The copper era., 1908-12-24
Report of Government Department Shows That MexiCdnS Like This
 Country.

Country.
 "Mexican Labor in the United States,' is the subject of an article by Dr. Victor s. Clark, in Bulletin No. IS of the bureau of labor of the department of commerce and labor.
 Within less than a decade there has been a large increase in the amount of Mexican labor increase in the United States, but more marked even has been the increasing range of it's distribution. As recently as 1900, immigrant Mexicans were seldom found more than a hundred miles from the border. Now they are working as unskilled laborers and as section hands as far east as Chicago and as far north as Iowa, Wyoming and San Francisco. The number of different industries in the southwest which are dependent upon Mexican la bor is increasing. In some occupa- tions Mexicans are rapidly displacing Japanese and Greeks, and even Italians.
 Compared with the numbers of Italians and Slavs coming in upon the Atlantic coast, the number of the Mexican immigrants is still small between 6O,OOO and 1OO,OO0. They are, however, entering a sparsely settled territory which has a great demand for labor.
 The Mexican immigrants are most | ly from the pton and from the migra- tory labor class, from a region where agriculture and mining are the chief employments. They are of Indian blood with a slight infusion of white blood, but Indian in physique, tenn perament, character and mentality.
 Brought from the farms and mines to work upon the railways of north ern Mexico, the Mexican laborer drawn by the higher wages paid in the United States, is easily attracted across the border, where the mlne, the railway, the cotton field, and other employments have furnished work for increasing numbers each year.
 As a laborer the Mexican immi- grant is said to be {unam itious, physically not strong, and somewhat indolent and irregular. but against this is put the fact that he is docile, patient, orderly in camp, fairly iu- telligent under competent super vision, obedient and cheap. His strongest point with the employer is his willingness to work for d low wage. At the wage and under the conditions under which he will work, he is, by many employers, preferred to the Italian, Greek, Japanese and other labor which is available.
 The Mexican labOrer, returning to his own country from the United States, carries back a new and high CT standard of living. He has be- come accustomed to better-or at least different-clOthing, more varied food and a greater variety of wants This rapidly has its effect upon the community to which he returns.
 So long as the Mexican immigra- tion is transient, it is not likely to have much influence upon the United States, except as it regulates the la bor market in d limited number of unskilled occupations and probably within a restricted area. For tran sient labor is not likely to be largely employed beyond certain radius from El Paso and the Rio Grande, or to enter lines of employment in which it competes with citizen labor. But the Mexicans are making their homes in the United States in in- creasing numbers year by year, and being asSimilated by the Spanish speaking population of the south west, are forming the civic substra- tum of our border states.