In the dark summer of 1932, over the violent protest of the workers involved, President John Llewellyn Lewis of the United Mine Workers of America signed a contract with Illinois coal operators reducing the basic daily wage from $6.10 to $5. Whatever justification for this dictatorial procedure there may have been, the reaction of the miners was direct and immediate. A large group revolted, setting themselves up as the Progressive Miners of America, an organization with 30,000 members in the bituminous fields of Illinois and Indiana, which this year joined up...
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