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i me i a ey re a C: © Re; JOHN L. LEWIS, ET AL, » Who has a room Beers... Springfield, Illinois, wag intervi September 15, 1943 by Special —_ and He advised that he has no criminal record, It was roted that he was rather hard to understand, although he appeared to understand the questions. It is felt he would make a rath-r poor witness unless his testimony were absolutely necessary, Agents obtained the following signed Lemont which he signed in the presence of his landlady, peer and Sept. 15, 1943 Ny give the following information to ; who are known to me to me to be Special Agent of the F.5.1i, Ko threats or promises have been n made to get me give this information. "7 have been at #ine A as a digger for about yrs. I was born I came to U.S. in about I became a citizen abou o in_spring. "I joined over with P.H,A, when the rest of the men at line ‘a! Gid_ it was all the same to me which union they had. At the time P.WA. was the wion at Mine 'A’ I liked then, , "I heard that +lshoff had taken over Kine 4 in the papers, from other miners and I also got a letter from Ryan telling me of it. It was all right with me, I cid not care who ran the mine as long as I had a job. I met some fellows on the street and they told me if we didnt join up wita U,i., maybe the mine would not open and Elshoff might take the coal out through itine B, I dont know who these men werc, there were many of them all talking this way. «hen I heard this and that it didn't cost anything 4+ figured 1 bettcr join the U.Mw, it didn't make any difference to me one'wWay or another any way. There were several met- ing held at this time, I went to one at Redmans Hall and one at the Liks Club, I know at these mectings we were told that if we wanted to have Mine 4 opened we would have to join U.M... as Elshoff don't like the ‘rogressives. At the Elks Club we voted for going over er to U.Maw. it was by standing vote. after the election Ray Edmundson came and gave T talk, I dont krow what he said other than that UH. was a good Union. I voted for Ulu. because 1 wanted to go to work and you couldn't get a job any place else. I signed up for Y.Miw. that very came afternoon. I was not a member of any committee and + did not attend the meetings in Edmundsons or Lishoffs office after the “lks Club meeting, - 465 -