◆ SpookStack

Po. Jom L, LoWIS, ET AL. "inasmuch as I do not live in Springfield . I attended very few union meetings and do not take an active part in union affairs. Prior to 1932, as far as I mow, Elshoff maintained cordial relations with UL. The relations between Elsnoff and Pith from September, 1932 to April, 1937 were also satisfactory to the best of my Imovledpe. During this period, neither eishoff or Falcetti gave any indication they preferred one union over the other. “From September, .1932 to april. 1937 I do not recall that any UM. literature was distributed at the rio or that there was any UM picket line at the mine juring this 67101 however, 3n the Spring of 1937 there were some PE members who ‘ie r2 aucitating at the mine against the Pua. Thess men are ramed as follows; Toe aloancse, dJchn Cotton, or ananias, John Sirtout, andrew Schrelevivys, Xuinic Pasquele, George Ta cast retur oanesy Tame roar Pute Paveh oon rant Avs Char os Rahan wada. Tag ma ch , hd ae a ee ee Acsiin, re we ee a Rohanne on, James Hale, Tony Ploten. "4 Short time before the rine closed in Ify, 1937, I attended a Fe, meeting at tne PMA wumicn hall in Springfield and as i recall, Charles Bonaniuon, James Yale, Cotton ananias and Dominic Pasquale and Several others were expelled from the Pl. as they ‘vere charged with cisloyelty to the Phu, but I don't recali the cxact charees. IJ at- tended the Pia meeting on the night of May 11, 1937. I learned of this mecting by word of mouth at the time. 4t this meeting some more Pik members were cxpelled but i do not recail the identity of the men or the charges, "At this timc I heard thet the above mentioned group of men were contacting miners working ut ifine 3 eid trying te get them to join the UH., However, they cid net contact mo, "Regarding the wage scale controversy, I am not fully familiar ‘ith the details of it, but as I recall, Elshoff Claimed his contract with Pll. did not contain a retroactive clause. The Pil, officials stated that the contract did contain such a clause and I was expecting some back pay whic: I have never received. To my knowledge, Jlshoff did not take any action to stop the activities of the UMi organizers at the mine prior te its closing in vay 1927. The PM. expelled about twelve to fourteen of these men and askcd Elshoff to discharge them as they were no longer members of the union. «lshoff refused. 273 wee wee cya the Tamera eg eee ES pe en