250 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION ‘
labor this coincides in its latter part with the period during which valley agriculture
 is slackest.
Then on page 8 he says:
The pre-war expansion of cotton acreage drew largely negroes and whites.
The early cantaloupe industry was largely in the hands of whites, and later,
Japanese labor. As the Immigration Commission reported:
“In 1906 and 1907 nearly all the pickers were white men and few Japanese were
employed. For the season of 1908 there were between 2,000 and 3,000 pickers
and packers employed in the valley. Of these the majority were white men,
500 or 600 were Japanese, and there were some Mexicans.’
And again, he says:
Mexicans are employed to some extent as cantaloupe pickers, but their number
varies from time to time. They have not as yet been a very important element
in the labor supply. They stand the heat well, but are lazy, irregular, lack ambition,
 are of a roving class, and are generally considered the least efficient laborers.
The picking of cantaloupes has now fallen almost entirely into the
hands of Mexicans and Filipinos, principally the former. The packing
 remains almost entirely in the hands of whites, “fruit tramps.”
Mexican labor while rising in volume with the expansion of intensive agriculture
 before the war, did not become dominant until the war. Rapid extension of
acreage at the same time that white labor was most in demand elsewhere, and the
current of negro migration turned from the Southwest toward the industrial
North, drew in Mexican labor and gave it the position of overwhelming numerical
 dominance which it now holds.
The Crairman. This committee has listened to the economics
of this thing alone, without limitation. }
Mr. Box. Mr. Chairman, in support of what you say you will
remember that the manufactures, represented by several assembled
gentlemen, told us we would close out all the industries of the United
States and lead the country into poverty if we passed a certain act.
Mr. Moore. You would have done so, if they had not emigrated
from the farms and taken those jobs. Can California, Arizona and
Texas go up there and bring these people into it? }
_ Mr. Esterny: I can not understand why the Californians go up
into that cold country. } }
Mr. Moore. The average wage for field labor in the State of California
 is 80 per cent higher than elsewhere in the United States.
Mr. EsterLy. Then why do they go up there?
Mr. FrEE. You have not the picture there. We have seasonal labor
out there. Co } i
Mr. W. C. Husuinag (legislative representative of the American
Federation of Labor). Mr. Moore made a statement about the strike
which took place in the Imperial Valley which 1s not quite correct.
He said the strike was agitated by the Filipino so he could get the
job of the Mexican. As a matter of fact one of the Mexican consuls
suggested to these Mexicans that they should organize—that was not
the present consul but the one in office at the time they organized.
Then the sheriff stepped in and the Filipino took the job. oo
Mr. Moore. The Mexican consul at Calexico left his position as a
Mexican consul; but he went out and organized the Mexican labor
into a mutual benefit society. We have had no trouble there from
them.
This strike the gentleman referred to is what the Mexican consul at
Calexico told me.