J02 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

On the 24th of January Mr. Fallin reported from MeAllen, stating he had
received a message in effect that some 45 Mexicans had arrived in Harlingen
from San Antonio, who must have left before our stop order reached San Antonio,
and that these Mexicans could not be placed.
#« Mr. Fallin, on the same day, reported that several hundred people, other
than those directed by our San Antonio office, had arrived in the valley, basing
this statement on personal observation of trucks loaded with Mexicans on the
main highway.
January 28 our San Antonio office reported many Mexicans having returned
from Harlingen, alleging ‘Mr. Flore” had told them he could not find employment
 for them and that they had best return to San Antonio or to the place
they may have started from. These Mexicans had responded to the call of your
office in the various daily newspapers of Texas, clippings from them on file in
this office.
In the light of this experience, you are surely not surprised that I wrote to
Mr. Whaley suggesting that when orders are placed for laborers that the United
States Employment Service be called into the field to investigate before publicity
is indulged in in order that there might not be a surplus of labor created anywhere,
 stating that the United States Employment Service can always inform
any community as to where labor is available or not and is always prepared to
serve. For eight years in Texas the farm labor division of the United States
Employment Service has been working in cooperation with all of the chambers
of commerce, and yours is the first intimation of resentment
Yours truly,

C. W. WoobMmaN, Assistant Director.
(Thereupon, at 12.30 o’clock p. m., the committee went into
axecutive session.)

AFTER EXECUTIVE SESSION

The Cuairman. The committee will be in order. You may proceed,
 Mr. Patten.

STATEMENT OF JAMES H. PATTEN, OF WASHINGTON, D. C., AND
BELTON, S. C., CHAIRMAN NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE COMMIT-TEE,
 THE IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION LEAGUE (INC.) OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr. Patten. I appear as chairman of the national legislative committee
 of the Immigration Restriction League (Inc.), of the State of
New York. I wish also to try to give the committee information at
first hand about the cotton planters’ situation in the State of South
Carolina, which I think is the worst in its history.
Mr. Box. Are you interested in the growing of cotton in the State
of South Carolina?
Mr. Parren. I am.
Mr. Box. What are the conditions of labor there at the present
time?
Mr. Parten. I believe at least 100,000 day laborers could be
mobilized there at as low a wage as $1 a day. Labor and agricultural
 conditions are most distressing. Last year on about 60 small
plantations with which I am personally familiar, the actual expenditures
 exceeded receipts by about $6,000. That was in Anderson
County, S. C., which is rated by the Department of Agriculture the
eighty-seventh county in agriculture production in the United States.
Mr. ScENEIDER. You think there are at least 100,000 farm laborers
available in the State of South Carolina to-dav?