WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 449

Mexican immigration have become amusing, their explanations and arguments
have become laughable.
According to Dr. Paul 8. Taylor, absentee ownership, tenant farming, and an
atmosphere of impermanence pervade California’s agricultural production, especially
 in Imperial Valley. ‘Much of the land in the valley is held by absentee
owners, who bought out the early settlers and hold now for increase in values
atteridant upon settlement of water questions, or who prefer the high cash rentals
paid by the growers of truck crops to farming for themselves. Under these
sonditions a class of landowning, working farmers can not arise.”
When one considers the low standard of living of the Mexican, the insanitary
and inadequate housing with which he is content, and the fact that he is usually
satisfied with a wage that enables him barely to exist with a minimum amount of
labor, then we have additional reasons why the ‘American laborer is unable to
compete with the Mexican. All the arguments that applied to the exclusion of
oriental labor from this country apply to Mexican immigration with greater force
and magnitude. When one considers these facts in addition to those previously
presented it seems to be evident that American labor is not to blame for the
alleged “shortage” of common labor for agriculture in California. Neither
does it seem fair to argue, nor is it a fact, that American labor shuns farming as
ménial labor or that it is unwilling to do “dirty” work. Even granting that at
presetit machinery can not be used to a greater extent in truck farming and fruit
picking, it does not follow that Americans will refuse to do the manual work
necessary if paid a reasonable wage that will enable them to live according to the
accepted standard in this country, provided thev are freed from the necessity
of competing with the Mexican laborers.
To argue that these California growers will be “ruined” financially and that
“with our agriculture will go our industry, commerce, and prosperity’ should
Mexican immigration be restricted, is not only illogical and unsound, but it
ignores the fundamental problems involved. Furthermore, it would be difficult
to get the business men of California to accept such a sweeping statement of the
precariousness of their financial status. Indeed, the general consensus of opinion
among California business men seems to be overwhelmingly to the contrary.
What agriculture needs in California is a complete reorganization, for such is
rot only necessary but it is inevitable if its element of impermanence is to be
eliminated. The opposition has admitted this to be the case. Not only can
truck farming and fruit growing in California be restored to American labor;
it must be done in the near future.
The problem is not so serious as the lobbyists will have us believe. According
to Prof. R. L. Adams, the larger the farm in California the greater is the dependence
at present on Mexican labor; hence any curtailment of Mezican labor will have
its ‘greatest effect upon the operator who is handling the relatively large acreages.
The following table is taken from Professor Adams’s studv:

Percentage of eruployers reporting

Size of farm

Uniler 20 geres but Dot Under 5 Acres... ..ooevnoneueans
20/10 40 GOTO . mee lemme cmmmmm mmm mm meme maaan
30 10 80 ACTS . .ovmvnmane eae EEE ERR
FOr RO GOTO] oe meme om se HE,

Number
of replies

+ | Presents Probably
Wo effect Aifficnlties | would helo

90 53
197 30
142 30 |
200 18

34
62
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It seems, therefore, that we are brought to virtually the same conclusions for
California that we reached concerning the need for Mexican labor in Texas.
What the absentee landlords and exploiters want are docile laborers of the peon
type willing to accept wages, housing, and working conditions intolerable to
American labor. As in Texas they thus have a basis for their ery of a labor shortage,
 despite the fact that Los Angeles city and county alone have a Mexican
population of 250,000 and California has a supply of unskilled white labor ample
fur its needs in every phase of industry. Indeed, there will always be a labor
shortage so long as Americans and even the Mexicans who have been domiciled
here for a period of time refuse to be exploited by a group of men who put their
own financial interests above that of the general welfare. The existence of such
conditions seems in itself to substantiate the necessity for immediate and drastic