Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities
BETA

Newspaper The Toiler (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922

View All Front Pages

About The Toiler (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922

The Toiler, published in Cleveland, Ohio, the seat of Cuyahoga County, was the “Official Organ of the Communist Labor Party of Ohio.” Printed in 1919 as a weekly, the Toiler was the successor to the popular Lakewood newspaper the Ohio Socialist and was established after the Socialist Party of Ohio joined the Communist Labor Party (CLP).  When the CLP decided to go “underground” after the Palmer Raids of January 1920, the Toiler became the “aboveground” voice of the party, containing news reports, editorials and other items that supported the viewpoint of the Communist Party.  Elmer T. Allison, one of the founding members of the CLP, served as the paper’s first editor until 1920 when James P. Cannon, a future leader of the Socialist Workers Party, took over.  In 1921, the Toiler moved from Cleveland to New York City, along with the party headquarters, to reach a wider audience.

As Communist Party membership grew, theToiler continued to gain popularity.  In 1922, the Communist Labor Party merged with the new Workers Party of America and combined their two New York City newspapers, the Toiler and the biweekly Workers’ Council, to form the Worker, which was published in New York and Chicago. Even though these two papers had merged into a “new” publication, the Worker had the same feel as the Toiler, retaining the latter’s numbering string and layout.

In 1924, the Worker became the Daily Worker. Adhering to Stalinist politics, the paper was published in Chicago until January 1927, when it moved back to New York City.  In the 1930s, in an effort to broaden the paper’s highly political coverage, the Worker began to cover arts and entertainment and even established a sports page.  Following World War II, membership in the American Communist Party fell dramatically, and many places refused to carry the paper due to the intense anticommunist sentiment.  Struggling financially and under heavy watch from the government, the party ceased publication of a daily paper in 1958. The Daily Worker was absorbed by the Worker, which was published as a weekend paper from 1958 to 1968.

The Communist Party resumed a more frequent publication in 1968 with the Daily World in New York. This publication merged with San Francisco’s People’s World in 1986 to form the People’s Daily World. This New York paper became the People’s Weekly World in 1990. Though print publication ceased in 2010, the People’s Weekly World appears in digital form and remains the official paper of the Communist Party in the United States.

Provided By: Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, OH

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Toiler (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922

Names

  • Communist Labor Party of Ohio

Dates of Publication

  • 1919-1922

Created / Published

  • Cleveland, Ohio : Communist Labor Party of Ohio, 1919-1922.

Headings

  • -  Communism--United States--Newspapers
  • -  Labor movement--Newspapers
  • -  Cleveland (Ohio)--Newspapers
  • -  New York (N.Y.)--Newspapers
  • -  Communism
  • -  Labor movement
  • -  New York (State)--New York
  • -  Ohio--Cleveland
  • -  United States
  • -  United States--New York--New York--New York
  • -  United States--Ohio--Cuyahoga--Cleveland

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  No. 95 (Nov. 26, 1919)-v. 4, no. 207 (Jan. 28, 1922).
  • -  Published in: Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 26, 1919-Sept. 17, 1921; and in New York, N.Y., Oct. 1921-Jan. 1922.
  • -  Numbers of the latter part of 1921 and 1922 called v. 4.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  "Official organ of the Communist Labor Party of Ohio," Nov. 26, 1919-Feb. 27, 1920.
  • -  Workers' council (DLC)sn 28022276 (OCoLC)5435073
  • -  Worker (New York, N.Y. : 1922) (DLC)sn 87078480 (OCoLC)16977933

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • HX1 .T6

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn88078683

OCLC Number

  • 12028633

ISSN Number

  • 2374-7064

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

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.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

The Toiler Cleveland, Ohio -1922. (New York, NY), Jan. 1 1919. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88078683/.

APA citation style:

(1919, January 1) The Toiler Cleveland, Ohio -1922. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88078683/.

MLA citation style:

The Toiler Cleveland, Ohio -1922. (New York, NY) 1 Jan. 1919. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn88078683/.