The War for the Valley's Fruit
A cooperative of 1,360 growers hits back at the agencies and middlemen trying to dismantle their organization.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Kennewick-Richland District Fruit Growers' Association finds itself the target of intense attacks from competing shipping and selling agencies in the valley. Despite claims that the association is mismanaged by 'high salaried orators' or that its members are 'deluded dupes,' the organization has grown steadily from 328 members in 1912 to over 1,360 today. The association owns the largest apple cold storage plant in the United States and ships more tonnage than the three largest competitive organizations in the valley combined. To those growers still on the fence, the association asks: Why worry about the 'knockers' chorus' when the facts show a thriving, high-credit cooperative that is returning more to the grower than any other agency in the Northwest?
“If the Association is the poor thing these agencies would have you believe... then why should they worry?”
This 1915 dispute mirrors modern struggles over corporate consolidation in agriculture. The Kennewick-Richland growers were attempting to bypass the 'middlemen' and predatory shipping agencies, a tension that remains central to the Tri-Cities' agricultural economy today.
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