WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 333

would welcome a restriction upon her citizens who might want to
come here.
Mr. Box. Why is it that Canada, which was settled about the
time our first colonies were settled, has built up a population in
about 300 years only a little greater than the population of our most
populous States?
Mr. Gurnac. I can not say.
Mr. Free. Probably the climatic has to do more with that than
anything else.
My. Box. That country does not reveive and hold a big population,
 and when the European immigrants pour in upon it, its own
people pour off to give way to the incoming from Europe.
2, Gurnac. What I have been told is exactly what you have just
stated.
The CuamrMaN. How are potato diggers paid in the State of
Maine?
y Mr. GuLnac. Sometimes by the day, and sometimes by the
arrel.
The Cuatrman. What do they get when they work by the day?
Mr. Gurvac. Ihave it from avery responsible source that they pay
as low as $1.75 a day in Canada for picking potatoes, while we in
Maine pay as high as $8 a day. The fact that we did not have the
Canadian potato diggers here drove the wages here that high and
drove their wages in Canada that low. The tariff on potatoes at
the present time is 50 cents, but the proposed tariff measure now
under way will make that 75 cents a hundred.
The CrarrmaN. If you get that tariff increased and are permitted
to have temporary labor to come in to pick those potatoes, I suppose
you would grant Idaho the same right?
Mr. GuLNac. Yes; if that State could satisfy the Department of
Labor that it has a real need and it can not get the labor on this side.
The CrareMaN. You do not care whether it is Mexican labor or
some other kind of labor?
Mr. Guinac. I have no knowledge of or interest in that, but I
do not see that we could very well ask for something in the form of
Federal legislation that would answer our purpose and at the same
time not be general in application. However, if you should pass
something making it possible for us to work properly. so far as we
are concerned, that is all we would ask.
Mr. Box. You would have us admit illiterates and people under
contract, which is something we can not grant to you and deny to
others. Do you recognize that you are urging Congress to do something
 for one part of the country that we can not as servants of the
people do for the whole country? Would you have us consider the
interests of your particular part of the country or the interests of
the whole country?
Mr. GuLnac. I see the effect, so far as the whole country is concerned,
 but I am considering primarily our local interests. So far as
my proposed amendment is concerned, I can not see where it could do
any harm, so far as any social, religious. or economic consideration is
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