Speech #710163073

Tex.-Nationality of employees: Americans. 9 per cent. Mexicans. 91 per cent. The situation created by this immigration has been growing worse for some years. The survey made by me and the gentleman from Ohio. my colleague on the committee . shows that it still exists and has been growing worse during recent months. The law now in force. which I sought to have applied to Mexico and other countries of the Western Hemisphere. was enacted in 1924. Those who claim that the present law and its enforcement are sufficient to meet the present situation should explain why it has not done so. Immigration from Mexico coming through the stations averaged more than 55.000 per annum from the enactment of the present law to the close of the fiscal year 1929. It is true that during the last six months there has been a great falling off of that portion of this immigration which comes through the stations. but this period is included in a time of widespread unemployment throughout the United States. which Invariably reduces temporarily the number of incoming immigrants. Unemployment and hunger. from which thousands of Mexican immigrants suffer while in the United States during periods of unemployment. check the coming of such immigrants. During recent months many have been so hungry that they have been seen feeding from garbage cans in back alleys in several American cities. Of course. that checks immigration. A revival of industry always increases the number of such immigrants. unless the law fixes quotas as is proposed in the pending bill. The volume of Mexican immigration fluctuates under many influences. one of which is revolutionary disturbance. There has not been a revolution in Mexico within the last six or eight months. which would at least partially account for a decrease in Mexican immigration. The rising and falling of the volume of Mexican immigration is not entirely controlled by the discretion of any department of the Government as to