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60 SEP Gari a as we nee a ~ FINANCIAL DEAL iM © BY JOnN LEWIS PROBED BY F.B.I. Charge He Paid {ttlinois Mine Company to Break Rival Union. gy epwin AKLAHEY. Bpecial Diadaich irom Siti Comsapondcn Washington, Aug. 26.—The F ral Bureau of Investigation dertaken an investigation of i cial deali between John we ep IN, < “Lewis and th@ Mine B Coal Co.' in Springfield, Mi., it was learned here today. The facts in the case’ will be laid before a grand jury fn Springfield late in September or eatly in October, if was further As previously revealed in The Chicago Daily News, th in- volves a subsidy of th ine B Co. by the United Mine Workers to reimburse the company for the josses suifered,in the iockoui of members of th ogressive Mine Workers, an AF.ofL. group which revolied from the Lewis, leadership in 1932. The amount. of money paid to the company by: the union, it is now learned, was: in the neighborhood of $350,000. The lockout in question took place in 1938. Case Cantes Cabinet Rift. The case bas already caused af slight rift betwee. Secretary of ie trtatiry Morgenthatrshit-f- | UM.W. and the Mine B Co an investigation of the union's @ Lewis’ accounts, and turned 4 Hie in the matiar ver to a aS See = White House, whence ft was se to the Department of Justice. ure of the Justice Department t fnitiate an immediate criminal fo- vestigation caused a fninor cab-~ Although H is reported that there are some tax evasion pects, to the federal investigation, the FBI. inquiry is concerned with possible violations of the old civil rights statute of 1870, passed fo break the Ku Eiux Kisn, but never invoked very successfully. ; The Harlan County (Ky.} coal: speratorvs wert prosecuted under! this stetute in 1538, but the case, ended in a jury disagreement, The: ‘, statute provides criminal penal-. nt ei ties for a conspiracy to deprive: . itizens of their civil rights, in is case the Qlingis miners who ould have been so derprived in e event of a conspiracy to break eir union. Listed as a ‘Lean.’ ; Incidentally, it was this FAL investigation which brough Lewis . to Springfield recently, where he i became involved with the OPA,! ‘ following the complaint of citi-; / zens that he had driven his auto- mobile from Ale 1 Va. to. Springfield on nonessential bual- ' The money advanced by Lewis! and the U.M.W, to the Mine B.} Co, appears on the books af the company as a joan, it was learned. Federa) investigators found, bow- ever, that there was reasonable a for permitting a grand lury to decide whether the §350,- 000 wks a loan by the union to i grant to reimburse the company | for breaking | a rival union group. Since the FBI. investigation was initiated, it was learned, oF Mine’ eaded by Car . repaid $1,000 of the " ~ bap. Tabet 2.2 e+ Br. K. A Tome... bIC. “Ye ee CHICAGO DAILY ave \od cone K R22 STP 16 We —- en 2/rt/¥3 NEWS