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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Labor Advocate (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937

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About The Labor Advocate (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937

The Cincinnati Labor Advocate first appeared in 1913 during the height of the Reform Movement in Ohio. Published by the Building Trades Council of Cincinnati, the weekly paper gave commentary on the struggles surrounding the implementation of Ohio’s new labor reform amendments. The initial motto of the Labor Advocate was “A Paper for All Who Toil,” but a later addition included “A Paper without a Muzzle for All Who Toil” to show its editorial independence. W.E. Meyers was the editor of the Labor Advocate in the initial years and kept the paper non-partisan in official political affiliation but staunchly pro-labor until it ended publication in 1937.

The Cincinnati Labor Advocate focused on the activities of the labor movement in Cincinnati, but also reported and editorialized on state and national labor concerns. The years before the start of publication saw a reform movement and a rising Socialist party in Ohio, generating political concerns and giving way to a series of amendments to the state constitution. The 1912 amendments established workmen’s compensation and work hour limits. The Labor Advocate frequently tracked legislation and covered political leaders who were fighting over these new amendments and Ohio’s first workmen’s compensation laws. Throughout 1915 and 1916, the Labor Advocate conducted an editorial war against the policies and person of Ohio’s Governor, Frank Willis. The paper frequently commented on Willis’s small-town background and referred to him in one headline as “the same kind of friend to Labor that Judas was to The Savior.” Willis was defeated in 1916 by former Governor James Cox, whom the Labor Advocate had characterized as “the best Governor for labor that Ohio ever had and a good fellow.”

In that same year, the Labor Advocate featured an interview with William Green, a state senator from Coshocton. Green described the dangerous conditions he had witnessed firsthand working in the mines of Ohio and observed that widowed women of mine workers inherited nothing but lawsuits. He then explained how the labor movement had succeeded in passing a workmen’s compensation law in Ohio. “After it had been in operation one year,” Green contended, “employers who had opposed it were loud in its praise and labor lived in a day they thought would never come.” The Labor Advocate strongly supported Green, who later rose to become a leader in the American Federation of Labor.

Provided By: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Labor Advocate (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937

Names

  • Building Trades Council of Cincinnati and Vicinity

Dates of Publication

  • 1912-1937

Created / Published

  • Cincinnati, Ohio : [publisher not identified]

Headings

  • -  Labor unions--Ohio--Cincinnati--Newspapers
  • -  Cincinnati (Ohio)--Newspapers
  • -  Hamilton County (Ohio)--Newspapers
  • -  Labor unions
  • -  Ohio--Cincinnati
  • -  Ohio--Hamilton County
  • -  United States--Ohio--Hamilton--Cincinnati

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in 1912; ceased in 1937?
  • -  "Official organ of the Building Trades Council of Cincinnati and Vicinity."
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 3, no. 13 (July 17, 1915).

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn88077379

OCLC Number

  • 10364287

ISSN Number

  • 2157-6483

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Labor Advocate Cincinnati, Ohio -1937. (Cincinnati, OH), Jan. 1 1912. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88077379/.

APA citation style:

(1912, January 1) The Labor Advocate Cincinnati, Ohio -1937. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88077379/.

MLA citation style:

The Labor Advocate Cincinnati, Ohio -1937. (Cincinnati, OH) 1 Jan. 1912. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn88077379/.