WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRAT™

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any fault of the farmer himself, but through changes in durieconomic
ife. The high wages being paid labor in industrial: centers, gigantic
mergers, and mass production in industry have been magnets drawing
labor from the farms to the urban centers at a rate-never dreamed
a few years ago. ES
The Department of Agriculture in a recent survey estiniated that
in 1926 the movement of population from farms to cities was 2,155,000
persons; while 1,135,000 moved to farms; making a net movement of
over 1,000,000 persons away from farms during that year. Since restriction
 has been placed on immigration there has been little or no
influx of agricultural labor from European sources to fill this gap.
As a result of these economic changes the population of the industrial
regions has greatly increased, while the supply of farm labor has so
materially decreased that it is now difficult to secure an adequate
supply; and that which is available is secured at very high cost.
This has brought about a great disparity between agriculture and
industry. While increased wages for industrial labor have added
materially to the cost of production, the products of that labor have
sold at correspondingly increased prices, whereas because of increased
prosperity in industry and depression in agriculture, farmer’s costs
for labor and all the things they buy have materially increased
without any compensatory increase in the price of commodities
which they sell.
To my mind, this phase of the labor question is a very serious one,
and should be given thoughtful consideration by this committee before
 any action is taken on the proposed legislation.
Tf this migration from farms to cities, with no sources from which to
replete the loss, continues to prevail from year to year what will be
the outcome? This is a question warranting most careful thought.
It is sometimes suggested that the employment of labor in industrial
districts will reach the saturation point; that there eventually will be
an oversupply of labor in these districts, and that when that stage is
reached there will be a reaction which will bring about a return to the
farms of many of those who left to engage in industrial pursuits. But
this is more or less a Utopian dream unless a general industrial depression
 should occur, which, of course, no one would wish to see.
Take the average farm boy who has spent his early life in the arduous
 tasks of agriculture—working from sunup to sundown—
isolated to a certain extent from the high-tension amusements and
pleasures of the present day; and place him in the city with a job paying
 $6, $8, or $10 a day, for 8 hours work, with all the conveniences of
the modern city; with his automobile, moving pictures, theaters, and
all those things incidental to the so-called “Great White Way,” and
in my opinion you will find it very difficult to induce him to return to
the farm, even though he works but part time in the city. Itis a trait
of human nature that when one has once tasted of all the comforts and
pleasures of life, he is loth to yield these up, except under the extremest
necessities. . } .
So, Mr. Chairman, I think we may expect little improvement in
the farm-abor situation for many years to come. No man of any
intelligence will argue that the restrictive immigration laws now in
force in this country have not been of great benefit to American
labor. Nor is there anyone, I believe, who would want to see the
present immicration law rescinded and the bars let down to a great