Biography
Herman Blass was a conscientious objector from Illinois imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to 2 years, reduced to 1 year. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for draft on June 5, 1917, but not as a C.O.; was in service for 3 months, before being charged with sleeping at his post; sentenced to 2 years, reduced to 1 year; reason for stance = Socialist; a C.O.???
The Revolutionary Age of August 9, 1919 prints a letter received by the National Left Wing Conference on June 21, 1919 from political prisoners confined in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It lists Herman A. Blass among political prisoners who explicitly said they were not Socialist Party members, endorsing the letter's support for the Left Wing and its political aims. June 21 is the conference's receipt date, not an admission or release date; no individual charge or measured custody total is supplied.
