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Re: JOHN L. LEVIS, ET AL bIe S24 (continued it over to the Financial Secretary of the local. I was active among those ae tricd to aoesranae ane i out with i. ELSHOFF. and because I was active in a Iocal at ee en nee ar Os With the International, my case never handled aggressively on my behalf by the United Uiine Workers! Board Member. "On duly 1, 1932 was during this period th? the mine’: went out on strike pending negotiations with the Scale Committee fer the contract, the old contract having cxpired on March 31, 1932, and it wis at this time that JOHN L, LEWIS wanted to institute a ~cu wage scale, which was considerably lower than the old contract scale. Tnis new wage scale was presented for a referendum vote of the miners of the State of Iilincis sometime in July, 1952. This referendum resulted in the rejeevion of the wage scale. It is my under- standing that JOHN L, LEWIS was then called in by District No. 12 officials. There was a second referendum, which wes around August 10. During the course of the voting of the second referendum, it vas apparent that the proposed wage scale would again be defcatcc. However, before the results could be tabulated, the ballots werc stolun ollogedly by LEWIS and his followers. LEWIS then declared an emergency and signed the contract with the cpcrators. This led to a revolt of the minors in Illinois, which was at thet time practically 100%. It ‘therc were & series of meetings at Sprinzfield, Taylorville, Gillespie, Benld and at sther pleces in the District, which finally resulted in the convention at Gillespie and the form:tion of the Progressive Miners of Amcrica on September 6, 1932, During that timo I was attive with the movement to form the Progressive Niners of America, "Tt was in September, 1932, that Local #54 was organized at Mine “5", which was Progressive. A vote was taken from the employees this mine to see whother they would be United Mine Workers or Progrossiv Miners. Only onc man voted to go United Mino Workers. All the reat of SW, SS epee wt wwe eS mest pt = approximately 450 employves voted to go Progressive. "Sometime in September, 1932, I had a conversation with CARL ELSHOFF, owner of Mine "B". I was meeting with ELSHOFF, accompanied by someone else from the Progressive Miners, an official whose neme I can't recall at prosent, trying to negotinte with him relative to a contract, ~202— -