The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-03-31
Fourth Big
 Conflict For Big Mine Leader

Indianapolis, Ind, March 31-(By the Associated Press. )-As the leader
 in the impending nationwide coal strike, John L. Lewis, president of the ? United Mine Workers of America, will
 enter his fourth big industrial con-
 f1ict. Unless present indications go
 awry, he will lead 1abors largest strike army in the history of the
 United States for the strike set for April 1 threatens to call out more than 5OO.O00 workers scattered throughout the United States.
 Conflicts between employers and workers, in which MT. Lewis has stood out prominently, are these:
 The 1919 soft coal strike of 95,000& miners which was broken by the gov12 ernment, after which the miners got ae' 24-cent ton increase in the wages, their largest single pay advance.
 The first attempt, made in 191S-14, to unionize the steel industry, MT. CTS of the American Federation of Labor; the movement failed, accord ing to union men because of wide spread unemployment.
 The great copper strike in Upper Michigan during 1913, in which MT. Lewis, IS general field agent of the American Federation of Labor, sisted in the general conduct of the strike.
 Strike troubles, however, have been only small part of MT. Lewis work within the organi labor movement. In 1910 at the age of thirty he was elected a representative of the Illinois union miners, and in October, 1911, he became. general field agent of the American Federation of Labor, re- signing in February, 1917, to become statistician of the United Mine Work CTS of America. On Oct. 25, 1917, he was elected vice-president of the ' -lr rN.I~ 1920, became president, having for a. short time previously been the unions acting president.
 Since 1916, MT. Lewis has partici- pated in all interstate conferences be- tween miners and operators in the ad justment of questions affecting the
 mining industry, and since 1917 he has had full charge of the administra- tive and field forces of the union in extending the organization iRS many non-union fields. In 1910-11a he was a member of the commission, com posed of miners, operators aHW public men, which was created by 1he Hi nois General Assembly to revise min ing laws. and in 1916 he declined an as director of the Illinois Department of Labor. During the World War. he was member of the National Committee on Coal ProducSon, and later co-operated with the National Fuel Administration on problems afe fecting coal productions 1nd distri button. In the first year of Presi- dent Hardings adminiSSration, MT. Lewis served on the commission that correlated the work of tarious gov ernment bureaus dealing with the welfare of ex-service men, and also on the commission that laid the foundation for the recent unemploy- ment conference.
 In brief. MT. Lewis lfta ftory is one of a miners son, born in an Iowa hamlet. who has become the leader of one of the most powerful labor organizations in the world. He was born February 12. 1880, at Lu-- cas, Iowa, and after attending the public schools entered the mines to work with his father. Later, he supplem ented his public school edu cation with courses of reading and studies in specialized subjects, par economies. In his twenties, he travelled extensively through West coal and metaIliferous mining. He is and has two children, a, son, age nine, and a daughter. age two.
 As President of the Mine Workers Union. MT. Lewis has for months past been in greement with AIexan- der Howat. who he deposed as presi- dent of the Kansas District Union, and Frank Harrington. the Illinois district president, who has champion ed Howat's side In these controv- ersies, MT. Lewis policies have won whenever brought before the unions conventions. The fac threat of a rife in the unity of theJ~ miners forces in event of the great strike.