It had been 10 months since the Justices heard oral arguments in Ruthenberg v. Michigan. The time had arrived for the Court printer to release the opinions. But something unexpected happened. On March 3, 1927, there was a story in the Washington Post bearing the headline: “C.E. Ruthenberg, Head of Communists, Dead.”[112]
His death came as a complete surprise, except to a few in his inner circle. A week or so earlier, while Ruthenberg was in New York, he had doubled up in pain in his hotel room, this in the presence of friends who expressed concern and urged him to see a doctor. “No,” he replied, “I’ve got to get to that meeting in Chicago.” When the pain subsided, he was off on a train to the Windy City to attend another Party meeting. His friend and ideological ally, William Z. Foster, was concerned at how pale he looked when they met in Chicago. “You look sick, Charley,” he said. To which came the reply: “Yes, Bill, I’m kind of under the weather.” A few hours later Ruthenberg collapsed and was taken immediately to the American Hospital. The doctors performed an emergency appendectomy, but to no avail. Three days later, on March 2, 1927, Charles Emil Ruthenberg was dead at 44 – acute peritonitis.[113]
An honor guard flanked the body as it lay in state at the Ashland Boulevard Auditorium in Chicago. A long line of mourners passed by. There was a funeral march to Graceland Cemetery Chapel. Later his body was cremated and his ashes were taken in a bronze urn to New York’s Manhattan Lyceum. Later still, the urn (inscribed, “Our Leader, Comrade Ruthenberg”) was taken by a special guard wearing red shirts and black armbands to memorial meetings at Carnegie Hall, Central Opera House and the New Star Casino. Some 10,000 comrades flocked to the memorial events to stand, one last time, with Ruthenberg. In Russia, too, they saluted him. At the official request of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, his ashes were sent to Moscow to rest beneath the Kremlin wall. He was the last American to receive that “honor.”[114]
The case that had been so important to Brandeis – both in terms of articulating his vision of First Amendment law and in applying it – was now lost. Within a week, the writ of error in Ruthenberg v. Michigan (No. 44) was dismissed.[115]
