◆ SpookStack

Re: JOHN L. LEWIS, ET AL. —_ - at his residence, a@ field, Illinois on September 9, 1943. answered the questions put to him, He is nentally slow and his English is difficult to follow. He furnished the following signed statement. bey be ion 4 - - b } o R, an ee "Springfield, Illinois ~ September 9, 1943 tT, make the following voluntary statement te 2 , whom I know to be Special Agents oa i Feceral Bureau ol Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. tT presently reside Pi corre warts sagctl Springfield, Tilinois, J am presently unemployed, as no Waa. I arrived in the United States in Come mi zed U.S, Citizen in Be "The first mine union I joined was the United Mine “.orkers of america, referred to hereinafter as the UMW, at Tlilinois in October I never held an office in any ked in the mine at inois. "In started working at Mine B and worked there until eugust 27, 1942, when I quit work. "J joined the Piu., the Progressive Hine “orkers of america, in 1932 when the miners at Mine B signed up with the Pa&A. I joined becausc everyone else joined. I liked the PUL, "The relations between Elshoff and the UM. before 1932 wore good. From 1932 to 1937 Bishoff did not like the Pi4 union. I do not belicVe he wanted to sign a contract with them. The PHA officials seemed to deal fairly with the members of the Pru. T went to most of the union meetings when I was working under the UM. and the Pili. All I know about the trouble in 1937 at Mine B Was that Eishoff did not want the Pi, men to work in that mine and hc closed it down. Also, the PMA men did not want to work at the mine when the UM. members worked in the mine. *T had no understanding of the wage scale trouble in 1937. Before the mine closed in Kay, 1937, UM \, men came to my house three times to get meg to join the te. I do not remember their - 129 - ne ene eee Ce, Sr Ca Caer eS oe Tr tr ce cen ar