WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1930

House oF REPRESENTATIVES,
CoMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION,
Washington, D. C.
The committee met in the committee room, No. 483, House Office
Building, at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Albert Johnson (chairman)
presiding.
The CrairMaN. The committee will be in order. The schedule
of witnesses to-day comprises Mr. Burton and Mr. Fleming of New
Mexico, Mr. Holland of Texas, Hon. A. G. Simms, Representative
in the House from New Mexico.
Before we start, and while we are waiting for additional members
of the committee, I would like to call attention to a letter from Mr.
F. R. Burnham, who lives in Los Angeles and expected to be here to
testify, but had to leave and has written a letter while enroute west,
mailing it at St. Louis. He makes a statement in this letter as to
what happened in South Africa with the importation of Chinese
after the Boer War, and what has happened in other colonies from the
bringing in of the blacks, and a discussion of the racial situation in
India. According to the ruling made the other day, this will be
placed in the appendix following this statement. (See appendix.)
Now, who will we hear first?
Mr. Garver. We can go ahead with Judge Yates, if you desire to
hear him.
The CrairmMaN. Do you care to make a statement yourself?
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN N. GARNER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. Garver. Mr. Chairman, there is a delegation from the Rio
Grande Valley up here composed of some of our leading citizens,
about six or eight of them. They are very much interested in the
Mexican question, the question of Mexican immigration and labor for
that particular section of the country, what is known as the lower
Rio Grande Valley. In discussing the matter yesterday, they selected
Judge Yates to present their case in 15 minutes, if you will be good
enough to hear him that long, or 20 minutes, for the reason that I
told them that you gentlemen could not devote too much time to one
territory or one particular person. So thev selected Judge Yates
to present their case.
And while I am here, may I ask permission to insert in the record
the constitution and by-laws of a patriotic organization that exists
along the border? Some of the higher type of Mexican citizenship in
that territory conceived the idea about three or four years ago of
organizing themselves into a patriotic society, the purpose of which