Awfully sophisticated proof for the fact :) Just to relate it with the question about Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equation:
Consider the following KZ ODE:
$ p'(z) = \sum_{i=2...n} \frac{ Id + \pi( (1i) )}{z-z_i} p (z) $
As it is discussed in MO-question above it is known to have polynomial solution.
The reside at infinity is equal to $Res=-\sum_{i=2...n} { Id + \pi( (1i) )}$. Which is our beloved JM-element up to sign and n*Id.
Hence its eigenvalues must be non-positive integers (this is obvious since at infinity the solution looks like $(1/z)^{Res}, so in order to be polynomial in z they must be non-positive ints). Hence we are done.
Moreover we got that eigs are greater or equal -n (as David Speyer proved directly above).