Imperial Valley press., 1944-09-03
Three Arizona
Farmers Held
As "SmuggIers"


ed over the arrest and arraignment
by the United States border patrol,
an agency of Attorney General Bid
die. of three farmers of high stand
ing. They are charged with snug
Cling aliens, based on their hiring
MexicanS already in the United
/ States.
They are James LATHE, Wellton
district, William O. Scale, Roll area
and William c. Farar, also of Well
ton section.
They have been photographed and
finger-printed. released under cash
bonds for hearing before the United
States Commissioner here next
] Tuesday. Possible penalties range
from $1,000 to $4,000 fine.
/ The farming communities along
the border cenounce the arrests as
disgraceful action against men who
are producing crops the federal
government declared essential to
/ Americas war program and whose
sons are fighting overseas.
The farmers story is told in affi-
davits made public by Hugo B. Far
ar. president of the Yuma Produc-
ers Cooperative association. a nom
profit organization formed to make
contracts with the United States
government for war prisoner and
other alien labor on Yuma county
farms.
HAD WAR PRISONERS
In l943. alfalfa and Bermuda
grass seed growers of the Mohawk
and Antelope valleys along the
lower Gila river east of Yuma were
supplied with adequate labor from
Italian war prisoner camps. This
year the farmers again applied for
/ help from the same source. On July
20 they received about two thirds
the number of workers needed. Four
days later labor trouble developed
and military authorities immed-
lately hauled away from the farms
most of the war prisoner workers.
1t was in the midst of harvest
LATHE, who farms $50 acres near
Welltcn, says he had 180 acres of
alfalfa ano bermuda seed cut and
sown in the field on the day all
his help was taken from him. Loss
from threatening storm would leave
him. his wife and two small chill
dren practically penniless. He drove
through Yuma valley, he says,
searching for help, met and hired on
the American side of the border
seven Mexicans to complete the har-
vest he must finish Immediately or
lose.
LATHE says he was taken to Yuma
Jail by border patrolmen, kept in
Jail overnight despite his plea that
he be allowed to put up bond. was
photographed and finger-printed,
released in the afternoon of next
day on $1,000 cash bond following
appearance before the United States
commissioner. LATHE asserts the
commissioner refused to accept as
bond security negotiable United
States war bonds.
LAST PENNY INVOLVED
Scale, farming lao acres near Roll.
says he had practically all of his
worldly possessions" tied up in his
crop, cut and lying in the field
when the military ceprived him of
all his workers He swears he
thought he was performing a pa
triotic duty to his country when
he employed MeXicans he located
in Yuma county to save his harvest.
Scale put up $1,000 bond when ar
rested. He has five children, one
boy in the navy in the Pacific. an
other son with medical discharge
following honorable service. Says
Farmer Scale: Looks like I've got
more to worry about here at home
on the farm from my government
than my boy has to worry about out
there fighting Japs."
Farar of the Wellton district says
in his sffic avit that he had all OF
his 40 acres of alfalfa and Bermuda
seed cut and ready on the ground
for threshing when the workers for
whom he had signed a government
contract were taken from their jobs
He was arrested after he had hired
six Mexicans at Gadsden, village
south of Yuma. Farar was required
10 put up $3.50 eond.
Farar has two sons in the combat
forces.
LATHE. Scale and Farar all swear
they didn't know they were violat-
ing any law when they employed
their Mexican helpers. They say the
border patrolmen told them Mexico
City has asked Washington to crack
down on Mexican nationals who
cross the border without meeting
all formalities.