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a ae ‘ ‘ RE; JOHN L. LEWIS, ET Al. Gammn |:..: interviewed at bis residence on September 19, 1943, by égent im : He gave information willingly anc ye He stated he had never been arrested, iiz following signed statement was obtained fron "Springfield, Illinois September 19, 1943. —- #&58€©»©6Ll the following voluntary statement +o thon J krow to be Special agents of the Federal Bureau of Trvcenipaeree Of my own ir3e will, with no threats or promises made me. INTSRVI= ¥.ITH and am work- I was naturalize 53 the United Mine .orkers in <t Auburn, Iil., snd was in that union until 1932, when I joined the Progressive Mine workers of 4merica, at Mine A. I never held any office in any union. J was in favor of the switch from UM... to F.wVA. in 1932, and was entirely satisfied with Pkii.all the time Iwas a member of that union. ") reccived a lettcr from Mr. Ryan in September of 1941, saying that he had sold Hine &. The men that I saw and talked to, from Mine 4, were ell saying that the thing to do was to join U.M.ii., that there wouldn't be any jobs for us at bline A if we didn't. They were all saying that Elshoff would only operate with U.U.u. men. I also heard, in conver- eetians wttkh thea mes Pi sheaf wet cht me ater ir _ 5 sation with the men, that Elshoff might pull coal from Mine 4 through Mine B. This talk made me feol that I hed to join U.N... if I wanted to keep my job oat the mine. It didn't make a lot of difference to me which union I belonged to. IJ was satisfied to go along with the majority of the mon. "I signed up with the U.M.u. et the U.M.is. Hall. I was told, at Mine 4, that all the men who wanted to sign up with U.M.w. should go down to their hell, and do it, that we had to do it to keep our jobs. I didn't go to any union meetings during that time, so don't know anything that went on. I signed up to keep my job, and no one threatened me in any way. &fter the U.M.w. got control at Mine 4, the conditions weren't as good as they were under Ryan. The rooms were bad, and generally, con- ditions were unsatisfactory. I quit working at Mine 4 in May, 1943, after I had asked for better conditions and had been refused. This statement, consisting of this and one other page, has been ~ 527 - ¥