William E. Browder
Biography
William E. Browder was also known as Will or Bill Browder. William E. Browder was a Kansas City socialist and the business manager of The Workers' World. He was a brother of Earl and Ralph Browder. He was jailed in Missouri in 1917–1918 for refusing draft registration. In July 1919 he entered Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary under a two-year sentence for conspiracy to obstruct conscription. He was released on November 1, 1920. By 1934 he was circulation manager of The New Masses.
Taylor identifies Bill as Earl’s brother and describes their draft-registration refusal while in county jail, subsequent Leavenworth conspiracy sentence and parole after fifteen months served there. This supplements Bill’s existing separate local-jail and Leavenworth cases. The article’s Platte County jail label conflicts with the earlier local institution account and is not silently substituted; no exact new custody endpoints are established. New Masses, August 11, 1936, original PDF page 39. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v20n07-aug-11-1936-NM.pdf#page=39
1920s photograph review: Original National Archives Leavenworth photograph, catalog 117721807, inmate 14316. The name and inmate number on the reverse, the visible number on the portrait, the archival catalog, and NARA's inmate index agree. Both original sides were visually inspected. The complete front/profile photograph is used without cropping, retouching, or generated detail. NARA identifies the material as unrestricted.
Sources: National Archives original photograph and labeled reverse; Leavenworth inmate index.
The Senate hearing compilation lists W. E. Browder in the western district of Missouri under section 5, with a November 5, 1917 sentencing date and a judgment of 12 months. This supplies the nominal sentence for his existing registration-refusal case; it does not establish that he served 12 months or alter his recorded custody dates.
Amnesty and Pardon for Political Prisoners (1921), printed page 134 (PDF page 141).
The Daily Worker of May 29, 1934 interviews William (Bill) Browder for himself and his brother Earl. It dates their earlier imprisonment for refusal to register to October 1917 and their release to September 1918. It separately dates their rearrest for conspiracy to defeat the draft law to July 13, 1919 and their release from Leavenworth to November 1, 1920. The rearrest date does not establish a new physical admission date for William. Earlier county-jail custody and intervening liberty remain separate from the later Leavenworth episode. The unnamed third brother is not individually identified here. Its rounded year-and-a-half wording is not a precise complete duration, and its statutory description is retained as an attributed account rather than substituted for independently recorded charges.
