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ably ag vey Re: JOHN L. LEWIS, ET AL INTERVIEW WITH BEER 3s icterviewed at his resi- Springfield, y' was born in the United States. He speaks and unders ish well, but he is rather slow mentally and would make only a fair witness. advised hc has never been arrested. He furnished the follorm signed statement. “Springficld, Ill. Septe 13, 1943 Springfield, "Ty, mak: the folloring voluntary sta nom I know to be Special agents of nvesti~- gevion.e I make it without fcar of threat, force, or promise of any kind. "T was born I first started working in coal mines in zno1is in abou n joined the United Mine “Workers of Amcrica Union. I started to work at the Wine "A" Springfield in about In 1932 I joined the Progressive Mine Workers of smerica urnion. joined the PMi because J did not like the actions of John L. Lewis, especially when the ballots were stolen and he declercd an emergency contract. a to 1941 and during this time T union, I never notised any unfair wT remained iL. from 1932 thought the PllA was an honest and good or unusucl assessments. "J noticed no efforts by UN to orgenize at Minc "A" before 1941 and I was satisfied ith Pal. "IT do not remember where J was in 1941, but I read about Elshoff buying ifine "4" from Ryan. As soon as I read that I knew if I wontcd my job I would havc to join UT. No one told me so, but J knew that because of what Elshoff had done at Mine "BY, tT remember attending about two PMi. meetings right after we learned that Elshoff had bought Minc "1", I was a Pit Committec ilan for PLA locel #51, and at one of the mectings, I do not remember vhich, the members asked mc to go to see Elshoff about whether he was going to open Mine "J". The other tio committee men were not at the mecting, so I told the men I would not go to sce Elshoff aione. So three men were elected to see Elshoff. These nen were, « 370 « r