Speech #880078780

Although family farms are the. most efficient -producing units in American agficulture today. they are failing because of inadequate capital and the difficulty they have in competing with the farm whose absentee owner offsets his farming losses against profits made in industry or commerce. With increased concern being voiced for the migration of the farmer to urban areas. with all the unemployment problems which this movement creates. the continuation of this program. putting the family farm at a further competitive disadvantage. accentuates an already deepening problem. The House report on a 2year extension of the program states that the braceros program has virtually eliminated wetbacks. illegal aliens from south of our borders. The uninformed reader would indeed be surprised to note that wetbacks were reduced from 1.075.168 in 1954 to 242.608 in 1955 and might be inclined to attribute this to the braceros program. However. the fact is that during the years 1954 to 1955 a more stringent border control was set up. preventing great numbers of wetbacks from entering the United States. It might also be noted that although the number of braceros decreased from 437.643 in 1959 to 194.978 in 1962 the number of wetbacks coming into the United States remained approximately 30.000virtually the same. If we follow the logic of the wetback argument. a decline in braceros should mean an increase in wetbacks.