Harry Ault

Erwin Bratton "Harry" Ault (1883–1961) was an American socialist and trade union activist. He is best remembered as the editor of the Seattle Union Record, the long-running labor weekly (turned daily) published from 1912 to 1928. After termination of the Union Record, Ault worked as a commercial printer for a number of years, before being appointed a deputy U.S. Marshal for Tacoma, Washington, a position which he retained for 15 years.

Erwin Bratton Ault, known to all his contemporaries by the nickname of "Harry", was born October 30, 1883, in Newport, Kentucky, the son of American-born socialist parents. His father worked as a metal polisher and a wool duster.

Anxious to try their hand at establishing a socialist community from the ground up, the Ault family relocated from Kentucky to Washington state in April 1898 to join the "Equality" socialist colony then being launched by the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth. The 17-year-old Harry became the editor of the colony's newspaper, Industrial Freedom, which debuted in May of that same year.

While the "Equality" colony at Edison was not a lasting success, its effort at developing self-reliance and its humanitarian and cooperative vision had a lasting impact on Ault's life. Ault served as editor of Industrial Freedom from 1899 to 1900, at which time he left the group.

In his younger years, Harry Ault supported himself in a variety of trades, including as a gardener, fisherman, blacksmith, machinist, carpenter, and stenographer.

As the child of committed socialists, the young Ault participated in the affairs of the Socialist Labor Party from 1892 to 1898. In 1898 he transferred his allegiance to the new Social Democratic Party of America, headed by labor leader Eugene V. Debs and Wisconsin teacher-turned-newspaper publisher Victor L. Berger. This organization was the forerunner of the Socialist Party of America (SPA), a group which Ault joined at its formation.

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