100 Years Ago May 18, 1922 A bitter attack on John L. Lewis, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, was made at a special union convention in Muskogee, Okla., late yesterday by Frank Farrington, president of the Illinois district of the union, invoking the name of deposed and jailed Kansas miners’ leader Alexander Howat. “I came to defend the Kansas miners who have been grossly imposed on,” Farrington said. “The Kansas miners are the victims of the most treacherous highhanded outrage ever committed, not only within the United Mine Workers but within the ranks of organized labor as a whole,” he added, noting that his Illinois district, prior to the current national coal strike, had sent $300,000 worth of supplies into the Kansas fields in violation of international orders and “we are glad we did it.” The A.