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REs JOHN L. LEWIS, ETAL | WITH residing ot We oat was interview olal Agents i: friendly but not a is we ni orme and + rerore is not deing recommended as awitness. His statement is as follows, ro” Sept. 16, 1943 Springfield, Ill. fn make the following voluntary state- ment to pecial Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No threats or promises have been made to induce me to make any statement. and have been & I now live at and am employed at Mine a. I @ been @ miner ald e and first started working at Mine A in I joined the P.M. in 1932 when the men signed up with Progressive. I felt it was a good thing ot first as it meant a change of hands and I felt it was good for the men to have a change. "Tl was born citizen since "J was working at Mine 4 in the spring of 1941 when the mino shut down. I recall getting a letter from RYAN saying he had sold Mine 4£ to ELSHOFF. Whon I first heard tho news about the mine being sold it made me feel sorry becouse I was afraid we wouldn't get our vacation money. JI thought the mine would esithor shut down or open up under U.M.W. I just heard a lot of the men saying they thought it might be a united mine. "I want to a moetin: at the P.M... hall and the mon were saying that wo might not be working at Mine J. in the fall. Thoy also talked about mining coal out of Mine J. through a hole and pull it through Mino B. Wo wero afraid the men in Mino 5B would mine all the ooal. "I also wont to a meoting at the Elks Club at which time nll the men joined united. I signed up with united at the Elks Club, but do not know any of the details of the meoting. I joined U.M.W. bocause I wanted to koep my job. Evorybody wants to eat and I would sign up with any union if it meant gotting a job. "This statement has boen road to me by e- it je truo to the best of my memory. Special Agents, FBI U. 8. Dept. of Justice"