WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 227
BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO APPLICATION OF ANY Quota To MBXICO
(By Ralph H. Taylor, executive secretary, California Agricultural Legislative
Committee, Sacramento, at seventh western divisional meeting, Chamber of
Commerce of United States of America, Ogden, Utah, October 1, 1929)

MEXICAN VERSUS AMERICAN FARM LABOR

Time is full this afternoon, and so, without the usual preliminaries, I shall try
to outline to you in a brief yet comprehensive way the reasons why we believe
the best interests of the Southwest and of the Nation as a whole require that the
Mexican be permitted continued entry to this country under such limitations as
the law now provides, but without further numerical restrictions.
This is 8 moot question in the minds of many people, because there are phases
of the problem which can not be completely harmonized with our American views
of “ America for the Americans.” If we can show, however, that a certain line of
procedure is the best practicable solution of the difficulty, and that no other
proposed procedure has so few inherent objections, then it would seem as if that
would be the way out.

THE PROBLEM
The problem of Mexican labor in the United States is without doubt an
extremely complex one. So is the problem of American common labor. First,
let us state the problem as we see it.
The gradual education of the American people away from menial tasks has
created an economic labor vacuum which has in times past been filled by immigrants
 from various parts of the world, and, most recently, in the southwest, by
Mexicans. Each of these immigrant clases has created its own problems,
social and economic, in this country. As a result many and varied attempts at
exclusion as the simplest remedy have been proposed. Any proposal, however,
which fails to take into consideration all the aspects of the problem has to that
extent failed to find a permanent solution.
The elements of the problem may be divided into economie, climatic, protective.
political, social.
EVIDENCE AVAILABLE

Many investigations have been made and hearings held on the general subject
of immigration from countries in the Western Hemisphere. In the spring of last
year the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization published its
hearings from February 21 to April 5, 1928, in a volume of 801 pages. The
United States Senate Committee on Immigration, between February 1 and March
5, of the same year, held hearings which are recorded in a volume of 192 pages—
a total of practically 1,000 pages of printed matter. And this is not all, for we
would not attempt to list the books and manuscripts recording the studies of
many kinds on this subject, issued within the last two years.
Tt would seem that from all of these some reasonable conclusion, or conclusions,
might be drawn at this time. We of the Southwest, who have lived with this
problem all our lives, and have in recent years studied it so thoroughly and carefully,
 believe we understand the answer, but we further believe that of the benefit
of the citizenry at large a thorough and unbiased study by governmental agencies
should be made, and the results carefully analyzed, hefore any further steps
legislatively are taken in this matter.
UTOPIAN VERSUS PRACTICAL ASPECTS
Now, what have these hearings and the extensive studies that have been made
throughout the country shown? . .
First of all, an apparently irreconcilable difference in viewpoint between
those who look at an Utopian ideal and forget that we live in a world of realities,
and those who permit their own immediate economic situation to blind them to
the future requirements of this Nation.
To find the answer we must take the best out of both the idealistic and the
practical viewpoints, and present them to you as fairly as possible. .
We can nof appraise correctly the social aspects of this problem without an
understanding of its economic relationships. which are so tremendously important
to the Southwestern States.