Biography
Otto Wangerin was a railroad machinist and left-wing Socialist — later a charter member of the Communist Party — who resisted the draft during World War I and was sentenced to fifteen years at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, where he helped lead a struggle among the inmates to observe May Day. After his release he ran Chicago's Modern Bookstore for decades. (Recorded as Otto H. Wangerin)
Otto H. Wangerin was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: did not register for draft?; interviewed by Bd. at Leavenworth; charged with disobedience of orders; sentenced to 15 years in prison; named on Judge Advocate General's card file entitled CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR: "Held, that accused is a political objector and not a conscientious objector. …
The August 2 Crown Point dispatch names him as a railroad organizer actually jailed on a criminal-syndicalism accusation following the Hammond antiwar meeting, with $5,000 bail. This is a separate 1929 detention from the earlier military court-martial and civilian registration-refusal prosecutions. No actual bail posting, release or custody total follows from the amount set. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n127-NY-aug-03-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Douglas dates Wangerin’s initial civilian arrest for refusing draft registration to June 6, 1917, followed by release on $1,000 bail on June 7. This brief custody episode is distinct from later military imprisonment and his postappeal 1921 civilian jail term. William R. Douglas, The Germans Would Court-Martial Me, Too: St. Paul’s World War I Socialist Draft Resisters, Minnesota History 55(7), Fall1997 pp286–301, original PDF page 5. Source: https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/55/v55i07p286-301.pdf#page=5
Douglas reports Wangerin’s rearrest on September 18, 1917 and arrival under guard at Camp Dodge on September 24. The November 7 court-martial imposed fifteen years. He later went to Leavenworth and Alcatraz and was paroled on August 10, 1919. His formal Army discharge on January 10, 1920 was not his prison release; the separately imposed civilian term was actually served in 1921. William R. Douglas, The Germans Would Court-Martial Me, Too: St. Paul’s World War I Socialist Draft Resisters, Minnesota History 55(7), Fall1997 pp286–301, original PDF page 9. Source: https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/55/v55i07p286-301.pdf#page=9
Portrait: rectangular crop from the individually identified historical photograph, original PDF page 11. Photographer not credited. Source: https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/55/v55i07p286-301.pdf#page=11.
H. Austin Simons’s account of intellectual life in Fort Leavenworth names Otto Wangerin of St. Paul as the speaker who explained socialism at a prisoners’ symposium. The inmates arranged the discussion after the prison censor prohibited Bertrand Russell’s Four Roads to Freedom. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1919/09/v2n09-w19-sep-1919-liberator.pdf#page=43
One-year civilian sentence commuted by President Warren G. Harding to six months, actually served at Ramsey County Jail, St. Paul, in 1921 after several stays.
The Senate hearing compilation lists O. Wangerin in Minnesota under section 5, sentenced July 2, 1917 to one year. This concerns his civilian registration-refusal prosecution, distinct from his military court-martial. The date does not establish when the civilian term was actually served; the previously sourced 1921 commutation and six-month service account is preserved.
Amnesty and Pardon for Political Prisoners (1921), printed page 132 (PDF page 139).
The March1922 official report lists Otto H. Wangerin in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports a term expiration or parole status in the named roster. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF19]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 19.
The St.Paul report individually lists Otto Wangerin as out on bail after refusing draft registration. This contemporary bail status confirms that the initial arrest and later sentence service were separated by time outside custody; it is not proof of uninterrupted imprisonment throughout the appeal.
International Socialist Review, July1917, vol.XVIII no.1, PDF page 15.
H. Austin Simons’s account of intellectual life in Fort Leavenworth names Otto Wangerin of St. Paul as the speaker who explained socialism at a prisoners’ symposium. The inmates arranged the discussion after the prison censor prohibited Bertrand Russell’s Four Roads to Freedom.
