WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 361

where the track is to bé straightened, or where the grades are peing reduced.
White men do not seck such employment under any condition, they will not
submit to the living conditions which are a necessary incident of the work, and
they will not subject themselves to the climatic conditions which those who do
this necessary work must meet.
Moreover, the employment offered in this work is not by any means constant,
and this is particularly true in the case of extra-gang work. In 1926 the number
of men engaged at work in the section gangs of the 6 roads in question varied
from a normal of 31,560 to a peak of 39,905, a variance of 26.4 per cent over
norms), while those in the extra gangs varied from a normal of 13,104 te a peak
of 22,923, a variance of 75 per cent over normal.
These things—the severity of climate, the unavoidable hardships incident to
living conditions, the nature of the work to be done, and the uncertainty of
permanent employment—conspire to make this sort of work unattractive to
white men, and the railroads must look to the Mexicans.
What information is available does not justify an attempt to state where
these Mexican track workers come from, or whew, or how many remain in the
United States, or how long, but there can be no doubt that a substantial per cent
are recent immigrants, that there is a heavy turnover in men employed, that a
substantial per cent leave the railroads and return to Mexico and a substantial
per cent leave them for work on the farms and ranches.
This last may be due in part to the fact that there is an effort on the part of
the railroads so to time their seasonal track work that the peak of their labor
demand and the peak of the farm labor demand may not coincide.
The tracks of the railroads must be maintained, and the farms must be cultivated.
 Neither can be accomplished without labor in substantial volume. There
is no great reservoir of unemployed men to draw from, and if either industry
suffers a shortage of laborers it has no place to look of its supply except to
those engaged in the work of the other. Thus, if the proposed legislation be
adopted there may result a condition such that the two industries may not find
it possible to continue their past cooperation in the seasonal use of labor, but may
be compelled, however, reluctantly, to compete in labor matters. The railroads
do not desire to engage in such competition with those who are among their
best patrons and those upon whom they depend for an important portion of
their tonnage, and even if this legislation is adopted they will do what they can
to reconcile their needs to those of other industry. But they respectfully submit
that their labor needs are beyond escape and that they involve the interest of
all the people who must have efficient transportation service at reasonable cost.
The great lengths of transcontinental track extending through sparsely settled
 country, largely arid or actual desert, where few but Mexicans can or will
live (Indian labor is negligible) and where laborers of other races will not go to
take employment on the tracks at any price, from the nature of the case lie
within competitive distance of those regions of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
California and other States which irrigation has changed from desert to garden,
where thie farmer, too, is very largely dependent on the Mexican, and where of all
places he would feel it most keenly if he and the railroads were compelled to
compete for labor.
As hag been stated, the two interests are identical. If the production of the
farmer is reduced his receipts and the revenues of the railroads will fall together;
as his labor requirements force him to look to an abnormal degree to the section
gangs and extra gangs for relief so will the needs of the railroads, made acute
by the operation of the same law, force them to look to the farms and orange
groves and truck patches to recruit their forces.
The exact extent to which these conditions will result is not known but that they
will result to a sushtantial extent is seriously believed, and it is earnestly urged
that no legislation of this sort be approved.

. I. BE. Mclnnis,
Goneral Solicitor. Atchison, Topeka &amp; Sania Fe Railway, Chicago, 11.

STATEMENT OF
RESENTATIV
WASHINGTG:

ey

WILLIAM C. HUSHING, LEGISLATIVE REP-THE
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

The CratrMAN. Who is next?
Mr. Husuing. I will proceed at this time
The ('HAIRMAN. You may do so