56 } WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

Mr. Scunemwrr. 1 am not talking about percentage; I am talking
about numbers. You could not have very well have built Los
Angeles up with a Mexican population, could you?
Mr. CaHanpLER. No, sir.
Ru! ScHNEIDER. You depend upon the white people who come
there?
Mr. CranpLER. Yes, sir.
Mr. ScaNEIDER. And the Mexican people brought there to do the
rough work, brought there as itinerant labor, remain; and it has more
than tripled in the past 10 years, the Mexican population.
Mr. CranpLER. Our whole population has increased about two and
a half times, and I think the Mexican people—it is not the same population—has
 been constantly coming and going; but I do not think we
have now a larger number than we had 10 years ago. We have more
in number, but not a bigger percentage.
Mr. ScaNempeEr. You have three times as many Mexicans now as
you had 10 years ago in Los Angeles County?
Mr. CraxprER. I do not think we have now. It is more or less
guesswork. I have no data except what I have learned from time to
time and what I know in general. I could not attempt to give you
accurate figures.
The Cnarrman. The clerk will make a note to get the figures from
the census and from the naturalization records with regard to the
peal figures. We could not expect Mr. Chandler to carry it in his
mind.
Now, there is one other point I had in mind. Do you think these
Mexicans who come in to do this class of work could pass the literacy
test required by the United States immigration laws?
Mr. Cuanprer. I do not think they could as a rule.
The Cuarrman. Do you think they could pass the test with regard
to poverty, that is, liability to become a public charge?
Mr. Cuanprer. They have to do that before they are permitted
to come in.
L The Cuarrman. You think the literacy test is overlooked a little
it?
Mr. Cuanporer. Our observation is that at our crossing point that
the Government officials have been rather strict.
The CrarrmaN. More strict lately than previously.
Mr. Cranprer. They have always been pretty careful there. Last
year I remember I was afraid they were bringing them in farther
East, beyond our eastern borders, letting across a lot of Mexicans that
might bring in cotton boll weevil or pik bollworm, and I sent out
men to inquire how strict they were. They came back and said,
“You do not need to worry about their getting in with pink bollworm.”
 The agent cited one family which came up to the border
that had been there three or four years and worked a few months
every year and gone back again. That was in the Imperial Valley,
on the American side. Last year they came up again and they had
the amount of money required; they had passed all the tests before,
as far as the customary tests they had to pass. But they kept them
there and fumigated their hair and fumigated their clothes, and he
said there was not a thing that was not fumigated, “except their
souls.” That is the wav he wound un.