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ed en cn aM RE: JOHN L. LEWIS, ET AL. in Springfield, Ille I had been told of this by our giger at Mine Bund at that time ‘of the neeting there must have been between 500 and 400 present aos 4t was a large groupe The main purpose of this meeting was to decide what action should be teken or done in regerd to: / the expelled miners who had peen expelled same time before tt our i previous regulur meetings and none were expelled this evening et &11 |/ &s they hed been expelled beforee Before this special meeting hed been held the munugement cf Mine 3 would not fire these expelled men and it was decided at thet meetin, that the manigement should be given one more shance to | dischcrge them and th.t if tho _mankgenent refused cise weak awele arth lhl thie owen to do 50 that the Pr ogr 6ssives would not work with these expelled men and it was decided that GT =» recontuot ELSHOFF about this mattere It was decided we would picket the mine if these men were not fired. At thut special meeting there was present % oe Re and I think wos there. I went to this meeting ¥ Rentioned aboves ct wag Q very pesoeful meeting und there wls no trouble there «nd we all felt thet those men should not work. At this meeting nothing wos soid cbout the wage question at all but it was just cbout these 13 mene ‘Shen I went to work the next morning I kmew thet if ELSHOFF would not fire these 13 men that we would pickat abn Piaae fae 2 OS neg On or Oe oad a ee Ed the mine and I knew the: 3agmewis to see ELSHOUFF about ite We did not eall any strike but just refused to work with those 13 men who wanted. to form & now organization. On the dey the mine closed I worked about 6 hourse At the soscial meeting the night before nothing at all wes s&id about loading the our short but on the dey the mine olosed some of the PMs miners sent Ground that we should load our cers short in protest ogninst these 13 mon being Ollowed to work snd I don't recall dust who told me but I did loud 4 oirs short too tnd one I never got p-id for till later one As I heard it no Pits officitls guve any such orders to load these cars short out it was sturted by Plf4 miners them selvese I don't think that Bea eulled us out that cfternoon but os I reenull it the compuny itse closed the mine down beotuse the curs were being loaded short und we nover worked © dfy ugtin until 30 months laters I left oll my tocls und o full keg of powder in the mine thet day und I did not know that the mine would be closed when I came out from the mines This whole issue wes over those 13 nen und wis not beciuse of any wege trouble. On the folllowing day after the mine closed the whistlo blew but we Pla nen picketed Mine B on the highwey oulled Jacksonville Hrrd Road and no one went to work et all except the engineer ond the mine officinls, This picketing lusted about 16 days and I was there every morning &nd there wos no ill feel- ing among us men and none of these 13 nen showed up at all during that timee It was u peaceful picket line und there wes no trouble ut all and its purpose wus to keep these 13 men from working. I just ocun't recall §f I eligned any PMA petition & short time after the mine closed ~toontinued ) - 70 = Om ee SOP OR ee OY sl aol a lia cei