I just as soon send a bunch of Mexicans to the county hospital or county tuberculosis farm and pay the bill-I am paying the bill, because I am a taxpayer; and I would just as soon put a bunch of Mexicans on the county farm as a bunch of white men.

Senator HARRIS. The statement made by the California representative-I have forgotten just who he represented-that there were more Mexicans who had to be taken care of than others.

Mr. BIXBY. Who was it that made that statement?

The CHAIRMAN. I think it was Mr. Goodale of San Diego made that statement. Is not that the gentleman you refer to?

Senator HARRIS. I am not sure.

Mr. BIXBY. Well, I do not think he knows what he is talking about, and I would just as soon say that to thim as I would to you.

Senator HARRIS. He represented the city or chamber of commerce or something some civic organization?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. That was Mr. Dowell, of San Diego, who was one of the members of the city council.

Mr. BIXBY. If he says that, I do not think he knows what he is talking about, and I think perhaps he has gone only to that little town right below there, which is the rottenest cesspool in the world, and that is Tia Juana, and if he got his information from that place it is wrong.

Senator KEYES. Tia Juana is in Mexico, is it not?

Mr. BIXBY. It is just across the line; it is a place that some people go to that should not go there.

Senator GOULD. Do those Mexicans who come over there join the labor unions?

Mr. BIXBY. I did not get your question.

Senator GOULD. As a general thing, do those people join labor unions?

Mr. BIXBY. I think they do not. I have heard they have a lot of trouble with them being I. W. W.'s, and if they have, they were brought into it by Americans, not by themselves, because they are not that kind of people. They want to work. What do they come over here for?

Senator REED. Mr. Bixby, the statistics of the Commissioner General of Immigration show 11,662 persons were deported last year under warrant proceedings. Presumably such statistics are accurate; and out of that 11,600, 2,700, or nearly 25 per cent, were Mexicans. Does not that tell pretty eloquently of the character of people we are getting over there?

Mr. BIXBY. No, it does not. When we had free immigration here, what did we have? Did you not have a lot of people here who did not belong here? Did you not have a lot of people come in you did not want? That is a small proportion. A hundred thousand of them came in during the year-anyway that many, maybe more, and that is not a bad proportion at all. Here is another point, too, Senator, that you do not understand, because you never have been down in that country. In order to put over this bill, instead of a few thousand dollars it will cost a few millions of dollars.

Senator REED. They would still have to stiffen up the border patrol. We had five men murdered on that frontier last year.

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Mr. BIXBY. It is uneconomic, to begin with. It will just cost us-I mean cost the taxpayers-to patrol that border millions of dollars that there is no necessity for us having to spend.

Here is a point I want to bring out: You were talking concerning the negroes. I have nothing against them at all. We have one negro who has been with me for 30 years, one of the most trusted men I have in my employ to-day-one negro. But the negro will not remain in the country out there. He gravitates to the town worse than the white man does. He does not want to live in the country.

And another thing, I have a family-three of them are girls. Ever since they were that high [indicating] I have had them out on the range, riding the range with Mexicans, and they have been just as safe as if they had been with me. That is the kind of people who are working for me, and they are Mexicans. Do you suppose we would send them out with a bunch of negroes? We would never think of such a thing. My girls have been associating with these Mexicans ever since they were 5 years of age, riding the range with them; and my boys, too. And I want to tell you that you people have no understanding at all of the Mexicans. They are loyal. We provide them, of course, with proper habitations and conveniences. They will live, if they have nothing else they will build a house out of tules and they will live there quietly, and the men will work, and no kick about anything. We provide them with house, wood, water and lights. We pay them exactly the same as we pay white men, and even pay them as high as $6 a day. I do not want a bunch of negroes out in my country, not the cotton-picking type, and I want the cottonpicking type of Mexicans, because they would just as soon pick cotton, thin beets, pick fruit, harvest grains, raise vegetables-anything; they will work, and they are not 8-hour men; they are the kind that when you want them they will work all day or night and the next day without ever making a kick. I have had them do that time and again, and they will work when you are in a big hurry and go in Sundays and work. The white man will not work, and will say "Sunday is my day off."

