Kennewick's Cooperative Giant Cracks Half-Million Dollar Mark
Despite wartime tax burdens, the Kennewick Produce Company reports a massive surge in sales and a record-breaking year for local farmers.
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.
In the year 1916, The Produce Company set a new record for merchandising business in this county when its annual sales passed the quarter-million mark. In 1917, it reached another milestone in its upward climb when it passed the half-million mark by nearly $12,000. The annual report of Manager E. M. Sly submitted to the stockholders at their annual meeting showed that the Kennewick store still leads, with 54 percent of the total business, but the Prosser store saw the largest percentage increase, growing 110 percent. The gross sales for the five stores—Kennewick, Prosser, Finley, White Bluffs, and Biggam—totaled $499,140. With hay carloads included, the grand total reached $511,985. The company's net profits were $25,408.66, but the annual dividend was withheld due to heavy Federal war income taxes, which will cost the company roughly $6,600. The company paid local farmers over $75,000 for eggs, butter, poultry, and produce.
“It is a patriotic duty of every person to facilitate the working of the income tax law at this time.”
This 1918 report captures the height of the cooperative farming movement in the Tri-Cities. Today, while the Produce Company has long since dissolved, the tension between cooperative agricultural success and federal tax obligations remains a familiar theme for Washington's inland growers.
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