WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 431

not Mexicans. Some cafés, however, particularly some catering to American
fruit tramps, leave no uncertainty. They post signs, ‘We cater to white trade
only,” and that there may be no mistake, additional signs reading, {Se sirve
solamente a raza blanca.’ The Mexicans are thus sometimes ostracized along
with the negroes, and sometimes not, though actual ostracism may result even
where it is not clearly intended.”
Let us refer again to Doctor Taylor for an illustration of the social barrier
between Americans and Mexicans:
In three towns of the valley Americanization teachers for adults are employed
by the public schools. A former ‘Americanization teacher in the valley, herself
of Mexican descent, came to her superior with the tragic story of the cross currents
 which pulled her in different directions. ‘I'm torn in two in this place.
I get so impatient of our own people, and ashamed of their slowness, and the
difficulty of getting them to embrace their opportunities in this country. There
are times when I want to put dynamite under them. I feel the faults of the
Mexicans more than an American. At the same time, I am constantly infuriated
 by their treatment from Americans.’ Another instance is related by an
Americanization teacher, who is herself an American. Said a young Mexican
to his teacher, Would you say that I am an Americanized Mexican? ‘Yes; I
believe that you are pretty well Americanized now.’ ‘Well, Americanization
hasn't meant happiness for me. I can’t find a congenial friend among the
Mexicans any more, and I haven't made friends among the Americans.” ”’
Do we not have here ample evidence of a racial problem that will soon, if it
has not already done so, exceed the most serious dangers potential in Asiatic
or Oriental immigration? If this be true, dare we hesitate longer in our efforts
to check it ere it engulfs us?
That the Mexicans are proud and sensitive to the racial prejudice against
them, and that they can be expected to be more so in the future, is all the more
reason why we should exert every effort to solve the problem immediately by
checking it at its source.
If our recent experience with Japan taught us anything surely it taught us
the dangers that lie in racial conflict and discriminations between a proud and
sensitive foreign element and the people of our Western States. Since the Mexican
migration involves the same strong consciousness of racial difference we are face
to face with the same problem, multiplied many times over because of the numerical
 strength of the immigration from the South. .
It is true that the State Department is seeking to ward off the numerical
restriction of Mexican immigration by a more drastic enforcement of the present
“quality” tests in the immigration law which apply to all immigrants, whether
they come from quota or nonquota countries. Thus a more drastic enforcement
of the literacy test and of the proper issuing of visas is having some effect. Likewise
 the State Department is being aided by the enactment into law by a recent
session of Congress of the provision making it a felony with penalty for certain
aliens to enter the United States under certain conditions in violation of law. The
fear of going to jail is having some effect in deterring the Mexican from entering
this country illegally, whereas before he was merely subject to deportation without
penalty each time he was caught after entering illegally.
This law and the desperate efforts of the State Department are, however, not
enough. The problem is too big and too serious to be dealt with thus in an
adequate manner. At most these efforts can only discourage the entrance of
Mexicans not entitled to admission into this country. A positive numerical
check is needed either through the application of the quota legislation to the
peoples of the Latin and South American countries and to those of the West
Indies or else we should frankly recognize the fact that they, too, in general; are
ineligible for citizenship and hence are not admissible as immigrants into the
United States. Indeed, we apply both of these methods to the oriental countries
 under the present law.
The president general of the 8. A. R., the Hon. Howard C. Rowley, of San
Francisco, stated the problem recently in this concise manner, “1, personally,
am of the opinion that there was a mistake in the first place in our immigration
restriction law in making any exemptions to the quota. But I am also of the
opinion that the most valuable consideration in this Mexican immigration matter
is that such a large proportion of the undesirable Mexican immigration comes,
in my opinion, under the ineligibility prohibition. * x * J believe that this
quota idea should be applied to Mexico, but also think that the added value of
the racial situation under our ineligibility provisions should be worked into it
to strenethen it. Incidentally, the latter is more important than the more