Here is one more thing I want to call your attention to at the mines. The Mexican is necessary at the mines in Arizona. I am told that Mr. Kellogg is very much wrought up over this bill, rightly. I was talking to the Secretary of Agriculture and told him about this business, and he is not for this bill.

I was talking to the President about it, and he said "Well, you must be sure to go to those hearings. I want you to go to those hearings." I can not say that the President said that he did not want it, because he did not say that. But I know him well enought to know that he can not want it.

The CHAIRMAN. There would not be any difficulty in his saying so, . then?

Mr. BIXBY. Not if I was the President, I would say No; but I probably would not be President. [Laughter.]

The CHAIRMAN. What I meant was, if he has hostility to a measure of this sort as you suggest.

Mr. BIXBY. I did not say he had hostility and I did not say that he said that he had hostility.

The CHAIRMAN. If he had the hostility you imply, there is not any reason why as the head of this Government he should not say so, 18 there?

Mr. BIXBY. I do not see that there could be.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not either.

Mr. BIXBY. But I talked to him to-day and explained it to him, and I think he understands the position in which it puts agriculture in my part of the country.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, sir.

Mr. BIXBY. I think that is all, except questions.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any questions any of the Senators desire to ask Mr. Bixby?

Senator HARRIS. I want to read just a short statement from the gentleman who appeared before, Mr. Dowell, vice president of the California Federation of Labor; member of city council, San Diego; Secretary of San Diego Federated Trades. He said this, in answer to what the gentleman said:

There are in the California State Penitentiary at San Quentin 3,358 prisoners. Of that number 438 are Mexicans. In other words, about one-twelfth of the population of California are Mexicans, and about one-seventh of the prison population are Mexicans. Data supplied with the above figures show that at least 60 per cent of the violations of prison laws and rules in that penitentiary were credited to those few Mexicans that were in there.

Mr. BIXBY. Well, if that is so—and I doubt it-if that is so, if they did any infringing of rules, it was because of ignorance in most

cases.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, sir, Mr. Bixby. Thank you very much for your statement. Mr. E. J. Walker.

Mr. WALKER. I believe Mr. Lassiter, of Texas, wants to be heard. Mr. Lassiter, have you testified before the House committee?

Mr. LASSITER. No; I just arrived in Washington this morning.

STATEMENT OF ED P. LASSITER, REPRESENTING AMERICAN NATIONAL LIVESTOCK ASSOCIATION, FALFURRIAS, TEX.

The CHAIRMAN. State to the reporter your name, residence, and occupation.

Mr. LASSITER. My name is Ed P. Lassiter; I live in Brooks County at Falfurrias, Tex.

The CHAIRMAN. Occupation?

Mr. LASSITER. Farming and ranching.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you appear for yourself alone here, or in behalf of any organization?

Mr. LASSITER. I represent the American National Livestock Association, one of their representatives here.

The CHAIRMAN. Would you proceed then to make such statement as you desire?

Mr. LASSITER. I would like to say that my life has been spent practically where I now live. My business with the Mexican population, which is about half or more of our population, has been very intimate. I not only handle a ranch and farming and dairy business, but I also handle a mercantile business, which is a retail business, handling about $350,000 to $400,000 sales a year, and possibly half of that goes to our Mexican population.

I have been raised with these people, and I know of no people who are easier to get along with than the Mexicans I have been associated with.

I have been a trader more or less all my life, both in land and cattle or horse stock, and dating back 20 or 30 years ago, I largely bought all Mexican ranches. Of ranch owners Mexicans have been superseded by Americans. I have never had to enforce an agreement by a lawsuit, never had a contention with a Mexican I had a trade with. Coming from a section that was originally civilized from Mexico; that is, it was ceded from Mexico, in the old Spanish grants from San Antonio River toward the Rio Grande. Many of those people have been there since 1820, and the same families have been on the land from then until now, and I think it would be difficult for any part of our country to show a more dependable population. The American is a better business man; that is, he is a cleaner trader, somewhat more ambitious, and probably has more energy, but when it comes to characteristics that go to make a man, the Mexican is their equal.

