Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-07-31
DEMAND RETURN FARE
 FOR MEXICAN LABOR

Demands that American companies agree to defray the expenses of Mex ican contract laborers from their homes to the scene of their labors in the United States and return will be made by the Sonora government inn mediately, according to Manuel N. Bernal, chief of the State Labor Bur eau, sponsored by the States of Maya Tit, Colima, Jalisco, Sinaloa and Son. ora.
 Twenty-three thousand laborers are wanted from the West Coast States of Mexico by the sugar beet, cotton and other agricultural interests in the United States this year, figures com piled by the Labor Bureau show. Statistics prove that last year the cot ton growers had planted 3S,O00 acres against 10000 this year.
 In permitting 23,000 Mexicans to enter the United States to harvest this and other crops, the Sonora govern n4ent, under previously prevailing conditions, would assume the respon- sibility of returning them to their homes. This, if all returned to the border with insufficient money to de- fray their expenses back into Mexico as between 90 and S5 per cent did last year, according to Bernal, it would cost the government $26 each, or $299,000 in American money.
 This the government is unwilling to pay, in as much, the representativ- es say, as the Mexican laborers fur nish large profit on their work to American companies and leave practi- cally all their earnings in the United States. Bernal said today:
 '1t is not the desire of the State Labor Bureau to prevent Mexican workers from entering the United States when it is assured that they will be fairly treated and not be burden on their own government af- ter five or six months of labor abroad"
 Careful investigation has shown us that many of the Mexicans who return to Nogales, alleging poverty and demanding fare home, either have ample money to buy their own rail- way tickets or have wasted their earnings. These men are being fer reted out and will be punished ac- cordlng to their deserts. Many of the false alarmists have confessed to their falsehoods.
 One feature of the present method, however, is serious, in as much as it menaces the friendly feeling we wish our people to entertain toward the United States and her interests.
 Occasionally it happens that a man with his wife, sons, daughters and other relatives, all under contract. 20 to the United States. The husband may be unfitted for the tasks impos- ed upon him or unwilling to perform them. He is returned to Mexico bv the company he worked for as unfit, but the rest of the family is returned under their contracts. Therefore, and naturally, the Mexican returns to the border cursing all Americans as hav- ing robbed him of his family. In many instances the wife is held and compelled to work out the cost of iefraying the husbands expenses to he border. The rawlings of the hus- 'and has bad effect upon the friend y relations between the two coun- ries, and these are exceedingly anxious to prevent.
 'I am confident that the entire mat CT will be worked out in a way that will reflect upon neither side of the ases involved, and expect soon to ave everything adjusted so that the United States canl get all the Mex ,an labor it wants and the govern lent of Sonora be freed of the heavy xpense which it heretofore has borne caring for workers who return, ither penniless br with insufficient lnds to take them to their homes." 'INER WANT ATS ARE BJJSI. F,