WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 43

Mr. Yares. Harlinger is in my county.
Mr. Ramey. What attempt have they made to get American
laborers, northern laborers, down there?
Mr. Yates. I really do not know. I know it has been tried, but
{ can not speak from personal knowledge.
Mr. Ramey. Now, your wages are low, you say?
Mr. Yates. Well, they are what I stated.
Mr. Ramey. The reason of that is, you say, that the labores will
not do very much work?
Mr. Yams. They will not overwork. They do good work but
they work steadily and slowly.
Mr. Ramey. What would you say about increasing the wages
and possibly make it an inducement for northern laborers to go down
Rat Would you not get more work out of each laboring man
then?
Mir. Yates. In the fields, sir, you will not get Americans to do it.
Our experience has shown that in the kind of labor they do, the
average American will not do it.
Mr. Ramey. What is that particular labor?
Mr. Yates. Setting out slips, for instance, of vegetables of different
kinds, and taking care of them from the ground.
Mr. Ramey. That is a gardener’s job?
Mr. Yates. Yes, sir; it is mostly that.
Mr. Ramey. Are those men skilled in that work?
Mr. Yates. It does not, take any great degree of skill, but it
requires some. They are what you would term ‘farm laborers’ in
the average sense. They would not be as productive, for instance,
as a farm hand in Kansas or up there, but, on the other hand, if you
take the farm hand for Kansas down there, he would not do the work.
We find that he would not do it. There is something in the rays of
the sun that impels him to go somewhere else or get a different job.
The CuairMAN. Let me ask a question now. Is there a labor
agency in your county seat? .
Mr. Yates. Well, in the sense of importing labor from away, there
have been in the past, but I do not believe there is one now
The Cuairman. Is there one in Brownsville?
Mr. Yates. That is our county seat. I do not think there is one
there. Mr. Sexton might know that. I am informed that San
Antonio is the nearest point.
The CuarrmaN., And their signs are written in the English language
 or in what language?
Mr. Yares. I take it, in the English language. I do not know.
The Cuatrman. What are your crops down there?
Mr. Yarss. Citrus fruits. That is, oranges and grapefruit and
some lemdns, not much; beets, beans, lettuce, poratoes, onions,
carrots, spinach, parsley, to some extent. There are others.
The CuarmMan. That is enough. Now, several of the last named
are raised in Michigan, Idaho, Maine and other States. Now, the
point is this: If you have labor that can do preliminary work in getting
those intensive garden crops under way, that you pay $1.25 a day to,
what is going to happen to Michigan? .
Mr. Yares. We raise them at a season of the year when they do
Joi compete with the Michigan crops. We raise them in the winter
ime