The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-08-12
LEWIS ORDERS WAGE CUT IN ILLINOIS
ALTHOUGH MINERS VOTED AGAINST IT
Officials Had Tally Sheets Stolen Hide Hugh Majority Against
SlO Slash, Then Use Theft AS Reason for Defyng Vote
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.,, Aug. Ii

SPRINGFlELD ILL.,, Aug. IL
Officials of the United Mine
Workers district office here
have stolen the tally sheets
showing the vote against the
proposed wage cut in over 200
locals of the Illinois district,
and international President
Lewis has thereupon simply
ordered the wage cut into ef-
feet.
Three weeks ago the Illinois min
ers, by huge majority voted down
the cut of $1.1o a DAY basic rate
This week the officials tried again to
put over the wage cut by taking an
other ballot. Unofficial information
from large numbers of the 24O To-
Gals in Illinois showed another over
whelming defeat of the cut, in spite
Of every attempt to miscount the
votes.
Hi-Jacked!
Yesterday, the tally sheets, from
which the official announcement of
the result of the voting must be
made, were just hi-jacked by thugs
riding in an automobile, while the
sheets were being taken by the union
tellers from the Ridgely Farmers
State Bank to the United Mine
Workers district headquarters. Both
the bank and the UMWA headquar-
ters are in Springfield.
District officials then announced
that no official announcement of the
vote could be given until the sheets
were recovered.
Immediately afterwards, ]. Giles,
e-president of Local 4O69 of the
UMWA made sworn statement that
he read the license plates of the car
in which the thugs rode, and that il
was Illinois License No. 3165. The
state auto records show that this car
belongs to Vice President Fox
Hughes of the Illinois district of the
U.MW.A.
And within few hours after the
tally sheets were stolen International
President Lewis of the UMWA is
sued a formal statement declaring
the stealing of the ballot tallies con-
stituted an emergency, and an
nounced that he and the district Of
ficials of Illinois had just signed an
agreement for the whole district fol
the wage cut. The SIS scale was to &c
into effect at midnight last night
and there is widespread denuncia-
ton already among the Illinois min
ers.
President Lewis, District President
John H. Walker, Vice President Fo2
Hughes, Secretary Walter Nesbit anc
Chairman John Moulin of the wage
scale committee signed the contract
for the officialdom of the UNIV.
and Mr.. jenkins and Fred S. Wilkey
secretary, for the operators
We Predicted 1t.
The Daily Worker yesterday car
ried news of the voting down of the
wage cut and predicting that the
officials would try to find some way
to violate the clear will of the men,
bership of the union.
The fight against the wage cut was
led by the organized Rank and File
Opposition which demands also that
the lockout now going on in Illinois
mines be changed by militant action
of the miners into real strike, LED
by strike committees of the miners
themselves.
The National Miners Union sup
ports the demands of the Rank and
File Opposition.
Mass Meetings.
Latest news from the Illinois fields
is that the Rank and File OPPOSE
ton has already called number OF
mass meetings, and that spontaneous
crowds of miners are already meeting
and demanding that the district Of
ficials be kicked out at once for
stealing the ballots.
The Rank and File Opposition
calls on the Illinois miners to elect
strike committees in every mine to
declare a strike and to unite the
struggle against official betrayal,
against the wage cut thus choked
down their Threats, with the struggle
Of the unemployed miners here for
jobless relief.