Speech #880078780

I will not go into the moral questions raised by using Mexican nationals to perform work which is either so demeaning or so poorly paid that we cannot expect our own citizens to perform it. although. were I Mexican. I would hardly be pleased by this distinction between the citizens of Mexico and the citizens of the United States. This charge needs heavy qualification and could not be sustained if decent wages. working conditions. and living conditions were made available to domestic migrants. An interesting statement used to bolster the argument that domestic workers will not do the same work is that the "Michigan Employment Security Cornmission. in attempting to place urban unemployed"-I want to stress those two words. "urban unemployed"-"into seasonal agricultural jobs found fewer than 1 out of 20 stayed on the job long enough to have a successful work completion record." I have no doubt that these figures are so. I have no doubt that if untrained migrants were put to work in a steel mill with no preparation. the job completion record would be equally abysmal. But there was a higher percentage of rural unemployed in this country in 1962. 7.3 percent. than urban unemployed. and it is this group of unemployed that have the background and the experience to harvest seasonal crops. It has been pointed out that students seeking summer jobs cannot bring in the crops fast enough.