◆ SpookStack

Se J ee A RE: JOHN L, LEIS, ET AL INTERVIE ITE .ITILLLA KE. RYAN the telphone at that time stated they would. (continued) confer with their attorney, Hr. BURKE, to gee sf al} Was AawraaAnh? m he iene FTE EARS eSaclis. Ur. RYan was subsequentl.- notified that the terms were ayreeable and that ev-rything would be drawn up to complete the transaction upon his return to Springfield. Ur, RYAN returncd to Springfield and found that he was dealing With GOURLEY KE and FaLCETT!, instead of ELSHOFT, The principal actor, anneared to bc BURKE, who gave RY.1! his personal check for $5,000 as a re~ a5 BY + £1 bad whan: PTe¢rcwrTy Z q La LTicr « Rides WIEN 42SREG Wir bili. fF Tad gy inasmuch as the ori zinsl ne goti- ations were started by him, and he was informed that he was in Wisconsin taking a cure. This information was given to RY by FALCETTI. RYAN then asked who the principals «ere who ELSUOFF reprcsented ani both GUUTLEY and F..LCLITT assured him that the: had the power to act and that Mr. BURKE, re- preser.tin,s these principels, could handle tne entire details. ‘the trans- action was completed andagain a personal check of of 9555000_ was deposited by Mr. BURKE at the First Nationcl Bank. 411 parties went to the bank and Mr. RV.j1i reccived the $55,000 in cash. Hr. RY.N was fairly certain that all the employees: of his mine were Well satisfied wit: the repr-sentation they vere obtaining from the Frozr-ssives, with one or two possible exceptions. He recalled that one of his engineers complained on one occasion of the excessive deductions for the Irogressives, indicating that it was round $23,00 or $24.00. sccord- in: to Mr, RYAN, these deductions were excessively heavy at that period, inasmuch us the, were made to defer expenses of the trial oi members of the Prozressives indicted in the mine bombins cases. kr. RYAU was not familiar with the circumstances under Which Igne ." bocaue organized by the United Mine “orkers, He stated there was an air shaft located on the line between the two properties of Mine "a" and Hine "B®. However, he was not aware that this shaft had connected the tvo mines, although the workinzs of Mine "B" were only a short distance from this shaft, As a business man he felt it would have been impracticcz1 for ELSHOFF to tuke out the coal in Mine "A" through Mine "B" with United employe:s if the shaft constructed for Hine *BY could handle only u certain amount of coal and such a course nectssitated the closiny down of Mine "B* in order to operate Mine "4". He vas not aware as to whether any threats had been made to Hine "a" in such a fashion as to induce Wine "4" employees to become members of the United Hine *orkers union. Shortly after Hine "B" closed down in 1937, RYaN entered into an acrcenent with the csanther Oreek Jiines for the purchase of coal which was to be sold on a brokerage basis. RYN statcd that ELSHOFT had approached him on this mtter at first but that he would not deal with ELSHO'F because @ 450 «=