of the political life and work of Charles E. Ruthenberg, central figure of the early Communist Party, on his death in 1927.

‘Charles E. Ruthenberg’s Facts of Life’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 4 No. 42. March 3, 1927.

BORN July 9, 1882-Died March 2, 1927 at 11 a.m. in the American Hospital, Chicago, Ill., after an operation for appendicitis, at the age of 44. His father was a longshoreman, and he himself after primary school education in a German Lutheran School, and completion of Business College was in turn factory worker, clerk, newspaper correspondent, and from 1909 until the day of his death, active fighter in the labor movement.

Activity in the Labor Movement: Helped to build I. L.G.W.U. and took active part in the Cleveland strikes of that organization. He participated in, and took a leading part in many other strikes in Cleveland and in the state of Ohio. Joined the socialist party January 1909. Remained in it until 1919 when the Communist Party was formed, and was one of the founders of the Communist Party and of its successor the Workers (Communist) Party. He was an official of the socialist party from 1909 (a few months after joining) until he entered the Communist party.

1909-1912 Recording Secretary City Central Committee, Socialist Party Cleveland.

Political Standard Bearer

1910-Candidate for State Treasurer of Ohio.
1911-Candidate for Mayor of Cleveland.
1912-Candidate for Governor Socialist Party of Ohio.
1912-Editor the Cleveland Socialist.
1913-Secretary and City Organizer.
1914-Candidate for United States Senator of Ohio.
1915-Candidate for Mayor of Cleveland.
1916-Candidate for Congress, 20th District of Ohio.
1917-Candidate for Mayor of Cleveland.
1918-Candidate for Congress.
1919-Candidate for Mayor of Cleveland.

In November 1917, after conviction for anti-war activities, and while pending appeal, he ran for Mayor of Cleveland and received 27,000 votes out of a total of 100,000 cast.

First Communist Secretary

Delegate to every Annual State Convention of the Ohio Socialist Party from 1910 to 1919. Delegate National Convention of the Socialist Party 1912. National Committee Convention of 1915 and National Emergency Convention of 1917. Elected secretary and organizer of the Socialist Party in 1919. Editor the Socialist News from 1914-1919. Executive Secretary Communist Party of America 1919-1920. He went to jail and was therefore unable to serve. Upon getting out of jail he became secretary of the Workers (Communist) Party from its inception and remained secretary until the day of his death. He was at all times a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party and its successor the Workers (Communist) Party. For the last few years of his life he was a member of the presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Indicted June 1917 charged with obstructing the draft through speeches made on the public square in Cleveland.

First Jail Sentence

He served one year in the Canton Ohio Jail. It was after Debs visited him in the Canton Jail that he (Debs) made the speech that caused his own indictment and imprisonment. He was indicted and convicted under the Criminal Anarchy Law of the State of New York in Nov. 1919, and served 2 years in Sing Sing Prison on an indeterminate sentence of from 5 to 10 years which was terminated by pardon issued by Governor Smith, who based his decree upon the minority opinion of the Justice of the United States Supreme Court to the effect that the conviction, was unconstitutional.

Died in Shadow of Jail

In 1922 arrested for attending the Michigan Convention of the Communist Party and convicted and sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of from 5 to 10 years. At the time of his death he was out on appeal against that sentence which had al. ready been upheld by the State Supreme Court of Michigan and was in the hands of the United State Supreme Court.

In 1917 he was the leader of the Ohio delegation to the St. Louis Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party and the leader in the fight which put across the anti-war St. Louis resolution thereby committing the Socialist Party to an anti-war stand which was subsequently sabotaged by some of its officials. From early in his career as a member of the Socialist Party he became a leading figure in its left wing, or more militant section, and when that left wing became the Communist Party he assumed the position of leadership which he maintained until his death. He was an honorary member of the I.L.G.W.U. by vote of the Cleveland locals which he helped to build. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the International Labor Defense.

Writings: As editor of the Cleveland Socialist, the Socialist News and as contributor to the Revolutionary Age, Communist World, the Liberator, the Workers Monthly, The DAILY WORKER and numerous labor journals. He is the author of a great number of articles of all kinds, many of which were of a fundamental character in that they helped to determine the line of development of the Workers (Communist) Party and to develop its program for the American Labor Movement. He is also the author of various pamphlets among which may be enumerated “Are We Growing To- wards Socialism” (1917),” “After the War What?” (1918) The Farm- er Labor United Front (1924). From the Third to the Fourth Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party (1925) also The Workers (Communist) Party, What It Stands For, Why Workers Should Join (1926).

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/1927/1927-ny/v04-n042-NY-mar-03-1927-DW-LOC.pdf