WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 119

Arizona, New Mexico, and southern California, we will carry him
back to the place from- which he came, free, if he wants to go there.
. In order to keep up our crews or section laborers and extra gangs,
it was necessary for us to get, other than locally, in 1926, 12,193 men,
and every man of them was a Mexican.
The Cuamrman. Now let me interrupt you there. These figures
you can put in the record.
Mr. McInnis. Yes.
The Cuairman. You spoke a moment ago about a seepage, and
you said it was about 50 per cent, that was going up toward the
center of the United States, that got through by seepage.
Mr. McInnis. What 50 per cent?
The Cuairman. About 50 per cent of your common labor in the
States that were not in the desert.
Mr. McInnis. Fifty-one per cent is Mexicans.
The CrairMan. And you said they were reaching the interior
through seepage.
Mr. Mclnxis. Yes.
The Cuairman. Is that process going to keep on?
Mr. Mclxnis. It will keep on as long as the white man refuses to
go that sort of work; and the white man is not going to do section
abor.
The CuairMan. Not for that wage.
Mr. McInnis. 1 do not think for any wage. The white man has
outgrown that, and is not going to do it.
The Cuairman. What effort did you make to try to get, and what
wage did vou offer to get, white men to do this kind of work?
Mr. McInnis. We certainly do not offer any wage for any piece
of work higher than we can get the work done for. We have got
to have the work done, and we can not say that we will not have our
tracks taken care of.
The Cuairman. This question of seepage is the question that is
really bothering this committee—the seepage up into the countries
that are not arid or semitropic, of these Mexicans.
We had the steel men come here and testify, in the past, that the
steel industry could not survive unless they could get a certain supply
 of labor, and then we had the great pleasure of seeing the steel
mills not only survive, but abandon the 12-hour day, and come
the 8-hour day. Their testimony before this committee was as strong
as that you bring, to prove that they could not keep the mills running.
Mr. McInnis. I understand there is quite a colony of Mexicans at
Pittsburgh.
The Cuairman. We will try to secure full information about that.
Muy. McInnis. I think you ought to, because it will indicate to you
that it can not be done. The steel mills are in a country which is
identical, practically the same in climatic conditions, as the whole
Section of the country east of the Mississippi River. It is practically
the same in climatic conditions as the whole country from which most
of the European immigration is drawn. When the supply of labor
was cut off from the steel mills on account of applying the quota to
the class of European labor which they used to get there, it was
merely a matter of going into their own territory and getting the
men to do the work. There was a mass of millions and millions of