The Apple Drive Stalls in Kennewick
Local boosters struggle to meet their quota to send a carload of Washington fruit to American soldiers serving in France.
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.
Unless a car can be loaded by Monday night, there will be no car of apples from Kennewick for the soldiers in France. Instead of being the first town in the Northwest to ship a carload, it looks as though Kennewick will be the last, if it gets its name in the pot at all. To date, J. W. Vickers and H. W. Desgranges, who have charge of the campaign, have been disappointed with the manner in which subscriptions have been coming in. Mr. Vickers said that while some growers responded liberally, business men have been more generous contributors than the growers as a whole. Between 200 and 250 boxes are needed to make up the car, and unless these can be had by Monday evening, the proposition will be dropped and the money returned to the cash contributors. A dollar contributed here means a box of apples delivered to the American soldiers in France. In New York, the man who contributes a box of apples contributes three dollars instead of one.
“Instead of being the first town in the North West to ship a carload of apples for the soldiers in France, it begins to look as though Kennewick would be the last.”
During WWI, civic organizations often organized donation drives to support the war effort through 'patriotic' commodities. Today, Kennewick's economy is still rooted in agriculture, though the community focus has shifted from wartime donations to global export and local food security advocacy.
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