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John L Lewis — Part 16
Page 14
14 / 73
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RE: JOHN L. LES, ET AL
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"Jn 1933 I started working in Mine B as a digger. I
believe in relations between Elshoff and PMA at that
mine were satisfactory until about april, 1937.
Eishoff never made any remarks to ny knowledge
indiceting wnich union, if any he favored. About April, 1937, the following
men working at Lfine B were reported to be contacting the men at their homes
and at the mine trying to pet them to join the UMS. They did not contact
me; andrew Schrelevivus, Dominic Pasquale, Fete Cartcr, Torgy Plotch, Frank
Austin, John Ananias, John Sirtout, Charles Bohannon, and James Hale.
'It was common knowled je in the mine that these men were UM) sympa~
thizers or organizers and were active as such in Hine B which was é closid
snoo, PA mince. lshoff and Faicctti never made any attcenot to step these
activities to my knowledes. I nevsi sa" these men distribute literature
or UL! appiicatior ecards, Vhese ao. were very iriendly with Elshoff and
Falectti and I ser thom in oishoff-.s offics a+ vhe mine quite oftcn before
I went down in tne miav. This was before the mince closed down in May 1937.
At about this time, itiese mon appeared to be more friendly with Elshoff
than the other miners. It is not the normal thing to sce working miners
in Elshoffts office iike this,
"I attended about one-half of tic union meetings of both the UM’ and
the PM, when I was 4 miner at Minc B. I do not recall that I attended th:
PY, meeting of May 14, 1937 when some of the UMT sympcthizers were expelle?
but IT heard about it the next day at the mine by word of mouth. I heard
Elshoff would not discharge these men, and the, were still arguing avout
it on top when I went dovn into «the mine. I heard some coal cars were
bein: shorted, bu. I don't know why. I did not short mine as I had little
coai at that time.
"Tl wos not femiliar with the det.ils of the wage scale agreement. Th:
FLL. Renort indicated that the mincrs were to get some bick pay, but I did
not know the details or hw swch the pay was to be. I felt that the UMT
s:mpathizers should havc been expelled and believe the other Plu members
f 1t the same way. After the mince closed in May, 1957, I heiped picket
the aine for severol weeks, but t nevor attempted to go back to work when
the mine att .mpted to open.
"T simud the PMA petition of May 26, 1937 to show that I was a member
of Pl. I do not recall sioning amy other petition. As far as I know, there
wis no fraud in the HLRA clection on December 15, 1937. I do not remember
how I got notice of the clection, but I went to the arsenal and voted
with the others and no one tried to influence me in any way. Prior to
the time I left Mine B, no one tried to influence me to join UN’, T did
not overhear any union organizers talking to othcr people on this subjsct
and I did not observe any fights over this matter. I had no additional in-
formation referring to UM. organizers or concerning the wage scaie problem.
~236~
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