Solving the Strawberry Harvest Labor Crisis
How a temporary federal agency solved the acute shortage of field pickers in the Kennewick region.
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.
H. W. Acheson, who has been in charge of the office of the federal employment service here since the opening of the strawberry picking season, will close the office and leave for other fields the last of the week. During his stay here Mr. Acheson has rendered very substantial service to the berry growers of this district. His records show that he has placed 400 pickers and packers, and the benefits of the service have been extended to nearly every grower in the district. In fact, the federal office has proved a very satisfactory solution to the strawberry labor problem. Mr. Acheson suggests that to get the best results another year, the growers arrange for free transportation for the pickers between Kennewick and Richland and provide better accommodations for the pickers at the patches. These accommodations need not be expensive; tents and camp stoves being all that is required in most cases. At a meeting of the board of directors of the Kennewick-Richland Marketing Union in Richland Wednesday evening, an official vote of thanks was extended to the federal bureau for the service rendered.
“In fact the federal office has proved a very satisfactory solution to the strawberry labor problem.”
Agricultural labor remains a central pillar of the Tri-Cities economy, though the scale of recruitment has shifted from federal intervention to private networks. The suggestion that farmers provide basic tent housing in 1916 echoes persistent modern struggles regarding the quality of temporary worker housing in Washington's agricultural regions.
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