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‘ er Re: JOHN L. LEIS, ET AL \ w2s_3 lgues by Special Agen and f stated that coo , CL: September 12, 1943, " "no one had told him at Mine E not to talk to Federal agents a4 hat he ; was glad to coopercte in any way. He understood questions readily and ansvered then in understandable languzze and it is felt that he would make a fair witness if his testimony were necessary. He advised he has no criminal record. GR: «2 cere the following signed statement: ee Sept. 12, 1943 ie i a rr oan give the following statement to (& wio arc knovm to me to be Special Agents of the F.B.l- eats or promises hive been made me to procure this statement. ui started at Mine B in the _swmer of 1935 as a digger and I am PG am oy es TT =I tun i still there. I wis born I came to the U. &. i and beeame a citizen in ue I first joined 2 mine union 1 ¢ wos ULM... I have never held 2 union office. During the 2 years 1 works t line B fefore 1937 I w-s a Procressive I had becn one before I came kh herc. During this time everything wig all right hotween Elshoff and P.M.A. I never heard anything said by either Falsetti or Elshoff to indicate they favored Uli, or FMA. Before the mine closed down there were a few men at Mine "B" tryint to swing the men at atine "B" back to the U.M.v. All they did was talk_ saying they didn't think F.M.A. wes a good unica. . I remember Fisquale, and Bowling Grcen as being two of these. During this time the min. and Mine “BY got along all right. I couldn't say anything against it. It was the miner's union & they ran it. I did not attend many meetings because - lived so fr from Springfield, rent about once every six months. The dues were not too high because before we split fram the UM™ he paid them more we did the Progressives. "I reid in the paper about the men who were sent to the jail for boobing T esuldn't judge whether they were euiltv or not. Tt oe (a Z_ et id ea er ee veew yy -—sa = nso —s see "Before the strike I never saw any U.M.1. men come to Mine B to picket or distribute literature. I never heard nothing about any parties given by Elshoff or the U.M.W. then the union contract ran out in 1937, we keep on working at Mine B I don't know whether they had any temporary ateeenent or not. There wes some talk about the mge que stion at this time_ some wanted to ean St eanhl a tuat pees =) Ma work and some didn't wnt to work. There was no str ikes or trouble, 4 some talking. - 82 =