Fred Ellis (cartoonist)

[1] The strike proved to be a failure, ended by the economic pressure exerted through the hiring of strikebreakers, and Ellis and his mates ultimately returned to work only to see their pay cut further.

[1] In 1919, while working as a sign painter for the General Outdoor Advertising Company, Ellis slipped and fell five stories from a scaffold outside of a Chicago building,[1] breaking 32 bones when he hit the asphalt below.

Ellis's convalescence proved to be extensive, including six weeks in the hospital followed by two years during which he was forced to use crutches and a cane.

[1] During this period of recovery, Ellis became familiar with a new weekly magazine published by the Chicago Federation of Labor called The New Majority — a publication which reprinted radical drawings by such leading political artists of the day as Art Young and Boardman Robinson.

Foster was the circulation manager of The New Majority at this time, and it was through him that Ellis made contact with the Workers Party of America,[1] which he joined in 1924.