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‘the et bee RE ne eae rrp ce te ee me C - O RE: JOHN L. LEWIS, ET AL at Springfield, 8, on Se 18, 1943. ft his residence - pringfield, Tilinois - Agents inte: 7i sewed who advised ne has no criminal record. It was noted that he very cooperative, and he expressed himself rather good, oven though he is an elderly man, an¢ he seemed to have a good knowledge of whet went on. It is felt that he would mke o fair witness. Agents obtained from him the following signed s tatement: aECTROUP Til. Sept. 18, 1943 "I five the following information to a see who are knowm to be to be Specinl Agonts o r - No thrects or promises have boon made me to get me to do this. ul gen et Mine &£ since 1928 os o digger. I was born in 7" I became a citizen about fy In 1932 whenwe chaonged from U. Ne. W. to P. Me. &. I joined the P. HM. A. because everybody else did. I joined because if I wanted to stay at Mine 4 anc wrk J hed to join. I don't care much which union we have however the Progressives were a littlo bit worse, thoy would fine you and not tell you why. "\hon Ele hoff took over Mine A I got « letter from Ryan telling me of this. I clso read of it in the paper. I heserd that Elshoff wos going to teke the coal from Mine A through Mine B, if this happened we Mine 4 men would be out of a job. No one came to see mo about going beck to U. Meove I heard he wos just going to run one mine with J. N.ii, mene J didn't much care about this I felt I could get a job some place. *I attended « meeting ct the PF. H. A. there they discussed whe- ther we were going to fight to stey Progressive like they had ot Mine B or whether we would go over to U. M. ‘J. and not have to fight. The FP. NM. As... officers would let the men talk if they tolked their way but if they didn't. they would not let them trelk. They had o committee which reported that Elshoff hod snid he would open the Mine with U. NM. W. otherwise ho would lanve it shut dorm. I didn't see any fights I heard about them. “ie had o meeting tt the Redman's Hall to seo whet we were going to do, this wes to see whet Elshoff wos going to do. wos in - 294 - INTERVIEW Fi The following investigation was conducted by | -