Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Sack Battucllo 25
Then, the story is that when we began to cooperate with the United
Mine Workers and began to get resdts; began to squeeze the operator
and to hurt the conservative element who sought only to remain in
office with that prestige--whatever it amounted to--they conspired
to see that the lef,t-wingers, especially Jack Battuello and Dave Reed,
would get the axe. And so they instituted the circdation of the
petitions, the resolutions, among other local unions and they got
thirty-three of them, I believe, so send rrsolutions in rhere asking
that the trial. board try us for hcrcsy, so to speak. Elcvcn locals
appeared out of the thirty-three. I have a transcript on that trial.
I quoted from that transcript in my pamphlet. We issued 25,000 of
those in the state--to every miner in the state. Friends of mine,
they solicited and they made tIic money.
So the endring is they tried us and they found us guilty and they
removed us from office and from that day on, the Progressive Miners
was just ended at that period for all practical purposes. The miners
lost their benefits; we lost the battle, we lost the struggle. And
John Lewis continued on from that point and finally Boyle became the
president. You know the story of the United Mine Workers with the
Yabl-onski murder and the candi~ions, the abominable conditions that
they established; the bank they owned in Washington D.C., and how
they had seventy or eighty million dollars ia that bank and no
interest, The miners were being deprived of that interest money.
So that's the long story. Both organizations, for practical puuposes,
became less than a la.bor union. I'm hoping that: Arnvld
Miller and the new regime of the United Mine Workers wS11 bring
about some restoration of dignity there-I hope.
Q. At the time that you were tried, what office did you hold?
A. I was an executive board member of district six--the largest district
in IlLinois of the Progressive Mine Workers.
Q. And what office did Dave Reed hold?
A. President--state president.
Q. To go back just a bit, you said that after the ballots were
stolen, "we. seceded." Who did you mean by we?
A. The ProgressTve Miners element of the state of Illinois, practically
speaking, but later on wc discovered that we didn't have the
state of Illinois. We only had, counting the exonerated members,
some 20,000. We had probably the majority of the miners in 1ll.inois
at that time--working miners--but we ncver succeeded extending our
lines beyond perhaps four or fjvc counties, That was Springfield,
Nokomis, Gillespie, Edwardsville, Collinsville, one or two little
places in Marissa, and one or two lirtlc places in Harrisburg.
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield