Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1909 — MINERS’ OFFICIALS SUED [ARTICLE]

MINERS’ OFFICIALS SUED

Case Will Involve the Right of Union to Control Members. Brazil, Ind., May 25—T L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; George Hargrove, former national board member, and W. D. Van Horn, former president of district No. 11, are made defendants in suiti filed by Abraham Park, Albert Poeednisk, Perry Thompson,. William Sanderson and Frank Kenotsora. The five, all miners, seek $2,000 apiece as damages, alleging that the defendants wrongfully deprived them of their union cards. The suit is an echo of sin explosion In the Rosebud mine.

Twenty-nine miners refused to enter the mine because they said the air was dangerous. Under an agreement with the union the Vandalia Coal company fined the men $1 and kept the money out of their pay. The miners sued and recovered the fines and damages. An appeal by the company to Lewis resulted in the expulsion of the miners from the union, as they refused to relinquish their Judgments.