WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 429

as the father of citizens of the United States when his children are born in this
country. The years of his service as a wage earner are limited, but not so the
span of time in which those of this blood will play théir parts in this country.
Nor can the seriousness of this argument be side-tracked by any claims of the
ultimate emigration of these persons—for the facts seem to be to the contrary.
Likewise we must not overlook the tremendous burdens they have heaped upon
our poor relief systems, upon our penal institutions and upon our political system.
Their low standards of living are proving disastrous to the American farmer and
the American laborer throughout the southwestern part of our country.
As an illustration of the fact that a man is not a worker alone, I refer you to
the excellent study of Dr. Paul 8. Taylor, ‘‘ Mexican Labor in the United States,
Valley of the South Platte, Colo.” Doctor Taylor states: ‘The following interview
 with a Mexican laborer illustrates the effort to become Spanish-American
as soon as possible.
“Fernandez says that a person of Mexican descent born in the United States is
a Spanish-American. I asked where he was born and what he was. He replied
‘I was born in Zacatecas, and I'm a Mexican.’ I asked where his 8-year-old
son was born. He replied, ‘In Zacatecas.’ ‘Then he is a Mexican?’ ‘Yes.
‘And where was your 2-vear-old daughter born?’ ‘She was born in Pueblo,
Cole.’ ‘Then what is she?’ ‘Oh, she’s a Spanish-American.’ .
“When the definition and story were related to the Spanish-Americans they
were greatly amused, for, according to their definition, ancestry must be traced
back at least 80 years to inhabitants of territory which became part of the United
States in 1848.”
It should be noted that the Spanish-Americans are very proud, both of their
ancestry and of their United States citizenship. The result is that they fee)
keenly the failure of Americans to distinguish between them and the Mexicans.
Even Spanish-American children have a feeling of superiority over Mexicans.
As I traveled recently through the beet fields of Colorado I was struck by the
fact that even small children made it clear that they were Spanish-American.
The Mexicans, however, tell the Spanigsh-Americans that they are neither Spanish,
 Mexican, nor American; that they have no country; and that they were
sold to the United States. Feeling on the subject seems to run rather deep and
indicates at least the beginning of a serious racial conflict. Doctor Taylor cites
the following statement of a young Mexican in high school: “The Mexicans
hate the Spanish-Americans more than the Americans because the Spanish-Americans
 feel superior. When I came here I found that my Mexican friends
did not like the Spanish-Americans. The Mexicans say, ‘Santa Ana sold the
Spanish-Americans for some chewing tobacco.” ”
According to every test as to the desirability of this immigration, including the
assumed economic demand for peonage or common labor, there can be but one
answer—it must be restricted. Its restriction is an inevitable as it is necessary
if we are to protect our national welfare and reap any permanent value from the
restriction of European and the exclusion of oriental immigration. For much
more powerful than the claims of neighborhood are the blood ties between the
people of the United States and those of Europe, for in blood the people of this
country are mainly European and white. In blood the people of Latin America
and the West Indies are mainly Asiatic (Indian) or African, mainly brown or
black. The vast majority of them are not white and certainly not Caucasian.
Now it is a fact known to all that the Supreme Court of the United States has
held that only “white” persons are eligible for citizenship. Likewise, the
court has held in recent years that white means “Caucasian.” It is thus that
not only persons of the colored races are ineligible for citizenship but even certain
persons properly designated as ‘white”’—inecluding the Hindu—may not become
citizens, unless they belong to the Caucasian braneh of the white race.
Relative to this point I wish to call to your attention a memorandum prepared
by U. 8. Webb, attorney general of California, entitled “Memorandum relative
to communication dated February 5, 1929, addressed by Secretary of Labor,
Hon. James J. Davis, to Senator Hiram W. Johnson, chairman of the Senate
Committee on Immigration, United States Senate.” The attorney general of
California cites many cases to prove that the average Mexican immigrant is
ineligible to citizenship in the United States and hence should be excluded from
admission into this country under the ineligibility provision in the immigration
act of 1924.
In the case of the United States ». Thind, the United States Supreme Court
refused to permit a Hindu to be naturalized as a white person, even though
ethnologically speaking, he was of the white race. In the case of In re Young
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