Within the last 10 years they have developed and settled largely from people from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa about 60,000 acres of land. That was sold in tracts of from 80 to 160 acres, very rarely more. Without our Mexican population, this population that goes and comes, we could not have done that; that development could not have taken place, because the country could not have been put in cultivation. The labor was not there. The man who comes from Iowa does not care to grub land. You can only sell to him and make him a citizen providing you can have the land grubbed for him and cleared for him; and it is this shifting Mexican population that has supplied that need in our section. I think from the standpoint of development that practically 80 per cent of the development that has taken place on the lower Rio Grande-I am some 65 miles out from the river could not have taken place if we could not have commanded this labor that would do this laborious work, that is, grubbing.

I see no advantage to any one in excluding this labor, but it certainly would paralyze the development in our immediate section. I would say that my community turns out butter that is the standard for Texas-Falfurrias butter. I employ something over a hundred men on these various dairy farms. I have three Americans in my employ; the balance are Mexicans. With the class of people that it has been implied here that the Mexicans are, it would be impossible to make a commodity that would rank first of its class in a State like Texas. It takes great attention and a desire to do good work to be able to do that, and I think if you gentlemen will get more or less familiar with country life and dairy, I think you will realize that that situation could not be handled by indifferent labor.

I will be glad to answer any questions the committee may wish to ask.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any questions by any member of the committee of Mr. Lassiter?

Senator REED. Who is your Congressman, Mr. Lassiter?

Mr. LASSITER. John N. Garner.

Senator REED. Have you seen the expressions of opinion by Congressman Box of Texas?

Mr. LASSITER. Yes, sir.

Senator REED. Do you disagree with him?

Mr. LASSITER. Totally. Because, as I stated, my life has been spent with the Mexicans. They have been my neighbors and associates. I have done a great deal of business with them. I never had an occasion to litigate any agreement I had with Mexicans; they have always complied with their agreements.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lassiter, you put in your view for admitting these people on the theory of their virtues. I have been considering the thing from an economic standpoint, as has been suggested. Still, I can not go with you on the question of the virtue of the Mexican. As I take it, you are putting it on the viewpoint that the Mexican ought to be admitted because he is such a superior individual?

Mr. LASSITER. No, sir. I do not make that statement. But I say that the Mexican's habits and his trend of mind does not justify excluding him because he is an inferior individual. He is not that.

I do not know whether you are familiar with it or not, but the section I live in was largely colonized by the Mexican people that is, something over a hundred years ago. Many of those people are there now the original descendants of the people that these grants were made to—and I have come in contact with no more dependable people when it comes to take their word in trading. I only mention that fact, due to the fact that it has been stated before this committee

Senator REED. Do you draw any distinction between those who have lived there so long and those who have come over as seasonal laborers to the United States?

Mr. LASSITER. I can only say I have employed a good deal of this labor, and I have never had any difficulty with it. Of course, many of them are not educated people as some of these old grantee families are. But they are good workmen and dependable people. That is one point I would like to make before this committee, that the Mexican is a dependable man to do business with, and that means quite a lot when you think about it.

Senator REED. May I read to you some of the things Mr. Box has said about this, and then ask your view on it?

Mr. LASSITER. I will be very glad to answer, if I can.

Senator REED. He stated at page 2965 of the Congressional Record:

The Mexican peon is a mixture of Mediterranean-blooded Spanish peasant with low-grade Indians who did not fight to extinction but submitted and multiplied as serfs. Into that was fused much negro slave blood. This blend of low-grade Spaniard peonized Indian, and negro slave mixed with negroes, mulattoes, and other mongrels, and some sorry whites, already here. The prevention of such mongrelization and the degredation it causes one of the purposes of our laws which the admission of these people will tend to defeat.

Is that so?

Mr. LASSITER. No, it is not, so far as the particular country I am familiar with. I live in Brooks County. Brooks County was created out of part of Cameron and Star Counties, both border counties. I know that does not apply to what is in the lower Rio Grande, because all my life I have lived in that section. I was born. there. That was some 66 years ago. So I say I do not know that

kind of Mexicans.