The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-03
TURMOIL MARKS
 ESSION'''SI. < END
Miners Adjourn In Confusion.
 Lewis Powerless To E. Restore Order

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb 2.-The United Mine Workers of AmeYica closed their biennial convention hetes Saturday amid a turmoil of confusion.s As,
 President John l.. Lewis struggled vainly to restore order until he wore his voice to a hoarse whisper from shouting and at last adjourned the con vention without bringing calm to- the session. A
 The final assault of the radicals in the convention against the Lewis ma chine" broke out when Lewis ruled that Alexander Howat, deposed head of the Kansas miners, would not De permitted to plead his case before the convention. Howat was expelled two years and a half ago for failure to comply with orders from international headquarters to end a strike.
 Howats petition for reinstatement had been denied by the committee on grievances and appeals. The commit tees recommendation was sustained by vote, the exact figures of which were not announced.
 Then Howat rose to ask the conven- tion for the right to defend himself. Lewis said Howat. could not speak. HOwat walked forward ito 2 the plat form. -r fsaa
 T arise to ask" he began. Ss
 Lewis interrupted to. call for a vote on the question of suspending rules, and soon announcedd the $ vote was against hearing Howat. aaas
 Howat started to speak again. T want the opportunity tos4present my
 Lewis swung his gavel to- the table so hard as to, shatter the thick oak " Denies Howat Hearing
 Alexander Howat, Alexander, How at, you cannot be heard under the rules of this convention" he, shouted. 6..
 Cries of Give him square deal" Let him have a chance" broke out all over tn ehall. Howat continued his at tempt to speak. 1t was impossible to hear him half the length of the plat form. s
 Finally two sergeants-at-armsp pushed Howat from the platform. Insurgents started to stampede to the platform, but were stopped through the efforts of Tom Smith of Knoxville, Tenn, 82, the oldest delegate in the convention, who rallied some of the younger men around him to check the movement, Lewis pounded with his broken gavel, and shouted repeatedly for order. His words were drowned out in shouts and jeers. At last he adjourned the. con vention. About one-third of the dele gates remained in the hall , to hear Howat speak. t.5;5r.
 There was talk of calling a special. session to reopen the Howat case. At the same time Howat was barred, the petition of Thomas Myerscough of the Pittsburg district for reinstatement was also denied.
 Myerscough was expelled for his af- filation with the progressive committee of the United Mine Workers, an insur- gent organization in the union Administration Puts Through Program
 Although the radicals in the conven- tion stormed and shouted during the two weeks of the convention, and at times made it impossible to transact business, every point of the admifiistra- tiOn's program was put through.
 The report of the scales committee. the main work of the committee was approved in it's entirety, calling for a tfonr-year contract on the present wage scale.
 The radicals were downed in their demands for inclusion of "a six-hour day in the report, and numerous resolu- tions expressing Fred" sympathiesswere voted down or greatly modified before they were adopted by the convention.
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