Fruit Growers Win Court Victory After Exchange Collapse
White Bluffs and Hanford farmers secure preferred status for 1922 apple proceeds following the insolvency of the Wenatchee Valley Fruit Exchange.
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.
White Bluffs and Hanford growers who shipped their 1922 crop of apples through the Wenatchee Valley Fruit Exchange have this week been receiving checks for the balances due them over and above the advances. The Exchange became insolvent in the winter of 1922-1923 and S. H. Andrews of Cashmere, the manager, was appointed receiver. All funds coming in for the sale of apples since the appointment of the receiver were held until an order of the Court entered on January 14, 1924, made all growers in the pool shipments preferred creditors. Twenty-six local growers are on the list, with total claims of $3,435.15. J. F. Coleman, who led the effort, has called a meeting to investigate additional charges of 10 cents per box collected by the Exchange and 15 cents by Eastern brokers, which may be legally recoverable.
“This order was made upon the showing of a Wenatchee attorney who was representing a number of the growers in both this and the Wenatchee valleys.”
The precarious nature of agricultural cooperatives and the struggle for fair pay remains a central tension in the rural Pacific Northwest, echoing modern debates over market middlemen and corporate consolidation in the food chain.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.