34

WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

country. A good many of them come up to us and then go back
farther south, after learning what. Americans can teach them. We
pay them more than they get down in central Mexico, but the money
they take back in their pockets is not anything like as valuable as
the knowledge they take back in their heads. They are learning to
be good farmers and they are learning to live on a better scale, and
it is a vast help to Mexico, not in what they have earned, as much
as what they have learned.
The Crairman. That is those who come into the United States?
Mr. CuanpLER. These people do not come to the United States to
live, Mr. Johnson-—to live per se; they come in just as we used to bring
Canadians in when I was a youngster living up near the Canadian
line, to mow hay for us, and then go back when the haying was over.
These Mexicans come up to pick fruit or cotton, and then they go
back to their homes in Mexico. It is seasonal labor.
The CrairMaN. Seasonal labor is a problem all the way from the
southern California line to the Canadian line; and when this committee
was on the coast in 1920 we found what was called “itinerant labor”
following the ripening crops, winding up with apples in the State of
Washington; and we found a continuous fight between the Orientals
in the melon fields and the white man. The melon picking was on in
parts of California at that time, and farther north were the berry
crops; and wherever we went we found it a knock-down and drag-out
fight was on between Orientals and American workmen. Do you
think there is any danger of that happening with the Mexicans?
Mr. Caanprer. I know from my own observation and I would
emphasize that the Mexican labor is less quarrelsome and less troublemaking
 than any other labor that comes into America. I have observed,
 during nearly 40 or 50 years, the Chinaman come and go, and
the Japanese come and go, and the Mexican come in.
The CuarrmaN. Is he more servile?
Mr. CuanoLer. I would not say more servile, but he takes care of
his own affairs better. There are no social problems. They do not
mingle with whites and I am sure every American citizen who has
been a long time in our part of the country will bear out my view in
shat particular.
In our own operations on our property, the last census we made had
300 Japanese, and they are becoming fewer all the time.
The Cuairman. That is in Mexico?
Mr. CuanpiLER. Yes. We had 4,000 Chinese and probably 8,000
Mexicans, depending on the season, sometimes more and sometimes
less; and I do not believe that we have ever had a&amp; murder or any
trouble or disagreement that amounted to anything. Of course,
there have been personal disagreements between individuals, as there
will be everywhere. But there has never been any serious trouble
or any arrests or anything that might be considered abnormal.
The Cuairman. 1 was obliged to read the newspaper very hastily
this morning, but I saw an Associated Press telegram from Watsonville,
 Calif., to the effect that the white citizens there had commenced
 stoning the Filipinos. Do you see any problem coming
on there?
Mr. CuanpLer. Yes, sir; and that is one of the main reasons why
we think when we have to have labor to harvest crops we are a
thousand times better off with Mexicans than Filipinos or yellow