WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 193

Mr. Harr. What would you call “valuable”?
The CuarrMAN. I am not an expert on farm values, but improved
land has a high value—is taxed at a high rate.
Mr. Hart. Land on which the people in the Polyemus district
worked—and you know Mr. Polyemus—I worked for Mr. Polyemus;
[ was manager of the Sumner branch of the Puyallup and Sumner
Fruit Growers’ Association—the land on which Mr. Polyemus farmed
and those about there, was valued at $500 an acre. and it was on that
land that I got 16% cents an hour.
The Cratrman. Well, at that time were there a good many Japs
working in and around there?
Mr. Harr. There were not. There were a few Japs in that country,
 and they were not cheap labor. I will tell you an experience I
had. We were Americans and we lived in Tacoma, Wash. I was
born in the city of Tacoma, and I call the mountain “Tacoma” and
probably always will [laughter], and when we went on to the farm
we said to dad, “There will be no Japs picking our cherries. We
are American citizens,” and so dad said, “All right, we need you boys
on the farm, and if you will go we will have none.” We raised about
12 tons of cherries a year, and after the first two weeks of harvest we
had to go to dad and say, “If we are going to save our crop and save
our trees, we have got to hire Japs.” And we had to pay them half
a cent a pound more. That is how cheap they are. But they picked
what we told them to pick and picked them when we told them to,
and the white boys that we had there stole our chickens, and my
mother loaned them a kettle to cook it in, because she thought it was
a pheasant they had. I had my experience there. I stayed there till
1912, and then I came to California, through a cousin in Los Angeles,
who told me something about this country.
The CrairmMan. Well, between 1912 and 1920 the number of Japs
in those valleys has increased, has it not?
Mr. Hart. I can not find it. I was there in 1917. I went up
after my mother three years ago. and there are not any more there
than there were then,
The CuarrMAN. They raise a great deal of lettuce for the eastern
market in those valleys.
Mr. Hart. They raised as much lettuce in Puyallup and Sumner
Valley when I was there three years ago as I raise on my entire farm,
and they raise it on little 2 and 3 acre tracts, and I submit to you that
20 man can live on 2 or 3 acres in that valley, and that is the reason
those men have to have their wives out there working in the field.
My sister works in the field to-day, trying to make a iving picking
berries, and that is supposed to be one of the best paying crops in
that country. They have their association and we used to tell the
world about the wonderful berry crop and the money you could
make, yet we folks worked for 16% cents an hour, and I know how
many shoes I could get for those wages, and I couldn’t dress the way
[ ought to dress, and I say to you that the Mexican that works for
me and works in my valley has more money and dressses better
than I could dress, and I am an American citizen and if anyone is
entitled to an American living, my family certainly ought to be. My
dad has lived in that city since they had their first brick building. and
he has been a loval citizen.