The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-28

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 Over the bridge at the border from deurez to Ell Pase tehs of thousands of Mexieans have crossed since the revolution began: Refugees before one band of marauders after another, homeless poverty stricken, ehronical- ly hungry, alien in speech, manners, habits and ideas, they have proved a heavy burden for so young eommun- lty as Fl Paso to carry. Fer Ell Paso. HGateway to Mexico" has found its wickets ,opening in since Diaz fell. And Ek sPaso. like New York, gets ,moFe than it's share ef the weak hmeng incoming aliens.
 No one knows how many have come. Immigratie n inspectors keep tally on the international bridge from Jaurez, but the boundary line Is long and the Rio Grande shallow. Many families whe have applied to the As sociated Charities for help are not entered in the government books. It Is estimated that the population of Fl Pase has doubled in five years.
 Hundreds Come in a Day
 Tive hundred men, women >a and children toiled and pushed their way across the bridge yesterday. Two hundred and fifty came over the day befere and an Inspector said, Look qut of ak hundred tomorrow" Thus wrote [, B, Qwin, secretary of the Fl Pase Associated Charities. ar
 One thing Is sure-the condition of the, newcomers grows steadily poorer Of these who crossed the bridge, H. tee were debarred, out of a total of ke.4ss. in 1pt1, the first year of the war, and 4,sfs cut of ,s5,z4s in 1915. An ipspeeeer said to MT. Gwin; .'None have ever leeked so hungry and forS baken aA those who have come over the last few fnonths, They seem to be gettinE werse ali the time" A railroad official has found 1t necessary te feed up" new arrivals at the eenstrueticn camps before they were stroAg enough Co work.
 Over 10000 of those who crossed the brldss In let1 stayed In Fl Paso and for 4ets the number passed IT, 0oo, ;Mr. Qwin writes,
 TT El Paso servad only as a distr1- bution point and port of entrance vhe difficulties of the situation would not be 10 tremendous. Far toe many remain to glut the labor markets and keep down wages Some method must be found for distributing them over other parts of the southwest and into the interior. Railroad work takes some of them away during the sum- mer and many go direct from the im- migration station to railroad camps. This iss practically the only effort made to distr1bute the men and their families away from Ell Paso.
 Psphsem q Distribution
 '-The government should have a eepaFats department to encourage and nuperviss the distribution of Mexicans. Such department has been planned but sufficient funds have not been supplied. The problem Of distribu- ton is more difficult here than at most porty of entry, because so many of the kexicans expect to return to their paftve soil as soon as peace Is restored, and in the meantime they prefer to remain along the border
 There are about S5,000 Mexicans in Fl 'Paso most of whom are living in one section of the city nearest the border. generally called 'Chihuahuita,' Little Chihuahua. Their congregation in that section has given this city it's principal health problem. The chiet difficulty Is to prevent overcrowding, to seek out dark and unventilated rooms, and to keep up constant search for contagious diseases. Des- pite the constant danger of the spread of typhus and other diseases from 'Chihuahuita' and especially from the newly arrived immigrants, this city hes been able to keep such contagious diseases as have been found from spreading to any great extent.
 '"rhe Fl Paso Board of Health has adopted radical but extremely ef- fective method for letting sunshine and air into windowfess rooms. The tenants are moved out and, few. workmen with axes and spades speed fly demolish the huts. It is not diff cult for the landlord to put up new adobe nuts which are made to con- form to fhe health regulations of the city. One hundred such huts were torn down last week.
 Homeless Refugees F
 There Is not nearly enough work for all the Mexfcans here and the question Of relief for them, especially for the seemingly endless number of widows and children, has become 8 big problem for Fl Paso city and cbunty. r Our work- among them has helped sus to understand them.
 They undoubtedly have an unusual and romantic background as a na- tion. but their personal histories have been blown away and obliterated by five years of demoralizing and des- Itructive warfare. Often they do not know if any relatives or former friends are alive.
 Many have wandered or been driv- en from town to town. often far from their homes. 50 that for most of them the journey to America has not meant an uprooting of family ties and lifelong associations.
 They should be able to quickly ac- custom themselves to new conditions here and in many ways I believe they have done 50. They seem to be~well satisfied with their opportunities and q large numbsf have said they never expected to return to Mexico. But whether they will some day go back to rebuild their nomes ana their vast a fields no one can be certain.
 If revolution. strife. and the pres ent, idle life of the Mexican continues fo bs tho order of the day in that country, more Of tho natives will find fleir way to the boFdsr and thus in- crease the problems of the border fowns Those who are coming from