58

i WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

Mr. Cuaxorer. They did. But I am speaking of the vast number
of problems to deal with. They did not mix up with our population;
they have not deteriorated our population like the colored people
have, nothing like it. And you will find that, from our Vice President
down, a man with a little Indian blood is proud of it.
The CuairmaN. That is very true ; and witnesses who come before
this committee from the Smithsonian Institution have said that
they expect the entire nonwhite population in the United States to
be taken in and absorbed by the white population within 200 years’
time; and they use statistics to prove it, and they show statisfies of
other countries.
You have stated as a witness and it is stated here as an editorial
that this type is better in the United States than the Porto Ricans.
Do you realize that all Porto Ricans, except perhaps a hundred families,
 are citizens of the United States, who can come in without let or
hindrance?
Mr. CaanpLer. Yes.
The Cuatrman. And that there are more than a million and a half
of them, and more than a half million on the very verge of starvation?
Yet Porto Rico is second in population of any country devoted mainly
to agriculture. And the United States Congress is just now appropriating
 large sums of money for immediate relief, laying it to the
hurricane. The hurricane accentuated the condition so that somewhere
 near up toward a half million people are practically sleeping
in the fields and living from morsel to morsel. Is not that ga problem
for the United States?
Mr. Cuanporer. It undoubtedly is. But if it is a question of
bringing them in to be a part of our population, I should rather make
a’contribution than bring in that degraded quality of human beings;
and I should rather use the peon, with his Indian blood, who is not
an immediate problem, than to bring in Porto Ricans. I should
od feed them there than bring them in. That is based on past
story.
The Cuamrman. I think the Congress of the United States hag
taken the same view when it made large contributions of money for
the relief of Russia, during the starvation period in the great grain belt.
Mr. Cuanprer. Yes.
The Cuatrman. But in the United States, of which Porto Rico is an
organized insular possession, you can not hold people to a certain
place. There is no serfdom proposed in the United States.
Now, the next problem that is confronting this committee is the
question of the admission of the Filipinos.
Mr. CuanpLER. And it is a tremendous problem.
The CHairMAN. There are 15,000,000 of them.
Mr. Cranprer. It is very serious.
The Crarrman. And the Philippine Islands are an unorganized insular
 possession. But under the enabling act they were given in
1916, I think, they can move to the United States, and we find that
employers of labor and the steamship companies are using every device
 to suck them in, even to putting up posters in their language in
the islands.
Mr. Caanpier. I know one steamship company that is not doing
it. We are refusing to bring them in. 1tis not our company.
The CrarrMAN. Your company is what?
Mr. Cuanorer. The Los Angeles Steamship Co.