C. E. Ruthenberg - Biography - The Socialist Years (1908-1918)

The Socialist Years (1908-1918)

Ruthenberg's first political attraction was to the Single Taxer Tom Johnson, a "reform" Mayor of Cleveland from 1901 to 1909. Ruthenberg was soon drawn to more radical politics, however, and in the middle months of 1908 he began calling himself a socialist. Ruthenberg joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in January 1909, and attended an English language branch of Local Cuyahoga County.

Ruthenberg was an Organizer for and later Secretary of Local Cuyahoga County continuously from 1909 to 1919. In addition he was on the Ohio State Executive Committee of the SPA from 1911 to 1916, during which time he edited the newspapers of local party, The Cleveland Socialist (1911–1913) and Socialist News (1914–1919). Ruthenberg also periodically contributed material to the official organ of the Socialist Party of Ohio, The Ohio Socialist. He was elected to the National Committee of the Socialist Party in 1915 but was defeated by Arthur LeSueur in the vote at the annual meeting of that body for election to the governing National Executive Committee of the party.

During this time Ruthenberg traveled to many cities throughout the American Northeast and Midwest, speaking to labor groups, trade union organizations, and anti-war groups, building a network of contacts. Ruthenberg was associated with the far left so-called "Impossibilist" wing of the SPA, which had little hope for the efficacy of ameliorative reform, seeking instead revolutionary socialist transformation.

Despite his personal disdain for political half-measures, Ruthenberg was a frequent candidate on the ticket of the Socialist Party. His first electoral experience came in 1910, when he ran for Ohio State Treasurer on the Socialist ticket. In 1911 he ran for Mayor of Cleveland, in 1912 for Governor of Ohio, for U.S. Senate in 1914. In 1915 he ran again for Mayor of Cleveland and in 1916 he ran for United States Congress. In 1917 he made his third run for Mayor of Cleveland (receiving 27,000 votes of 100,000 cast), followed by his second run for Congress in 1918. His final fourth and final run for Mayor of Cleveland came in 1919.

Ruthenberg was a delegate to the seminal 1917 Emergency National Convention of the SPA. There he was elected to the Committee on War and Militarism and was one of three primary authors of the aggressively antimilitarist St. Louis program, along with Morris Hillquit and Algernon Lee.

After American entry into World War I, Ruthenberg continued to publicly attack the "imperialist" conflict and American participation therein. He was arrested for allegedly violating the Espionage Act by obstructing the draft in connection with a speech given at a rally on May 17, 1917. Also charged at the same time were Ohio State Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht and State Organizer Charles Baker. The trio were tried together in July 1917 and sentenced to one year in the Ohio State Penitentiary, a decision upheld by the US Supreme Court on January 15, 1918. Informed of this decision, issued a statement declaring

The Supreme Court has decided we must spend a year in jail. The crime for which we are convicted is truth telling. We believe in certain principles; we fought for those principles, and we go to jail ostensibly for inducing a certain Alphones Schue not to register. The charge is merely and excuse.... The important fact is that the ruling class feared our message to the workers and tried to silence that message. That fact should make a hundred willing workers take up the work we lay down....

Ruthenberg, Wagenknecht, and Baker served almost 11 months of their sentence, finally being released on December 8, 1918.