This is a government report addressing reports of poor labor conditions for the Bracero Program workers made in the book Strangers in Our Fields. The report goes through each argument being made in the book and provides rebuttals to them. Many of these are clearly weak attempts to convince people the working conditions of the Bracero program were better than what was otherwise reported.
This source shows the government’s response to reports of poor working conditions, as they spend the entire source trying to disprove their arguments rather than taking the reports seriously and investigating conditions. They demonize the author for critiquing the conditions and use their rebuttals to try to seem as though they have more logical points, despite also giving no information to back up their claims. Through this source, we can also get an idea as to what conditions were being reported, and the complaints of the workers.
Excerpt from source:
Chapter 4 “As they see it”
Argument: That the remarks of braceros interviewed by the author and quoted in this chapter “show a common pattern of consistent violation of their rights.” (page 19, paragraph 4)
Rebuttal: The only logical conclusion which can be drawn from the statements quoted by the author is that they showed a common pattern of alleged violation. It is our experience, moreover, that the kind of statements used by Dr. Galarza to support his conclusion will not bear up under investigation. Much is made, here and elsewhere in this study, of the fact that workers whom he interviewed are assured that nothing they said would be disclosed to third persons. The purpose of this precaution was to encourage the worker to speak freely. While this is generally speaking a good investigative technique, we think it quite probable that the author received many complaints because of this approach. Quite often it is not fear of reprisal that inhibits a worker from making statements to government representatives, but rather a sense of moral and legal responsibility for what is alleged.
Higher quality images are available at the cited source, however, the source does not provide a transcription.
Source:
“A Report on ‘Strangers in Our Fields’ by Region X, Regional Office, Bureau of Employment Security,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/e6aa58392d3bf75dfe2006a66491b8d4.