76 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

LIST OF MEMBERS OF IMMIGRATION COMMITTEE OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Karl de Laittre, chairman, president Bovey-de Laittre Lumber Co., Minneapolis,
 Minn.
a hi M. Alexander, president, Alexander &amp; Baldwin (Ltd.), San Francisco,
alll,
Arthur 8. Bent, president, Bent Bros. (Inc.), Los Angeles, Calif.’
Thomas Evans, vice president, Merchant &amp; Evans Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
pas R. Hook, vice president, American Rolling Mill Co., Middletown,
110.
Charles Nagel, Nagel &amp; Kirby, St. Louis.
William H. Woodin, president, American Car &amp; Foundry Co., New York, N.Y.
Dr. E. G. Peterson, president Utah State Agricultural CoHege, Logan, Utah.
D. Chauncey Brewer, president, North American Civic League for Immigrants.
Boston, Mass.
I i W. Bush, president, Alabama Bi-Produets Corporation, Birmingham,
Ala.
0. W. Killam, Laredo, Tex.
Charles Pies, chairman, Link-Belt Co., Chicago, Ill.
P. G. Spilshury, president, Arizona Industrial Congress, Phoenix, Ariz.
F. Stuart Fitzpatrick, secretary, manager civic development department,
United States Chamber of Commerce, Washington.
The CuarrmaN. Have you a statement to make to this committee
that will help solve these problems?
Mr. Bent. I understand that we three members of that committee
were asked to come here merely to present the action and attitude of
the United States Chamber of Commerce.
The CrairMan. We will be glad to have that.
Mr. Bent. The action is expressed in one sentence of a resolution
passed by the fifteenth annual meeting in 1927.
The Caairman. What month?
Mr. Bent. That would be either the last of April or the first of
May. I am inclined to think about the 1st of May, Mr. Chairman.
This part of the resolution reads:
We think it inappropriate to extend the principle of the quota to Mexico.
That is the only reference it makes. This expresses the action of
the chamber.
Back of that lay a consideration something like this, that regardless
 of the wisdom or unwisdom of the situation, as a matter of fact
a very large industry—the agricultural industry—had been built up
in the southwestern part of this country running into hundreds of
millions of dollars—built up on the casual labor of the Mexican, the
only laborer we have had who will do the stooping and bending work
required by those crops under a temperature that runs up to 140°.
The chamber felt that it would entirely dislocate that great activity
suddenly to apply the quota law to Mexico, and that it was not wise
to do so. It does not need to be said that the chamber would recognize
 the social implications to be predominant, and if it were shown
to the chamber that a lawful immigration of Mexicans is a menace
to the social welfare of the Nation, this they would expect to be an
overriding consideration to all good Americans, but up to date such
evidence along this line as the chamber has had available or been
able to secure is very fragmentary and highly contradictory.
The CuarrmaN. Has your committee of the National Chamber of
Commerce received these various surveys made by the universities of
California—certain univers ioc?