Teaching the Art of the Apple
Local fruit growers race to train home-grown labor to replace transient workers as the regional apple boom accelerates.
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.
Clyde Perkins, local field manager for the Spokane Fruitgrowers' company, has brought to the attention of the business men of Kennewick the fact that Kennewick’s apple crop is being prepared for market by outside workers who are making from $3.00 to $7.00 a day while local labor is doing the unskilled work and receiving not more than $2.50 a day. In other words, the high-priced jobs are being filled by outside help because of the inexperience of the local labor. He also points out that within the next year or two the question of securing help to harvest the local apple crop is going to be a very serious one and urges that every available local worker be schooled in apple packing. He estimates that this year’s crop of 250 carloads will probably be doubled next year and by the end of four years Kennewick will be shipping a thousand carloads. To meet this increasing demand for expert help, Mr. Perkins recommends that an apple packing school be established and volunteers to take charge of the school without remuneration for his services. The matter was brought before the Commercial club at its luncheon yesterday and Dr. B. L. Cole and A. J. Copeland were appointed to carry out Mr. Perkins' suggestions.
“the high-priced jobs are being filled by outside help because of the inexperience of the local labor.”
This reflects the ongoing tension in Washington agriculture between relying on transient labor versus local training, a recurring theme in the state's agricultural history from the 1916 apple boom to the modern labor challenges in the Tri-Cities.
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