WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 249

Mr. EsterLy. Why?
Mr. Moore. They advertise all throughout the country that all
you have to do is to pick a tree in the park to live in, and come out
and live in it.
Mr. EsteErLy. And then you sweep them back to us. I am going
to make inquiry into this.
Mr. Moore. We will send your plumbers back to you that can not
find work there. I am the greatest advocate to be found in favor of
the United States Government having a bureau out there to handle
this entire situation of the white labor.
Mr. EsterLy. California should cease its advertising. The Los
Angeles Chamber of Commerce in every book or magazine you pick
up has an advertisement, advertising for people to come out there.
Mr. Moore. They are coming too fast for us. I offer them the
chance to earn $22.50 a day and they wont take it.
Mr. Esterry. That may be one example.
Mr. Box. You mean to say you offered men $22.50 a day and they
would not take it?
Mr. Moore. Yes; we offered that for any that could do the work,
and the Mexicans are the only ones that do the work.
The CuAIRMAN. How many of them get $22.50 a day?
Mr. Moore. I do not know. There are hundreds and thousands
of them coming; the boxmakers in these sheds there are knocking
out $27.50 a day. - And many other get from $10 to $15 a day.
Mr. EsterLy. How many plumbers have you got out there?
Mr. Moorg. I just used that term “plumbers.” I do not know
just what work they formerly did.
Mr. Box. As bearing on some questions discussed this morning I
want to offer—not an ill-advised and ill-considered statement of some
Member of Congress, but a study made by Paul S. Taylor, of the
University of California, entitled : “Mexican Labor in the United
States Imperial Valley,” And I wish to have inserted in our record
here page 4 of that; beginning with the second paragraph:
[t is sometimes maintained that white labor can not do heavy work under
valley conditions, but while the temperature is very high during cantaloupe
picking season and consequent discomfort is great, the absence of white pickers
at the present time can not be laid to inability to endure the heat. Statements
to this effect by reliable white persons who have themselves picked melons in
company with many other whites, are corroborated by the observations of early
labor investigators. In 1909 the field agent of the United States Immigration
Commission wrote:
“In gathering cantaloupes the picker must bend over to pick the melon from
the ground and place it in a sack suspended from his shoulder. This is very
tiresome work, especially for a beginner, but white men do not particularly
object to the character of the work.”

And again he reported:
White ranchers in this district employ white men in preference to Mexicans or
Japanese. The only objection is that they are somewhat uncertain. - * * * A
new picker is likely to quit before he becomes accustomed to the work and the
heat, thus leaving the grower short of help during the busy season. The Japanese
endure the heat better than white men, and hence are more regular at work, but
the work of the white pickers is generally more satisfactory than that of the
Japanese. They are more intelligent workers and are better judges as to the
Proper time to pick the melons. White men are usually faster pickers than the
Japanese. * * * In July and August the humidity frequently rises, due to
wind-horne moisture from the Gulf of California. Fortunately for those who