WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 439

According to the survey made by Miss Linna E. Bresette, already referred to,
«The Mexicans are found living in the most crowded and insanitary quarters
under conditions much below the recognized minimum of decency measured in
American standards. The conditions of living among many, especially in the
southwest, is appalling. There are 10, 12, and as many as 17 sleeping in one or
two rooms with no ventilation other than the door. - The rents vary from $1 a
month to the railroads for box cars to $5 and $7.50 for one or two room abode
huts, and $20 to $25 in other districts.
“Tn districts visited in the beet fields the living conditions are very bad.
Here shacks have been built by the farmers for the workers. Many families
visited lived in board shacks of one or two rooms, unplastered and unpapered.
Part of the guaranty made to contract workers is safe drinking water. The
contract is violated in some places, and the laborers drink from irrigating ditches
and unclean cisterns.
One of the largest Mexican colonies is referred to as the ‘corrals’ Here the
Mexicans, about 50,000 of them, are herded. They usually live in one or two
rooms. Outside toilet and water facilities are used in common with the neighbors
in the ‘corral.’”’
Corrals are small courts with long rows of huts ranged along their sides. In
one case in a Texas city 34 one-family huts are on a hundred-foot lot. Each
hut usually has two rooms—a kitchen and a bedroom. From 5 to 10 persons
will be found living in each hut. In fact the author was informed from several
authentic sources that frequently the number of persons to a hut is such that
they have to take turns sleeping. Between the rows of shacks is a dirt courtyard.
 Such is a corral, in which human beings live who “make good citizens.”
Can it be that the opposition really expects the American people to believe it?
Dr. Paul S. Taylor states that in Imperial Valley it is a ‘common practice
among Mexicans to buy a lot; construct a small house or ‘shack’ of rough or
secondhand lumber; then, when finances permit, to construct a second, and a
third house on the same lot. It is not uncommon to see 5, 6, or 7 of these
1 or 2-room houses on a single lot whose frontage is 50 feet and depth
is, say, 125 to 150 feet. And tents are sometimes squeezed into the intervals
between shacks. * * * Many of the yards, fences, and buildings present
the air of neglect, disorder, and even flth which is associated with poverty.
Many of the houses and yards, however, are well cared for.” .
The ““box-car’” type of house is still the type commonly found to house beet
laborers. It is built of rough lumber and covered with tar paper. Usually it
consists of two rooms and in most cases is quite literally a shack. It is utterly
inadequate even for protection against the weather. It is to the credit of the
sugar companies that they have fried to exert pressure on the growers to improve
housing conditions. The growers reply, however, that the Mexicans are not
interested in good houses, and do not take care of good houses which are provided.”
 Indeed, many Mexican families keep even the better houses like pigsties.
 Similar conditions exist in Imperial Valley. Here the ‘‘ditch-bank camp’
is the typical temporary camp for the seasonal labor forces which harvest the
crops. It is usually located among the trees that line the irrigation ditches.
‘According to Doctor Taylor ‘“more serious from a health standpoint than the
physical character of the chelters which first strikes the eye, is the dependence
on ditch water for drinking and all other purposes. With a few exceptions where
filters are used, the rural Mexicans drink the water almost directly from the
irrigating ditches. The county health officer states that the use of this water
is responsible for gastrointestinal disorders and some typhoid. Toilet facilities
are often below the standards of health, both in type of construction and in upkeep.
Without supervision, many camps become filthy because of unhygienic standards
of living often found among Mexicans of this class.” That the same conditions
exist throughout the entire Southwest ig evident from the following two statements.
 A citizen of Corpus Christi, Tex., stated: “The average Mexican in
this country knows just about as much about sanitation as he does about the
Bank of England.” = A citizen of Ventura, Calif., informed me that ‘the State
A a dairvman to market his milk if his cows lived as many Mexicans
 do.
Such statements as these could be multiplied many times from data in my
possession. Those opposed to the restriction of Mexicans seem, however, to be
willing to concede that the Mexicans are easily subject to almost every contagious
disease and that a real health problem exists because of such immigration into
this country. 1 state the following as an illustration: A physician in an Arizona
city who practiced 30 vears in Mexican communities stated that 70 per cent of