338 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

“What's the matter with em?” the reporter asked. ‘City Hall park there, is
full of em.” He pointed to a group of 75 to 100 Mexicans loitering in the shade,
*“Oh,” the planter replied, “they all want a dollar and a quarter a hundred.”
And he returned home, with his truck empty.
Cotton pickers are paid from 75 cents to $1.25 and $1.50 a hundred pounds,
according to the liberality of the planter and the advance of the picking season.
On the first picking, in heavilly laden cotton, a good picker ean make from $2.25
to $3.50 a day, because the best of them pick around 300 pounds a day. Poorer
to average pickers make from $1.50 to $2. They make less as the cotton gets
thinner, unless the price per hundred is raised.
Day-labor jobs usually start at $1.25 and $1.50 a day and run up to $2 and
possibly $2.50, although a few of the big ranchmen near Il Paso are reported to
be paying as low as 90 cents a day.
It is because of the low wages offered for farm and ranch jobs that the majority
of immigrants in recent years have been passing on into the interior for railway
and industrial employment.
The Central Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce, which started organized
opposition to the Box hill when the House Immigration Committee held hearings
two years ago, was originated by border chambers of commerce and fostered by
southwestern railroads and manufacturers,
Several differeut surveys conducted by the Evening Post, a Seripps-Howard
newspaper, published at El Paso, indicate that the ‘small farmer” favors restriction,
 while the protests come almost exclusively from the larger employers,
Southwestern farm and ranch operations, however, have been developed
through dependence upon Mexican labor. And owners of the larger agricultural
operations, at least, argue that if their supply of recruit labor is cut offi —particularly
 at planting and harvest times—the "Southwest’s agricultural industry will
suffer irreparable losses.
Planters now have begun to see that the help they've been getting from railway
 and industrial interests, in their fight against immigration restrictions, has
been a handicap rather than a help—placing effective arguments in the hands of
restrictionists. = And they have changed their fight from a blanket opposition to
restriction in general to a plea for seasonal labor. On the justice of that plea,
they are asking now that, before any legislative restriction is enacted, Congress
namie an unbiased commission to make a thorough study of border conditions

Mr. Free. That was prepared by whom?
Mr. Husning. It is the conclusion of the Scripps-Howard newspaper
 who made the survey.
Mr. Dickstein. Would ‘you allow the Secretary of Laber to take
any labor from Mexico when he needs it or would you put a ban upon
it entirely?
Mr. Husuing. We believe that is absolutely: unnecessary at any
time, Mr. Congressman. The director of the United States Employment
 Service made a statement that he could furnish all that is
needed in the United States.
Mr. Free. Why did you leave out the Porto Ricans in your
statements?
Mr. Husming. The Porto Rican is a citizen of the United States.
I mention the Filipino because he is not &amp; citizen, although he is
admitted to the country and is free to go anywhere he wishes to go.
Mr. Dickstein. Have you anything to say as to what it costs for
hospitals, charity, and so forth, in these areas for the Mexicans who
come there?
Mr. Husuing. Yes; I have already read that into the record.
The CuairMan. The committee was very much interested in your
carefully prepared statement, Mr. Hushing.
Mr. HusHiNg. Several of those who have appeared before this
committee on this matter have suggested that a commission or a
joint committee of Congress be appointed to investigate Mexican
Immigration. We would oppose any commission, as we think this is