◆ SpookStack

C Q r 7 make any etatements on this matter. —_ = trefore the mine closed down in Mey, 1957, Pete Carter and several other men working at Mine B were agitating for the UMW and said the Pt, did not have a contract with Elshoff. No one ever asked me to join the UW at this time. I had no knowledge of the wage scale trouble in 1937 and I went to only a few meetings. J was not at the Fla meeting on May 11, 19:7, and never heard about any miners thet had been expelled from the PWA. ‘On May 12, 1937 some coal cars were loaded short, but I did not know why. ‘The mine closed on this day and I believe it closed be- cause Elshoff wanted to sign up with the UM/. J did not hear Fishoff make any statement to this effect. I knew that Elshoff was friendly with the It and I &lso believe that the miners at Mine B were 95° PMA MeEfri« "T signed the PMA petition on May 26, 1937 to show I was a PMA member. J signed no other petitions. ‘the first NLR& election on December 15, 1937 was fair. There was no doubt about thet in my mind. I do not believe the second YLRB election on February 21, 1941 was fair as the men had already signed up with the UM in order to get steady work. JI helped picket for a few weeks in 1957, but did not go back to work until the mine opened in November, 1939. In November 1939, I went back to work as a PHA member but I joined the UMi in January, 1941, "In January 1941 pete Carter came to me in the mine and asked me to join the UM. J told him no. Carter said, "you will lose your job if you do not sign'. Carter was mad when he talked to me and he talked to me almost every day until I signed with the UMW. Some other UM; organizers from the UM7 office building in Springfield came to me at the mine to get me to join that union. I do not know the names. ; "7 did not want to joi {; but I did join to keep my job. I knew that got beatings because they would ( not join. Om one ocessi0n, and Pete Carter came to my house and tried to gct me to Ye J didnot join at this time, but later I signed a card at the mine and gave it to who was a UM, organizer. "] have had this statement read to me vy because J cannot read much English. All of these ee popes have been rea - 117 -