126 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

every one who enters legally there are three who enter illegally. The three
largest individual settlements of Mexicans are in San Antonio, El Paso, and Los
Angeles. El Paso, a city of 100,000 population, is estimated to be 613; per cent
Mexican, with a floating population of perhaps 10,000 more. Los Angeles has
the largest Mexican population of any city in the United States. .The closest
estimate is that there are 250,000 in the city and county of Los Angeles. San
Antonio officially estimates its Mexican population at about 60,000. The archbishop
 and the Catholic clergy say that there are probably 80,000. Corpus
Christi and Laredo, Tex., follow closely in proportionate numbers.”
In ascertaining these facts interviews were held with priests and missionaries,
teachers, social workers, employers, labor leaders, superintendents of schools,
special students, and with Mexicans themselves. Visits were made to churches,
community houses, day nurseries, libraries, associated charities, outdoor relief
groups, schools, Catholic cherities, chambers of commerce, Knights of Columbus,
and diocesan and local councils of Catholic women. The facts and conclusions
set forth in such a survey should, therefore, be worthy of careful consideration.
Concerning the Mexicanization of the Southwestern States the survey concludes
thus: ‘Those who have worked with the Mexicans and those who have studied
the situation say that the Mexican is here to stay. They point to Texas, Los
Angeles, St. Louis, Denver, Topeka, and many other places where Mexicans are
known to have permanent residences and to have been in the country for several
years. In El Paso, the school population is 70 per cent Mexican.” ‘In 1920,’
according to the city statistician of El Paso, ‘55 more Americans were born in the
city than Mexicans. In 1927 almost three times as many Mexicans were born
as Americans. In July, 1928, there were 465 Americans born and 1,047 Mexicans.””
 South El Paso is known among Mexicans as Chihuahuita or Little
Chihuahua, but it is in fact now big Chihuahua since it has a greater Mexican
population than Chihuahua city, the capital of the State of Chihuahua.
Dr. Paul 8. Taylor points out in his study of Mexican labor in Imperial Valley,
Calif.: “That 54.7 per cent of the Mexican children enrolled in elementary
schools are listed as born in the United States, a fact which reflects the increasing
stabilization and settlement of a permanent Mexican population on the United
States side of the international boundary. This group is vastly more important
numerically than the group which crosses the line for seasonal work in the valley
and returns to Mexico when the season ends; and of infinitely greater social
significance to the United States, for these are becoming a permanent part of the
culture of the valley.”
Logically, a continuation of such conditions means but one thing—the abandonment
 of this section of the country by the white population, for white Americans
can not live in competition with peons trained by 400 years of Spanish oppression
and political and economic exploitation, to live on next to nothing in the way of
subsistence and shelter.
The above facts indicate clearly that Mexican immigration is now a national
problem rather than the problem of the Southwest. Indeed, the border States
are now to a very large extent merely stepping-stones to the interior of the
country where this Mexican labor is in demand by industries and agricultural
interests which seek cheap labor, regardless of the ultimate cost in terms of
American welfare and progress. The restriction of European immigration has
made this invasion from the South an increasingly important factor in our communities
 and industries, so that at the present time we must reckon with it or
be engulfed by it. We can not postpone the erection of an adequate barrier any
longer, for it is an invasion, even more serious than if it were military.
Indeed, the Mexicans have come in such large numbers during the last few
years as almost to reverse the essential consequences of the Mexican War. Today
 Mexican immigrants are making a reconquest of the Southwest more certainly,
 if we consider the matter of time, than America made the conquest in
1845, 1848, and 1853-—while the outposts of their invasion extend far into the
interior.
May I call your attention to hearings before the House Committee on Immigration
 and Naturalization, Sixty-eighth Congress, Series 3-B, March 3, 1925?
I refer to the report of Robert F. Foerster, professor of economies in Princeton
University, entitled, The Racial Problems Involved in Immigration from Latin
America and the West Indies to the United States.” His analysis of the problem
from the biological or racial viewpoint is worthy of your careful consideration.
In the following aualysis I shall undertake to give the substance of his report.
My own conclusions are evident from the discussion as I develop it.
The greatest possible contrast has existed in the building up of the population
of Mexico and that of the United States. The native Indian population that