382 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

the labor condition is characterized by alternate periods of intense activity and
idleness. Realizing this the company encourages the use of Mexicans in general
farming operations to which the farmers object as they do not care to lay off
their regular white farm help nor to take on Mexicans.
The longest period of unemployment for these workers is in the winter when
a considerable number of Mexican beet workers are employed in coal mines
around Erie and Lafayette, or around Walsenburg. Fifty to seventy-five per
cent of the 140 Mexican loaders employed at the Columbine Mine near Lafayette
work beets in the summer, but many of the beet workers upon completion of
the topping in mid-November settle down for the winter with the prospect of
hardly a day's work until beet work opens up the following May. This irregularity
 of employment is one of the most serious problems connected with beet.
labor, and some efforts have been made by the sugar company to dovetail beet
employment with railroad work, late cotfon picking in the southwest and coal
mining. Many Mexieans now dovetail beet work with coal mining and the
suggestion has been made that provisions be made for storage of coal under
water and the more effective transfer of Mexicans between beet fields and the
mines, in order that the Mexicans could be more steadily employed. Mexicans
from these fields can not pick cotton in Texas as the labor field is flooded and
transportation costs are high. It has been suggested that manufacturing of
some sort be taught these Mexicans, but the subsidizing, teaching, and marketing
would probably be prohibitive. Another suggestion is that as the sugar factories
are heavy users of lime rock and coal, that they purchase coal mines and lime
rock quarries and operate them. Another possibility is the substitution of
machinery for hand labor. In 1912 the sugar company stimulated by apprehension
 aroused because of a possible reduction in the sugar tariff, offered a.
price of $10,000 for the invention of a practicable machine to pull and top beets.
One reason machinery has not been introduced is because it would require a.
large investment and it would lie idle most of the year.

THE MOVEMENT OF SEASONAL LABOR

Page 120-135: Outside labor is the problem in this industry, as a 10 per cent
increase in acreage probably will cause the company to increase its shipment of
labor 50 per cent. To recruit this labor the company sends agents into Mexico.
They distribute 14-page pamphlets printed in Spanish and also run ads in the
newspaper. Free transportation is furnished and sometimes whole trainloads of
these laborers are sent north. In 1926 transportation fares were provided for
14,500 persons; full fares for 10,800 and half fares for 3,700, and 55 sugar company
labor agents were employed to recruit them. The average cost per worker for
these labor shipments averaged $28 in 1920. The overwhelming majority of
labor shipments to northeastern Colorado is made up of family groups, the
company endeavoring to ship family labor almost exclusively.
WAGES AND EARNINGS

Page 140-147: The basis of payment for beet labor is by the acre. Last year
the rate was $23 per acre, and the company estimates an inexperienced man can
tend 9 acres, women 7, and children in proportion. The labor shipped from the
south (Texas) consists principally of new arrivals from Mexico as immigration
feeds the labor market of that State. In addition to the flat rate of $23 per acre,
labor is paid 50 cents per ton over.12 tons produced. The price of beets has
advanced 60 per cent since 1909, but the price of contract labor has advanced
but 25 per cent. Outside of the beet season many of these Mexicans are in dire
need and work for almost anything, wages being reported as low as $1 per day.
It is difficult to estimate the average earning of a beet worker, as it is done by
family groups. The average family earnings, however, are from $600 to $800 per
season. This does not include housing and these figures are based on 1927 labor
contracts which are approximately 4 per cent above the 1928 rates. As to
earnings outside the beet season 25 per cent of the families report no earnings.
Of those reporting earnings outside the beet season 23.7 per cent earned less than
$100, 33.8 per cent earned less than $150, 40.8 per cent less than $200, and 62.3
per cent less than $300, so that it is evident that the earnings of beet workers
outside the beet crop are generally not much.