Biography
Michael Prush 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 10 years in prison, reduced to 4 years. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: enlisted April 20, 1917; charged with disloyalty; sentenced to 10 years in prison, reduced to 4 years; a U.S. citizen, but had spent last 10 years in Austria; 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 Michael Prush 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.
