◆ SpookStack

3 Ke: JOHN L, LEWIS, ET AL w WY ovITH was interviewed at his rosidence, ih Springfield, Illinois, on the afternoon neo yay) ol oat —_—-~ #8=— ATS» by Spocial an wos born in He has would make a very good witness. He has a pronounced accent but is no difficult to understand. He has an intclligence well above that of the average miner. Ee is stubborn and precise. It is believed that it would te difficult to confuse him on cross-oxamination. He gave information sot forth in the following signed statements [=] "Springfield, Til September 11, 1943, "My name is I make the following statement to ee ....2 ho have identified thomselvos to me = o we gon rec Federal sureau of Investigation, Wo promises, threats, or consideration of any kind has been made to me to make this statencnt. I am willing, if necessary, to go to court, and repeat any part of this statement. "I have worked off ond on st Mine A cinco and steadily from until last May. I was never an officer in the before 1982, Ir. 1932 the local at Hine A joined the Progressive Mine Workers, and I vient ovor with the rest of them. I was clectcod by the membership of the Progressive "In 194], Mine A closed atout April 1. This was the usual custom for Hine A, as it was 2 seasonal mine, At the time that the mince closed, the men so far as I know were 211 very much sotisfied with the Progressive Mine Workers, and ould not have wanted to change to tho UMW. I think that that is the wey the men thought, and I know that that is the way thit I felt. Up until the time that the announcement wes made in the paper that Elshoff was going to operatc ijine A, I heard no talk about changing unions. There had been some rumors during the summcr thet Mine A was to be sold, but there ath Asef was nothing definite. After the announcement in the paper tht Elshoff WAS going to operate Mine A, the men helc some mectings to sce what they should do. The first mocting was held at the Progressive Hall. It was a special meeting, and about the only busincss was to leave it to the District officers to see what thoy could find out from Elshoff about what he was going to do with the mine, Thorc had boon rumors going around thot Mine A was going to be abandoned. Therc werc also rumors, which I did not believe, that they worc going to put o Skip in and take the coal out from Mine A through mine B. The men seemed to think that the law was such that whon o new r