The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-06-01
BY PETER EDSOk
Monitor-Leoder Washington
Correspondent

west to import anywhere from
10000 to 100000 Mexican
poems to take off this years
crop, and thereby hangs q tale
Of woe. The shortage Of farm
labor is given as the excuse
for the need Of this wholesale
moss migration, but the ques-
ton follows noturoIIy whether
the United Stotes would not be
making the same mistake it
made in the last war if il per-
mits O new migration Of cheoP
Mexican labor.
You'll recall what happen
ed then. Mexican labor was
imported by the tens Of thou
sands. Then the war boom COL
Iopsed and the Wexicons we're
stranded. From 10 to so per
cent we're repotrioted - no
one knows for sure ust what
the figure is - and the rest
went on relief, giving the en-
tire southwest q rural sIum
population that has been MOTH
ing short Of on international
scandal. The aliens couldn't
be hired by WPA, SO the full
relief burden fell on local and
stote governments. The Mexi-
con government was ongy
and stayed that way. Mexico
today is therefore reluctant to
permit US citizens to cross the
border to toke war jobs in the
y. S., O position strengthened
by Mexico's declaration Of war
on Germany. The Mexicons
may decide they need oil their
monpower at home and refuse
to permit any labor migration,
which would be q good thing
for all concerned.
The importation Of Mexican
labor simply does not make
sense. A recent WPA sompIing
survey indicated O reserve Ia
Dor supply Of 3 million peo-
pie willing to do farm labor.
There ore still four million
unemployed in the country.
The WPA rolls have 100000
and the law is that if anyone
on WPA is offered q job, he
must toke il or be dropped.
STILL SCREAMING
EorIy this year, WPA en-
pIoyment men went through
every agricultural county in
the country, explaining to for
mers that all they had to do
was make known their require
ments for farm labor. That
stopped the usual 81 m m e
c ON p4oi n IS thot farmers
couldn't get help because eV-
eVone preferred to work for
WPA, but the big employers
Of migrant farm labor are still
screaming.
As far as the sugar beet
states ore concerned, WPA
rolls as Of Nay l9 we're as fol-
lows: Illinois $1,000, Colorado
900, New Mexico 64OO, Ido-
no 1000 and southern CoIifor-
mia 1900. Michigan alone
seems to have solved its sugar
beet problem, by bringing in
surplus labor from exos.
which has $4,000 on WPA.
1t therefore appears that
the big form companies en-
pIoyine most Of the migrant
labor don't just want on ode
quote labor supply. What they
want is q labor surplus so that
wages can be knocked down
to the old depression levels
And there is O hope that Mex
lean peon labor, which viii
work for 20 cents an hour, car
be imported to keep these
wages down.
The y. s. Employment Serv.
ice wos recently handed O hoe
when it was federolized BY
Presidential order and told tc
do somethi ing about this
threatened farm labor short
oee, but it got on the Job c
little late. On Nay IS the
USES therefore certified to the
immigration Service that I'm.
less some Of the Japanese farm
labor force could be released
it would be necessary to bring
into the country to handle the
sugar beet crop 1000 workers
for California, 800 for Mon,
tono and 1900. for Idaho. The
buck was then posed TO the
new War Monpower Commits.
sion, which asked the Stote
Department if it would moi
approach the Mexican govern
ment on the subject Of fur.