Biography
John Grass was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to life. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for draft on June 5, 1917, as a C.O.; interviewed by Bd. at Camp Dix; classed by Bd. first as 3, later as “Special”; charged with disobedience of orders; court-martialed & sentenced to life to 20 years in prison (reduced?); his fiancee, Elsie Knepper, was part of Dec. …
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 John Grass among 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.
