File No. 812.77/132.
The President to the Acting Secretary of State.
Have information which would be glad to have you confirm that there are as many as two hundred and fifty American railway conductors and many locomotive engineers and trainmen who have been thrown out of employment in Mexico and are now refugees in El Paso and other border towns. If you can, verify this information by telegraph to consuls at various places and to the Ambassador. I should be glad if you would issue a statement by my direction inviting the attention of railway presidents and managers to the presence [Page 923] of these skilled workmen with a view if possible to securing employment for them and to save them from suffering.