The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 403
528 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Labor Emigration to the Southwest, I916 to 1920
by farmers. Under the ninth proviso of the new immigration law, Secretary
of Labor William B. Wilson, at that time in charge of immigration matters,
was authorized to set aside any of the law's provisions if he was convinced
of a labor shortage. On May 23, he specifically exempted agricultural
workers from Mexico from any and all tests imposed by the Immigration
Act of 1917. This waiver lasted until March I, 1921. Over 72,000 Mexicans
registered as entering under the terms of the waiver, but no one knows how
many others, unregistered, came in search of work across the border.
Throughout the Southwest, anxious employers welcomed countless braceros
whether they were registered or not."
Railroad, mining, and industrial interests in the meantime pleaded for
Mexican workers in the name of national defense. A spokesman for the
United States Railroad administration asked governmental permission to
secure 50,000 track laborers from Mexico. One industrialist, apparently
expecting a long war, suggested that I,ooo,ooo Mexicans be recruited by
the government to fill factory jobs throughout the United States. Because
of the concern expressed by these and other employers, the secretary of
labor extended his waiver in July, 1918, to include nonagricultural workers.
As temporary contract laborers admitted with no regard for the Immi-
gration Act of 1917, braceros were allowed to work in railroads, mining,
and construction. This waiver also lasted until March, 1921.8
An unprecedented increase in migration from Mexico took place after
the signing of the armistice in November, 1918. Employers sponsored
braceros, and the Department of Labor, in view of the economic needs of
the Southwest, cooperated with them. From 1918 to 192O almost 250,000
braceros legally crossed the border in search of employment. Important
sectors of the economy had become completely dependent on Mexican
migrant labor. It was rare not to find Mexicans working in unskilled and
semi-skilled types of employment, often far from the border. The total
Hernandez to Candido Aguilar, August 17, 1917, Archivo Hist6rico de la Secretaria de
Relaciones Exteriores, (Tlateloco, Mexico City), IV/241.2 (72-73)/13-14-40. The Ar-
chivo Hist6rico de la Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores is hereafter cited as AHRE.
7Wilson to Anthony Caminetti, May 23, I917, File 811.504/28, RG 59, NA; U.S.,
Department of Labor, Bureau of Immigrantion, Annual Report, I9r8, p. 319; Otey M.
Scruggs, "The First Mexican Farm Labor Program," Arizona and the West, II (Winter,
1960), 319-326. The term "bracero," although not in wide currency in the United States
until the I940s, was the almost universal designation used by Mexicans to describe
unskilled and semi-skilled workers who performed arduous physical labor during the
period under discussion here.
sAvery Turner to John Silliman, November n2, 1918, File 8II.504/139, RG 59, NA;
Charles M. Rork to Lansing, June 17, 1917, File 81.504/o104, ibid.; Polk to Embassy,
Mexico City, July 26, 1918, File 8 1I.504/I2oa, ibid.403
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976, periodical, 1975/1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101203/m1/460/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.