Charles Ruthenburg

Charles Emil Ruthenberg (July 9, 1882 – March 1, 1927), known to his friends as C.E., was an American Marxist politician and a founder and head of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Wilhelmina (née Lau) and August Charles Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg's parents were ethnic Germans and Lutherans who emigrated from Prussia in 1888. In America, young "Charlie's" father first worked in America on the docks of the Cuyahoga River as a longshoreman. In later years the elder Ruthenberg went into business for himself with a son-in-law, tending bar at a saloon frequented evenings by those who worked on the docks.

C.E. Ruthenberg graduated from the parochial Lutheran school in June 1896. He went to work in a bookstore, attending Berkey and Dyke's Business College in the evenings for a ten-month course in bookkeeping, accounting, and typing. Ruthenberg married Rosaline "Rose" Nickel, also of German descent, in June 1904. The couple had a son named Daniel in 1905, the only child the pair would have. Ruthenberg worked as the bookkeeper and sales manager for the Selmar Hess Publishing Company in this period, overseeing more than 30 salesmen throughout the Middle West.

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.

...
Wikipedia