450 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

restrictive legislation. As in Texas, so in California, we have every reason to
believe that such action will bring to California a prosperity greater and more
permanent than any she has yet experienced.
The cool region of cloudless sky in the arid West meets the conditions necessary
 for sugar-beet production perfectly. The irrigated regions of Colorado,
Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming supply just the right combination of climate
 and moisture; cool temperature, abundant sunshine, moisture exactly as
needed, absence of moisture when harmful. The sugar beet could flourish over a
very wide area in this country but agrieulture is applied elsewhere with greater
effectiveness in other directions.
The planting of the beet seed is done by drills, the plants eoming up in continuous
 rows. After this much manual labor is called for. The young shoots
have to be blocked and then thinned. When the bests are harvested, they are
first loosened by a plow and by a lifter, but each individual beet must be pulled
out by hand. Finally, they are topped, the neck and leaves being cut off by hand
with a large knife. This ealls for a large amount of unskilled Iabor, almost all
of which is at present either Mexican or Spanish American, although some
German-Russians and other Europeans may still be found.
There is no question of a climatic obstacle to the use of white labor at any
season of the year. Indeed, the regular field work of plowing, planting, irrigating,
cultivating, beet lifting, and hauling is performed by the American farmer himself.
 It is in the hand labor that imported lgbor from Mexico and elsewhere is
used. In the early years of beet growing the greater part of this hand labor wag
done by local boys and girls and by the farmers themselves. In fact this seems
to be the case even yet in Utah. In this State I discovered that even college students
 frequently work in the beet fields to help pay their way through school.
It should be noted, however, that in Utah there are relatively few Mexicans used
in beet production.
The increased employment of Mexicans has been due to the expansion of sugarbeet
 acreage and to the checks put on other groups of outside laborers through
the restriction of European and the exclusion of oriental immigration. The
Mexicans have become the principal available source of outside labor and thus it
has come about that sugar-beet production has become as thoroughly Mexicanized
 as vegetable and fruit production has become in California. The causes
seem to be fundamentally the same, for here, too, we find an almost insatiable
demand for cheap labor of a docile type that is willing to submit to intolerable
living conditions, until it learns better, and a new supply becomes necessary.
The sugar companies secure the hand labor for working the beet crop when it
is not locally available. In doing so the sugar company concerned acts as an
agent for the growers. In the early spring its labor agents begin to gather up
the labor from places far and near. These agents ship it into the beet-growing
territory, where it is distributed to the growers. Most of the labor, being Mexican,
will come from the border territory. Frequently whole train loads of such persons
are started north with each car guarded to prevent any laborer from changing
his mind until he arrives at his destination. Many of them move north in-secondhand
 autos under instructions to go to certain beet centers. Many of these
laborers are direct from Mexico and are secured after elaborate preparation
through advertising and other devices in such cities as El Paso, Fort Worth, and
San Antonio. Formerly these laborers were often shipped north still clad in ‘the
sombreros, light cotton elothing, and even sandals of the Mexican peon—a practice
 less common in recent years. The cost of these labor shipments to the sugar
companies is high. Doctor Taylor states that in 1926 “the average cost of labor
shipment per 40-acre family was $90.75 and the total cost over $250,000 (to the
Great Western Sugar Co.). For the 5-year period ending with 1922, the cost:
per worker was $25.” It is interesting to note, however, that the sugar companies
spend nothing to return the Mexicans to their own country when they are no
longer needed by the growers. “Some communities, dependent upon seasonal
labor, are eager for the laborers to move in when they are needed and almost
equally eager for them to move out when they are no longer needed.” It is thus
iy thousands of Mexicans are shipped north each year into the beet fields.
he company draws up the labor contract between the grower and the heet
laborers. This contract usually provides that during the intervals between
operations in sugar beets the beet laborers are at liberty to accept such other
employment as they may be able to find. Such time may be devoted to harvesting
 vegetable crops, shocking grain, picking potatoes, ete. The amount of
such employment is, however, very restricted and the average amount earned at
such work probably does not exceed $150. While it is difficult to estimate aceu~