The Struggle for the Kennewick-Richland Marketing Union
Local growers navigate competing marketing strategies to establish a unified system for fruit distribution.
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.
No one who did not sit thru the deliberations of the board of directors of the Kennewick-Richland Marketing Union and listen to the several marketing plans submitted, can fully appreciate just what the board was up against in making its decision. Each of the plans submitted contained some feature that appeared stronger than the features of any other plan, and each contained its weak points. In arriving at its decision, the board not only had to compare the respective merits of all plans but had to consider every feature of each plan in its relation to local conditions. In choosing the Spokane plan as submitted by Mr. R. P. E. (Pith), the board did so with the belief that as a whole this plan more nearly meets the requirements of local conditions than any others. This plan undoubtedly has its defects. The plan that obviates all defects and meets all contingencies has not yet been conceived, or at least it has not yet been put into practice. The time for discussion of the comparative merits of the plans is past. It matters but little, if any, now what the River's plan may be, what Ryan Newton's offer was or what proposition the Pacific Fruit Produce company made. The work ahead of the Kennewick-Richland growers is to make a success of the plan that has been adopted, and by the way, the plan is no longer the Spokane plan, but the Kennewick-Richland plan. As such it deserves the support of every grower who has signed to deliver his berries to the new Union.
“The plan that obviates all defects and meets all contingencies has not yet been conceived.”
Agricultural marketing unions were essential to the development of the Tri-Cities region, providing farmers collective bargaining power against monopolistic produce distributors. The tension between local grower autonomy and corporate contracts remains a relevant theme in Washington's agricultural industry.
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