Full Text of the Excerpt

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did other people go around and try to get more people to join the union?

ROBERT COLE:

Yes, and some went around and tried to get them to lay out the union. They was some that worked one side and some the other.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What kind of people were against the union, and why were they against it?

ROBERT COLE:

Lady, I just can't understand that as to why people didn't want them to have a union and get paid for their work. I never did have to pay no union dues until I went back this last time to the mill to work, and then I had to pay so much a week.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What kinds of things did they say against the union?

ROBERT COLE:

Some said that the workers didn't want to work, some would say one thing, some another. I think they blowed up the water line that came in Elizabethton during that strike.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did the strikers blow up the water main?

ROBERT COLE:

Yes, I'd say it was the strikers that done it. I wasn't there, but I'd say it was the strikers.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did they do it?

ROBERT COLE:

To cut the water off.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did they think would happen? Why did they think that would help?

ROBERT COLE:

Well, I don't know what they thought about it. They cut the water off in Elizabethton and that would stop them all.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And that did what?

ROBERT COLE:

Would stop them all. The water came from up here in Hampton.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That would stop the plants from running?

ROBERT COLE:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did anyone talk about blowing up the plants themselves?

ROBERT COLE:

Not that I know of. There was one man that got his house blowed up, but I don't know who did that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was he a striker or a non-striker?

ROBERT COLE:

He was with the strikers, but he wasn't working at the plant.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You don't know who blew up his house?

ROBERT COLE:

No.