54

WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

The CrairMAN. Probably 50 to 100?
Mr. FLemine. It would be very difficult for me to say. I would
aot want to commit myself, but I have seen women working alongside
the men in the fields. That applies to Americans as well as Mexicans,
They all get out and pick the crop.
The CrairmaN. Including the ehildren?
Mr. FLEMING. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavror. How long does the season last?
Mr. FreminG. From the 1st of September frequently to the 1st of
February. This year it did not last much later than the 15th of
December.
Mr. Tavror. Then they require this seasonal labor for two or
three months?
Mr. FLEMING. Yes, sir.
Mr. Esterry. How many acres are in cotton there?
Mr. FLEMING. Sixty-five thousand acres out of the eighty-eight,
‘thousand in our district. It is believed that the machinery for the
enforcement of such regulations as I have mentioned exists now at
the ports of entry and that farmers’ associations to cooperate with the
Secretary of Labor in reporting labor needs and in helping to administer
 the law, could be called into being if they do not exist. This, in
brief, is all that our farmers ask and they earnestly hope that the
committees of Congress will not take hasty action without investigation
 of our situation and of the consequences of further curtailing
our labor supply.
Mr. EsterLy. What is to prevent these Mexicans from walking
across that International Bridge from Juarez to El Paso? I have
gone across it a number of times and I notice on the Juarez side you get
on a trolley car and you are inspected to see if you have any bottles
and the same on the other side. What is to prevent these Mexicans
coming into Texas or your territory without a visa or passport?
Mr. FLemiNG. I am not familiar with the regulations of the
Immigration Service, but anybody that passes across that bridge
has to pass a whole army of officials of one kind or another.
Mr. Esterry. But they do not ask any questions. They just
look at-you. Itis the same thing if you go into Mexico or come out.
You sit in a long trolley car facing each other and, on the Mexican
side the Mexican officials walk through and on the American side
they walk through and if a fellow looks a little suspicious, they pat
him on the back and let it go at that if it is O. K. Are there not a
number of people coming in that way?
Mr. FreminG. I do not believe it, sir.
Mr. EsterrLy. You can not tell them apart, one from the other.
They all look alike to me.
Mr. FLEMING. A number of people work in El Paso and live in
Juarez.
Mr. Jenkins. The inspectors know them and that is the answer
to that.
The Cuairman. That is the walk-over proposition, a very heavy
situation in Detroit.
Mr. ScuneipER. Where else in the United States is cotton, similar
0 this, grown?
Mr. FLeming. There is an area in Arizona, the Salt River Valley.
Mr. ScanEipER. What are their labor conditions?