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, wpe 4 + Charge He Paid Hltinois Mine Company to Break Rival Union. BY EDWIN AKLAHEY. Bpecial Dispatch trow Biat! Corresponden gy | Washington, Aug. 26.—The F: ral Bureau of Investigation dertaken an investigation of cial dealings between John wis and th@Mine BE Coal Co.’ in Springfield, Rl., it was learned’ here today. The facts in the case will be isid before a grand jury in Springfield late in September or early in October, it was further’ learned. ; OHN LEWIS | | t Chicago Daily News, th in- Wolves a mubsidy of th ine B Co. by the United Mine Workers to reimburse the company for the jasses suffered in the leckout of members of th ogressive Mine Workers, an AF.ofL. group which revolted from the Lewis. leadership in™1932. The amount. of money paid to the company by: the union, it is now learned, was: in the neighborhood of $350,000. The lockout in question took place in 1938. Case Causes Cabinet Rift. The case has already caused | x As previously revealed in The slight rift betweeu Secretary of ee titstiry Morgenthafr-eht-Aft- \torney Gevers! Biddle | agerderdend evidence * nencial transactions between UBLW. and the Mine B Co. an investigetion of the union's & Lewis’ accounts, and turned 1. file in the matter over to 8 White House, whence it was pt to the Department of Justice. ure of the Justice Department §nitiate pn immediate criminal in-; vestigation caused a fminor cab- imet crisis, which has since been Although it is reported that there are some tax evasion Bi pects, to the federal investigation, | the FBI. inquiry is concerned with possible violations of the old civil rights statute of 1870, passed to break the Ku Eilux Klan, but} pever invoked very successfuily.; The Harlan County (Ky.) coal: tors were prosecuted under} this statute in 1938, but the case, , ended in a jury disagreement. The: °. statute provides criminal penal-: ties for a conspiracy to deprive: itizens of their civil rights, =) | case the Illinois miners who ould have been so derprived in e event of a conspiracy to break eir union. Listed as 2 ‘Lean.’ ; Incidentally, it was this FBI. investigation which brough Lewis ‘to Springtield recently, where he _ became involved with the OPA,! ‘following the complaint of citi-) ‘gens that he had driven his auto- mobile from Alexandria, Va. to. Springfield on nonessential bus-| The money advanced by Lewis: and the U.M.W. to the Mine B.' Co, appears on the books of the company as a Joan, it was Jearned. Federe] investigators found, how- ever, thet there was reasonable ound for permitting a grand fy to decide whether the §350,- O0G was a loan by the union to , the company or an out and out grant to reimburse the company ' for breaking a rival union group. ' ' Since the F.B.1. investigation was, initiated, it was learned, G9 Mine‘ eaded by Car] “Elshoff, - Efe repaid §1,000 of the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS ght/¥3