WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 117

say is true of all the rest—we have 14,000 miles of main line railroad,
but it is not every mile. of that which must be kept up; it is every
inch of it.
We can not have enough Mexicans at every point on that railroad
to meet any emeregncy that may arise. Those Mexicans are moved
around to places where there 1s trouble; and if we have trouble
at another place, then we will move them to that place and fix that;
and if we have trouble down here, we will move them here; and it
= have work, straightening out a piece of track, we will move them
ere.
The CrairMaN. I do not mean that you should have the country
spotted with handsome bungalows for these men to live in, but that
you should have some permanence for the labor in New Mexico,
for instance.
. Mr. McInnis. We do have permanence of labor for which there
Is a permanent need. Our section hands do live in houses out there.
Our section hands are employed permanently and our section hands
do stay with us. Then we have to have extra gangs, extra hands,
Just like we have section hands.
The CuatrMaN. What are they doing in Chicago, out from Chicago?
Do they have extra gangs employed?
Mr. McInnis. 1 do not know. If so, we are paying 40 cents an
hour for them. As a matter of fact, we employ very few of the extra
gangs-—so far as I know, there is no extra work going on now in the
heighborhood of Chicago.
Mr. ScaneipEr. Do you transport the men of those extra gangs?
For instance, if you need 300 men in Missouri on those tracks, generally,
 and you can secure them in Colorado or Texas, you have a
System of transporting those men from one point to the other, to
supply that labor, do you?
Mr. McInnis. Do you mean section gangs?
Mr. ScuneipER. Yes; or any kind of labor.
Mr. McInnis. You understand the distinction between the section
gangs and——
Mr. Scunriper. Yes; I understand it.
Mr. McInnis. There is practically no transfer of men from the
West by us east.
Mr. Scaneiper. How do all these Mexicans get over there?
Mr. McInnis. It is a matter of drift. Let me show vou the conditions
 which we have here.
Commencing with October, 1928, and ending December 13, 1929,
I have figures here covering shortage of men for track work each
Week during those periods. On our coast lines, which 1 have defined,
Speaking roughly, as from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Albu-‘(uerque,
 we had shortages commencing in October, 1929. That state-Ment
 runs into January of this year—runs into this month—and now,
S0 far as my statement shows, in the week ending January 2, 1930,
there was practically no labor shortage in that territory. The shortage
 was small.
The highest degree of shortage was 381 and occurred in the week
nding October 16, 1929.
On our western lines there was a substantial period of shortage
beginning with the week endine October 26. 1028 There was coh