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The Springfield delegates were particularly suspicious of Frank Farrington, more responsible than any other man for the anti-Lewis meeting. Long a Union leader, he had been expelled as a traitor from U. M. W. when in 1926 he accepted a position at $25,000 per year with Peabody Coal Co. For three years he had seen the coal industry from the other side of the fence. Now he was back in the Union. His critics, booing and hissing, predicted the new U. M. W. was doomed if he were seated as a delegate. Deftly he defended himself with the explanation that he had withdrawn from Union affairs on the stipulation that President Lewis would modify his opposition to a wage scale below the Jacksonville agreement, thus permit Union miners to return to work, even at less pay, rather than hold out and starve. A majority of delegates finally voted to seat Farrington, provided he "shut his mouth and didn't try to be boss."
Bitterly flayed by Springfield speakers was President Lewis who was accused of trying to wreck the Union with che support of railroads and public utility companies. He was kept in office, it was charged, only because his agents voted "graveyard locals" which no longer existed.
At Indianapolis the regular Union held its 31st meeting. President Lewis was in autocratic command. The new constitution was ratified. With insurgency concentrated at Springfield, the Indianapolis meeting was by contrast serene, uneventful. Coal operators were flayed for "pauperizing" the industry, the U. S. Government was asked to lend a helping hand. The Springfield delegates were declared outlaws, their claims belittled and mocked.
The contest for control of U. M. W. seemed likely to move out of the Springfield and Indianapolis convention halls and into the courts for final settlement. Until it got there, President Lewis had two great advantages over his rivals: 1) $900,000 cash in the Union treasury; 2) the support of William Green, A. F. of L. president, who accepted an invitation to address the Indianapolis delegates, refused to recognize the Springfield rumpsters.