Charles Emil Ruthenberg

Released

Date of birth:09. 07. 1882

Date of death:01. 03. 1927

Age:44^{† Deceased}

Gender:Male

Race:White

Era:1910s

State:Ohio

Time Imprisoned:

2 Years 4 Months 9 Days

Support

Anti-Militarism Anti-War Socialism Anarchism Socialist Party of America Communist Party USA

Biography

Charles Emil Ruthenberg Born to Prussian Lutheran immigrants in Cleveland; joined the SP in 1909 and edited the Cleveland Socialist. After the U.S. entered WWI he organized antiwar rallies; on May 17, 1917 he gave a Cleveland speech for which he, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker were arrested for obstructing the draft — the first such Espionage Act convictions in the United States. Sentenced to one year, served roughly 10 months at the Stark County Workhouse in Canton, Ohio. Re-arrested repeatedly through the 1920s; founded the Communist Party USA in Chicago in September 1919 and became its first National Secretary. Died March 1, 1927; ashes interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Ruthenberg was imprisoned twice more after the draft case. Convicted under New York's Criminal Anarchy Act, he was sentenced on October 29, 1920 and held at Clinton Prison at Dannemora until he was released on bond in about April 1922; that conviction was afterwards reversed. He was among those arrested in the raid on the underground Communist Party convention at Bridgman, Michigan on August 22, 1922, and a jury convicted him under Michigan's Criminal Syndicalism Act on May 12, 1923. The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed in January 1925, but he remained at liberty through the appeals and never served that sentence; he died on March 1, 1927.

Cases

Stark County Workhouse

Charges: Espionage Act of 1917 §3 — obstructing the draft.

Arrested: May 27, 1917

Sentenced: Jul 14, 1917

Incarcerated: January 1918

Released: Dec 8, 1918

Sentence: One year for obstructing the draft, of which he served about eleven months at the Stark County Workhouse at Canton, Ohio — from about January 1918 until December 8, 1918. Sentenced July 14, 1917. The custody dates are changed here and this is the change to check. The row previously ran from July 14, 1917 to March 31, 1918, and gave the imprisonment as 260 days. Its start date was the day of sentence, which is the commonest way a custody date gets invented rather than recorded, and the two dates cannot both be right alongside the appeal that carried this case to the Supreme Court after sentencing. The curator's chronology puts the custody in 1918, beginning about January and ending December 8. That is what is stored: the start at month precision, the release at day precision. It gives 341 days rather than 260. The earlier note that he served about ten months is superseded by that chronology, which gives about eleven.

Judge: Hon. John M. Killits

Convicted: Yes

Institution State: Ohio

Clinton State Prison

Charges: Criminal anarchism — New York Criminal Anarchy Act of 1902.

Sentenced: Oct 29, 1920

Incarcerated: Oct 29, 1920

Released: April 1922

Sentence: Convicted of criminal anarchism in New York and sentenced on October 29, 1920; held at Clinton Prison at Dannemora until released on bond in about April 1922. The conviction was afterwards reversed. This row previously existed as an empty stub carrying only the generic import charge of a federal Espionage and Sedition Act prosecution, with no dates, no institution and no text. It has been given the New York case rather than deleted. Two cautions on the dates. Custody is anchored at the sentencing day because the curator's chronology runs the imprisonment from the sentence, but a separate record of the day he was received would be better. The release is held at month precision: it is reported as approximately April 20 to 24, 1922, a five-day window that cannot honestly be stated as a day, and month precision anchors it at April 1, so the figure understates the custody by about three weeks.

Convicted: Yes — conviction afterwards reversed

Institution State: New York

Charges: Michigan Criminal Syndicalism Act — attending the underground Communist Party convention at Bridgman, Michigan, raided on August 22, 1922.

Arrested: Aug 22, 1922

Sentenced: May 12, 1923

Sentence: Convicted under Michigan's Criminal Syndicalism Act on May 12, 1923 after the Bridgman raid, and the conviction was affirmed by the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1925 — but he remained at liberty throughout the appeals and never served the sentence. He died on March 1, 1927. No custody dates are entered, and the row therefore produces no imprisonment figure. It is recorded because the conviction is a fact of the prosecution even though no imprisonment followed from it.

Convicted: Yes — convicted May 12, 1923; affirmed by the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1925; never served

Charles Emil Ruthenberg

Biography

Cases

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