214

' WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

The CrarrMAN. You think we are in the red on Mexican immigration
 now?
Mr. Moore. That is what it is, red this year.
The Crairman. Is it fot strange that Mr. Otis, who testified here
at considerable length and very carefully, insisted that the Mexican
in his part of the country—he is the publisher of the Los Angeles
Times—that the Mexican went right back to Mexico?
Mr. Moore. He insisted that they did go right back to Mexico?
I do not agree with that.
The Crairman. That is just the trouble.
Mr. Moore. That is silly on the face of it. You have seen what
has developed in the West in the last 10 years.
The CrarrmaN. Now, the previous hearings were to the effect, the
preponderance of testimony, that there was no danger of the Mexicans
becoming permanently domiciled here, because they all went home.
Mr. Box. That they all went back.
Mr. Mooge. If the laws that you have on the statute books to-day
are enforced, and it has been demonstrated in this last year by the
statement of Mr. Box, made here, that that Mexican goes home——
Mr. Box (interposing). I did not say they went home; I quoted
other people’s figures.
The CuairmMaN. Now we have tried to go on the theory a little bit,
from what studies we could make of it, that enough Mexicans were
in the United States, and that it is recognized that if they were taken
care of a little bit better they would stay in the country to which
they were indigenous, all of that country that once belonged to
Mexico; that therefore no harm could come from permanently reducing
 the number; that those who are here would become domiciled,
that children would be born here, so that a couple of million Mexicans
1s quite a little nest egg. That is the problem that we are looking at.
Now the next thing is, is there anything to that? Are the Mexicans
staying in this country?
Mr. Moore. Certainly they are.
The CrarrMaN. You are the most frank witness we have had.
Mr. Box. That is the fact about it.
Mr. Moore. I admit that, but I do not admit that they have
been coming in so much in the last year, and if the State Department
keeps up its strenuous work with the visa and the laws that you have
put on the books last year regarding deportation and second offense
in the country, you are going to eliminate that.
The Crarrman, I take it from your previous remarks that you are
against the 1924 law restricting immigration?
Mr. Moore. I did not say that. I say a vacuum has been created
by that law.
The CHARMAN. You would not favor curing the vacuum by
striking down the 1924 act?
Mr. Moore. For European immigration? No, sir. I know the
Mexican, I have lived with him for vears. I have no fear of him or his
race or his blood.
The CrairMAN. Do you think there is anything wrong with the
act that lets a man—requires a man to stay out of the country after
he has been deported?