WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 131

es Employment Service, Farm Labor Division. I will read this
etter:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
EMPLOYMENT SERVICE, FarM Lasor Division,
Fort Worth. Tex.. January 24, 1930.

Mr. Francis I. JoNgs,
Director General United States Employment Service,
Department of Labor, Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Jones: Martin called me on phone few minutes ago to advise me
had sent a few Mexicans to the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce, that they had
arrived and that the chamber of commerce wired that but 25 could be placed,
the others, some 50, were stranded.
This is the chamber of commerce that gave out an interview declaring there
was a 5,000 shortage, a press story that was published by all Texas papers, a
story that caused Mrs. Nell Williams Mercer to ask me if the story was true,
accompanied by a statement that she could furnish a lot of Mexicans.
Think of it—5,000 demanded with places for only 25.
Have taken steps to check all movements toward the valley. Will call Fallin
for a final report.
Easy to imagine what it would have meant but for the United States Employment
 Service being on the job. There would have been thousands stranded,
without money, hungry, no place to sleep.
There ought to be a severe penalty attached to being the author of such
publicity.
More and more, day after day, I am impressed with the necessity for a perfected
 United States Employment Service. and. mav I add, its being in the hands
of experienced, sympathetic men.
Yours trulv.

C. W. WoopMman, Assistant Director.
The CruarrMaN. Now, that is the first result of a statement made
here that they wanted a great number of laborers in the vicinity of
the town there, and wanted them right now.
Mr. Mancum. 1 do not know anything about that. I am notin
that locality. I am in the cattle business.
The CuarMaN. I would like to have that statement go out through
the press.
Mr. Mavcoum. What is the date of that letter?
The CHAIRMAN. January 24, 1930.
Mr. Mancum. There have been some of the most severe freezes
in that country this year that have ever been known there, and it
has resulted in the destruction of vegetable crops. That freezing
weather is very unusual there. We have had the coldest spell that
has been known since 1899. Their cabbage and spinach and other
farm crops have been seriously damaged. That mav be the cause of
their not wanting that labor.
The CHAIRMAN. But this witness who was here the other day 1
remember describing the Big Bend country on the Rio Grande, and
they claimed that they wanted all the Mexican labor in there that
they could get, don’t you see? Now see what happens. It is
exactly what happens in hundreds of cases. It is so here in Washington.
 ‘When there is big construction going on, they come boring
in from all around, for three or four hundred miles. They want
work ; they are out of work.
Mr. Mangum. That condition exists now with the railroads of the
country; wherever it is reported that the railroads are going to do
work, they come in wherever construction is reported about to begin.
The Chairman. There are plenty of people trying to get work.
In what territory are you located?