348 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

at a time when there is abundant need for such regulation, if we are to achieve
and maintain an economically sound balance between the labor demand and supply.
 The limitation of European immigration has clearly proved to be a long
step toward this desired and wholly desirable end, but it seems obvious that such
a goal can not be fully established and permanently maintained so long as there
are near-by sources from which millions of immigrants may come at any time they
may choose to do so.
Again, the Commissioner General of Immigration, on page 22 of
his annual report for 1927, recommended:
That natives of countries of the Western Hemisphere be brought within the
quota provisions of existing law and that section 4 (c) thereof be repealed. As
breviously stated, it is felt that migration from this source stands no less in need
of limitation than the migration of our parent stock from Europe. The design
of the present law is obviously to bring to our shores in reasonable numbers the
races and peoples from which we are chiefly descendant. I can not reconcile the
unlimited flow of immigrants from the Western Hemisohere with the sharp
curtailment of immigrants from Europe.
Representative John C. Box, of Texas, a member of the House
Committee on Immigration, made the following statement on July
24. 19927

In Los Angeles, where approximately 5 per cent of the population is Mexican,
the Outdoor Relief Division states that 27.44 per cent of its cases are Mexican.
The Bureau of Catholic Charities reports that 55% per cent of its cases are
Mexicans who consume at least 50 per cent of the budget. Twenty-five per cent
of the budget of the General Hospital is used for Mexicans, who comprise 43
per cent of its cases. The City Maternity Service reports 623% per cent of its
cases Mexicans, using 73 per cent of its budget. The Bureau of Municipal Nursing
 and Division of Child Welfare both state that 40 per cent of their clients are
Mexicans, and in the Day Home of the Children’s Hospital 23 per cent of the
children cared for are Mexicans, while 12 per cent of the out-patient department
cases are Mexicans. Similar reports come from Pasadena, Long Beach, San
Diego City and County, San Bernardino. Orange. Santa Barbara, and Fresno
Counties, all in California.
From at least three States—Texas, Arizona, and Colorado—come accounts of
serious race conflicts between Mexicans and Americans, demonstrating that their
presence raises another race problem. These widely and fairly gathered reports
from the public press, hospital and charity boards, court records, social workers,
personal correspondence, and other reliable sources are overwhelming in volume
and weight. One acquainted with the facts can only smile when he hears remarks
 that these people are desirable immigrants and that they should be admitted
 because they do not stay long.
The Department of Commerce, through their Latin-American section,
 division of regional information, has the following to say about
competition with citizens of Latin America, and urges our citizens to
remain at home.

If the prospective worker leaves the United States in search of employment in
Latin America with no other qualifications than health, courage, and ambition,
he will meet the almost insurmountable obstacle of competition from native labor
accustomed to the ways of the country and willing to work at the relatively low
wages which prevail. The native laborer in the tropical regions goes barefoot,
subsists on beans and plantain, and lives in a mud-walled, grass-thatched hovel;
his wages, which may vary from 50 cents to $2 a day. devending on the country
{in which he lives, suffice for this existence.
The opportunities for unskilled American labor in Latin America are practically
nil. Native peon labor is usually available at such low wages that laborers from
the United States, with their superior standards of living, can not hope to compete.
fa This information was published in a booklet issued by the Department
 of Commerce, due to the fact that a large number of inquiries
had been received from railway employers in this country who had
been relieved due to the reduction in forces and competition with