WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION
The CuairmMaN. Is the system working all right?
Mr. Bonn. Yes, sir.
The CralRMAN. Would you just as soon have the Chinese?
Mr. Boxp. Anything to do the work satisfactorily.
The CuairMaN. Nothing to you who does it?
Mr. Bono. No, sir.
The CrARMAN. Do you think you will make a pretty good State
there in the long run in that way?
Mr. Bono. I do not know why we should not.
The CramrMaN. What is the population there?
Mr. Bonp. It is a little less than 500,000.
The CuamrMaN. That is a pretty big State for that number of
people.
Mr. Boxp. Yes, sir.
The CrarMAN. How many of them are Mexicans?
Mr. Bono. I do not know.
The CHAIRMAN. One-half of them?
Mr. Bonp. I could not say.
The CuaRMAN. You will need more each year?
Mr. Bonp. We are having new developments coming in there that
will require more labor all the time.
The CrAtrMAN. And you can not see any danger in that type?
Mr. Boxp. No; 1 do not.
The CrAIRMAN. The country is not good for anything but a few
whites and a lot of Mexicans?
Mr. Boxp. No: it is good for anything you want to work on it.
The CHAIRMAN. Is there any absentee landlordism?
Mr. Bono. Yes.
The CuairMaN. How do they get along?
Mr. Bono. They lease to a subtenant on cash or crop-rent basis.
The CHAIRMAN. When you have 400 of them there what do you do
with them?
Mr. Boxp. When they get through with the cotton they go to the
lettuce. It comes in about the time the cotton crop is through.
The CuarrmMaN. Then what?
Mr. Boxp. Then some of them start north.
The CHAIRMAN. So there is continuous employment?
Mr. Bonn. Practically.
The CrarrMAN. This valley has how many inhabitants?
Mr. Bono. I do not know.
The CuarrMAN. About 200,000?
Mr. Boxnp. I do not know, sir.
The CmarrmaN. How many are there in Phoenix in that valley?
Mr. Boxp. Between forty and fifty thousand.
The CHAIRMAN. Who is the next witness?
Mr. Moore. The next witness is Mr. W. O. Blair.

139

STATEMENT OF W. 0. BLAIR, REPRESENTING THE IMPERIAL
VALLEY IRRIGATION DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Mr. Brae. My name is W. O. Blair, and I represent the
Imperial Valley irrigation district of California, which has its headquarters
 at El Centro. My own post-office address is Calipatria,
Imperial Valley, Calif.