WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 347

Mr. Stour. Representatives of certain interests appear here and
sell you gentlemen that Americans will not work under certain climatic
conditions. This argument surely will not stand up when we consider
the Santa Fe Railroad, for there is nothing in the climatic conditions
n the territory through which most of the Santa Fe runs to prevent
Americans from performing this work. We could cite other railroads
as similar examples; yet the tables disclose that the work is not done
by Americans. ;
Where did the railroads get their extra workers prior to the influx
of this army of cheap labor? They were recruited from those who
follow this kind of work and who congregated in the large centers,
such as Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago. I am familiar with
conditions in the largest center, namely, Chicago, and have often
walked through the district where these men are hired. I have seen
hundreds of Americans around these employment agencies, but found
shat 'the notices gave the Mexican preference. If I understand
Americanism, the important duty of each one of us is to try to give
our people a chance to earn an honest living. Recent conferences
called by the President discussed this all important question. It is
not only our craft that is suffering, but all vocations. Labor refuses
to accept the Mexican standard of living and we are looking to Congress
 to assist us in raising that standard. Years ago great sacrifices
were made and monuments have been built to those who made the
sacrifice and were responsible for the United States securing part
of the southern territory. This territory was supposed to be for
Americans, and those who are opposing this legislation, if their
argument means anything, still want this territory for Mexicans, and
they are not satisfied with that, they want this cheap labor to come
nto this country in great numbers, so that they can monopolize the
entire country and bring American labor down to the Mexican
standard.
Gentlemen, this is an important question. I am here representing
a group of American workingmen, and this is about the only chance
we have of getting our message to those who can remedy the situation.
One of the main reasons for American labor indorsing restrictive
immigration was the fact that labor felt that the great influx of hordes
of low-class immigrants were impairing the American standards of
living; that these Immigrants were not used to our customs. and our
social and economic conditions; and that they were proving a serious
menace to the maintenance of proper living conditions for which the
organized laboring class in the United States had worked so hard to
obtain.
If the American labor movement favored restrictive immigration
because of the fact that European immigrants were a menace to our
social and economic requirements and were lowering our living standards,
 what are we to say of the effect on our population of permitting
sreat numbers of people to come into this country legally or illegally
from Latin-American countries?
Let us see what Government representatives have to say about this
subject—men whose business it Is to be informed on these matters.
First, we will consider what the Secretary of Labor said in his annual
report for 1927, when he stated on page 188:
On our part, as has already been stated, the situation makes it impossible for
the United States to regulate the number of immigrants who may be admitted